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What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

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

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consortium11

Quote from: Oniya on May 05, 2011, 08:27:11 PM
I'm guessing it has something to do with this.

Aye, literally just saw that.

On topic I've been playing two disparately different games. Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction to relive my youth. The game is terrible... beyond terrible and often more dependant on luck than skill... but it also has a strangely addictive quality to it.

On the other hand I've also been replaying Heroes of Might and Magic 3 with a couple of mods. I played the hell out of Heroes 2 as a kid but never really moved on with the series. I'm enjoying going back... the vanilla game was good enough but the mods make it a pretty damn deep tactical experience... and a nice jolt of nostalgia as well.

Inkidu

Quote from: consortium11 on May 05, 2011, 07:29:29 PM
Any reason for this? Most of the previews I've seen have been pretty solid looking without anything leaping out and suggesting they've screwed it up. Or is it the general will they/won't they for console that's putting you off?

As has probably been apparent through my posts on here I'm a big Fallout fan (while doing my best to pretend that BoS and Fallout 3 never existed)... great games which you can't really go wrong with.
There's a lot to get to here. So here goes.

Fallout 1 and 2 have... not held up well. Believe me. Now I didn't grow up with it in the heady heyday of 1998 and onward, but I can play old games. Seriously, whatever you think of Fallout 3, it blows its predecessors out of the water for sheer power of technical muscle. Seriously, I got none of the retro-futuristic vibe in Fallout 1 and 2 (but to be fair I'm still trying to get a character that doesn't die within ten seconds on 2). That doesn't mean I don't not like playing it, but honestly from a rational and non-nostalgia infused point of looking at it... it can get pretty bad. Again, say what you want about 3, but just on artistic merit alone it does a lot for the series.

"75 percent chance of hitting"
"You missed"
"75 percent chance of hitting"
"You missed"

Really?

Also anyone notice that the pre-made characters are infinitely more bad-ass than your own? I tallied it up. They get more SPECIAL points than a custom character (I haven't leveled up enough to determine if a custom character gets more SPECIAL points though.

Another thing. I walk into the Kahn camp. I kill everything there. Oh, but somehow Tandi was there. She's dead and everyone in Shady Sands wants to kill me now. Accidentally walk into Junktown armed. Prepare to die and basically never have a town to go to again. Seriously, you have to unequip your weapon and go in unarmed. What about a holster button? There's a lot of stuff in the game to make you have to start all the way back at square one (completely new game). Honestly, I feel I need a FAQ or guide just because. It's very frustrating. Oh, and the time limit, while understandable, increases this pressure making it hard to remember to save. I don't know how long the quest is going to take. I don't know where the chip is (don't spoil!) but I know I'm already a week in the hole when I reach Shady Sands.

It's not gaming Nirvana. It's a lot of unnecessary work and it's counter-intuitive. Like I said it just doesn't hold up well, but it's worth the frustration... if by the thinnest of margins. 
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Xenophile

HEarts of Iron 2: Arsenal of Democracy, with the SKIF-skin pack. I'm a sucker for historical strategy games, especially for the good ones.
Ons and Offs
Updated 2011 June 5th A's and A's

Wolfy

Started playing WoW again after like, a month Hiatus. lol

Crazy

Was playing Transformers : War for Cybertron on Hard.  I love it so much, why are there so few people online?

I can't seem to get enough TF2,  but once I start,  there goes the weekend.

Section 8: Prejudice is a disappointment at first,  but is getting better and better as I go.

dready

Going to rent a game tomorrow. Any suggestions for the 360?

Wolfy

Quote from: dready on May 09, 2011, 08:36:09 PM
Going to rent a game tomorrow. Any suggestions for the 360?

Either Brink, Mortal Kombat, or Portal 2.

I'm going to rent Portal 2 eventually myself just for the avatar items.

Wyrd

I've been playing the new Mortal Combat game. It's an okay gameplay and graphic wise, but as a whole it's sort os a piece of crap. I mean, the fact that their is no exhibition mode pisses me off so much. The story is as pointless as any other MK game so I didn't really care about that. theirs no character customization either so compared to fighting games like Soul Caliber(the only fighting I actually really like) this game is just another mediocre pass.     
Ragtime Dandies!

dready

Only issue I have with MK is that I don't like playing it. Never have, doubt that I ever will. Watching people play it, on the other hand, is much more enjoyable.

Brink is also meant to be a Multiplayer game, right?

Funguy81

Mortal Kombat. I havent enjoyed a fighting game like it since ultimate mortal kombat 3. I'm glad they went back to the classic gameplay.

