What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

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

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Brandon

#4925
Quote from: Inkidu on February 13, 2012, 01:44:53 PM
The sad thing is that it doesn't always have to do with ease of access. The Witcher 2 got rave reviews, has no DRM and its DLC is free, completely free. However, that doesn't stop it from being the most pirated PC game of last year right under Crysis 2 I believe. Sadly, I think it comes down to greedy people more than it comes to the rare and refreshing cases of principle. :\

See but theres another problem there, that being that the Witcher (the first one) was heralded as a misogynistic piece of trash. Now Ill say it wasn't terrible but it was certainly misogynistic which turned me off from it. Mostly due to this I was ready to pass over witcher 2, dismissing it as the sequel to a game who's theme I didnt care for. However a friend convinced me otherwise, I took his copy and I gave it a shot and its ok. Not brilliant but just ok. Ultimately I determined that it wasnt worth my money

On STEAM and other digitial distrubution platforms. I dont like them, at all. Maybe Im just to old fashioned but I can recall many many many game companies disappearing over the years due to bad sales. I worry that Valve, and by extension STEAM could follow the same pattern. If STEAM were to shut down you could loose hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. It just seems short sighted to me but theres also the fact that STEAM can, for any reason or even no reason, take your games away from you at any time and without notice. I have a problem with that. Now dont get me wrong here, if people want to use STEAM and accept the risks of its ToU Im fine with that, thats on them though. I just dont want to be forced into using a service that I dislike

This is also why I will not, under any circumstances, be purchasing ME3 as long as the PC version requires Origin to operate. Nor will I buy the console versions, if companies dont want to support the PC market then thats fine but they wont get any of my money. Im tired of developers not supporting my preffered platform, theyre saying they dont want my money so they wont get it
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

Sabby

Uhg... this is making my head hurt. In Kingdoms of Amalur, you play someone who was recently dead and revived through an experiment, and because of this, you now have no Fate. You are Fateless.

What does this mean? You're free to do whatever the fuck you want! You're not bound by a predetermined path, and so your journey will eventually change that of the entire world, where as it's story is already written.

I've deciphered Power Rangers and Terminator canon with less difficulty then this one concept. So... the guy who tells me all this is admitting that his free will is just an illusion, and every choice he would make he is bound to make, and absolutely everything everyone does was destined to happen in a very specific way, regardless of if the person believes they are helpless against this order of events or believe that they have the will to choose.

So... people who choose are really just destined to choose certain options are certain times, and this guy stopping to talk to me has now had his path permanently altered by my interactions.

That... I could kind of understand, I guess, but the way they explain it is HEY! You just killed a bunch of people, but there was purple! You changed the way the world works! D= I know this, because those bandits were supposed to die at a point in time that no one can actively predict, and you've stopped these events and all events tied to those three lives. WOW!

Hemingway

#4927
Sweet mother of pineapple.

Sons of Liberty is ... weird. Weird, and possibly the most convoluted game I've ever played.

Edit: I've finally finished all three MGS remakes. It took me around, oh, 40 hours? Probably a little over that. I'm not going to go over them in detail, but ... story-wise, Snake Eater is still the best. It has the best character, and certainly the best protagonist. Peace Walker is probably the weakest story-wise, but it has the best gameplay of all three, probably because it's the newest. And that's despite originally being a PSP game. Finally, Sons of Liberty has the weakest gameplay, and probably the lamest characters ... but still a good entry in the overarching story, so in that regard it's better than Peace Walker.

They're all worth playing, though.

And now starts Guns of the Patriots.

Inkidu

Quote from: Brandon on February 13, 2012, 05:10:46 PM
See but theres another problem there, that being that the Witcher (the first one) was heralded as a misogynistic piece of trash. Now Ill say it wasn't terrible but it was certainly misogynistic which turned me off from it. Mostly due to this I was ready to pass over witcher 2, dismissing it as the sequel to a game who's theme I didnt care for. However a friend convinced me otherwise, I took his copy and I gave it a shot and its ok. Not brilliant but just ok. Ultimately I determined that it wasnt worth my money

On STEAM and other digitial distrubution platforms. I dont like them, at all. Maybe Im just to old fashioned but I can recall many many many game companies disappearing over the years due to bad sales. I worry that Valve, and by extension STEAM could follow the same pattern. If STEAM were to shut down you could loose hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. It just seems short sighted to me but theres also the fact that STEAM can, for any reason or even no reason, take your games away from you at any time and without notice. I have a problem with that. Now dont get me wrong here, if people want to use STEAM and accept the risks of its ToU Im fine with that, thats on them though. I just dont want to be forced into using a service that I dislike

