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[Heyo_Rockbreaker]

Ive never wanted to punch a fictional character as much as i did Holden Caulfield.

Danglars and Fernand from Count of Monte Cristo come to mind. (I think that I'm remembering those characters' names correctly...)

E: Oh yeah, I totally suggest The Count of Monte Cristo to anyone who enjoys a good, long novel.

Spoiler

It's more or less Dishonored: the novel from 1956 (minus the evil magic and steampunk style).

The unabridged version is VERY long, but the unabridged version leaves plot holes and still is a whopping 500 pages.

 

[Red The Hunter]

Hey at least it isn't Swiss Family Robinson, man did I hate that book when I had to read it in High School. Like the Disney movie at least.

 

[CrazyTank940]

I'll be going to Evo for sure. Trying to convince Twilt and Tank to go to.

You should know better than anyone else in here how badly I want to go. I can tell going forward money will never work out that smoothly though

 

[FluxWaveZ]

You should know better than anyone else in here how badly I want to go. I can tell going forward money will never work out that smoothly though

Money's the main barrier for many, I suspect. Only way I could convince myself that it would be worth it is if I had a sure shot of winning a tournament to fund my trip.

 

[PK Gaming]

the best protag*

*opinions may apply

She really is

Can we designate a name for her btw? It feels wrong... calling her FeMC all of the time. All in favor of Hamuko?

 

[ScraftyDevil]

My man! Best movie ever made.

My man!

That's a pretty sweet movies list, although I'm surprised that To Kill a Mockingbird is so high up. The novel is a timeless classic, but I'm not so sure about the movie. Maybe it just hasn't aged well.

TKaM is gorram amazing in every sense of the word. The writing, acting, music, cinematography and overall atmosphere are darn near perfection, and the only reason that it isn't higher on my list is that I'm apparently a weird hipster nerd who likes new things and doesn't appreciate classic movies.

On the topic of fictional characters in need of a good beating, I'd say John Galt is the one whom I detest the most. Reading Atlus Shrugged for my 12th grade philosophy class made me want to put a bullet in my brain, and that insufferable mouthpiece git was one of the leading causes. I'm a socialist at heart, so objectivism and classical liberalism really rub me the wrong way.

 

[SloaneRisette]

You should know better than anyone else in here how badly I want to go. I can tell going forward money will never work out that smoothly though

We gonna make it happen.

 

[TurnipFritters]

On the topic of fictional characters in need of a good beating, I'd say John Galt is the one whom I detest the most. Reading Atlus Shrugged for my 12th grade philosophy class made me want to put a bullet in my brain, and that insufferable mouthpiece git was one of the leading causes. I'm a socialist at heart, so objectivism and classical liberalism really rub me the wrong way.

Who is John Galt?
Someonewhoknowswhatitsliketoworkforhimself andnotletothersfeedofftheprofitsofhisenergy, apparently.

 

[Caladrius]

On the topic of fictional characters in need of a good beating, I'd say John Galt is the one whom I detest the most. Reading Atlus Shrugged for my 12th grade philosophy class made me want to put a bullet in my brain, and that insufferable mouthpiece git was one of the leading causes. I'm a socialist at heart, so objectivism and classical liberalism really rub me the wrong way.

As a Dirty Commie fan of Nietzsche's work that Objectivism cribs from. I feel your pain.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

I read a lot of fantasy like HP and LOTR in my younger years. Not so much anymore.

 

[Acid08]

The upgraded Personas for Kanji, Yosuke, and Rise are fucking CRAZY looking. Love 'em.

 

[Jintor]

TKaM was a completely different kind of book to the one I was expecting.

Fantastic tho right

Hey at least it isn't Swiss Family Robinson, man did I hate that book when I had to read it in High School. Like the Disney movie at least.

Swiss Family Robinson is awesome family adventure fantasy that probably would have weird white imperialist overtones if I were ever to go back and actually read it

 

[Lollipop Dave]

I see people were doing a top 5? In no particular order:

Bioshock Infinite
Project Diva f
Saints Row IV
Gears of War Judgement
Ni No Kuni

I read a lot of fantasy like HP and LOTR in my younger years. Not so much anymore.

