Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Sudo_Nym]

So what about AC2 offended you enough to close the topic?

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The LOZ series has really gone downhill since the 3DI games.

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Just finished The Wolf Among Us, Episode 1.

Holy shit.

Holy shit good? I've been getting into the Fables comics, and if the game is good, that'd be awesome.

[Sudo_Nym]

Well, I've been greatly enjoying the source material, but I haven't played the game. I'm almost certain to, with this recommendation, though. The problem I'm forseeing is that episode 1, even if it's set 20 years previously, is going to be trying to set up the setting for people who haven't read the comics, which may be less impressive or effective for somebody who's already familiar. Plus, what if the voices are all wrong from my personal characterization.

ITT sudo is needless neurotic about the accuracy of his head-canon voices.

[Sudo_Nym]

The Wolf Among Us: Just did the whole first part in one sitting, cannot wait for the rest. Snow White's voice sounds wrong to me, but that's my personal hangup, I guess.

i've been playing the stanly parable.......i'm afraid I don't get it.......I don't see what the hype was about

it was a bit funny, but no where near as good as people claimed

The Stanley Parable is supposed to be a huge metacommentery on "sandbox" games- the whole point is that you can theoretically do whatever you want, but you can't, because you can actually only do what it's been decided in advance you can do. Notice that no matter what path you pick, there's always narration- no matter how original you think your thinking is, you can really only do it because the developers decided in advance that you could. Stanley's whole deal before he begins the game is that he "pushes buttons, waits until the computer tells him it's time to push a button again, and then pushes the appropriate button," which is basically what gamers do. In the best ending, he basically gets freedom by persuing a life where he doesn't push buttons and doesn't get swept up in somebody else's story, but that in itself is hypocritically, because the only way to achieve true freedom is to slavishly do what you're told.

YMMV on whether the commentary is accurate or not, but that's the intention.

[Sudo_Nym]

Fun fact for people playing The Wolf Among Us, Beauty's voice actor is the same person as Clementine (or the credits have lied to me)

Beauty's voice actor is Clem, and her husband Beast is voiced by Kenny. And Bigby is voiced by Andy St. John, Ichabod by Chuck, and Snow White by Molly.

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Spoiler: TWAM

I'm not sure how to save the Prince. In my first run, I went to Toad's first, and then when I went to the Prince's, he was dying and I couldn't figure out how to save him. In the second runthrough, I went to the Prince's first, and he was already dead when I got there.

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I've been playing CiV lately since picking up BNW, and is it just me, or does the new expansion make the game a lot easier? Trade Routes seem to be broken in favor of the player, so far.

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Oh my god, this fucking dog.

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Spoiler:

What was even the point of bringing back Christa and Omid, given that they kill Omid and ditch Christa in the first five minutes? They could have simply decided that Clem never found them, left their fates ambiguous, and the story would be exactly the same.

[Sudo_Nym]

Spoiler:

It can't possibly be Lee, since his death is guaranteed. Kenny's death is heavily implied but not shown, and more to the point, his heroic death is the climax of his character arc. Kenny's return would be unlikely and disappointing. Vernon and the group seem unlikely, since the only ones of the group with any significant screentime were Vernon and Bree; Bree's dead, and Vernon escaped in the boat, so Clem's "I thought you were dead" comment would make no sense. Molly would be possible, and I'd like to see more of her character, but again, she left in a safe situation, so there's no reason for Clem to say "I thought you were dead" to her. Of the rest of the old group, Duck, Katja, Larry, Chuck, Ben, Carla, and Doug are all unambiguously dead. That leaves Omid, Christa, and Lily as the only characters from Clem's past she has reason to believe are dead. It would be odd to see Omid return, since his death opens the chapter, and there's a 16 month time skip between the intro and the start of actual gameplay, so it would be weird for Omid to suffer an almost certainly fatal gunshot, then show up 16 months later.

So my money would be on Christa or Lily. Christa would make sense, since she seems to be involved in the story, and her fate was ambiguous, since all we see is her run off- Clem could legitimately believe that she died, but that she actually found this new group. Lily would also make sense, she escapes alive no matter what you do, but in a situation where death seems certain.

