What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

[Inkidu]

God damn you giant ants! Damn you to bug hell! D:<

I was playing Two World II this morning (something that won't be happening after ten a.m. tomorrow) and for the love of god! I focused on warrior and crafting. I stayed on the little Orc island and hunted down anything slayable. I mean I took out flipping groms with level 16 cutlasses. With a staff! Yet I still can't kill a damn giant ant.

*headdesk*

[Wolfy]

Sounds like bad design. :/

Tis why I like Oblivion, and the Fallout games...Enemies scale with you.

Then again, there's also MMO's, where higher level enemies serve as a barrier until you reach that point..still, they generally aren't close to lower level players. (Western Plaguelands in WoW an exception...the famouse "Welcome Bear" comes to mind.)

[Inkidu]

Sounds like bad design. :/

Tis why I like Oblivion, and the Fallout games...Enemies scale with you.

Then again, there's also MMO's, where higher level enemies serve as a barrier until you reach that point..still, they generally aren't close to lower level players. (Western Plaguelands in WoW an exception...the famouse "Welcome Bear" comes to mind.)

Well, in Two Worlds II. It's a little more complex than just saying bad design. I don't know that much about ants but they seem fairly bludgeon resistant, and maybe my leather armor is not a pierce resistant as I thought. Even the dumb melee combat is surprisingly strategic. I carry around two swords and my staff. I have to swap often. Ants probably poison the frick out of you too, which I'm probably not ready to handle.

Even my leather armor's going to be good though when I go up against lightning shamans. I just wish I could find something a little more metallic.

[Hemingway]

Been playing a bit of AvP now.

First things first: a metascore of 68? I don't understand. It may be lacking in certain ways, and I wouldn't go so far as to call it a good game, but it's certainly playable and entertaining.

Playing as a marine is weird. It might be because I'm playing on a fairly low difficulty, but the xenomorphs never feel that threatening. I don't think the game would be any scarier if I increased the difficulty, either. I feel like they could've made it a lot better had they made ammo more limited, and made the aliens fewer in number, but more dangerous individually. I suspect that may be for the sake of keeping multiplayer balanced, though, but ... hey, multiplayer apparently sucks, so I guess they made a mistake. Also, guns feel pathetic, for the most part. Shooting feels ... stiff.

Anyway, playing as a predator is much more entertaining. I haven't tried the xenomorph yet, as the predators are easily the most interesting in my opinion, but ... what can I say? Jumping around, being invisible and basically having every advantage imaginable does make me feel like a dangerous badass.

Edit: Been playing some more as the marine, and ... well, it's good fun. But, dammit, these guys are all the proof you need that books, movies, games and the like are essential. How genre blind can you get? You know there are aliens creeping around in narrow spaces, and you turn your back on a suspicious-looking hole in the wall? You were asking for it. And do they train these guys to work under pressure at all? They're all freaking out, all the time, like that's not counter-productive to survival. I have to do everything myself, as usual. But it's all good, they were just slowing me down anyway.

[Brandon]

Edit: Been playing some more as the marine, and ... well, it's good fun. But, dammit, these guys are all the proof you need that books, movies, games and the like are essential. How genre blind can you get? You know there are aliens creeping around in narrow spaces, and you turn your back on a suspicious-looking hole in the wall? You were asking for it. And do they train these guys to work under pressure at all? They're all freaking out, all the time, like that's not counter-productive to survival. I have to do everything myself, as usual. But it's all good, they were just slowing me down anyway.

