What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

Started by Sabby, May 31, 2009, 12:45:35 PM

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Hemingway

Ugh. I feel like playing New Vegas. Again.

I've never actually beaten the game. But I know everything about the game up to the last quest. Dammit!

Inkidu

Quote from: Brandon on March 04, 2012, 02:15:03 AM
It may seem like it cheats but that isnt the case. Usually its tactics that we dont think of. For example sometimes it seems like they can shoot you without being close enough to see you but really what the computer is doing is walking out far enough to see you. Then they move back and fire at the last position they saw you at
Yeah, I've heard that, but it wasn't what I was talking about. I wouldn't call it clever or a tactic no one's ever thought of because that's all they do. I have yet to turn up a body trying their same tactic with high explosives rockets and grenades. Sure, some little mom n' pop is now gone, but no aliens in the blast. I don't think sectoids can move that fast.

I'm talking about their ability to hit me half a mile a way with autoshot. I think the computer often fudges in their favor. Still, it's Godawful annoying when my captian in power armor gets offed by reaction fire off the ramp of the skyranger and then one of my normally solid guys panics because it was a captain. Goes berserk and kills everyone in the place. If you're lucky you get a fifty fifty shot of surviving with the best armor in the game. Oh, and that's surviving one single hit.

Can you really call it a strategy game when it feels like luck is seventy-five percent of of it? The game seems to screw you over with more bad luck than your own ineptitude at playing the game. I've said it before. It's entirely possible to lose funding nations early in the game just because your bases isn't where the computer decides it wasn't to send its UFOs. Especially true on the harder difficulties (i.e. anything above beginner).

Luck should play a part, but not to the point where the success or failure of your entire save-the-world mission depends on it. Not one terror mission, not a UFO or base raid, your entire game hinges upon the often unfairly fudge luck tables. Like I said though, that's great until it robs you of any sense of accomplishment. There's a reason it hurts when someone says, "You just got lucky."

The game's fun, but it's not without some pretty bad flaws. My main one is that it has branches of totally useless research. Alien autopsies do nothing. Nothing. I don't even think they get you to the final mission. You have to research captured live aliens to get any bonuses. Would it have been so hard for them to reward you with more damage and accuracy when fighting an alien? Maybe psionic boosts against them, or you know defenses? As far as I can tell they're flavor text.

My other slightly lesser complaint is the Darwinist approach. You're going to lose people. Lots and lots and lots. Eventually it comes down to those who survive and those who die in some kind of medieval fielding armies system. I feel less like a crack squad of clandestine commandos and more like some evil overlord sending hoards of minions into a meat grinder. What's it matter? Rookies are cheap.

That's why I'm looking forward to the new X-Com game. You can only field four people to start with. However, each one is more specialized. They have certain skills and abilities. If you lose one, not only does it impact the tactical scenario your in, it impacts the meta game.

Sure, rookies are still cheap to hire, but they don't divulge their specialization until they get their first promotion. That means that if I lose my sniper I can either buy up a a whole bunch and field them until I get a sniper. Not guaranteed and pricey. Or I can take what they give me and have to adopt a new set of doctrines because my party makeup as changed.

I think the new game provides more meta game options as well. Not only do you get promoted troops but you can invest in an Officer's School so that they can take their experience and turn it into universal bonuses for all your troops. At least all the research has a purpose, too. It might not be the research you  thought you needed  but it will never do nothing.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Kirby

I'm not committed to any games at the moment.  I do have the Xbox w/Kinect and occasionally play the few games I do have with that, but mostly I'm waiting for the next big MMORPG that strikes my fancy.  Have my eye on "The Secret World" right now, by Funcom.

DarkWorld0BrightHope

The chasing after the ever ellusive Entei and Raikou in Pokemon HeartGold... it is what I have been doing after having completed the Ruins of Alph this weeked. Now if only they would cease fleeing everytime I threw a pokeball at them, oh well this is what status effects are for.
Looking for writing prompts, 500-1000 words. Will do one a day.