[Sudo_Nym]

I played some L4D, but only locally with a friend and the AI. Never played L4D2, or played with a full roster of humans, but I'd be happy to try it, assuming I can actually access the Valve servers sometime today.

[Sudo_Nym]

Now trying to assemble players for L4D2 and/or Monaco. Sudo_Nym on Steam, if you're interested.

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Lee is Bluebeard. I was wondering when that voice would show up. Not like it's mistakable.

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Lee is Bluebeard. I was wondering when that voice would show up. Not like it's mistakable.

I didn't figure out what story he was supposed to be from - am I missing something obvious?

Spoiler: The Wolf Among Us Ep2

I'm glad they de-glamoured the body quickly. As soon as Snow mentioned that might be the solution, I was settling in to have to question whether or not she was the real Snow until the very last episode.

Bluebeard's a French folk-tale, about a pirate who uses his wealth to attract women, and then murders them on the honeymoon.

Spoiler:

And yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking; that the living Snow might be an imposter. I've read the first eight trades, so I would have been surprised, but I figured making up an alternate universe for their games wouldn't be beyond Taletale.

Oddly, once the glamor started failing, my first thought is that somebody was trying to destroy Snow White's reputation, with the track marks and such- that Ichabod figured out that Snow was after his job, and wanted to come up with an excuse to fire her. Turns out I had the right culprit for the wrong reason.

[Sudo_Nym]

Holy shit, Little Mac is going to be in Super Smash Bros?

[Sudo_Nym]

I vastly preferred Fallout New Vegas, partly because I think a lot of the mechanics were tightened, and also because, as a guy who played Fallout 1 and 2, I liked that it was a very similar setting to the things I've seen before, with a story that I actually cared about because I knew the NCR; Fallout 3 being in the Capitol Wasteland was kinda weird, especially when they tried to justify things like Harold or the Enclave crossing the country. Frankly, I'm not convinced their reasoning for that was anything more than that Bethesda loves to set games in the DC/Maryland area because that's where their offices are. Plus, I really hated the way they blocked off the surface so that you had to go crawling through the seweres; my sense of direction is terrible enough without throwing me in a maze.

That said, I don't feel the difference in quality is great enough to say that somebody else is weird for preferring Fallout 3. So I guess this whole post was unnecessary.

[Sudo_Nym]

You're welcome, Brandi

I really loved DAO- it's formula for sure, but it does good and interesting things with the formula. Tropes are not bad, after all.

I actually really like DA2, as well, I just think it really suffers in the comparison to the original. It's not a bad game, and it improves on some stuff, but it also cuts out a lot of the tactics and difficulty of the original. I have to agree, though, that Legacy especially demonstrates what Bioware could have done with the base game.

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For those of you who are playing, The Walking Dead Episode 2 is confirmed for March 4th.

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How the fuck is Kenny alive?

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Heavy Rain is alright, but it's very David Cage-y.

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And then later:

SHAUN!
SHAAAAAAAAUN!
SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUN!

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Apparantly, Steam has figured out that the words "RPG", "Strategy", and "Isometric View" are like a siren song for me. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

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So I'm stuck in the office all the time now on a shitty Macbook Pro and business is slowing down. I need online games to play that are a) free, b) preferably not requiring CONSTANT attention at all times, c) browser-based since this laptop is a piece of shit.

Problem solved:
http://www.findtheinvisiblecow.com/

[Sudo_Nym]

All of my games are from the last 20 minutes. Don't know how I racked up so much time on them...

[Sudo_Nym]

I really love the Baldur's Gate games; BG1 is good, but BG2 is probably the best DnD RPG ever made (whether it's 1 or 2 depends on your opinion of Planescape: Torment). The Enhanced Editions are nice, since they have the tweak pack and fix pack mods preinstalled, which makes them a lot easier to use (though if you're like me, you'll still want to adjust the game speed up). They also come with bonus NPCs and the Black Pits, which are varying degrees of alright. There's even a new modding community updating all the old stuff. I strongly recommend, if you're into DnD and can stomach the 2ed rules.

[Sudo_Nym]

well i wanted to start with BG2 just because

BG2 is undoubtedly the better game, but be aware that it completely spoils the plot of BG1 in the first 5 minutes.

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Is Banished any good? I'm kinda in the mood for a builder.

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Holy shit, Episode three is really fucking good.