This is also why I will not, under any circumstances, be purchasing ME3 as long as the PC version requires Origin to operate. Nor will I buy the console versions, if companies dont want to support the PC market then thats fine but they wont get any of my money. Im tired of developers not supporting my preffered platform, theyre saying they dont want my money so they wont get it
No, actually it was critically acclaimed, and the whole "sex card" thing was no worse than any given DOA Volleyball game. If it was as bad an element as people made it out to be there's no way it would have seen a sequel on American shores.
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

Origin? I has a guy for that. He goes by Skidrow :3

Capone

Was the demo for Darkness 2 not released on PC? Because there was a legitimate, legal demo provided.

Anyway, my friend convinced me to buy Kingdoms of Amalur. Fuuuuuck.

Resident Evil: Revelations continues to be fun, though. A lot more like RE4 than RE5, thank God.

Inkidu

I'm feeling left out. Every penny I've got is basically going to ME3.
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

A reviewer over here said Kingdoms of Amalur is both brilliant and sleep-inducingly boring. I tend to agree.

I mean, it's fun going around taking names, collecting loot and so on. But it has got to be the most bland and generic fantasy world to hit the world of gaming, ever. That's basically everything that's wrong with fantasy, the complete and utter lack of anything even starting to resemble creativity and originality. The Witcher is the only fantasy series ( and it's based on a series of novels, so it hardly even counts! ) to provide anything even remotely original. And a lot of that has to do simply with the fact that it's inspired by Central-European folklore instead of the typical western stuff we see in Lord of the Rings and such.

Sabby

There are plenty of novels out there that are far more deserving of a game adaption that still lurk in the over used categories of science fiction and western fantasy. Richard K Morgan writes a trilogy for both genres, and both of them, while being clearly inspired by every typical story and setting to come before it, manage to be inventive and interesting while still recognizable as good old space lasery or head loppery. A game based on The Steel Remains or The Takeshi Trilogy, if done with as much effort as KoA, would be fucking amazing.

But no, this guy get's that treatment, because 'he sold a lot of books'.

Brandon

To be fair, RA Salvatore wrote some amazing books within the confines of the Forgotten realms setting. The Dark elf Trilogy and Icewind dale are what hes best known for and they are amazing books. The later books of Drzzt I cant comment on since I havnt read them but Ive heard mixed results.

He also did a series of undead fantasy stories that were really good but I traded my copy of those for the entire cleric quintet series (also forgotten realms based books) which were good, not as good as the Dark elf trilogy but still good

For me, The Dark elf trilogy was his best work (although I havnt read everything hes released) and he deserved a chance to do something big
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

LunarSage


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Hemingway

The problem with the setting of KoA is that it's just a regurgitation of other works of fantasy. I bring up the Witcher as an example because it's based on actual history ( many of the events taking place are very similar to actual events in medieval Central Europe ) and the folklore of the real world, instead of being a derivative of something someone else has created. I mean, what is it that distinguishes KoA from any other Generic Fantasy Setting? Absolutely nothing. It's like a dumbed-down version of Planescape: Torment mixed together with Fable, with a watered-down version of the fair folk thrown into the mix.

Maybe I'm just an elitist snob when it comes to fantasy, but if so it's not something I'd consider a bad thing. Generic fantasy settings are a dime a dozen. It's why I can't buy a fantasy novel without first reading about it!

In unrelated news, I started Metal Gear Solid 4. It's amazing, but jesus christ this game is hard. Is it even possible to play these games without getting spotted and having to murder a dozen guards? At least the game is considerably harder in terms of combat, too, so getting spotted actually means trouble, instead of just meaning you have to kill twenty people and wait five minutes for the alarm to end.

And once again, even though its setting is the same as for many western games, the themes and tone of the game are completely different. I have to say, after years of staying far, far away from anything Japanese ( I haven't actually touched anything Japanese since the last Star Ocean game ), Metal Gear has been incredibly refreshing. It has made me consider giving a few other Japanese games a try.

Capone

To quote Curt Schilling, the guy who founded 38 Studios (yes, the baseball pitcher founded the studio), the purpose of the game was for nights when he missed playing D&D with his friends.

So I think generic fantasy is kind of what they were going for.

But honestly? Not everything needs to be new or inventive. Sometimes you just need Greyhawk, so to speak. It's like saying every video game needs to have some ground breaking innovation to be any good. Quite frankly, it doesn't.

