What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

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

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Wolfy

Also, as an Update to my playing list:

I currently have all 4 Oddworld games and Monday Night Combat on my PC, and I plan to get Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Collection tommorow. o3o

Sabby

I like Dragon Age as a game, but as a setting, it's pretty boring... where it's not humping WH40K's leg, it's nonsensical, and when it's not that, it's shoehorning in grimdark.

Elves? Yeah, people hate them... why? Because whitey's are racist dicks who like to round them up into Alienages and treat them like barely-post-slavery-days black people. This is dark and gritty fantasy!

Mabari? Yeah, they would make the perfect sappers, being small and able to infiltrate and work as independent groups... but no, lets turn them into shock troopers and send hordes of highly intelligent and EXPENSIVE dogs right into the front lines where they will all likely die. Oh, and lets combine them with crazy berserker trainers who go into an uncontrollable rage when their dogs die.

Magic? Yeah, its SUPPOSED to be extremely dangerous, any users always open to possession and so must be carefully monitored. But... the characters go around slinging magic all the time with no negative consequences from either law enforcement or demonic possession.

Templars? Supposed to monitor the Mages, so they can help the world, but are ready to put them down at a seconds notice... but no, the lot of them are absolute bloodthirsty dicks who just wanna lock them all up and treat them like shit... because THIS IS GRIMDARK!! See?! The Templars are dicks for no reason, so this is dark gritty fantasy! =D


Wolfy

Actually, the Templars are dicks because they distrust the mages and the power they wield, which is something they think only the Maker himself should be able to do.

And as we've all seen in the past, Fear and Distrust spread violence rather easily.



And it's made rather clear in Dragon age II that, while you are a mage, you are only allowed to walk free because of how many good deeds you're doing and that it would displease the populace for you to be locked up. Most people, when you are a mage, show that they don't exactly trust you or know what to think about you, your uncle, for instance, has a few moments where he has to think about what he says after saying that all mages should be locked up. You can press him about yourself being a mage, and he has to think about his opinion for a moment.

...:D

Sabby

Quote from: Wolfy on March 19, 2011, 12:18:04 AM
Actually, the Templars are dicks because they distrust the mages and the power they wield, which is something they think only the Maker himself should be able to do

In other words, THIS IS GRIMDARK! =D Pointless racism/prejudice = MORALLY GRAY!


Right now, playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 with my brother and his fiance. I'm Luke, he's Gambit, she's Storm. Fucking fun.

Brandon

I think the blandness of dragon age lies in it being a very generic fantasy setting and even more so that I or anyone can say Generic fanasy setting with a straight face. Our society is so deeply entrenched in escapism that we've managed to find mundanity in a fictional setting.
Brandon: What makes him tick? - My on's and off's - My open games thread - My Away Thread
Limits: I do not, under any circumstances play out scenes involving M/M, non-con, or toilet play

Wolfy

Sad news Today.

Apparently any hope of Sabby ever liking the Silent Hill Series ever again has died. Possibly.

http://helldescent.com/2011/03/18/rumor-konami-bringing-multiplayer-silent-hill-to-xbla/

Hemingway

I disagree, Sabby. Compare to prejudices and such throughout real-life history, and you'll see the same thing.

Wolfy

Welt, Ol' Jacky T is back.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108523-Jack-Thompson-Threatens-Gabe-Newell-Over-School-Shooter-Mod

Yep...Jack Thompson is back, making threats again. Oh nostalgia..

Also, I think the escapist fixed whatever was giving Virus Alerts from their website...though I don't really know, since I've never gotten one. :/

Sabby

Quote from: Hemingway on March 19, 2011, 03:31:50 PM
I disagree, Sabby. Compare to prejudices and such throughout real-life history, and you'll see the same thing.

Maybe if the setting were actually Grimdark then the prejudices wouldn't feel so shoehorned. Right now, people just hate 'those bloody knife ears' for the sake of adding conflict.

Dragon Age is just WH40K in Tolkien Mode anyway. I'd go as far as to say Mass Effect leans just as heavily on Star Wars, but I can't... it has enough interesting factions and species and what not, I can forgive it its occasionally lazy writing. For every Twilek and Jedi rip off, there's a Krogan and a Geth to make up for it <3

Still playing Marvel UA2. I love this game <3

Wolfy

Quote from: Wolfy on March 19, 2011, 01:34:20 PM
Sad news Today.

Apparently any hope of Sabby ever liking the Silent Hill Series ever again has died. Possibly.

http://helldescent.com/2011/03/18/rumor-konami-bringing-multiplayer-silent-hill-to-xbla/

Sabby..does it really grind your gears that there could be a Silent Hill Multiplayer game?

Sabby

If I cared for the games in the first place, yeah.

Hemingway

As a WH40K player, I'm not sure I see the similarities all that well. D :

Sabby

Mostly in the Magic department. Apostates are pretty much Unsanctioned Psykers. The Fade is just Hell, or whatever it was in 40K, not sure :/

Hemingway

Hmm. The Fade does have some things in common with the Immaterium / Warp of 40K, but I think those are mostly coincidences, or things that magical dimensions tend to have in common. I mean, both are alternate, magical dimensions. The Warp seems considerably more dangerous than the Fade, though.