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If you're looking for something episodic you can play at work, I'd go with something along the lines of SpaceChem.

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Yeah, but it keeps you busy, and has no time limits. You can play for a while, and then stop whenever.

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I don't know what this team business is, and I feel bad about that.

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Spore was good, it was just overhyped and overpriced. As a 10 dollar game, I think it's solid.

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I bought Final Fantasy VIII on the Steam Sale, in a fit of nostalgia. But now I'm wary of actually starting a game, since I'm remembering how much time I spent grinding in that game as a kid. Not sure if I'm ever going to play it or if it's just a Steam sale bin game.

[Sudo_Nym]

Is Banner Saga good? It looks good.

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Euro Truck Simulator is impossible to play without a wheel controller.

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Just finished Gunpoint. That's a pretty awesome game.

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Euro Truck Simulator is impossible to play without a wheel controller.

wrong. I enjoyed the game 20+ hours so far with a mouse.

I've managed to set up my controller to play it, but I can't steer with a mouse.

[Sudo_Nym]

It is pretty hard. The trailer always seems to move weirdly no matter which way I steer. I tend to just skip it, since you only get 45 XP for parking.

[Sudo_Nym]

Which part?

[Sudo_Nym]

Spoiler:

I took it to mean that she sent Bigby to investigate Crane despite knowing that he wasn't involved in Holly's or Faith's death because he was into Snow, which gave Bigby the motivation to care, and that she lied in the "Trial" to convince Bigby to kill the Crooked Man.

[Sudo_Nym]

Spoiler:

I took the Crooked Man back to stand "trial" after killing Bloody Mary- trial in quotes because it was down in the Witching Chamber with Bluebeard, Beauty, Beast, Greenleaf, Gren, and Holly as the jury, rather than anything official. Crooked Man starts talking his way out, pointing out that nobody has any actual evidence against him except Bigby's word, only for Nerissa to show up and claim that she personally witnessed him ordering Faith's murder, which is enough to get the jury to declare him guilty. Then, after the trial, Nerissa basically admits to Bigby in private that her testimony was a lie- the order to kill Faith came from Georgie, not Crooked Man; she just knew that Crooked Man wouldn't go down unless she lied.

[Sudo_Nym]

I know there's a separate thread for it, but some of it is still spoilers to me, so I'm gonna post here that I finally got around to finishing The Walking Dead Season One. Here are my choices for all the episodes:

Spoiler: Chevre's Choices

Episode 1

Didn't lie to Hershel. Honesty was just one of the big things during my playthrough; the "you were honest with _____" must have popped up a million times during Episode 4.
Saved Shawn over Duck. He was just more of an asset to any chance of survival we had.
Sided with Kenny on Duck's being bitten, I was also very considerate regarding bites/injuries/etc.
Didn't give Irene the gun.
Saved Carley. I just feel like there's so much more development with her than Doug; it just feels like the natural choice.

Episode 2

Didn't kill Jolene
Didn't help kill Larry
Didn't kill either brother
Didn't loot car

Episode 3

Didn't shoot woman
Didn't leave Lilly behind
I guess I fought with Kenny in the train cab, but half-pacifism, half-not knowing where to click led me to just take all his punches lol.
Killed Duck myself
Helped Christa onto the train

Episode 4

I killed the zombie boy
Didn't threaten Vernon
Took Clementine to crawford
Saved Ben

Episode 5

Only Omid and Christa went with me. I let Ben decide for himself and there was no way Kenny was going with me unless I chose the "family" option
Didn't cut off arm
Argued calmly with Kenny
Gave up all weapons
Didn't kill the Stranger
Told Clementine to shoot me

If you

don't loot the car

, does the

Stranger's origin story change

?

The car gets looted by the group no matter what you choose, so the Stranger ultimately gets screwed over by that. He just doesn't get angry at you specifically for it.

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So for a while me and the Fallout series have been like skew lines, but I think I want to get into it. I see they are all on Steam; how and where should I start?

Fallout 1 is amazing; it's one of the best RPGs ever, IMHO.

Fallout 2 is a little weirder; the gameplay is improved, but the story is a bit more tongue in cheek, introduces a lot of the weirder elements of the franchise, and has the worst tutorial section ever.

