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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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Heaven Sent Blossom

There's really no comparing Diablo and KoA. I mean one is a dungeon/loot crawl viewed with the generosity of nostalgia and the other is an MMO heart beating in the pathwork body of an RPG that's only real crime is being so bland that if it were an actor it would be Paul Walker. Well, only real crime outside of being MMO inspired, considering that MMO's are possibly the worst plague in the gaming industry. And yes, I include CoD in that delightfully hyperbolic statement.

For all the flaws that Amalur has, it's still better than Dragon Age 2. Which is the real travesty here, the fact that Bioware rushed that thing out of the door instead of working on Jade Empire 2.

In other news Syndicate gets hard, man. The first enemy Agent who turned up sent me from "I am a bad ass, cutting edge killing machine that can take on the very heavens themselves!" to "Wait, he can phase shift? I can't phase shift! What is this shit? Why can't I phase shift? Where's my kung-fu button? God Dammit Brian Cox, you've given me the shittiest technology on the planet! You utter dick!".
On the plus side I'm bombing around with Michael Wincott whereas Captain Kung-Fu was flying solo and ended up with a bullet enema, so ultimately I think I got the better end of the deal.
Also the Co-op mode is really, really good fun.

Sabby

Quote from: Heaven Sent Blossom on February 27, 2012, 07:29:52 AM
For all the flaws that Amalur has, it's still better than Dragon Age 2. Which is the real travesty here, the fact that Bioware rushed that thing out of the door instead of working on Jade Empire 2.

That shit hurts bro -.-

Sabby

Mods mods mods mods mods mods mods mods MODS! =D

Wanted some different daggers, went looking on Skyrim Nexus, I come back with the daggers, backhanded daggers, big weapon sheathes, warglaives. fist weapons, scythes, exploding arrows, and fucking PISTOLS! Flintlock pistols, Dwemer steampunk rifles! I'm completely blown away, decide to start a new character, so I can have a sexy scar faced Dark Elf duel wielding a backhanded dagger and a pistol, and I load a new game up, aaaaand...

Alduin won't land o.o I'm laying on the chopping block, watching him endlessly circle the tower. No, I think, no! I finally did it D= I ruined the game with excessive modding! I knew this would happen! Even with the Mod Manager, it was bound to happen, and I dunno how to fix it! I can never play Skyrim again! PANIC! WAH! Dx

Then I look up the bug and find out it's on all platforms. PHEW! No known fix, just restart until it works. Crisis averted ^^'

Hemingway

Quote from: Heaven Sent Blossom on February 27, 2012, 07:29:52 AM
For all the flaws that Amalur has, it's still better than Dragon Age 2. Which is the real travesty here, the fact that Bioware rushed that thing out of the door instead of working on Jade Empire 2.

Come on, that's not even an opinion, that's just factually wrong. I mean, let's consider the things DA2 does better than KoA. Even if you dislike DA2 - which you obviously do - there's no way you can seriously suggest that KoA is better. I mean, unless you found DA2 so repulsive that having no story, no characters, no plot progression and bad acting is actually better than what DA2 offered. If that's the case, I can sort of understand you, though I happen to be one of those people who thinks DA2 is a pretty all-right game, better than Origins in many ways.

But, you know what? I'm not going to waste any more time trashing KoA, at least for now. If someone wants to waste their money on a product so bland it makes McDonald's hamburgers look like luxury cuisine by comparison, then go ahead. From now on, I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist. Even though it's sitting there in my Steam list. I just can't bring myself to uninstalling a game I paid good money for. I guess I'm just hoping those 17 hours I sank into it without advancing the story one bit will prove to have been nothing but a bad dream, that I imagined it all and in reality I've never actually played the game.

Geeklet

Quote from: Heaven Sent Blossom on February 27, 2012, 07:29:52 AM
For all the flaws that Amalur has, it's still better than Dragon Age 2. Which is the real travesty here, the fact that Bioware rushed that thing out of the door instead of working on Jade Empire 2.

