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The prevailing reception to Valkyria: Azure Revolution's demo was disgust but they have a bunch of time to fix it up and the demo was for feedback's sake iirc. NieR: Automata will be amazing though. 
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May 23, 2016 19:59
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Part XII: The Ol’ Stinky Beans.jpg) We rejoin Aya on the rooftops of Spanish Harlem. Gabby has flown off to uhh… don’t worry about it. We should probably rejoin the rest of the SWAT team. They’re probably wondering where… Il-Nam Carste… has gone off to on his own. It’s a good thing Aya’s Overdive also magically links her radio back to HQ and overrides communications on the body she’s inhabiting. It’d be real confusing if people just started randomly jabbering to a secondary operations team in the middle of a battle.  Music: Arise Within You – for The 3rd Birthday – .jpg)  [Watch out for the poison clouds.] [Avoid the clouds and keep going!] We're gonna get slaughtered! Requesting backup! This fog! I can't move! .jpg) So the Stinker’s main gimmick is they crap out localized clouds of deadly poo gas from the sky. In order to demonstrate this poison fog, Aya needs to wander into the middle of it and take in a nice big lung full. Stinker gas, beyond presumably smelling none too well given the title seemingly dubbed by a six year old, is quite deadly. About 6-7 seconds is enough to asphyxiate Aya or any of the SWAT AI that goes off the rails and wanders into the cloud. .jpg) .jpg) After we’ve gotten a real good mouthful of the deadly neurotoxin as the tutorial, Aya automatically Overdives into Mr. Chan Pinzlon battling down on street level. What happens to poor Il-Nam back on the rooftops? Well, he immediately chokes to death, of course. He was left in the middle of a cloud of nerve gas. What did you think would happen to him? Don’t worry, he knew what he was signing up for – a magic girl from the future mind controlling him to serve as a minor demonstration of Twisted nerve agents. After battling some Slackers stalking out from the toxic clouds (they are either immune or… don’t breathe… it isn’t as though they have mouths), the team chime in with some advice. .jpg) [There's a good chance that's the one emitting the clouds.].jpg) .jpg) In a rather disorienting move, Aya is once again automatically Overdived back to the rooftops, where a pair of… excuse me, “Placido Frank”? That’s the name you’re going with there? Is Zlimpo Dickson fighting the next block over? Christ. And I’m not even going to touch “Txomin Eo”. Anyway! We’re back on the rooftops. There are now a pair of snipers, also equipped with two-shot rifles. However, they have left their infinite ammo magazine crate back at home. The operation was quite rushed, after all. .jpg) The game does not make it explicitly clear, as we initially warp into the sniper facing completely away from our objective, but the Stinkers we want are actually floating quite high up in the skybox. Turning the camera in their general direction isn’t enough, we’ve got to actively look up into the sky. .jpg) It’s not really clear because other, non-essential Stinkers are also warping into the area and flying about. It doesn’t help that this is the only time in the game where we’ve got to look high up for any sort of enemies. .jpg) Stinkers themselves are incredibly weak. A single shot from a rifle is enough to kill any Stinker. But really, 3-4 shots with a pistol would also do the trick. .jpg) Slaying one of the target Stinkers will instantly clear all of the toxic gas it was producing. That’s now nerve agents work, right? Shut off the source and it simply dissipates into the ether instantaneously? As I mentioned earlier, there are also non-essential Stinkers warping into the area. These are… pretty much just crappy Wads. They shoot energy bolts that drain perhaps a 10th of Aya’s health bar at best. They go down in a few shots. They’re not particularly fast. They are more of a nuisance than anything. I guess they still smell foul though. Otherwise that name would just be silly! .