Fallout 3 is something of a dividing line in the fandom; it's very different from the first two in story and playstyle- I think the gameplay is fine (though it's basically Oblivion with guns), but the story is the weakest of the series.

Fallout: New Vegas is great; it's an improvement on Fallout 3's gameplay and has a much improved story line- as an RPG, I'd say it's second in the series, behind only the original.

The spinoff games you shouldn't really bother with at all.

[Sudo_Nym]

Been wanting to try streaming; I might find an excuse to do so.

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Anybody familiar with the Long War mod, while we're talking about X-COM? Is it worthwhile?

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So, if I can only afford one or the other, should I get Wasteland 2 or Kerbal Space Program?

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There's a gamestop near my house; I can inquire for you.

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Don't worry about it; the gamestop is near my house, and not even out of my way on the drive home. You might say this task is easy as pie.

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DA2 was on steam, but EA pulled it because they didn't like something about Valve's rules for DLC. So it was made an Origin exclusive; it looks like they didn't even bother putting DA3 on Steam in the first palce.

Also, I bought DA3 because I loved the first two, and then I can't download it because I don't have 64 bit

[Sudo_Nym]

At least they got rid of that stupid Bioware Points thing.

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DA:O is awesome, but it's not for everybody. The gameplay requires a lot of attention and micromanagement, and it's very tactical in design; extremely appealing to people who like that sort of thing, and a lockout to others. It took me a bit to really cotton on to how to do it, but I'm glad I did- the story and characters are really excellent Bioware stuff.

I'm apparently in a minority in that I really liked DA2, as well, but its certainly a game with its shortcomings. It ditches a lot of the tactical elements of DA:O for a more straightforward action game; in theory that's fine, but it's odd to follow up a very top down, slow-paced tactical game with a fast-paced, action oriented sequel. It also has the annoying approach to difficulty, where instead of giving you a few tough enemies or interesting encounters, you instead get waves and waves of mooks. Most of the enemies are also reskins of the same few types, as well. And that's not even mentioning the general problem of asset reuse elsewhere in the game. I really enjoyed the game, but I understand why people were disappointed in it. DLCs were excellent, though; if only the rest of the game were at that standard.

KOTOR is like a trigger for me, though. The plot is pure Bioware formula (though with a great twist), the gameplay is clunky (also Bioware formula), and the game bears the hallmarks of Lucas- black and white morality, a general lack of depth, and the only homosexual character got gutted because Lucas doesn't like that sort of thing. Meanwhile, KOTOR2 has a fantastic plot, deconstructs much of the Star Wars Universe, and features Kreia, possibly the best written NPC in any video game ever. And it's also gutted, because Lucasfilm chopped 6 months off the development cycle to get it out for Christmas, releasing the game as a buggy beta. And when Obsidian offered to make a patch to restore the game to an actual game, Lucasfilm shot them down, because it would require admitting that they'd rushed the game out while it was still in beta. That game could have been fantastic, and it makes me sad.

I don't know why I went off like this, but I enjoyed it!

[Sudo_Nym]

I think it's alright, but it's glaringly obvious that it's unfinished. The characters are very deep and complex and interesting, and the gameplay is somewhat more refined, but there's tons of cut content, a very low difficulty curve featuring waves of mooks, and lots of bugs. It's fine, if you're willing to put up with that, but I think you can get all the best stuff out of it with less frustration by reading an LP of it; personally, I like this one: http://lparchive.org/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II/.

[Sudo_Nym]

So maybe it's just me, but DAI doesn't actually seem like very much fun to play. I've played the first 7 hours, and I'm wondering how much longer I have to go before the game starts being enjoyable.

[Sudo_Nym]

I liked the tactical gameplay of Baldur's Gate and DA:O. KOTOR was pretty loose, though, and NWN could have been improved. I really liked Mass Effect, but it's probably mediocre if you're just looking for a shooter. DAI feels like a mediocre MMO.

[Sudo_Nym]

What's the consensus on Sims 4? Worthwhile at all?

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So apparently, Krem in DAI is a ftm trans. Probably the first incidence of a transgender character in a videogame not played for a joke. That's pretty cool.

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Five Nights at Freddy's has a sequel, you could try that.

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Come on, Reck, Five Nights on the big screen, the sound up, the lights low. Very atmospheric and fun.