Even though I've only played the Demo of KoA, I'd rather play through DA 2 a thousand times than play through that demo again.

Sabby

Hmmm... with all the hate for MMO's flying around, and my own opinions well known, is it a bad time for me to say that TERA is looking fucking awesome? :3

Hemingway

I've become largely disillusioned with MMOs too. I lost interest in WoW, and after hitting 50 in SWTOR, I just don't feel like the game delivers what I'd hoped for. I've all but concluded that MMOs are no longer of any interest to me.

Sabby

Tera is worth a look :) I wanna try it, it looks really fun. Everyones yelling at me about how NEW and INVENTIVE Guild Wars 2 is, how much it BREAKS THE MOLD and REIMAGINES THE MMO. I saw it. Looks like Warcraft with better graphics.

Tera actually looks like it's doing more to seperate itself.

Inkidu

Quote from: Hemingway on February 27, 2012, 02:13:13 PM
I've become largely disillusioned with MMOs too. I lost interest in WoW, and after hitting 50 in SWTOR, I just don't feel like the game delivers what I'd hoped for. I've all but concluded that MMOs are no longer of any interest to me.
I actually blame WoW. They got to farm people for money by basically using the same things that keep gamblers tugging the slot machine, but they get to do it legally all over the world. I played WoW. It was boring, slow, and a grind, it's basically what they're trying to do with Diablo 3. They don't want to make games, they want to make money. While I have no problem with that, just don't expect to drink the crappy Kool-Aide. All they want, I'm positive, is to get more money out of you. I'm lucky I'm highly immune to the Skinner Box.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Heaven Sent Blossom

Tera has earned my attention purely for having an advert with Bas Rutten punching a LARPer. I'll keep an eye on it, hopefully get into the beta so I can put the combat through its paces and see if it's really as good as they're claiming.
Granted the benchmark for MMO combat is pretty low (DC Universe really shouldn't be the best in the genre, yet somehow it is.) but personally I'm hoping for something that does more than ape God of War and hope nobody has realised how bad the GoW combat is yet.

Also the important part of my earlier statement wasn't Dragon Age or Amalur at all, rather it was the idea that Bioware are wasting time with anything that isn't Jade Empire 2. Which they are, because they should be making that instead of tooling around with a sequel to the poor mans Baldur's Gate.
I am surprised that anybody can have a strong opinion on something as generic and bland as Amalur though, that's kind of like being the type of person who gets angry about the strength of somebody elses orange squash.

Hemingway

The main problem I have with MMOs is that they're usually devoid of interesting content, stories, and so on. SWTOR scores points for having separate storylines, some of which are pretty good, but has some major problems. Possibly the biggest is that it's still an incredibly boring grind. Another is the lack of interesting end-game content. The class storylines are over at that point, and you get boring instances with stories slapped on. Conversations with multiple players involved are an interesting addition, but since it doesn't actually matter who says what ( I could've sworn they promised us that having certain classes would unlock certain options that would otherwise be unavailable ), it's not enough. Another thing is that the game world is just dull and feels very static. In WoW, there are some places that are fun to just explore and play around in. SWTOR doesn't really have places like that, places that lend themselves to RP.

I don't know if I'll get back into SWTOR, but I'm waiting to see if they'll add more interesting end-game content, stuff I can actually get interested in.

Otherwise, I'm waiting for an MMO that's more like Ultima Online, the first MMORPG I ever played. It's a totally open world, there are no levels, to start off there were hardly any rules ( you could kill players, steal from them, loot their corpses, and so on - the penalty was that if you did it enough times a bounty would be put on your head and you'd be hunted down like a dog ). It's basically the ultimate environment for roleplaying. You don't even have to fight, if you'd rather run your own shop and make stuff. Oh, also, it had player houses. Legit houses that appeared in the environment. Of course, they kept running out of space, so ... sort of an issue, that.