Hemingway

I just bought Brink, though I can't actually play it until Friday. It's all good, though, I'm still busy with finals.

The reviews for it so far have been so-so, but once again my growing dislike of reviewers kicks in. This time, they seem to miss the mark completely, by expecting it to play like CoD and being disappointed that it doesn't. I mean ... I have no words.

Lirliel

Started Demon's Souls today.. game is interesting if a bit hard. Seriously who-ever thought up the red eye knight on 1-1 needs to have their balls kicked.
"Jealousy would be far less torturous if we understood that love is a passion entirely unrelated to our merits."

"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."

BeaconOfSpirit

That game is rape in a can. It's awesome, but the hardest and most irritating game since the ORIGINAL Prince of Persia.

I just started replaying Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis today.
All you who live to bring pleasure and to take it, whether it be of the mind, the heart, or the flesh; such do I call my kin.

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Inkidu

Oh my God! I hate Fallout so much! How this game ever got a following was left up to one of the great coin flips of God-damned destiny. It's just hard to be obtuse! It's really just hard to provide no deep challenge. So, I'm cruising around Necropolis after spending no time in the Hub whatsoever (only to pay five hundred caps to find out water chips are kept in vaults... duh!) luckily I stole 2K in caps from Killian Darkwater's store (Because he pissed me off. Go into Gizmo's place present tough-guy kind of half-insulting greeting. Piss him off, he gets shot in the eye several times and mauled by my trusty canine side-kick Fine, he's dead the town is safe, and I did it all in self-defense! The one acceptable form of murder in the town. I get told to leave and never come back. Thanks, you jackass!)

So anyway having an awesome time sniping ghouls in Necropolis with my shadily-acquired hunting rifle and ammo. Easy squeezy, lemon peezy. Well, gee. I find a group of friendly ghouls in the sewers (I use the term friendly with no high regard seeing as I basically want to kill everyone in any town I ever walk into just to make the game easier to deal with) Anyway, I feel kind of bad, I don't want to steal their water chip, but I'm warming up to the idea. So I try to find this "water shed" thing. So I head north like they say, then I come across a super mutant. Oh, boy oh boy. Well, long story short I'm a little timid to get in a gun fight with one in all my four levels of experience.

They capture me.
They beat the shit out of me.
I'm a prisoner for some unholy dude with a bad accent in a purple robe.
They conveniently leave a corpse with a pistol and some stimpacks.
I try to break out. I get stopped by a mutant.
I figure no choice now, let's fight.
The guy whips out some kind of laser and kills me in one hit.

I have to start back at Junktown.

When games feel like a job, they stop being games.

Don't even get me started on Fallout 2's high-tech temple in what's supposed to be a tribal setting. Sure, if it were a vault they were calling a temple I get that. No this is a brick masonry temple I imagine to be somewhere in Oregon. Oregon! How is that retro-futuristic? *Head-desk*
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

Dude. Richard Dean Anderson voices Killian Darkwater. What else does a game need to be amazing?

Fallout is a lot more difficult than Fallout 2, but with a few simple steps you can make it easier on yourself. Like try to sneak past the mutants guarding the Necropolis vault. And get yourself an automatic shotgun.

Geeklet

Fallout is only as hard as you make it. And it sounds like you are intentionally making things harder than they have to be, whether you realize it or not.

Inkidu

#2991
Quote from: Hemingway on May 10, 2011, 05:21:59 PM
Dude. Richard Dean Anderson voices Killian Darkwater. What else does a game need to be amazing?

Fallout is a lot more difficult than Fallout 2, but with a few simple steps you can make it easier on yourself. Like try to sneak past the mutants guarding the Necropolis vault. And get yourself an automatic shotgun.
I never liked McGuyver or SG-1.

EDIT: Well, gee. I wish I had known I was going to need a sneaking character before I started the game. See where that kind of falls down?

Quote from: GeekletFallout is only as hard as you make it. And it sounds like you are intentionally making things harder than they have to be, whether you realize it or not.
I'm going to give you a minute to figure out why this is bad game-design philosophy.

Because basically you're saying the game is punishing me for trying to play it. Shame on me.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Geeklet

*takes a moment, still feels the same*

People complain nowadays how in most games that give you choices never really have much of an influence on gameplay. Maybe some slight alterations here and there, but otherwise the game remains relatively the same no matter what.