To be both realistic and fair, no one knows how a person will react under fire until that person is put into that position. Ive seen soldiers who people thought were metaphorical bricks with their emotions break down after a few close shots and seen others who people swore would break down at the first bullet take grevious wounds and still be mentally competant in the fire fight. Even the most realistic training is just that training, its not a good measure on how to judge an individuals reactions in future conflict. Does that mean that the marines a have poor AI or just realstic ones? My bet is more on the former since AVP isnt heralded as a realistic game and neither are the books/movies

[Hemingway]

AvP: Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that making enemies do more damage and take more damage makes games more frustrating, not more challenging. Giant xenomorph boss was bad enough, but I got him after about 20 tries. This guy, though ... there's just nothing I can do. How do you beat an enemy who kills you in three shots, and whose sole strategy is running toward you, never stopping. There's no way I can do enough damage to kill him before he can shoot me three times, he never takes cover, nothing. I had to restart the level to reduce the difficulty. To easy. Because I don't need this crap.

[ExisD]

Ouch, I really hate that meme in game design. Personally I think it would be more fun to just increase the monster spawns on high difficulty and make them come out of more and more unexpected laces. For example, you want beneath a hold that was blown in the ceiling and after you get 15 feet beyond it an enemy drops out of it and another arrives in front of you, when on a lower level only one of them would be there.

As for what I'm playing. I need to re-play Dragon age and am having trouble deciding what class to be. My first run through was with a mage and it was ridiculously easy even on hard, but my data was lost when my harddrive crashed. Any suggestions there?

[Inkidu]

Forget Dragon Age and just go for Dragon Age II?

Seriously though, play a tank warrior. It's the hardest game I've ever played in Dragon Age. Though I didn't care overly much for the "strategic elements and usually played on casual and had a rip-roaring good time.

Though, be warned. If you're not done playing Dragon Age, playing two will totally spoil you on the first. You'll never want to play Origins again, most likely.

By the way, I'm playing Dragon Age 2. It's a helluva lot more cleaner. The quests don't seem to muddle up. Even the random encounters now have a reason. You hear little rumors and if you have a rumor open you're probably going to get a random encounter.

[ExisD]

I wanted to transfer over my data for 2, and wait for the price to drop. Hmmm, I think I might run with an elven tank then, sounds amusing.

I'm a challenge gamer at heart, so I usually play on the highest difficulty available at all times.

Did they do anything to improve the combat lag for 2? I had actions delayed by up to 10 seconds in the first one at times.

[Hemingway]

I don't get DA2 for another 24 hours. *Flails.*

I'm steering clear of this topic until then, starting right now. Can't risk anyone spoiling even the most minute detail!

[Inkidu]

I don't know. I haven't exactly played with a lot of abilities and spells zinging all over the place yet, but it's much more responsive. (When you play a warrior for instance every attack has to be entered with a press of A. This is console) However now your character is a bad ass. Chop dash chop slam boom bang! It still retains the strategic elements while making it much more engaging. Even mages twirl and spin their staffs as they sling not one measly staff bolt but several. Magical effects are bigger. It's a better game in every way.

All the sluggish stuff is removed, but I've already died twice on normal so it's not a cakewalk hack n' slash. 

[Hemingway]

Been playing Dragon Age 2 for a few hours now, and ... well, I'm liking it so far, but this game just ... it tries too hard to be Mass Effect with swords. I've criticized Blizzard for this, and Bioware isn't getting away with it just because their games are better: a concept that works in one game, doesn't necessarily work in another. Here, it's equipment and conversations.

Equipment, well, it's just not like playing a proper RPG. Or, well, it sort of is, for Hawke, but everyone else loses. Granted, that means they get to keep their unique appearance, but personally, I'd rather have the joy of collecting loot.

Conversations ... well, how can you beat Mass Effect? You can't. So you shouldn't try. Because if you try and fail, that's worse than not trying at all. To say Hawke's voice is terrible might be going a bit too far, but it is far from good. And every other sentence that comes out of his mouth is sarcasm. Which is another thing. Mass Effect is great because even when you're going for the diplomatic approach, you feel like a hardass. Hawke going for the gentler approach sounds, well, gentle. Hawke being aggressive sounds unconvincing.