Quote from: Brandon on February 14, 2012, 01:52:30 PM
To be fair, RA Salvatore wrote some amazing books within the confines of the Forgotten realms setting.

No he didn't.

Hemingway

#4938
I have a theory, though possibly not a very original one. There's really only two ways of making a great game. You either have to create something that is in some way new, or you take something that's well known but do it really well. If you do both of those things - and there aren't a whole lot of games like that - you've created something awesome. If you do neither, then why should anyone care about the game?

KoA isn't incompetently made, as far as gameplay goes. It's not good enough to keep me playing just for the sheer fun of it, but it's good enough that, given a good story, I would happily have played the game for hours and hours. The trouble is that the story is ... it's not even bad, it's just completely bland, and it's not delivered well. Plus the pacing is weird, to say the least. It doesn't give you any sort of hook within the first few hours of gameplay. In fact, I've played it for quite a few hours, and I still don't know why I should care. That's bad. That's really bad.

It's sort of the McDonald's of gaming. It's bland, it's tasteless, sometimes you want it, but most of the time, you want something better. Not only that, but you deserve something better. I mean, I'm all for creating more RPGs. I love RPGs. The only reason I seem to play more action games than RPGs nowadays, is there are far more action games. And that's all the more reason to hope that the RPGs we do get are good.

Edit: Screw this. I've had it with KoA. I hate having wasted the cash, but maybe it'll teach me. I realized what the real trouble with the game is, aside from it being totally uninteresting: all you do is mash the attack button. That's all there is to it. Mash, mash, mash. It's like Fable with less depth. I've had it.

Brandon

Quote from: Capone on February 14, 2012, 06:37:45 PM
No he didn't.

I disagree, the two trilogies I mentioned both still sit on my shelf and were signed by the man. Plus they are part of the few books Ive read more then once which is almost unheard of. Chalk it up to opinion
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

Inkidu

Quote from: Hemingway on February 14, 2012, 07:27:47 PM
I have a theory, though possibly not a very original one. There's really only two ways of making a great game. You either have to create something that is in some way new, or you take something that's well known but do it really well. If you do both of those things - and there aren't a whole lot of games like that - you've created something awesome. If you do neither, then why should anyone care about the game?

KoA isn't incompetently made, as far as gameplay goes. It's not good enough to keep me playing just for the sheer fun of it, but it's good enough that, given a good story, I would happily have played the game for hours and hours. The trouble is that the story is ... it's not even bad, it's just completely bland, and it's not delivered well. Plus the pacing is weird, to say the least. It doesn't give you any sort of hook within the first few hours of gameplay. In fact, I've played it for quite a few hours, and I still don't know why I should care. That's bad. That's really bad.

It's sort of the McDonald's of gaming. It's bland, it's tasteless, sometimes you want it, but most of the time, you want something better. Not only that, but you deserve something better. I mean, I'm all for creating more RPGs. I love RPGs. The only reason I seem to play more action games than RPGs nowadays, is there are far more action games. And that's all the more reason to hope that the RPGs we do get are good.

Edit: Screw this. I've had it with KoA. I hate having wasted the cash, but maybe it'll teach me. I realized what the real trouble with the game is, aside from it being totally uninteresting: all you do is mash the attack button. That's all there is to it. Mash, mash, mash. It's like Fable with less depth. I've had it.
Just like Darksiders! Oh, wait... no you had two attack buttons. Just like half of Darksiders!
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

DeadCell

Dear Esther.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
This game started as a free mod about three to four years ago, I remember playing expecting some very creepy first person shooter. What I got was something completely different. Memories of a car crash, a woman named Esther, a hermit named Jacobson and an explorer called Donnely. This game, if you can really call it a game has been called a ghost story, and really I can understand why. The atmosphere, amazing visuals absotlutely stunning and many times I heard myself repeat the words, "Holy crap" or "stunning" as I traversed through the game.

The mod was slowly made even better over the course of the years that it was in development, and because of the amount of work gone into it is now a purchasable game on Steam. It cost me seven pounds and it was worth every penny.

This is a screenshots from the developers website.

This shot is exactly how it looks in game.

If you wan't something slightly different that your average run and gun first person shooter than I highly suggest getting this game. Play time for me was about one hour thirty mins, to about two hours, I put this down to me playing the original mod. For someone who has never played it before, it could take well up to three hour's as there is much to see and hear.

DeadCell

ONS AND OFFS / Click Me For Story Ideas /
What is the colour of night?