Back then there were consequences for actions. Harsh ones. It isn't your cup of tea. I get that. Doesn't necessarily make it 'bad' though. The point where you are captured by the mutant? I actually had that happen to me back when I played it. While I will admit that part of me was a little annoyed, I also loved the fact it was in there. Because it more or less meant that you could reach a 'game over' state by making the wrong decisions while talking to people, and not just in combat. Which, in my opinion, makes it more of a RPG.. because it lends a sense of "every action you do counts towards something" feel.

Inkidu

Quote from: Geeklet on May 10, 2011, 07:04:40 PM
*takes a moment, still feels the same*

People complain nowadays how in most games that give you choices never really have much of an influence on gameplay. Maybe some slight alterations here and there, but otherwise the game remains relatively the same no matter what.

Back then there were consequences for actions. Harsh ones. It isn't your cup of tea. I get that. Doesn't necessarily make it 'bad' though. The point where you are captured by the mutant? I actually had that happen to me back when I played it. While I will admit that part of me was a little annoyed, I also loved the fact it was in there. Because it more or less meant that you could reach a 'game over' state by making the wrong decisions while talking to people, and not just in combat. Which, in my opinion, makes it more of a RPG.. because it lends a sense of "every action you do counts towards something" feel.
Yes, but there's a difference for punishing a player because they made the "bad choice" and there's a difference between punish a player for making a choice.

How do I know that those two mutants aren't going to kill me outright anyway? I don't. So, the logical and therefor the "right choice" isn't to fight two mutants, it's to fight one mutant. Yes, they've got my gear, but that's kind of the price. Hell, he looked asleep to me. That's punishing me for making a choice that is not even remotely in the realm of bad. It's just not what the game designer had in mind. It's actually a kind of what I call the "Adventure-Game Bias". A designer who thought he was clever forces you to go through all the possible paths or combinations until you find the one way that is "right". That smacks of deliberate game padding.

It's not challenging, it's obtuse. It deliberately tries to enforce it into the game mechanics. It punishes you for not being a mind reader. In a lot of ways your choices are severely more limited than by games of today's standards because you're basically limited to a certain ways of beating the game. In fact, this kind of harsh enforcement actually detracts from its value as an RPG because the average player is only willing to try what has worked. It discourages experimentation. I gather with a game like Fallout its all about the experimentation.

I think it's just shoddy design when there's a dialogue option that ends the game and it's not overt like, "Let me join your bad team."
Hell, I didn't even know there was a bad guy in Fallout. I just had to get the chip. Then they drop an uber baddie that I can't even remotely be reasonably prepared for? That's not challenge. Don't get me wrong. I like the whole struggle for survival, but there is just so much in Fallout that is shoehorned and slip-shot when it comes to some of the design choices. Nostalgic people call them "The good 'ole days". I just call it bad design. Also a game over outcomes is not what people call a choice. It's what they call failure. So having failure just for not picking one in five dialogue choices is bullcrap. Seriously, in Fallout you might not even have the correct choice depending on your build.

I would still kind of like to know how I'm making it harder on myself just for playing the game 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.

Oniya

Quote from: Inkidu on May 10, 2011, 08:20:31 PM
I think it's just shoddy design when there's a dialogue option that ends the game and it's not overt like, "Let me join your bad team."
Hell, I didn't even know there was a bad guy in Fallout. I just had to get the chip. Then they drop an uber baddie that I can't even remotely be reasonably prepared for? That's not challenge. Don't get me wrong. I like the whole struggle for survival, but there is just so much in Fallout that is shoehorned and slip-shot when it comes to some of the design choices. Nostalgic people call them "The good 'ole days". I just call it bad design.

Things like this?
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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dready

#2995
Brink was rented.

Edit: You are a resident of the Ark, a floating city that was used as a back-up plan for if the world would flood again. Turns out, it did. It has been an incredibly long time and the game takes place 20 years after the last boat or plane sighting. You pick to either be on the guys who wants to save the Ark, or one that wants to escape it. Now, both sides are balanced in morality: The ones who want to save the Ark seem good in intentions and so far it seems that they only want to establish order to maintain peace. The ones who want to escape are doing so in attempts to find land that is no longer flooded in hopes of finding a saving grace for humanity. Both sides go about this in the same way: Kill the other guys so you can complete your goals, instead of doing something like establishing order by giving the rebels a few boats and a plane to scout for land while the rest attempt to do something productive like make crops.