Inkidu

Quote from: Heaven Sent Blossom on February 27, 2012, 03:00:21 PM
Tera has earned my attention purely for having an advert with Bas Rutten punching a LARPer. I'll keep an eye on it, hopefully get into the beta so I can put the combat through its paces and see if it's really as good as they're claiming.
Granted the benchmark for MMO combat is pretty low (DC Universe really shouldn't be the best in the genre, yet somehow it is.) but personally I'm hoping for something that does more than ape God of War and hope nobody has realised how bad the GoW combat is yet.

Also the important part of my earlier statement wasn't Dragon Age or Amalur at all, rather it was the idea that Bioware are wasting time with anything that isn't Jade Empire 2. Which they are, because they should be making that instead of tooling around with a sequel to the poor mans Baldur's Gate.
I am surprised that anybody can have a strong opinion on something as generic and bland as Amalur though, that's kind of like being the type of person who gets angry about the strength of somebody elses orange squash.
Lo and behold the world is full of different opinions, and despite what your momma told you they can be wrong, (that is, based on wrong assumptions facts, data) but I didn't particularly care for Jade Empire because it was kind of... uncommitted to itself. I mean I still like it because it's the only Eastern-style RPG worth anything. The story was good and all, but it kind of smacks of that period where Bioware was coming off of the T rating of KotOR, and before the Mass Effect series. It feels like it's a T-rated plot with blood and stuff superfluously thrown in. I doubt one cannibal part really ramped it up to the M.

Actually I would call it the most Bioware formula Bioware game out there, that doesn't make it bad, but it kind of shows. I actually, liked Dragon Age 2s plot, but it's a little too... "big" for the everyday gamer. You have to invest time in the actual lore of Dragon Age to appreciate it. Anyway, the morality system (which would get better with Paragon/renegade) only ever had one reward and that was a new style.

In the gameplay department Jade Empire actually falls on its face. The various styles offer a really unbalanced experience. Does anyone pick the sword? No? Why? Oh, because the bo has range. (Barring role players of course). The harmonic combo thing was neat but when it's much easier to spam the regular attack or weapons... Some of the support styles are also useless, while other are broken.

Bottom line. It's not a fantastic game. It's a great game, but it has its flaws. Heck, half the martial styles are used by NPCs with no way for the player to unlock them without mods. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no company is perfect. Does Bioware release awesome games every time? No. Is it unreasonable to expect them to? Hell, yes. I've never been bored with a Bioware game. I've had more fun, but I've never regretted buying their product and that's good enough.
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

For as long as I've been thinking about this, I've felt that it's something I can't quite express. That is my concern for BioWare's future.

I mean, take Blizzard as an example of a company that used to make groundbreaking games, but have now settled into a very comfortable set of conventions, where everything is recognizably Blizzard-made. Their games have a certain style, they've got very similar skill/ability/talent systems, even across genres. The stories and the characters are similar. Basically, if you've played a few of their more recent games, nothing they do in Diablo 3 is going to surprise you, let's be honest.

Bethesda is doing sort of the same thing, perhaps not to the same extent.

My hypothesis is that they used to be innovators trying to capture an audience. Now they have a large fan-base, they've got a proven formula, and they figure, "why change it?"

Well, I'm worried BioWare games will turn out the same way. Now, at this point, someone's going to point out that all BioWare stories and characters are essentially the same. That's a fair point. I think they've gotten away with it because they actually create characters with some depth. But SWTOR, DA2 and Mass Effect, they're starting to get pretty similar in many ways. While I like DA2 and I absolutely love Mass Effect, I hope they won't continue that trend. Being a badass and punching people who don't agree with you is cool in Mass Effect, but that doesn't mean it should be in every BioWare game, basically. Same with the conversation system. It works really well in Mass Effect, and might just be the best in the whole industry, but it might be less suited for a series like Dragon Age, that is, after all, a bit more traditional.

I'm worried, is all I'm saying.

It's also the reason I'm waiting for the price of Dungeon Siege 3 to drop. That shit was made by Obsidian, who have a history of making brilliant but flawed games. And I'll take brilliant but flawed over cookie cutter any day of the week. Except Mondays. Mondays suck.