I'm the opposite, I used to read alot of classic books but as I'm getting older I've moved more into sci-fi and fantasy, I'm currently going through the Horus Heresy series.

 

[Lord Scrambles]

On the topic of fictional characters in need of a good beating, I'd say John Galt is the one whom I detest the most. Reading Atlus Shrugged for my 12th grade philosophy class made me want to put a bullet in my brain, and that insufferable mouthpiece git was one of the leading causes. I'm a socialist at heart, so objectivism and classical liberalism really rub me the wrong way.

Right there with you. I will never in my life understand how anybody took Rand's work seriously.

 

[kewlmyc]

Scrafty's Greatest Movies of All Time List™:

10. Gravity
9. Spirited Away
8. Pulp Fiction
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
6. Koyaanisqatsi
5. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
4. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Toy Story
1. Hot Fuzz

Scrafty's Greatest Games of the Year List™:

5. Fire Emblem: Awakening
4. Saints Row IV
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
2. Pokémon Y
1. Metal GAR Rising: Revengeance

Once again, you prove to have supreme taste Scrafty.

 

[TurnipFritters]

Right there with you. I will never in my life understand how anybody took Rand's work seriously.

Lots of people fancy themselves to be the John Galts and the Jim Fountainheads of the world.

There's this clip of the Atlas Shrugged movie on Youtube where the bosslady and the union leader negotiate and it's like, the perfect storm of badness. The direction and the acting and the actual dialogue are all godawful that I can't even describe it. It's like each line belongs in a completely different exchange than the one that came before it.

 

[cjkeats]

She really is

Can we designate a name for her btw? It feels wrong... calling her FeMC all of the time. All in favor of Hamuko?

Makoto Yuki is both a male/female name for a reason.
Were did this Hamuko nonsense even come from?

 

[TurnipFritters]

Makoto Yuki is both a male/female name for a reason.

People want to distinguish between Blue Hair Dude and Brown Hair Girl though, because otherwise it's just Boy Makoto or Girl Makoto.

She is dubbed as MShe/FeMC/Minako Arisato by U.S. fans and Hamuko (ハム子 / 公&#23376 by Japanese fans, loosely interpreting the last Kanji character for shujinkou (主人&#20844 as Katakana. This refers to the early official P3P screen shot in which her name was written as "主人 公子" or shujin kouko (which means main character girl) (with "ko" as a suffix for female names).

 

[Lunar15]

While I'd say I'm the opposite of views expressed in this thread, I too hate Rand and Galt with a passion. She speaks for herself, quite frankly.

But ANYWHO, scrafty got good taste. Those are solid lists.

 

[Jintor]

Makoto Yuki is both a male/female name for a reason.
Were did this Hamuko nonsense even come from?

Wasn't it a way to read the kanji that was supposed to read 'female protagonist'? idk for reals though

 

[Jintor]

curse you retrodynamics why are you so amazing

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

curse you retrodynamics why are you so amazing

Mitsuru is a cyclops?

 

[SloaneRisette]

Mitsuru is a cyclops?

A fabulous cyclops.

 

[Lunar15]

This thread is about to get... NSFW

Spoiler

the joke is that she's a robot and therefore when she reveals herself it is just robot parts

 

[TurnipFritters]

i thought they had papillion spots.

 

[PK Gaming]

This thread is about to get... NSFW

Spoiler

the joke is that she's a robot and therefore when she reveals herself it is just robot parts

Hah, i'm tempted to post the rest of her (sorta) NSFW pinups

They're pretty sexy

 

[Lord Scrambles]

While I'd say I'm the opposite of views expressed in this thread, I too hate Rand and Galt with a passion. She speaks for herself, quite frankly.

Nah I just said I disliked Rand, I didn't mean I agreed with him otherwise.

 

[Lunar15]

Nah I just said I disliked Rand, I didn't mean I agreed with him otherwise.

I was just pointing out my shared dislike. Badly written things are bad!

But yeah, Retrodynamics is great. She(?) should join personaGAF and draw us things.

 

[PK Gaming]

Yeah she owns.

We should systematically work towards getting her to join our community... for unselfish reasons.