The rebels live in the slums, and tend to have rickity looking armor and weapons. The guardians have the modernized appeal, with sleek weapons and apparel. I chose the rebel side first, then tried out the guardian side. There is no difference in the least, save customization and level counting. (you cannot level up a guardian when playing as a rebel, for example)

So first off, you get a nice starting selection of weapons, 'avatar' customization options, and being able to pick abilities that will enhance your character, either through each single class or from universal abilities. However, you unlock guns, attachments, and apparel/accessories by completing challenges. These challenges are indeed challenging, which is good. What is not good would be the fact that the bots you fight with and against will often engage in firefights that involve standing in the open and shooting at the other guys. This goes against the 'Move more than you shoot' stratagem that the introductory video HAMMERS INTO YOUR BRAIN via constant repetition. Oh, and the introductory video that gets you to lv 2/3 right away is more than 20 minutes long.

I expected it to play like TF2 and Mirror's Edge because that is how it looked to be set up, class wise and combat wise.

Fortunately, it works just the same as those two games. Unfortunately, it has the worse of both worlds. The worse from TF2 is that the campaign is not even a campaign, but a roughly narrated series of scripted skirmishes played out against the AI. AKA: It was meant for multiplayer, and anyone who thought that it was a good idea to get it when they do not have an online account is sorely mistaken.

The less than appreciated part from Mirrors Edge would be contact detection, and the lack thereof. Free running around the maps is enjoyable, yes. Free running while being shot at or while trying to chase an AI is a pain at best. As much as the AI will stand out in the open it will also perform the most effective free run course to the objective and get to it before you can do the same even when you're a Light weight body type and they're a friggin heavy. Seriously. Heavy = slower than Medium, Medium = slower than Light. You cannot even keep sprinting when you're a Heavy type, it's short controlled bursts that take a good five to six seconds before you can use it again. Speaking of running free running courses, while you try to chase a few runaway cowards from combat they will try out evade you in the most effective means possible, while you try to keep up via copying their movements... because otherwise they outrun you or set up a one man ambush around the corner: aka slide and take out your legs, then melee you before you have the chance to shoot. THIS IS ON NORMAL DIFFICULTY BTW.

I honestly regret having rented Brink even if it was only $4. It still is a good game in multiplayer, because then you are not dealing with bots that are set up to difficulty sets that are higher than advertized, and do not instantly recognize a disguised Operative. COD: Black Ops did not get me this frustrated with a game, and only got me to yell out in anger when fighting against an entire team that only used Ghost, Warlord, and Second Chance. Mirror's Edge got me to yell for the exact same reasons: Trying to jump to a ledge and not detecting it, ergo falling down into a firefight that you are outnumbered with, or having to try to restart your run because if you go another way you get shot down right away.

Sabby

...they said the Campaign Mode was massive... said it was a narrative driven experience...  fuck x.x I already paid for it. Don't do multi, and the 'A.I. fights with a set up' way of doing things has ALWAYS pissed me off.

Hemingway

Quote from: Inkidu on May 10, 2011, 06:00:18 PM
I never liked McGuyver or SG-1.

EDIT: Well, gee. I wish I had known I was going to need a sneaking character before I started the game. See where that kind of falls down?
I'm going to give you a minute to figure out why this is bad game-design philosophy.

Because basically you're saying the game is punishing me for trying to play it. Shame on me.

No, no. It's been a while since I played it, but it's perfectly possible to slip by without having to fight.

Quote from: dready on May 10, 2011, 10:03:56 PM
I honestly regret having rented Brink even if it was only $4. It still is a good game in multiplayer, because then you are not dealing with bots that are set up to difficulty sets that are higher than advertized, and do not instantly recognize a disguised Operative. COD: Black Ops did not get me this frustrated with a game, and only got me to yell out in anger when fighting against an entire team that only used Ghost, Warlord, and Second Chance. Mirror's Edge got me to yell for the exact same reasons: Trying to jump to a ledge and not detecting it, ergo falling down into a firefight that you are outnumbered with, or having to try to restart your run because if you go another way you get shot down right away.

I keep hearing people complain about the AI and single player, and I am ... very tempted to say, "what did you expect?" It pains me because most reviewers seem to focus on that as well. It's like if you took Battlefield 1942 and only focused on the campaign ( which was indeed simply multiplayer maps with bots, in a set order ).