Inkidu

Quote from: Hemingway on February 27, 2012, 05:47:27 PM
For as long as I've been thinking about this, I've felt that it's something I can't quite express. That is my concern for BioWare's future.

I mean, take Blizzard as an example of a company that used to make groundbreaking games, but have now settled into a very comfortable set of conventions, where everything is recognizably Blizzard-made. Their games have a certain style, they've got very similar skill/ability/talent systems, even across genres. The stories and the characters are similar. Basically, if you've played a few of their more recent games, nothing they do in Diablo 3 is going to surprise you, let's be honest.

Bethesda is doing sort of the same thing, perhaps not to the same extent.

My hypothesis is that they used to be innovators trying to capture an audience. Now they have a large fan-base, they've got a proven formula, and they figure, "why change it?"

Well, I'm worried BioWare games will turn out the same way. Now, at this point, someone's going to point out that all BioWare stories and characters are essentially the same. That's a fair point. I think they've gotten away with it because they actually create characters with some depth. But SWTOR, DA2 and Mass Effect, they're starting to get pretty similar in many ways. While I like DA2 and I absolutely love Mass Effect, I hope they won't continue that trend. Being a badass and punching people who don't agree with you is cool in Mass Effect, but that doesn't mean it should be in every BioWare game, basically. Same with the conversation system. It works really well in Mass Effect, and might just be the best in the whole industry, but it might be less suited for a series like Dragon Age, that is, after all, a bit more traditional.

I'm worried, is all I'm saying.

It's also the reason I'm waiting for the price of Dungeon Siege 3 to drop. That shit was made by Obsidian, who have a history of making brilliant but flawed games. And I'll take brilliant but flawed over cookie cutter any day of the week. Except Mondays. Mondays suck.
I worry more about Bioware's fans than I do Bioware. See, they tried to shake up the story in Dragon Age 2, and the fans hated it. Now keep in mind, I've seen this same story used with varying degrees of success in several books. So, I chalk it up to two things. Bioware breaking formula (Bravo guys, I applaud your attempt and appreciate the plot the more I play it), and two it wasn't the Bioware story fans wanted. I think the Bioware writing staff is far too competent to just write a bad story. The worst thing they did was hide Meredeth during the first two acts. They were being cautious about giving away too much, and it bit them a little. Honestly though, the biggest gripe I had with the game was the recycled environments. Though... ironically (in a round about metaphysical, post-modern, surrealist kind of way) it's a take that to the copious mounts of back-tracking that Origins had. 

Also, Dungeon Siege 3 is okay. I call it Diablo with a story that matters. It actually depends on your ability to use your abilities and rewards you for getting your hands dirty. No quaffing potions circle strafe for you. It's more fun with a friend, but the online's supposedly a little sloppy. I has no bugs of a game breaky nature (in fact I saw not a one). It's only about twenty or so bucks new. At least my copy was. At first it seems like all the people have the same basic abilities (attack, heal, other attack) but once you get into making choices about how they level up those abilities it gets a little more interesting.

Nintendo suffers from this. The majority of their fans whine that nothing changes, and when something does change or they try a new franchise the fanbase clamors for what was familiar.
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

Quote from: Inkidu on February 27, 2012, 05:26:11 PMIn the gameplay department Jade Empire actually falls on its face. The various styles offer a really unbalanced experience. Does anyone pick the sword? No? Why? Oh, because the bo has range. (Barring role players of course). T

I now question your knowledge of Jade Empire because the sword was in fact one of the best weapons in the entire game. Honestly, from a pure powergaming perspective, there would only be one weapon that I would ever take over the single sword.

Inkidu

#5065
Quote from: Geeklet on February 27, 2012, 06:41:24 PM
I now question your knowledge of Jade Empire because the sword was in fact one of the best weapons in the entire game. Honestly, from a pure powergaming perspective, there would only be one weapon that I would ever take over the single sword.
I've played and beat that game more times than I can remember. Yeah, the sword has power, but the bo has area and knockback. When you get its upgrade it's basically an infinity +1 sword... er bo. You can keep your narrow focused powerful sword, range wins every time.