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I've been enjoying Dragon Age 3, but it takes a bit to get rolling.

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I loved Origins, but I couldn't bring myself to play it a 12th time. One of my existing characters just had to do.

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Because they keep changing the engine. It's not like the combat in the first Dragon Age was that great; I remember it being really slow.

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Which boss fight do you mean? I'm still on my first playthrough (needed to upgrade my computer, so I started late) playing as Knight-Enchanter Mage, and the only boss I've had significant difficulty with was

Denam during the attack on Haven. Alexius wasn't that bad, but the teleporting made him annoying.

[Sudo_Nym]

I picked Knight Enchanter just because I really liked Arcane Warrior in the first game, but it is a little ridiculous. So far, I haven't bothered making my endgame armor, since I haven't gotten the tier three stuff yet, but turning damage into barrier is a bit ridiculous. Good aim with a fire mine basically makes you invincible for the rest of combat.

[Sudo_Nym]

Also (about the attack on Haven)

I'm told that the fight is a lot easier if you side with the Templars, since Fiona is a lot squishier than Denam. But I've also heard that the boss at the end of the Templar arc is harder than Alexius, so maybe it washes.

[Sudo_Nym]

Just beat DA:I. It was pretty swell, though I feel like I cheesed it too much. Going to go back through with a Warrior, see if that feels better.

[Sudo_Nym]

I didn't have that problem, but I spent most of the time just spamming barrier while Cassandra and Iron Bull wailed on him, so maybe I just didn't notice. The final boss of this game felt a lot more epic than the bosses of the first two, though, which I really liked. Also,

what's the deal with the dragon? The game keeps calling it an Archdemon, but then going "But it's not really an Archdemon. But it's an Archdemon."

[Sudo_Nym]

I didn't get any loading glitches, but maybe I did get the attack glitch and didn't notice- he spent most of the first segment of the fight doing nothing, and didn't really start doing real attacks until the final phase. The middle part seemed to work just fine, so I'm not sure what happened.

[Sudo_Nym]

Then I definitely glitched, and I'm on PC. The first part of the battle, he threw some magic around, then retreated to an inaccessible location, where he did nothing but banter until I did enough damage to him, then I had to chase him up some stairs and fight some more (which he did), and then

Dragon

, which seemed to work fine. After that, he seemed to alternate melee attack and firebeams.

And what was the deal with the Stinger?

Spoiler:

Is it Flemeth possessing Solas, or Solas absorbing Mythal? And Flemeth got the old god soul from Kieran in my play, so I assume that's in Solas now, too? And Solas is the one who gave the orb to Corypheus in the first place, making everything his fault? Except for releasing Corypheus in the first place, which is yet another Hawke failure? I wound up leaving Hawke in the Fade, partly because of that, and partly because recruiting the Grey Wardens with Loghain seemed like it would be better for the Inquisition.

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I enjoyed 12, and 10, but those were the last two FF games that I really liked.

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Final Fantasy 9 is inferior to Final Fantasy 6 through 8.

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Did you do Witch Hunt yet? I really liked that DLC.

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Witch Hunt is still canon. I had it referenced.

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The only place I noticed anything about Tallis is that Varric will ask Iron Bull about her in a party banter.

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I'm not sure what happens if you

stab Morrigan before she falls through the Eluvian

, but I think that was the choice I made on this playthrough, so we'll see. I do know that if you

romanced Morrigan and choose to go through the Eluvian with her to see your son, both she and Kieran will talk about this fact, and Kieran will even be wearing a griffon necklace that was supposedly given to him by the Warden.

[Sudo_Nym]

She mentioned it in DA2, as well, but only enough to brush off an actual explanation.

[Sudo_Nym]

Oh, yeah, you can't complete

Velanna or Sigrun's Joinings

if you haven't done them before the Blackmarsh. And

Velanna's companion quest

can only be triggered by a random encounter.

[Sudo_Nym]

One of the big problems I have with the companions in Awakening is that you mostly gain approval from them by giving them gifts- if you don't find every gift, or get confused and give one to the wrong person (and it's much less intuitive as to which gift is intending for whom), you can miss out on the bonus. This is especially bad for Oghren, since his approval resets for Awakening, but his gift counter doesn't, so any gifts you gave him in Origins will make gifting less effective in Awakening.