 

[FireSol]

daaaamn!! Im in love

 

[TurnipFritters]

Yeah she owns

We should systematically get her to join this community... for unselfish reasons.

What's wrong with being selfish?

 

[Lemstar]

That's because it's a terrible book.

Amen.

E: Oh yeah, I totally suggest The Count of Monte Cristo to anyone who enjoys a good, long novel.

Spoiler

It's more or less Dishonored: the novel from 1956 (minus the evil magic and steampunk style).

The unabridged version is VERY long, but the unabridged version leaves plot holes and still is a whopping 500 pages.

The abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo is so ungood. I'd recommend the PS3 port of Bayonetta before it.

 

[sackboy2197]

So, I'm a bit late, but here's my list for the game of the year (not in order):
Persona 4 Golden
Remember Me
Fez
Guild Wars 2
Virtue's Last Reward

It took me a while to realize that I played P4 this spring only, it seems like so much time ago!
I think I may be forgetting something though.

 

[Lunar15]

Yeah she owns.

We should systematically work towards getting her to join our community... for unselfish reasons.

Man, why can't I just have selfish reasons!

 

[Jintor]

The best bit is Aki's expression.

He's, like, "I can't believe you've done this."

 

[Acid08]

Finished up Hollow Forest, wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Had zero difficulty with the Shadows and the bosses.

Spoiler

I more just hated it thematically because I think Marie sucks. The whole time they're like "we can't let her die" or "killing yourself isn't the solution!" And I'm like, hey, either of those would do wonders for this current predicament so we should just let it happen.

The whole thing felt pretty forced though, hate that they shoved yet another big bad into the story. Completely unnecessary and honestly pretty boring.

Marie and her surrounding bullshit are the only additions I don't like in Golden.

Ski Trip was great though, loved the ghost story part where you can

Spoiler

describe the Velvet Room and Igor :lol

. Going to finish up the game tomorrow, Valentine's Day is the first thing on the agenda and it is going to be FUCKED. Chie or Rise is a decision no one should have to make.

 

[Moonlight]

Chie or Rise is a decision no one should have to make.

Shouldn't have double-timed them in the first place!

Spoiler

Rise.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

Finished up Hollow Forest, wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Had zero difficulty with the Shadows and the bosses.

Spoiler

I more just hated it thematically because I think Marie sucks. The whole time they're like "we can't let her die" or "killing yourself isn't the solution!" And I'm like, hey, either of those would do wonders for this current predicament so we should just let it happen.

The whole thing felt pretty forced though, hate that they shoved yet another big bad into the story. Completely unnecessary and honestly pretty boring.

Marie and her surrounding bullshit are the only additions I don't like in Golden.

Spoiler

So let her die and get the neutral ending

. :lol

 

[Acid08]

Shouldn't have double-timed them in the first place!

Spoiler

Rise.

Pft double timing? I'm dating Chie, Rise, Yukiko, and Ai. Quadruple timing these ladies.

Spoiler

I'm a horrible person.

 

[Meia]

Pft double timing? I'm dating Chie, Rise, Yukiko, and Ai. Quadruple timing these ladies.

Spoiler

I'm a horrible person.

And you're about to feel really fucking horrible for doing so. As you should.



At any rate, yeah, she was really misused in Golden, and the dungeon was a fake way of adding difficulty without doing the actual work of scaling anything. Not sure how it was for everyone else, but in Vanilla I was always overleveled anyway for the last dungeon, so let's add another dungeon before that that's the same level roughly as the previous dungeon, but not scale up the monsters in said final dungeon! That will make everything BETTER!

 

[Dantis]

Now *this* is a major surprise. I did not expect you to like Tomb Raider at all due to the sheer focus on the story (and the awfulness of it all) and 'cinematic' gameplay. I wanted to love Tomb Raider, but I couldn't for the life of me. :'-(

I thought the gameplay was head and shoulders above everything else in the genre, and the level design was nothing short of superb.

You're also exaggerating how bad the writing was. It wasn't good, but it was passable. It's miles off the tripe that is Kingdom Hearts. The story was just a bit of fun, and I definitely liked the supernatural direction it took towards the end.

