thebalch

My name is Clayton. When I was maybe seven, my folks bought me my first console - a Playstation - to help improve my dexterity and hand-eye coordination (I have very mild cerebral palsy.) I think my first game was Crash Bandicoot, which I used to play it with my dad all the time after school.

I love the Oddworld games, Dark Souls, Shovel Knight, and Don't Starve. Embarrassing video game confession: I've never really played Final Fantasy VII. I also love 8-bit games. I bought an NES and learned to swap out the pin connector so I could play the classics in their original format. Man, decades later and those games still hold up.

My other interests include hobby board and card games, music (I want to go to music school to sing classical,) and languages.

The folks here have all been really nice. I feel like I've found the one corner of the internet not rife with total dicks, so thanks for that.

@shinofkod: I actually have the very first entry on NES...is that gonna be an OK place to start? I've found that some 8-bit RPG's can be a little esoteric.

@the_greg: I totally forgot that I've already played through the original Mass Effect trilogy, DA:O, DA2, and Inquisition, and KotOR...huh. Now I feel silly.

@slag: We don't have a PC to play with right now, but we're planning on getting a desktop soon...I've been a Mac guy for years, and I know that having a good PC will blow the doors wide open for tons of stuff I've never been able to really play.

I'd never thought about it since I almost always play on consoles, but that WOULD be easier, wouldn't it? I could literally point and shoot? OK, that changes things.

I'm glad Overwatch and Splatoon are good ones, because they're definitely the most appealing. I'm excited!

@nicksmi56: Thank you for taking the time to give me those pointers. Actually I wonder if I have more time than I think I do to clear that dungeon? I'm going to load up the old save and see what I can squeeze out of it before the deadline. Maybe I'm totally mistaken about how much time is left/how big a difference a few days can make.

@ares42: Great idea. I actually played a TON of Diablo 2 as a kid, although I never beat it. I've wanted to play 3 forever. Thanks for the reminder; I'll look into it!

@themist997: Ahahah oh man you are in for a wild and varied ride if you're doing all the AC games. Last one I played was Rogue.

Divinity looks way more intense than it is. Get a friend to do couch co-op with, don't overthink it, and you're good. I have a terrible sense for RPG's but the combat is pretty uncomplicated. It's my favorite thing to play with my fiancée. It makes me laugh, too. If you find it for cheap, you should go ahead and pick it up, just in case you love it.

@nicksmi56: No no, I totally get it. Maybe I fucked up in a special way. I'm at that boss that can take like two turns in a row and looks like a toy robot. You can see from its perspective and it has a targeting system or whatever. I'm only describing it because I can't recall the name for the life of me. I was doing fine up until that particular area, and all the sudden the enemies felt much harder, and he DESTROYS my party. I don't know if it's an actual spike in difficulty or if I'm being a dingus. I explained it to my fiancée and she said, "Yeah, you might need to start over. Our friend did." I wish I could grind more, but that damn fox is a price-gouging sonofabitch...I think one of my mistakes was not leveling up his social link enough. Sorry to anyone else if spoilers.

@slag: Thank you. It's always frustrating when you're playing something new, especially something you've been excited about, and you realize after dumping hours and hours into it that you have no idea what you're doing :D. Then again, Dark Souls has forced me bit by bit to not take failure personally. I used to be a terribly sore loser, to the point where playing anything with me was just a bad time. I'm definitely not that guy anymore. Just another example of what games can do for people.

On an unrelated note, I want to play Bloodborne so damn bad.

What do you think about Super Mario RPG? Paper Mario seems like a continuation of that to me. Coincidentally it's also one of my fiancée's favorite games of all time.

@zeik: that's a great point. right now i'm in a position where i only have like...two days maybe to clear this next boss? so I don't think I have enough time to grind enough. I had never thought about treating your first however many hours as a dry run and expecting to start over to apply whatever you figured out. I always thought of it as something kind of embarrassing. I'm going to adjust my outlook. Thank you so much!