Also infuriating is that most of the companion dialogues are triggered not by talking to them, but finding the right interaction spot in the world somewhere. So if you don't take every companion to every location with you, you'll miss out on chances for approval.

[Sudo_Nym]

First, it's important because in DA:O and DA:A, your companions get stat points if they like you enough!

Second, it's not really important. In a character driven game, it's important to determine what relationship the player character has to the NPCs, since that's not something you can nail down like intra-NPC relationships. The relationship meter is the best thing they came up with for quantifying whether an NPC likes or dislikes you, and it's not terribly nuanced, but computers are great at perfectly simulating human interactions. Mass Effect didn't have an approval system, and it worked fine. The relationship system is more invisible in DA:I, but still extant. DA2 tried to experiment with it, to mixed results.

It's like the two franchises are experimenting with removing that sort of thing. Mass Effect had a karma system, but no relationship meters; Dragon Age had relationship meters, but no karma system. I wouldn't be surprised if the next Bioware franchise featured neither.

[Sudo_Nym]

I haven't played Awakening in a while, but I don't remember there being a ton of gifts to just give- there's a bunch of gifts in the game, but they're all companion-specific. And most approval in Awakening is from gifts anyway.

[Sudo_Nym]

I liked Velanna, but she was basically a worse Morrigan. I suppose it says a lot about how much I like the Morrigan archetype that I even like the bad examples of it.

Frankly, I would be really surprised if the Awakening companions had any future role in the games. Anders and Justice already had their bit, Oghren is played out, Velanna and Nathaniel are too bland. Sigrun is the only one I can see having enough personality to make a comeback,

and she dies in most endings.

[Sudo_Nym]

One of the things that I did think was good about Velanna was that you get points for calling her on her bullshit. Morrigan would hate you more if you disagreed with her, but Velanna will often like you more for arguing with her.

[Sudo_Nym]

Sten did that, too, in DA:O, but most of Origins was kissing ass for approval. The change to the Friend/Rival system in DA2 was probably an attempt to get around that problem.

I'm curious what the plan is for the future, though, if the computer needs some way to know your relationship with various characters but approval systems are getting taken out.

[Sudo_Nym]

Dragon Age is a lot less continuity dependent than Mass Effect, I feel. Mass Effect was a single narrative across a trilogy, while Dragon Age is unrelated stories in the same world. There's a lot of back story and such to be gained from importing saves, but nothing like "Garrus is dead in this playthrough". There's also the Dragon Age Keep, which allows you to build a save to import without playing the previous games (since DA:I is on a new engine that doesn't support importing directly from the older games).

[Sudo_Nym]

burrito bison

edit: http://games.adultswim.com/burrito-biso ... -game.html

You fucker quadz, I just lost my whole afternoon playing as a buffalo squashing gummies to get his wallet back.

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Planescape says hi.

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I really liked Guild Wars 2, but I dropped out for a variety of reasons. I'd be happy to get back in, if we'll have an actual guild to do things with.

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Sims 4 yay/nay? I've got the Sims bug.

[Sudo_Nym]

The first game isn't that great- it's a fairly standard Bioware game with good characters, but a standard plotline and Lucas's hands all over the story. Good twist, thought.

KOTOR2 was Obsidian, and features a fantastic story and great characters and was completely screwed over because Lucasarts cut off almost a year of development without warning because they wanted a Christmas game, then they refused to allow content patches to fix the game.

[Sudo_Nym]

I like KOTOR1 at the time, and I may be being too harsh in hindsight. But it does clearly suffer from Lucas's hatred of any kind of moral ambiguity, so the Jedi are all true heroes, and the Sith are all depraved baby-eaters.

KOTOR2 introduces the idea that Jedi can be sanctimonious, pompous, arrogant, and even hypocritical, while Sith can be reasonable people.

[Sudo_Nym]

In fact, a lot of SWTOR seems to be based on the lore of KOTOR2 rather than KOTOR1 (Revan is much more similar to how Kreia described him in KOTOR2 than how flashbacks showed him in KOTOR1, and the idea of light-side Sith and dark-side Jedi). So it appears that Lucasarts was fine with the direction, once they actually got it.