Ahh, whatever. I'll go back to playing now. It's still a great game. It's just so much easier to highlight the things about it that are bad. Not like they didn't ask for it to be compared to Mass Effect, either.

[WyldRanger]

Finally beat The Force Unleashed for the DS, long past the time I took to read the novelization. :P

[Sabby]

It's just so much easier to highlight the things about it that are bad.

Oh, sure! Its fine when you do it Dx

[Hemingway]

Oh, sure! Its fine when you do it Dx

The difference is that I try to find the good!

More on DA2: I'm not sure how I feel about all the changes they've made setting-wise. Qunari now look less human, and have horns? I don't buy for a second they intended that all along. Elves look different, too. And Dwarves. And Flemeth! I mean, it's nice, I think all of these changes are for the better, making the Qunari seem more like a distinct race ... I mean, honestly, I thought they were just oversized humans. But on the other hand, it's just ... weird for them to change so much. I guess I'm not really unhappy about it. I certainly like some of the visual changes they made. Isabela, I'm looking at you.

[Sabby]

We're reacting the same. The changes are for the better, but its just taking a while to set in and adjust.

Honestly, I blame it on DA:O's long production history. It was a game almost a decade too late. They spent so bloody long making it that majority of it was a pre-Kotor era game with some next gen polish slapped over and some of the later levels being more recent additions.

Now, everythings from scratch and they have the chance to make the kind of game they wanted to before.

Also... the new Flemeth is fucking bad ass <3 Its like Shadow The Hedgehog and an elder evil clone of Joan of Arc merged in pure awesomeness.

[Hemingway]

Well, been playing for about five hours now, obviously time to start a new character.

It was like this with DA:O, too ... I just felt like whatever situation I was in, none of the choices were really what I wanted. Makes it hard to be consistent and all that. Blehh. In Mass Effect, everything is always more or less clear. And it's not just a matter of everything being shades of gray and all that.

[Sabby]

I am convinced Varric is gay... or at least very metrosexual.

[Sabby]

Sheeet... 12 hours in, and I've done zero story quests.

[Wolfy]

:p I'm on year 6...so I'm way ahead of you guys. lol

[Hemingway]

:p I'm on year 6...so I'm way ahead of you guys. lol

It's been out here for 22 hours. Of which I have spent 5 playing.

I've spent five hours playing, and I'm unhappy with my character. I'm probably making a new one. Which causes more problems. I can't see myself playing anything but a warrior, that's just who I am. I'd like to be a tank, but they feel really weak, bordering on useless. Two-handed weapons, on the other hand, are powerful and intimidating, but not really what I want to play, you know, deep in my heart. This is messed up.

Combat needed improvement, yes, but I feel they may have gone too far. The worst part is how everything is an AoE attack with knockback, and enemies burst into bloody fountains when you kill them. They've officially sacrificed too much realism.

Edit: For the sake of balance, let me point out some of the things I like about the game. Also, I may seem highly critical, but DA:O disappointed me at first, too. It took a while before I genuinely started liking it.

Anyway. The good stuff. Characters, for one thing, are far more interesting than in DA:O. Both appearance-wise ( having a generic-looking character in your party is no fun ) and personality-wise ( these are characters, not real people, so they sort of need more extreme personalities to be ... interesting ).

Like I said, they've also changed a lot of the races and such. I'm loving the new Qunari. Seriously, those are some badass warriors, unlike the portly, gray-skinned humans from DA:O.

I'll have to wait and see how the story progresses, but so far ... well, I haven't gotten far at all, so it's hard to say, but it does feel plausible and personal, at least, and that's something.

[Oniya]

Combat needed improvement, yes, but I feel they may have gone too far. The worst part is how everything is an AoE attack with knockback, and enemies burst into bloody fountains when you kill them. They've officially sacrificed too much realism.

I suddenly have the urge to go play Vandal Hearts.