LunarSage

3 hour playtime?  *blinks*

That doesn't seem like much at all.  *remembers when games took weeks to beat*

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Saerrael


Inkidu

I need to get back to X-Com. I'm just still kind of mad at it for one-shoting my captain (who's a tough bastard in power armor) with what I think was a sectoid, and then making one of the guys in the back of the ship go berserk and fry half the squad with laser rifle auto shots.

I'm just going to leave all the crap on the bottom of the skyranger deck from now on and they can pick it up when they leave. >__<;

If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Sel Nar

Just beat Darksiders; Good fun, going through it again on Hardest difficulty with the Abyssal armour for gits'n'shiggles.

Still faffing about in Demon's Souls; I want all my spells and weapons, damnit.

On the PC front, the XCOM reimagining (the Firaxis one, not the 2K Marin one) has my attention, as does the reimagining of Syndicate.

Also, I'm ~still~ screwing around in Guild Wars; trying to get a torment weapon to fill out my hall of Monuments.

Also, the best part about X-Com is still your first encounter with Chrysalids. *Hidden Movement* *Slither Slither, ClicketyClick* *Chrysalid appars out of nowhere and damn well ~bisects~ your HWP before infecting your best soldier with an egg*

Hemingway

Quote from: Inkidu on February 14, 2012, 09:28:12 PM
Just like Darksiders! Oh, wait... no you had two attack buttons. Just like half of Darksiders!

In Darksiders using alternative weapons and combos actually makes sense, though. Try to imagine going through Darksiders with only the sword ( no other melee weapons, no ranged weapons, no badass horse, no hookshot, nothing! ) and only a basic three-attack combo. Then remove all the puzzles. You can keep Chaos form. At that point, it would still be better than KoA because it actually has an interesting story, but it's at least getting close-ish gameplay-wise.

Sel Nar

Actually, I pointed and laughed all through Darksider's story, but the actual combat of the game, even if derieded as 'simplistic' or 'like god of war' is very solid and ~feels~ viscerally satisfying. Enemies flinch when you hit them unless they're clearly out of your league, which is when you wear them down by playing 'keep-away' between their slower attacks, until later, when your weapons have leveled up some, become more powerful (and with more impressive siaul aftereffects on impact).

The only part of the game that I genuinely hated through was that ONE spot in the ashlands where you have to run from platform to platform to avoid getting gobbled by a wurm, because as soon as you left the platofrm you were on, even if you were still in midair, the wurm would beeline for you, and it's hella faster than you, too.

Hemingway

I'm having mixed feelings about Metal Gear Solid 4. Not because the gameplay is bad - it's easily the best Metal Gear, and even though it was incredibly difficult at first, I seem to be getting the hang of it. It's also not because the story is bad. It's partly because it takes place in a wide variety of settings, which, to me, feels like an unnecessary departure from the previous games, and one that means that each individual location has less depth than, say, Groznyj Grad or Shadow Moses. But that's a minor thing.

The biggest problem the game has is that it's a sequel that's less interesting than the prequel to that game. Err, let me explain. MGS4 is a sequel to MGS2, which in turn is a sequel to MGS, which as far as I'm concerned is the start of the modern Metal Gear games. That wouldn't be a problem, if the prequel to those games, Snake Eater, wasn't a far superior game in every way.

Or, put differently, I wish I was playing Big Boss. Old Snake is cool, but he's no Big Boss. And nobody even comes close to The Boss, who might be one of the best characters in all of gaming.

Frozen Flame

Quote from: Capone on February 13, 2012, 06:29:43 AM
Ah, I missed that Sabby is from Australia. That does put a bit of a different spin on the price thing, though in that regard, I'd recommend doing what my friends do. Wait until stuff drops into the bargain bin. It sucks to be one or two years behind the curve, but at the same time you have fewer regretful purchases.

Of course, that's how to go about it legally. I do also support shipping games in from afar, as evidently it's cheaper to buy the US or Euro version over seas than to buy the Australian version, or so I'm told.
I'm stuck in the bargain-bin timewarp too. I usually prefer to buy my games than pirate them simply because it feels more like it's mine. It's hard to explain, I guess. It's not so much a moral quandary, I'm just more likely to remember a game, and therefore hack out a small niche of time to play it, if I actually bought it with hard-earned cash. Hence why I don't play freeware games that often (and rest assured, the annals of freeware games are filled with some fine examples of the form.)

The thing with buying resold/used games? The original company doesn't get a single dime for it. Seriously, the financial impact of downloading Earthbound and playing it on an emulator and buying it for $100 USD on EBay is exactly the same. Either way, Nintendo won't see any money for it.