[Sudo_Nym]

Also, Juhani from KOTOR1 (voiced by Jack!) was supposed to be a lesbian, but Lucas didn't want gays in their game, so now Juhani's backstory makes no sense.

[Sudo_Nym]

Oh. "Standard Bioware Plot" is "Go to three places, solve their plots that may or may not be related to the actual storyline to get the McGuffins, then go to the final area, and then also probably a surprise mission after you've done two things." Also includes "The levelup system breaks after level 10" and "We ran out of time for the ending". On the plus side, you get good characters and good writing for putting up with it.

[Sudo_Nym]

So, I finally managed to get FFXIII have started playing it. So far, everything appears to be corridors, but I'm sure that'll go away after the tutorial is over.

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Also, Lightning is Liara!

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I'm not very far into the game yet, but so far, all I've done is walk down corriders and hit attack when my gauge fills. So far, I haven't done anything that feels like the game actually cares whether I play it or not.

[Sudo_Nym]

Well, I made it to about 2 hours in, it doesn't seem to be getting any better, and thanks to Vanille's voice, might actually be getting worse. I think I'm through with it. Follow up question: I've heard XIII-2 is better, but does it make sense to play it if I'm skipping XIII?

[Sudo_Nym]

Ain't no party like a Mario party, cause a Mario party don't end until some stupid bullshit steals all your stars.

[Sudo_Nym]

Episode 3 is out for Telltalites.

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I never actually beat Fallout 3. Having to go everywhere by subway pissed me off. Beat NV several times. Beat XCOM, too, but I installed the Long War patch and never finished that.

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I bought Europa 4, but I can't get into it. Too many moving parts and charts to keep track of. I'm never sure of which Ideas to take, or what the relative value of advisor powers are, and it makes me really uneasy.

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I bought Pokemon Y and a 3ds today. Now I have horrible analysis paralysis about the team I should go for.

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The fact that Canada calls them 'Ridings' is super adorable, Tans.

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I used to try and optimize my party in the old days, so I'd have perfect coverage, to the point that I would always have the same pokemon in my party on every play. I was a weird kid. I got X when I bought a 3DS out of nostalgia, but I gave up halfway through; I forgot how easy the normal game is, and all the cool multiplayer peeps moved on to Omega Red or whatever. I'm probably doing it wrong, too, don't listen to me.

I finally got Prison Architect, and I'm obsessed with blueprinting my entire map for maximum efficiency before I build anything. I'll spend an hour planning out my prison, spend in-game days building it, and then get bored and start over. So I'm probably doing something wrong there, too.

[Sudo_Nym]

Back when I played Red, I used to always get Abra, since I loved Alakazam; so I would spend a great deal of time trying to catch one before it could Teleport. And then I'd ahve to babysit it until it learned something besides Teleport. And then I'd always get screwed, because Kadabra evolves by trading, and nobody in my neighborhood had their gameboys handy when i wanted a trade.

[Sudo_Nym]

Spoiler:

1 Planescape: Torment
2 Baldur's Gate II
3 Mass Effect 2
4 Final Fantasy VII
5 Dragon Age: Origins
6 Mass Effect
7 Fallout: New Vegas
8 Super Mario Bros. 3
9 Portal 2
10 Mass Effect 3
11 The Walking Dead
12 Final Fantasy X
13 Final Fantasy VIII
14 Portal
15 Kingdom Hearts II
16 Star Wars: KOTOR
17 Kingdom Hearts
18 Civilization V
19 Tetris
20 Mario Kart 8
21 Starcraft
22 Pokemon Red/Blue
23 Final Fantasy XII
24 Team Fortress 2
25 The Last of Us
25 Halo 3
27 Warcraft III
28 DK Country 2
29 Final Fantasy Tactics
30 Super Mario Maker
31 Chrono Trigger
32 Hearthstone
33 Super Mario World
34 World of Warcraft
35 EarthBound
36 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
37 Fallout 3
38 Life is Strange

After this, I start getting lots of ties. Can't fault Planescape on top.

[Sudo_Nym]

Play No Sphere Grid No Mix No Summons. Did that once, killed my thumbs on Lulu's overdrive.

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I actually forget how I beat the underwater machina on my NSG run. I think it was a lot of luck and Wakka's Overdrive, though. After Rikku joins, it gets a lot easier, provided you're willing to do a lot of mixing.