[SomeGuy]

Been playing Dragon Age 2, haven't gotten to far into it but a fair bit in with all three classes. Currently my biggest annoyance is that I like mage best for my class, but Carver is incredibly annoying to put it very nicely. The new visuals are seriously kick ass though, I agree with Sabby about Flemeth... though not in those exact words.

Also been playing DoW2 Retribution which is pretty good. I'd highly recommend picking one race and sticking with it for a while. I decided to try every race and see which I liked best, only to get tired of the first mission very quickly. Liking Orks and IG, but my favorite would have to be the 'Nids, except the part where you only get one hero unlike every other race.  ???

[Inkidu]

You know I smell  a bit of gamer arbitration from you, Hemingway. Sure, you don't get as much loot, but honestly who wants to spend thirty minutes reorganizing all the loot for at least four characters? I don't. The loot got a nice clean up in my opinion. Now I can pop open my inventory at a vendor and sell anything two stars or less, or that doesn't fit my class and I'm out of there. This obsession gamers have with loot, it's just unhealthy. It's kind of the blessed middle ground between Diablo's, the word rhymes with Duster Shuck of a loot system and Mass Effect's Bare-bones buy ten upgrades the whole game thing.

Quit freaking comparing it to Mass Effect, it's not. They are not trying to make it Mass Effect with swords. I get the feeling they don't know exactly where they are yet with Dragon Age. Give it time. I see it maturing with elements of a lot of games. They're seeing what works and what doesn't. Sure, Origin's was a fun throwback, but it would hardly hold up in a sequel. I don't think its so much that people think it's Mass Effect with swords, I think they want it to be Mass Effect with swords and are disappointed when it is not.

I like Hawke voice. I think he can actually be threatening. I hardly use the agressive options. The problem I think is people were again, listening for some ManShep like character so when Hawke busts out with his high Londoner sounding accent people are shocked.

[Hemingway]

You know I smell  a bit of gamer arbitration from you, Hemingway. Sure, you don't get as much loot, but honestly who wants to spend thirty minutes reorganizing all the loot for at least four characters?

I like the sense of progress, being able to give kickass equipment to my team, and I like being able to customize their appearance. The system doesn't work as well in an RPG as in Mass Effect, because this game is about numbers, not being able to aim well.

Quit freaking comparing it to Mass Effect, it's not. They are not trying to make it Mass Effect with swords. I get the feeling they don't know exactly where they are yet with Dragon Age. Give it time. I see it maturing with elements of a lot of games. They're seeing what works and what doesn't. Sure, Origin's was a fun throwback, but it would hardly hold up in a sequel. I don't think its so much that people think it's Mass Effect with swords, I think they want it to be Mass Effect with swords and are disappointed when it is not.

Considering how much more the game has in common with Mass Effect, than DA:O did, I think the comparison is totally fair. Thing is, "Origins was a fun throwback" is precisely what made it so popular with certain people. I'm not a die-hard Baldur's Gate fan myself, but I do think they missed the mark here, and I do hope they make it more like Origins when or if they make a third game. I don't mind the faster pace, but more RTS-like controls wouldn't just have been nice; nothing else makes sense. The computer controls feel like a strange compromise, where the limitations they place on the camera and such really work against you sometimes.

I like Hawke voice. I think he can actually be threatening. I hardly use the agressive options. The problem I think is people were again, listening for some ManShep like character so when Hawke busts out with his high Londoner sounding accent people are shocked.

I've actually been thinking about his voice. I mean, his voice is far from what I expected, but I'm not sure what exactly it was that I did expect. After some thinking, I've arrived at three, ah, options. I think above all, I expected him to sound somewhat like Leonidas from 300. Which would've been awesome, if not exactly realistic. A much more likely option would've been for him to sound like Duncan from DA:O, though that might've been confusing. So, finally, I decided .. hey, the guy who voiced Zaeed! That'd be awesome! I mean, assuming the guy can do anything but middle-aged badass. Which isn't certain, but still.