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) As we clear the area of four total toxic gas Stinkers, the streets below will clear of gas, allowing Aya (and other NPCs in theory, but not practice) to clear out all the Orbs from ground level and open up a path further into the ruins of the district. Exiting the map will bring Chapter 1 to an end. Music: Ruin .jpg) [There are orbs up ahead. If you destroy them all, you should be able to progress.] [Yes, but look at all those enemies! Get ready for some serious fighting, Aya!] [Blank, what's the situation up ahead?] [I'm detecting enemies everywhere!] So you are saying there are enemies… [EVERYWHERE!] [Think back to the hardest battle of your life. This will be even worse. If you can't do this, this mission will be over.] *thinks* Not counting anything in my forgotten past, I guess that would be the Helix Twisted in that parking lot? Emily Jefferson was a bit of a pushover. [Aya… What are you talking about?] Oh… Right… Never mind.  [There's no way you can do this alone. Move the troops to advantageous positions and use Overdive!] Gabrielle, where are you right now. I mean, in the past? [I dunno. Hard to say. It was a long day and I never did the part where I saved you from a helicopter.] …Shouldn’t the future have changed then if that had never happened? [Aya, sweetie. Don’t worry about it too much.] …Since we were dived into the body of a higher ranked SWAT member, we can wander over to the survivors in the safe .jpg) Not Thelonious Cray!? I know that guy! He should be on his way to the area up ahead. [Cray's still alive, Aya! That's excellent!] Cray and I were pals back in the Academy. Having him here is like having a whole new platoon. Harlem's been destroyed. That's where I grew up. Wasn't your grandfather part of the mafia? Yep. Sicilians don't forgive those who hurt their family. Whoever or whatever they may be. I'll crush all who dare dishonor my family!Spoilers: Erskine Reinagle, NYPD SWAT Team associate of the Harlem Sicilian Mafia would go on to sit in this room and never be seen again. Still a more compelling tale than The Godfather Part 3. .jpg) One of the magic future laptops has made its way to this forward outpost the SWAT members have set up in this alleyway. We may as well take a moment to update our future Facebook status and upgrade some gear. .jpg) Here’s our current nebulous DNA splicing stats at current. I don’t think there are any new abilities to mention. I did have the great luck of having the RNG spit out no less than six OE boards with malignant nodes that I had to throw in the trash. Malignant OE boards will either give you said bum stat (HP Down, Liberation fills slower, other handicaps) or only level down the node it’s replacing. I have no idea why they exist or why you’d use them. But that goes for a lot of the upgrade system. .jpg) Weapon wise, the SWAT rifle continues to become an Impact powerhouse and the magnum murders fools even harder. The sniper rifle that Gabrielle and the rooftop Stinker shooters were equipped with has become unlocked. But ahh… the rifle is extremely situational and has all of six shots where Aya must plant herself in the ground to fire. .jpg) Also I suppose Aya is wearing her jacket for her winter outings according to cutscenes. We’ll just have Gabrielle or someone back at CTI slip it on. That won’t interrupt the Overdive process and kill her like disconnecting in The Matrix, right? .jpg) In any case, once Aya’s inventory management in the future is updated for the past, we’re free to continue onward to the Babel in the next block over. New Music: Time of Insanity .jpg) Welcome to Chapter 2 of Episode 2. This area is a rather large ruin leading uphill. We’ve got to destroy a trio of Orbs along the way while a non-stop assault of Wads and Rollers poor into the area against a steady stream of expendable members of the NYPD’s finest. .jpg) There are a trio of new Feats for this chapter. But I’m not going to share them all right now, as they spoil something absurd that is coming shortly. The first Feat involves minimizing the use of Overdive during this chapter. Which, despite only being a Level 2 Feat, is extremely hard to pull off with a New Game Aya Brea, for reasons that will become apparent shortly. I believe the maximum is four Overdives into other bodies. Oh yes, Overdive kills count as well. Yeah… not happening. .jpg) After the first batch of enemies and accompanying Orb, Aya ascends to a higher level of the ruins (you know Manhattan Island, with those rolling hills it has up north) she comes upon another new enemy. This one gets absolutely no introduction or special acknowledgement. Poor guy. Meet… .jpg) Meet the Bean. Umm… It is err… It’s… it is two gigantic butts connected end-on-end. I mean… that’s what you all are seeing, right? I’m not projecting. .jpg) Also surprise! There’s a giant purple mutant penis that springs from the butts. I bet you didn’t see that coming. It’s highly twisted monster design.  .jpg) .jpg) The mean Bean is essentially a stationary artillery battery. In butt-mode, it’s completely invincible. But once the phallic growth reveals itself, it’ll begin shooting damaging green energy orbs in Aya’s direction. These hit a lot harder than a Wad’s energy shots and will break Aya’s poise, stunning her briefly (and a follow-up shot landing will knock her on her rear end.) If the Bean’s target is turtling behind cover or out of range from its normal shots, the creature has a secondary fire where it will drop a line of exploding shots, not unlike the Rover’s explosives, doing about the same damage is two of its normal shots. This will also knock Aya on her butt and has a fairly good chance of shredding her outfit. Not cool. Beans can be handled with essentially the same exact tactics as the Roller. Grenades work wonders in setting up an Overdive kill. The only difference is the stun time is much shorter and the grenade has to be thrown when the Bean is out of its shell. .jpg) Unlike the Stinkers, who only appear in this chapter, Beans join Rollers, Wads, and Slackers in becoming regular enemies and will be a frequent obstacle as Aya continues her assault through the region towards the Babel. Once we’ve taken out the second Orb in our path, a new wrinkle presents itself. .jpg) [What a lifesaver! We can use the satellite cannon!] [Aya, dive into someone using an aiming device. Use the satellite as a weapon to shoot lasers.].jpg) …So I feel like we missed an important part of the briefing here. Apparently, the SWAT team on location has access to a loving ORBITAL CANNON. What, you didn’t hear about how the NYPD had a space laser deployed in geosynchronous orbit over Manhattan? This universe’s Manhattan has already had like three 9/11s! Two involving crazy rear end monsters. They had to step up their game. .jpg) So anyway, we can just have Aya possess Vincenz Meier here, who has a targeting device for the NYPD’s Ion Cannon. It has infinite ammo and can be used to paint as many targets as we want in this area. Above is the farthest effective range Aya can paint targets with the Satellite Cannon. But hey, it’s a PSP game. That range will do. .jpg) .jpg) The Satellite Cannon takes about three seconds to charge up the signal, but we can hold and adjust the targeting vector still. Releasing the button will unleash the space laser blast and instantly vaporize any enemy on the field in a single shot. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Rollers? Orbs? Beans? All toast in a single shot, because it is a goddamn laser from the heavens. It has infinite ammo, is effective for the entire duration of this map, and has zero cooldown beyond the three seconds it takes to charge the next wave. It is incredibly overpowered, but you know… it is actually real fun to just annihilate scores of Twisted with the ol’ SOL-740. Indeed the second Feat of this mission is to just go hog wild and kill at least eight enemies with the Hammer of Dawn.  Now, orbital cannons are actually not new to the franchise. There was a satellite cannon at end of Parasite Eve 2. In that game, its use had to be authorized by the President of the United States. It was also powerful enough to demolish the entire small town most of the game took place in and penetrate the doomsday bunker the back half of the game took place in as well.  I have no idea if this is supposed to be the same satellite cannon because, despite all the inane datalogs and over explanation for things that could just be written off as being part of a video game… there’s literally nothing about the space laser’s origin or function beyond it just kind of showing up out of nowhere in the hands of some nobody SWAT team member. Of course that opens up the plot hole of why they aren’t just bombarding the Twisted strongholds from space when it’s already established there are ion cannons just hanging out with enough abundance that local law enforcement can be entrusted with them. But, The 3rd Birthday cannot be reasoned with or remain coherent or narratively consistent for more than fifteen minutes, as it demonstrates time and again. .jpg) Satellite based slaughter aside, eventually Aya burns her way through the Twisted ranks thanks to low orbit based weaponry and comes to the side of the main Spanish Harlem Babel itself, which hosts a trio of Orbs clustered on its side. Unfortunately, the