Sabby

Could never get into Pokemon :( but I have Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise arriving on Wednesday. Its surprisingly hard to find local... Was lucky to order from my own shore at all. Pinatas are my Pokemon :) They're just too adorable.

LunarSage

So does anyone know if a new Batman game is in the works?  I beat Asylum and City and it left me wanting more...

  ▫  A.A  ▫  O.O  ▫  Find & Seek   ▫ 

Sabby

Of course it is. Don't expect word of it for a while though. I know a cancelled Batman game may be getting a new publisher, but I'm not too hopeful. It's apparently one of those alternate universe kind of deals, with Batman fighting Jack the Ripper.

Wolfy

Been playing SSX recently..and Star Wars the old republic.

Might start up Xenogears later today....:P

Sabby

Quote from: Wolfy on March 03, 2012, 08:28:34 PM
You know, Sabby..I keep clicking that link in your sig but nothing happens. :/

You must be doing something wrong >:3

Hemingway

You know what my biggest problem with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is? The camera. I don't mind that it sometimes plays like a 3rd person game, sometimes a sidescroller. But the way the camera sometimes sticks in place, sometimes follows you, and you're sometimes moving toward it, I hate that. It's disorienting, it's actually uncomfortable, and often it's zoomed out so far it's hard to tell what's on the screen at all.

Sabby

It's God of War: European Mythology Edition. It has to have a bad camera.

Hemingway


Sabby

Has the same annoyances you just describes, yeah.

Hemingway

I guess that's one reason not to buy any of those games.

Oh, there's another thing about Castlevania that's sort of related to the camera thing. There are treasures hidden around, life gems and such. Problem is, they're extremely difficult to find, because of the camera and because of how hard it is to tell where you're able to go and where you aren't.

Inkidu

#5114
Another random-luck screw over X-Com sends your way is E-115. That stuff is like crack: Once you've used it you'll never stop. Never! It powers everything from the stun ball to your reverse engineered UFOs. I've yet to turn in a poor report to the funding council and through my manufacturing division I've probably given good old Generalissimo weapons he probably shouldn't have, ever.

To my earlier statement. E-115 only comes from UFOs, more specifically landed UFOs. Most I've been able to get is a crash. If I don't crash them they'll get away (and you do technically have the smallest chance of bringing back E-115 from a crash). I had to make my Japanese base a full fledged base because all my landers were appearing in Asia.

So here's the thing. I can't afford to do badly. My spending habit rely on me spending more than I should so I can at least keep my interceptors in missiles (I can't use my new plasma cannons because they need E-115). My HWPs need rockets, and I'm losing troops. All the while the aliens have faster ships coming in. I can't keep up or catch them, but I can' make any faster ships because I don't have E-115.

Grrr. That's not good game design. I have a feeling that the game is going to win when I've done nothing wrong, and that's just not good design. It takes control right out of the players hands. I know it's realistic, but realism does not always equal good design. Tactically speaking this is probably the best game I've ever had. I don't think I've broken twenty casualties in four months of operation, and three of those months had nighttime terror missions.

Holy freaking big EDIT: I just learned something because of Extra Credits. Most of the big Japanese RPG companies back before the genre took hold there or way before here made eroge visual novel games. My childhood! D: I think that's the last little bit of it, gone!
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Hemingway

#5115
You know what pisses me off? Because of some arbitrary decision to release games later in Europe, thousands of people will have beaten Mass Effect 3 and started massive spoiling on the internet before the game even releases here.

I'm just not gonna go on the internet.

Edit: In other, better news: Assassin's Creed 3 set during the War of Independence? Yes please. Just inject it directly into my brain.

Inkidu

Quote from: Hemingway on March 05, 2012, 03:18:24 PM
You know what pisses me off? Because of some arbitrary decision to release games later in Europe, thousands of people will have beaten Mass Effect 3 and started massive spoiling on the internet before the game even releases here.

I'm just not gonna go on the internet.

Edit: In other, better news: Assassin's Creed 3 set during the War of Independence? Yes please. Just inject it directly into my brain.
Whose War of Independence? Oh, you mean that one where George Washington drove the Dodge Charger at those redcoats!