 

[Jintor]

I can't say the level design really stood out to me. Especially the puzzle design, of which there was 'here is a tomb. Here's one puzzle. You'd think it'd lead to a big complex puzzle but actually no, it was just this warm-up puzzle, here's your map and cache of goodies'. The combat arenas too were mainly just... well, I remember them as corridors more than anything else. Except that fucking junktown map where I constantly got lost because everything looked the fucking same.

Honestly, it wasn't nearly as metroidvania as I'd been led to believe. You barely ever revisit locations, and when you do, there sure isn't a lot of unlocking doors with new abilities or with your rope arrows or whatever. It has a couple of moments of cleverly connecting maps but nothing I thought was standout.

I don't even remember most of the combat in TR, except that shotguns are great fun. I did like the climbing though for some reason even though it was basically DDR QTEs. The actual QTEs were meh.

The writing might be miles off the tripe that is Kingdom Hearts, but it was still tripe. Complete opposite - hated the supernatural bullshit. Didn't think it established the right tone for me to suspend my disbelief sufficiently. Though I did like Lara and Sam, for some reason, just as pure characters. They were okay.

I really did like filling bars though.

/edit I don't even want to talk about the intense dissonance of Lara killing hundreds of dudes. BUT YOU'LL WANT TO PROTECT HER! Guess they gave up on that, in the trailer now she's just a full on murderer. Oh well.

 

[Dantis]

I can't say the level design really stood out to me. Especially the puzzle design, of which there was 'here is a tomb. Here's one puzzle. You'd think it'd lead to a big complex puzzle but actually no, it was just this warm-up puzzle, here's your map and cache of goodies'. The combat arenas too were mainly just... well, I remember them as corridors more than anything else. Except that fucking junktown map where I constantly got lost because everything looked the fucking same.

Honestly, it wasn't nearly as metroidvania as I'd been led to believe. You barely ever revisit locations, and when you do, there sure isn't a lot of unlocking doors with new abilities or with your rope arrows or whatever. It has a couple of moments of cleverly connecting maps but nothing I thought was standout.

I don't even remember most of the combat in TR, except that shotguns are great fun. I did like the climbing though for some reason even though it was basically DDR QTEs. The actual QTEs were meh.

The writing might be miles off the tripe that is Kingdom Hearts, but it was still tripe. Complete opposite - hated the supernatural bullshit. Didn't think it established the right tone for me to suspend my disbelief sufficiently. Though I did like Lara and Sam, for some reason, just as pure characters. They were okay.

I really did like filling bars though.

/edit I don't even want to talk about the intense dissonance of Lara killing hundreds of dudes. BUT YOU'LL WANT TO PROTECT HER! Guess they gave up on that, in the trailer now she's just a full on murderer. Oh well.

Sounds to me like you wanted it to be something that it isn't. And possibly misunderstood what they meant when they said you'll want to protect her.

 

[Meia]

I can't say the level design really stood out to me. Especially the puzzle design, of which there was 'here is a tomb. Here's one puzzle. You'd think it'd lead to a big complex puzzle but actually no, it was just this warm-up puzzle, here's your map and cache of goodies'. The combat arenas too were mainly just... well, I remember them as corridors more than anything else. Except that fucking junktown map where I constantly got lost because everything looked the fucking same.

Honestly, it wasn't nearly as metroidvania as I'd been led to believe. You barely ever revisit locations, and when you do, there sure isn't a lot of unlocking doors with new abilities or with your rope arrows or whatever. It has a couple of moments of cleverly connecting maps but nothing I thought was standout.

I don't even remember most of the combat in TR, except that shotguns are great fun. I did like the climbing though for some reason even though it was basically DDR QTEs. The actual QTEs were meh.

The writing might be miles off the tripe that is Kingdom Hearts, but it was still tripe. Complete opposite - hated the supernatural bullshit. Didn't think it established the right tone for me to suspend my disbelief sufficiently. Though I did like Lara and Sam, for some reason, just as pure characters. They were okay.

I really did like filling bars though.