Satellite Cannon is unable to target anything on even the mildest of an incline. It’s not like it is obscured by anything above. It's still a straight shot from the sky. The targeting just wigs out if it goes above Aya’s position. Though to be fair, Aya Brea is not trained in the casual use of space based weapons of mass destruction. .jpg) .jpg) Regardless, they’re just common Orbs and are taken out easily enough the old fashioned way with standard firearms. I hope you all enjoyed our time with the orbital cannon cuz it shows up exactly one more time in a future episode, then vanishes from the game just as suddenly as it entered the fray. It’s not even a special unlockable weapon. Wouldn’t want the player to have too much fun with The 3rd Birthday now, would we? .jpg) [Wait! I haven't analyzed the data!] I'm going..jpg) Well, that seems an incredible stupid thing to haphazardly jump into, Aya. But you’re the one with the Quantum Leap abilities. Music ends… .jpg) So welcome to inside the Babel. Hey, isn’t this the pocket dimension where Tidus and friends fought Yu Yevon? Aya, just look for the gigantic Dad Sword and step on the Space Tick so we can sort this mess out. .jpg) No wait… there weren’t scores of people eternally falling through a spiraling void. Wait, is this the Everfall from Dragon’s Dogma? No… wait… That’s Capcom. And a good game. That cannot be it. .jpg) Aya Brea herself has a bit bigger concerns than her current location. Namely… .jpg) …the Twisted Queen is also base jumping inside the Babel. Also by the way, the Babel have Twisted Queens. That’s a thing. .jpg) So Aya, how are your marksmanship while freefalling scores on the range? Is that a thing Cray trained you for before he managed to get killed on a mission that had artillery support from space? .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) The Queen demonstrates her ability to convert bodies into pure energy and devour them for a mid-afternoon bite to eat. I suppose you have to get creative when you spill your snacks in zero gravity. .jpg) Tune in next time when Aya Brea wings it in a zero-g battle against the Queen of Spanish Harlem for some reason! The 3rd Birthday – Welp, I Guess This is Happening Now: The Game!    Video: Part 12 Highlight Reel   Bean – Why not just name it Butt? At least that would be funny. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 03:27 on May 25, 2016 |
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May 23, 2016 22:33
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More games need Ion Cannon support. I think only C&C Renegade, Gears of War, and this one have it. Which is sad, really.
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May 23, 2016 23:03
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This game is starting to remind me of a less-compelling, less-charming Earth Defense Force 2025.
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May 23, 2016 23:13
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berryjon posted:More games need Ion Cannon support. I think only C&C Renegade, Gears of War, and this one have it. Which is sad, really. Wasn't one of the co-op weapons in Peace Walker one? Or just a rail gun? Also, what did they do to Ted? Was it poo gas? Pearl Necklace of Doom from the Bean? Or just created him and dropped him in a plot hole?
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May 23, 2016 23:16
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SOL was the name of the satellite in Akira.
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May 23, 2016 23:21
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berryjon posted:More games need Ion Cannon support. I think only C&C Renegade, Gears of War, and this one have it. Which is sad, really. There was one in Halo Reach, I believe.
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May 23, 2016 23:22
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MonsieurChoc posted:SOL was the name of the satellite in Akira. I was making an Akira reference. Satellite Cannon™ doesn't have a proper name. 
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May 23, 2016 23:23
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The Dark Id posted:Spoilers: Erskine Reinagle, NYPD SWAT Team associate of the Harlem Sicilian Mafia would go on to sit in this room and never be seen again. This is, by a wide margin, the least likely sentence to have ever been typed. Is there a chance this whole story was procedurally generated?