I shall know more once I try the game - I can't play it until midnight tomorrow - but ... so far, having read peoples' opinions, I hear a lot of people comparing it to the likes of Enemy Territory. I approve of this. The people who are unhappy seem to be the ones who think CoD is the epitome of multiplayer gaming.

consortium11

#2998
I like the fact that Fallout was a challenge... and more then that is a challenge virtually every time you play it. Play through as a sneaky character and win with ease... then try as a manipulative talker. Done well as a shotgun monster? Go for a real challenge with explosives or hand to hand etc. I liked the fact that you could very clearly make the "wrong" choice, even if it's only really apparent in retrospect. I liked the fact that the story wasn't set up with the major antagonist apparent (although I'd highly dispute that he's a "baddie"... and his entire story is basically the previous statement expanded on). I personally found the Super Mutants in the Watershed great... there are multiple ways to get through it (notably it's one of the few parts of any game where being a stupid character can be a real asset), it actually makes it important to think carefully about what you say and how you say it (something that's lost with most modern games) and for a 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th, or 5th, or 6th etc ) play through it's a nice way to speed up part of the game (like the Power Armour run in Fallout 2).

I'd also just say this on builds. Yes, they can be restrictive. That's the point of them. If you've built your character to be a combat machine you're not going to be able to use intelligence, sneaking or charming conversation to get through situations... you're going to have to fight it out. If you've built your character to be a charming con man then you'll be able to talk yourself through most of it... but if it comes to a shoot out you'll be screwed. A sneaky thief? A mad scientist? Etc etc. A character can't and won't be perfect... or even good... or even average... at everything and that genuinely changes the game. I like that.

Fallout 2 (outside of the horrible opening Temple of Trials) is a less frustrating game at times (it's far more lenient with the choices you make) although it sacrifices some of the cohesiveness of the lore. Just on the Temple of Trials (which is what I assume you're talking about with regards to Fallout 2). While I certainly wouldn't consider it high-tec (there's what, some plastic explosive in there and that's about it) I thought it was quite clearly pre-war. In addition it was a fairly late to the game which Interplay basically forced on the developers as they wanted a compulsory tutorial which somewhat explains why it doesn't quite fit in with the rest of Arroyo).

On topic, been giving The Third Age mod for Medieval Total War 2 Kingdoms a playthrough. It's a Lord of the Rings total conversion mod giving you a new map, new units... new basically everything... and very well done. I'm not a massive LotR fanboy (while still liking it) so it plays well outside of the dedicated fanbase. If nothing else it includes most of the basic mods needed to fix a game that was pretty flawed when released (although nowhere near as bad as Empire) so it's nice just to play regardless.

Inkidu

Quote from: consortium11 on May 11, 2011, 12:12:58 PM
I'd also just say this on builds. Yes, they can be restrictive. That's the point of them. If you've built your character to be a combat machine you're not going to be able to use intelligence, sneaking or charming conversation to get through situations... you're going to have to fight it out. If you've built your character to be a charming con man then you'll be able to talk yourself through most of it... but if it comes to a shoot out you'll be screwed. A sneaky thief? A mad scientist? Etc etc. A character can't and won't be perfect... or even good... or even average... at everything and that genuinely changes the game. I like that.
Actually, it took me ten seconds to fathom a way to put together a perfect character skill-wise, but I refuse to use it just because it's damn exploitative.

I didn't mean that they guy was "bad" I just mean, boom antagonist out of nowhere who totally owns your ass. Seriously, it was an offline ganking.

I'm also going to disagree on the builds thing. Take Max Stone, strip him down and you have basically any build you want to and it will be superior to anything you create or even if you tailor the other two presets. If this is a subtle hint by the game developer to "pick our guys or lose" I got it loud and flipping clear.
Again, I'll also say that the obtuseness and artificially enforced difficulty along with the time limit tend to discourage experimentation. You want what works, but that's just me.

Plus besides the random encounters you get in the game, there is no incentive or even time to go roaming around. Not that there's much out there to see. I kind of have to give it to Fallout 3 in this category. Think what you want about its mechanics but at least you got the feeling of exploring a vast, sparsly-populated post-apocalyptic wasteland. Sure, you could smell the faint odor of clone-brush paint, but hell it was varied enough.

Again, don't get me wrong. I love Fallout, that whole struggle to make it through, using your wits, doing stuff, and honestly the role-playing aspect of it is kind of negotiable and unenforced by the game's mechanics (but a lot of RP in games still is) and more enforced by the person playing it. I just think it's bad design when you have to play the game from retrospect, not just dying in a fight, but having to start over because this whole thing will bone you and you could never have made a reasonable guess. Anything that requires meta-gaming gets minuses with me, and Fallout requires meta-gaming. Example, how would you ever know you needed rope? You have to spend two days trekking out to Vault 15 only to have to trek back to (I'm not sure on this exactly) steal or take a rope from a bookshelf of someone's home that you (especially good characters) wouldn't have been rooting around in anyway.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.