EDIT: That is to say it AOE is a lot more useful than the swords, and you're rarely attacked by just one person in that game. Also, why the hell would anyone deliberately put something like the Jade Golem in their game? It's an ultimate weapon that they just give you. It's like they didn't want to program any fights for the last part of the game.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Brandon

Quote from: Sabby on February 27, 2012, 02:08:22 PM
Hmmm... with all the hate for MMO's flying around, and my own opinions well known, is it a bad time for me to say that TERA is looking fucking awesome? :3

Tera does look interesting. Just the other day I saw a nice live stream done by Jesse Cox that detailed some of the game and it seems like its the standard affair for most MMO combat but with dodge and spatial hit mechanics put in. The large variety of races makes it seem more appealing too that and I could finally play a not so typical guy like a high elf instead of the muscle bound characters we so often see

Heres a link for anyone curious

TERA Beta: A Fetish for Everyone

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

Quote from: Brandon on February 27, 2012, 10:35:04 PM
Tera does look interesting. Just the other day I saw a nice live stream done by Jesse Cox that detailed some of the game and it seems like its the standard affair for most MMO combat but with dodge and spatial hit mechanics put in. The large variety of races makes it seem more appealing too that and I could finally play a not so typical guy like a high elf instead of the muscle bound characters we so often see

Heres a link for anyone curious

TERA Beta: A Fetish for Everyone

Oh lawd...Tera makes me want to jump ship from SwToR...>_<

Sabby

Or... Or... you can be a loli with a gigantic hammer >.> You gotta admit, there's a market out there for older individuals who'd like to anonymously play as an 8 year old girl.

Wolfy

Quote from: Sabby on February 27, 2012, 10:59:30 PM
Or... Or... you can be a loli with a gigantic hammer >.> You gotta admit, there's a market out there for older individuals who'd like to anonymously play as an 8 year old girl.

HARUMPH

....>_> Well, a Loli with a gigantic, Phallic lance, but you know......

Wolfy

I like how in the video, his little dog character shows how impractical  the large sword is for him...xD

Brandon

#5071
Interesting factoid that Jesse mentioned in the third? part. Apparantly the Elin were originally wearing panties but for the north American release they had to change it to hot pants. I wanted to remove the video and just post a link but I cant seem to figure out how to do that. Any ideas?

Anyway, I think it looks interesting but my first impressions say it isnt all that different from other MMO's. I still intend on playing SWTOR when I can but Ill keep an eye on Terra. Maybe something else about it will draw me in

Im more intrested in Firefall which is supposed to be a free to play MMO with a business model similar to league of legends (which has the best free to play business model IMO)

Also Ive playing more Tribes Ascend. Its nice getting back into Tribes and finding a fast skill based FPS
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

Nyarly

Talking about Bioware, their newer games have a big advantage to their older games (the Baldur's Gate ones, not Shattered Steel): There is no Imoen. No joke, I haven't even finished the second chapter of BG2 because it consists of raising money to save Imoen, which rather demotivates me. Why would I want to save a character, I don't care about? Sure, there is also the thing about catching Irenicus, but that doesn't really make it better.

I'll never understand how such an annoying character could have become so popular that Bioware makes here an important character and the refrains from killing her off, even though they initially planned that.

Heaven Sent Blossom

Was Imoen really that annoying? I struggle to remember anything about her, or much about Baldur's Gate 2 apart from the terrible starting dungeon to be honest. Where does she rank using the "Carth Onasi" scale of annoying characters?

Inkidu

Quote from: Heaven Sent Blossom on February 28, 2012, 06:31:44 AM
Was Imoen really that annoying? I struggle to remember anything about her, or much about Baldur's Gate 2 apart from the terrible starting dungeon to be honest. Where does she rank using the "Carth Onasi" scale of annoying characters?
Apparently, it's woobie level annoying. I looked her up on TV tropes and she was originally planned to be killed off because she was a brainwashed and bat-shit crazy. However, even gamers want to fix them apparently, so the fan outcry stopped her from dying.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.