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May 23, 2016 23:35
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http://www.gamespot.com/articles/a-final-fantasy-disease-affected-square-enix-direc/1100-6440066/ So this was a thing today as well.
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May 23, 2016 23:36
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I was actually thinking about the GoW similarity in regards to shooting poison spewing creatures out of the sky, then you picked up the Hammer of Dawn. I mean it's honestly not the worst gameplay choice. This chapter is already better than Club Corridor if you ignore the headache-inducing story.
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May 23, 2016 23:53
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OK, I think I've figured it out. Square took their inspiration to name things based on Orson Scott Card books. That's why you have vaguely ethnic-sounding names for soldiers and SWAT team members, as well as enemies with such charming names as "Stinker" and "Bean." "Placido" is another Spanish name, as there was a baseball player for the Phillies named Placido Polanco. It would have made more sense if they named this character "Placido Franco," but we're not dealing with anything resembling consistency in T3B. HR12345 posted:http://www.gamespot.com/articles/a-final-fantasy-disease-affected-square-enix-direc/1100-6440066/ So this was a thing today as well.
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May 23, 2016 23:56
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MonsieurChoc posted:SOL was the name of the satellite in Akira. And in Mystery Science Theater 3000! Though there it meant "Satellite of Love".
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May 23, 2016 23:58
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The Dark Id posted:I was making an Akira reference. Satellite Cannon™ doesn't have a proper name. Oh. 
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May 24, 2016 00:04
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Y-Hat posted:OK, I think I've figured it out. Square took their inspiration to name things based on Orson Scott Card books. That's why you have vaguely ethnic-sounding names for soldiers and SWAT team members, as well as enemies with such charming names as "Stinker" and "Bean." Your theory is ridiculous. The real truth is that no humans worked on this game at all. The nonsensical story? A computer wrote it. The weird, indistinct monster design? Computer drew them. The odd and confounding upgrade system? Designed by a computer that has no idea what a human might find entertaining. Don't you see? It explains everything! This is the first machine-generated video game! All those weirdos who ostensibly developed it don't exist. They are paid actors portraying bizarre characters meant to distract us from this one simple, obvious truth: no one worked on this game. 
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May 24, 2016 00:17
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So there it is, the one moderately neat thing I remembered from the game: the extra-dimensional time abyss where a huge bizarre monster feasts on eternally falling people. All downhill from here, folks.
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May 24, 2016 00:48
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After reading Crowetron's LP of the first game, I could plausibly see Daniel Dollis managing to convince the NYPD top brass to build a low-orbit satellite laser. The problem is that Daniel Dollis was either erased from the timeline by Aya's time jumping shenanigans, or the Twisted locked him away so Daniel can't punch monsters to death while on fire. Thus, this version of the NYPD having a satellite laser just seems like someone on the dev team saw the similar laser weapon from Resident Evil 5 and threw it in this game because he (or she) liked that weapon. Because like the RE5 one, it makes just as little sense for the NYPD to have a satellite laser as does a pharmaceutical company.
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May 24, 2016 01:05
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Daniel Dollis had a distinct personality and no time or patience for bullshit. There is no room for his kind in T3B.
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May 24, 2016 01:21
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The multicultural naming scheme for the cannon fodder has been the most entertaining part of this game so far.
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May 24, 2016 01:32
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Cathode Raymond posted:Your theory is ridiculous.
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May 24, 2016 01:33
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Wow, it's incredible that this game got permission from Mr. Bean to use his name and likeness.
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May 24, 2016 01:37
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Y-Hat posted:Counterpoint: computers don't have the capacity for lust. 
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May 24, 2016 01:44
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Y-Hat posted:Counterpoint: computers don't have the capacity for lust. Counter-counterpoint: scenario_writer.cs or maybe a 9-year-old posted:
How do you explain this bizarre exchange? You think an adult human being wrote this? Wake up man!