Dodge Challenger Freedom Commercial

True facts, bro. True facts. ;D

No seriously, I'm psyched for it to, and I'm not saying that because I'm an American. I guess it would have to take place in Boston and Baltimore, and maybe to a lesser extent New York, maybe Charleston. There weren't a whole lot of urban centers in colonial America. Still, it's not a period of time explored much in games.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Hemingway

I'm psyched for it and I'm not American. :'D

I just happen to think it's one of the most interesting combinations of time and place in the history of the world. I mean, if it were all up to me, AC3 would be London, Paris and ... well, some other interesting European cities, perhaps Vienna or Prague, and your character would be none other than Jack the Ripper. Whose reputation would, of course, be nothing but a Templar smear.

But I'll settle for revolutionary times. Especially since he seems to favor a tomahawk over wrist blades. A tomahawk! And a bow!

Sabby

This is wrong, all wrong. Assassins Creed is ruined forever. I can handle the aliens, the boring Desmond protagonist, the disappointing reveal of Subject 16, the lazy as fuck 2012 element, and the generally haphazard and poor writing, but THIS?!

How dare it move to a different time period. AC is about one specific place. If the Animus was for more then that they would have done it by now. Duh :P

Inkidu

Quote from: Sabby on March 05, 2012, 06:56:18 PM
This is wrong, all wrong. Assassins Creed is ruined forever. I can handle the aliens, the boring Desmond protagonist, the disappointing reveal of Subject 16, the lazy as fuck 2012 element, and the generally haphazard and poor writing, but THIS?!

How dare it move to a different time period. AC is about one specific place. If the Animus was for more then that they would have done it by now. Duh :P
Say what now, you crazy ginger-haired Aussie, avian leopard thing you?
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

As Day Fades

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. And I still need to do a ton of side stuff in Final Fantasy XIII-2. And I just picked up Dissidia Duodecim again. And I started playing around with Age of Mythology for the DS, but was disappointed and may already be done. Also, eventually, at some point, back to Skyrim. ...Usually I'm way good about sticking to one game at a time, but lately there's just been temptation abound!

Sabby

Quote from: Inkidu on March 05, 2012, 08:16:55 PM
Say what now, you crazy ginger-haired Aussie, avian leopard thing you?
.

Sarcasm dude :P the whole premise is solving a mystery. By exploring a timeline, and so far, we,ve had two protagonists very close to each other. Assassins creed as a whole has had some questionable direction, and I really think adhering to a certain time period is the biggest blunder, but I'm really excited at this change of scenery.

Wolfy

Anyone know anything about Defense of the Ancients?

Cause....I just got put into the Dota 2 beta test. @_@

Inkidu

Quote from: Sabby on March 05, 2012, 08:55:55 PM
.

Sarcasm dude :P the whole premise is solving a mystery. By exploring a timeline, and so far, we,ve had two protagonists very close to each other. Assassins creed as a whole has had some questionable direction, and I really think adhering to a certain time period is the biggest blunder, but I'm really excited at this change of scenery.
See... sarcasm is incredibly hard to accomplish in writing. It's a very auditory thing. I knew you were goofing around, but I couldn't pin down what exactly.

I'll take AC II, Brotherhood, and Revelations for what they were. Ubisoft experimenting while trying to recoup their investments. Overall they range from good to fantastic. You could do a lot worse with a franchise. I mean they could wait around 12 years to release AC III with slightly polished mechanics while saying they're trying to make it perfect. No one would do that though.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Sabby

Oh, don't get me wrong, the games themselves are great, I just get the impression that there was never a very strong oversight, as in, no long term plan to adhere to, it makes the here and now seem very wonky. It's almost as if the ending of one game is written without the start game being done, and the next game starts before it's ending is done. This is why we get shit like 2012 doomsday dropped so clumsily in the credits and things like that.

Also, sorry for how bad my typing has been lately. Got a Blackberry, and my fingers aren't very agile Dx