/edit I don't even want to talk about the intense dissonance of Lara killing hundreds of dudes. BUT YOU'LL WANT TO PROTECT HER! Guess they gave up on that, in the trailer now she's just a full on murderer. Oh well.

These mirror my thoughts on it pretty closely. There's also the problem of the game being something else early in development that's obvious on the finished project. You can hunt plants and animals, which probably had more of a point early on, before they just decided to throw their hands up in the air and make it an Uncharted clone. Don't get me wrong, it was a GOOD Uncharted clone, but it is what it is.


The cast being that diverse was also to it's detriment, and probably made the overall story weaker as a result(not that it was strong to begin with).



It's why I said the game probably is going to follow what other "new" games did this gen. The first one is kind of a proof of concept thing, a neat idea hampered by some less than stellar/limited ones. Then the sequel comes out and knocks shit out. Assassin's Creed, Infamous, and a few others established this trend. Hoping for a new Tomb Raider in that it'll focus more on actual raiding tombs and less on shootbang, but we'll see. Don't exactly trust Square these days...



EDIT:

The only "protecting" I wanted to do to her was to keep her from getting a branch impaled through her skull in that one area, cause that was incredibly nasty. If that's what they were going for, it worked, but it also was like 2 points ever in the entire game. At one point the game probably was like that, hence the scrounging for supplies, hell, even the one part she does first aid on herself. But these were unrealized ideas because halfway through development they felt the game simply needed more shootbang.

 

[Jintor]

Sounds to me like you wanted it to be something that it isn't. And possibly misunderstood what they meant when they said you'll want to protect her.

Yeah, I wanted it to be a Tomb Raider game and I was pretty disappointed when it wasn't that

Bullshit I misunderstood what they meant when they said I'd want to protect her. They have a pretty good opening hour of Lara being forced to take life or whatever and I was totally on board with wherever they were going and then... after the first dude you kill apparently she just hardens immediately and you just fatality takedown every other person in the game.

 

[Sophia]

I may or may not want to protect someone in a video game. But the developer saying I'd want to protect Lara Croft of all people was silly. That's trying to make the character into something she's not, and never has been.

It'd be like if Hashino suddenly said "You'd want to protect Aigis." I'd be all '.... what?", which is exactly what I was thinking when the TR devs made that comment.

 

[Jintor]

Well, I don't know. They were rebooting the franchise, so they have leeway to change the character... and to change the game. So maybe Dantis has a point: I wanted a different game to the one they delivered, and was sad when it wasn't the type of game I associated with that name.

That doesn't make the game any better though.

 

[Dantis]

Yeah, I wanted it to be a Tomb Raider game and I was pretty disappointed when it wasn't that

There you go then. That's your own fault, chap. It never looked anything like the old Tomb Raider games, and the old Tomb Raider games weren't Metroidvanias.

You led yourself astray on your own expectations!

Bullshit I misunderstood what they meant when they said I'd want to protect her. They have a pretty good opening hour of Lara being forced to take life or whatever and I was totally on board with wherever they were going and then... after the first dude you kill apparently she just hardens immediately and you just fatality takedown every other person in the game.

When they said you'll want to protect her, they meant that, as the person in control of her actions, you'll want to see her safely out of the horrible situations that she gets into. Considering it was the kind of marketing garbage that every game comes out with (Including our dearest Persona), I think they did a decent job of that. The scene where you climb the radio tower? Pretty tense! If you actually thought that they'd maintain that for ten hours though, based on the gameplay videos and them saying "It's how she becomes the Lara of the later games blah blah blah" then you are very susceptible to marketing ploys.

I think there's a weird thing in games where people get mad about what a game isn't, rather than appreciating it for what it is. It wasn't a 'classic' Tomb Raider game because there's no room in the budgetary space that they'd been assigned for slow and cumbersome puzzle platformers. Instead, it was one of the best third person shooters of the generation and you're all sad-faced because the marketing people lied to you.

 

[Sophia]

On topic with Persona for a second. Given the themes of identity and love present in William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", I find the title for the second movie extremely amusing and punny. Rather appropriate for Aigis tho.

 

[Dantis]

I think it's a pretty crap name for the movie really.

It just seems... bizarre, I guess?