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May 24, 2016 01:48
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Trick Question posted:Wow, it's incredible that this game got permission from Mr. Bean to use his name and likeness. And here I thought it was a reference to the Chicago Bean.
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May 24, 2016 01:52
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I can't think of a single thing about that satellite laser that isn't problematic in one way or another. It is certainly possible to design worse, but I've never encountered anything so multilaterally bad.
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May 24, 2016 01:54
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Glazius posted:I can't think of a single thing about that satellite laser that isn't problematic in one way or another. It is certainly possible to design worse, but I've never encountered anything so multilaterally bad. Counterpoint: it's really fun to use an orbital laser in video games. It sounds like they mostly avoided messing that up.
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May 24, 2016 02:02
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i wonder if they have tried using satellite cannons on the giant blobs which are apparently driving humanity to extinction?
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May 24, 2016 02:02
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Serious Frolicking posted:i wonder if they have tried using satellite cannons on the giant blobs which are apparently driving humanity to extinction? The problem is that without a girl in
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May 24, 2016 02:07
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Lasers, extradimensional alien queens, and bean-butts with stinkers. It's that kind of game.
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May 24, 2016 02:53
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Is it me or this looks ridiculously bad? Like they put some live action actress in front of some lovely green screen? I mean, right below that for the video link there's a screenshot from the original C&C's ending, which is an actual live action + green screen video from 1995 and it looks roughly as good! What the hell?
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May 24, 2016 03:21
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Aya, is the moon out? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgxlCRvSJLI
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May 24, 2016 03:48
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Hey, Parasite Eve 2 actually *had* a Satellite Cannon. ...all it accomplished was destroying a perfectly good ghost town and pissing off the final boss, but hey!
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May 24, 2016 04:05
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Speedball posted:Hey, Parasite Eve 2 actually *had* a Satellite Cannon. At least it didn't manage to kill the helpful, likeable military support like it originally seemed it might.
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May 24, 2016 04:06
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Night10194 posted:At least it didn't manage to kill the helpful, likeable military support like it originally seemed it might. Are you implying military support in this game is unlikable compared to the other games? Because I'll have you know that SWAT officer Txomin Eo has a very sympathetic backstory, and just wait till we meet Lance Corporal Sherbid Trumkully and Specialist Mople Deledactika.
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May 24, 2016 04:15
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MonsieurChoc posted:Aya, is the moon out? I would also enjoy Daniel Dollis punking the Frost Brothers repeatedly.
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May 24, 2016 04:31
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I'd enjoy watching Daniel Dollis punching Boss upside the head because he pointed a gun at Aya. You know he wouldn't stand for that poo poo.
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May 24, 2016 04:48
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Cathode Raymond posted:Are you implying military support in this game is unlikable compared to the other games? Because I'll have you know that SWAT officer Txomin Eo has a very sympathetic backstory, and just wait till we meet Lance Corporal Sherbid Trumkully and Specialist Mople Deledactika. Don't forget Private Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan.
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May 24, 2016 05:00
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AradoBalanga posted:I would enjoy a sudden appearance of Garrod Ran and Tifa Addil to make things more interesting.  Gundams dropping in and wrecking poo poo would be pretty great right now, and I'm always a fan of people punking the Frost Brothers.
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May 24, 2016 05:34
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Fabulousvillain posted:Considering Nier: Automata was announced during E3 last year while the Drakengard 3 thread was going... You know what, never mind. Oh yeah E3 is happening soon. Drakgengard! 4!
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May 24, 2016 06:23
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berryjon posted:More games need Ion Cannon support. I think only C&C Renegade, Gears of War, and this one have it. Which is sad, really. The penultimate level of Jedi Starfighter has you using an orbital cannon to destroy the base the Trade Federation built on top of your old one. There were Ion Cannons you got to fire once in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, too.
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May 24, 2016 07:09
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