I guess I can see why you'd compare the two. However, those similarities aren't all that important, in my eyes. Especially not when considering all the differences. The treatment heretics get in 40K makes the Templars seem like paragons of shining virtue and goodness. Whatever influence 40K has had over Dragon Age, it's treated far more believably in the latter.

DA2 spoilers:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
Meredith wasn't even close to as harsh in her treatment of mages, as the Imperium of Man in their treatment of heretics. If Kirkwall had been completely destroyed and every person murdered, down to the last child, then maybe.

Now, I'm not saying it's influenced by other works of fantasy. Most prominently, at least in the case of Origins, by A Song of Ice and Fire ( and overtly so ), but I don't think it's entirely fair to call the conflicts baseless, just like that.

Wolfy

Well don't forget, Hemingway,

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
She was possessed by a piece of the idol.

Wyrd

Been playing Dragon age 2 for the last week or so and am having a really great time. I got dead space two prior and got the advanced suit code form EA so in DA 2 I am SIR ISSAC OF CLARKE! I'm about half way done the game and I can already say this is much better then the horrible Dragon Age: Origins. worst game I've ever played in the genre but this one is slowly getting me more into the franchise. bit by bit. I also just beat Mafia 2 ! Love that game!   
Ragtime Dandies!

Inkidu

Quote from: Sabby on March 19, 2011, 09:53:06 PM
Maybe if the setting were actually Grimdark then the prejudices wouldn't feel so shoehorned. Right now, people just hate 'those bloody knife ears' for the sake of adding conflict.

Dragon Age is just WH40K in Tolkien Mode anyway. I'd go as far as to say Mass Effect leans just as heavily on Star Wars, but I can't... it has enough interesting factions and species and what not, I can forgive it its occasionally lazy writing. For every Twilek and Jedi rip off, there's a Krogan and a Geth to make up for it <3

Still playing Marvel UA2. I love this game <3
I think you're over-generalizing Sabby. I mean if I try hard enough I can show how every fantasy game, movie, or book is a rip off of Lord of the Rings, and then I can show how it's a rip off of all epics, and as such showing how everything is derived from epic convention.

However! With Dragon Age, the devil is in the details. Read the codex. It's all there if you want to know why people hate the knife ears and the mages. Why the Qunari are treated like they are.
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

#2567
So, as I've been sick for the past few days, and I basically spent all of yesterday in my room with a pile of kleenexes, feeling like death and bored to tears ... I did the obvious thing, and bought Saint's Row 2 on the Steam.

Not exactly a good game, but pretty good entertainment. What it did more than anything, though, was make me want to play GTAIV. So, I bought the Ballad of Gay Tony, which I have yet to play. We'll see how that turns out.

Edit: I'd almost forgotten how frustrating GTA can occasionally be. I mean, having a life bar, that's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, not even since Al Gore invented regenerating health. But cut me some slack! You could at least give me back my health after I finish a mission.

Aside from that, I'm mostly struck by the sheer size of GTA DLC. I mean, granted, it cost me 1200 points, which is fairly expensive, but ... still nothing compared to the price of a full game. Yet they offer more content than many games do, and more play-time.

Wolfy

^True..but they only did two DLC, and they already had the world built, so it probably wasn't THAT  hard to make it.

Anyway..playing Nier, waiting till Sunday...Bloody Sunday...3DS comes out..gonna be there right at opening to get mine, since they won't be having a midnight launch (Probably.)...

Hemingway

Of course it's easier to make DLC than a completely new game, but that's still no excuse to make a game you can beat in four hours that costs three times as much as DLC that takes something like ... well, a good deal longer to finish just the main story of. How much would it have cost EA to make Medal of Honor twice as long? They already had the engine and everything, too!

Sabby

Just got Crysis 2. Its... wow. I didn't believe them when they said the Cryengine would work on Xbox. It looks amazing o.o I had it on the monitor and we just sat there staring like "wtf?"

I was expecting my Xbox to smoke up.

Wolfy

Quote from: Sabby on March 22, 2011, 10:29:02 AM
Just got Crysis 2. Its... wow. I didn't believe them when they said the Cryengine would work on Xbox. It looks amazing o.o I had it on the monitor and we just sat there staring like "wtf?"

I was expecting my Xbox to smoke up.

Yes Sabby..but how's the gameplay?..I thought about getting it myself at some point.

Hemingway

Ugh, Crysis 2, there's one game I can't see myself getting any time soon. I'm biased against the setting, and ... well, I still have my doubts about the game itself ... not going to trust critics this time. xD

Inkidu

I liked Crysis (couldn't own it) and I liked it. The powers were kind of tacked on. There was no real push to use them in any of the firefights so I just mostly left it on shield. Sometimes berserk was fun, but still limited practical use. I loved the fact that the enemies actually spoke Korean, but hated the fact that you had to turn it on "Lets face it. You're going to die" mode to play it.

Overall, there were games that didn't require a supercomputer that did the FPS better. Bioshock II.

Good news though. I'm getting my new Xbox ahead of schedule. (This way my brother has no claim to it and I can move out with it free and clear.) Sure it cost me the use of my feet basically but I made a lot of money.
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

Honestly, I never noticed the difference in difficulty in Crysis. I think I started playing it on normal, then switched to the highest after a little while my first time playing it, and didn't really notice much of a difference.