[Sudo_Nym]

I don't know if I enjoyed it, but I appreciated it. Wasn't as great the second time, though.

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So what's the verdict on Stellaris?

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Got an extra steam key for Shadowrun: Hong Kong off the Humble Bundle. PM me if you want it.

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Is the Witness good? I notice it's on sale.

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yeah season 2 was good though i didn't like it as much as season 1 (and it seemed a fair bit shorter too)

but i mean, season 1 is hard to follow up in terms of quality

They were shorter, about an hour and a half per episode compared to season 2's 2 hours.

I think I need a bit of time to fully process it compared to season 1. I really liked season 2 for the most part, but episode 4 was generally quite weak, while I don't remember season 1 slowing up anywhere.

I thought Season 1 started really slow, since they were trying to make it more of a Sam and Max style game to start, so there's some point and click puzzles breaking up the action (the Drug Store), for example. It wasn't until episode 2 that I thought they really started hitting their stride by ditching a lot of the adventure game stuff and turning it into a more narrative experience.

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So, based on recommendations, I started playing 999. Out of curiousity, does this game feature any actual gameplay at any point? I've been playing for about 90 minutes at this point, and I think it's been all cutscenes. More annoyingly, it seems to be about 3 sentences worth of actual information repeated over and over and over to fill 90 minutes worth of cutscenes. I thought this was supposed to be a puzzle game?

[Sudo_Nym]

Right, it was a single simple puzzle, and that was the only thing I've actually had any input in so far. The rest has been "This is a [Nonary Game] where your life is on the line" "[Nonary Game]? What is that?" repeated several times, including three times in a row at one point. I assume it stops assuming that I'm stupid and have a memory of 15 seconds eventually?

[Sudo_Nym]

Maybe; I probably started tuning something out. But most of the scenes boil down to "pick a single sentence, then repeat it for 15 minutes."

For example:
"There's no escape!" "You mean there's no way out?" "Yes, there's no way out!" "What about the doors?" "They're all blocked!" "But if they're all blocked, then we can't get out!" "Yes, they are all blocked so we can't get out!" "But if we can't get out, then we're trapped!"

I'll grant that it actually got interesting when they started actually having characters instead of just having an excuse to repeat every line 8 times, but damn it feels like a slog sitting through the game telling me that I only have 9 hours to escape before I die, so I need to escape before I die, which will occur in 9 hours if I don't escape, so I will die if I don't escape before the time limit expires (the time limit is 9 hours).

[Sudo_Nym]

Okay, for all my bitching, once the game stopped repeating things to me endlessly and started developing the actual plot and characters, it's pretty good.

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I was planning to pick up NMS for PC after watching some console streams, but reviews are saying the PC version is currently poorly optimized and suffers from constant crashing and stuttering, so now I'm torn being buying now and waiting for a patch to come out.

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We should coordinate getting Sun or Moon so as to maximize trading opportunities, I think. That would be really neat and really onerous, so I think we should do it.

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Not to spoil anything, but waiting for zoroaster to die so she'll be free is only going to take about 8 years, not 50. Waiting for her to be ready to start dating again will be a further 2 weeks, however.

[Sudo_Nym]

I promise, if you die as predicted, your corpse may present itself to me for a choice of one apology or high-five.

On a completely side note, I wanted to break up my Ace Attorney playing with a different genre, so I bought Fire Emblem Awakening. I don't know if that's a good place to jump in, but it looked like the first of the 3ds games. Here's hoping it's acceptable.

[Sudo_Nym]

the more I see Sudo with Gumshoe the more I think he's absolutely perfect for him

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult, pal!

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I haven't played a Zelda game since the first one on the NES, primarily due to growing up in a house with a Playstation. Are any of them worth going back to play and have good ports on the 3DS? Reviews suggest Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are both really good, but also there's some weirdness in the LoZ timeline that could be potentially confusing.

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Is Anthem going to be good? It has to be good right? I never got into Destiny, but the trailer kinda gives that same vibe.

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I really liked all the Dragon Age games, though I can't play DA:O anymore because of the memory issue. I even really liked DA2, even though I get why there's such backlash against it. DA:I is probably my favorite of the three, though it feels like a weird gameplay change from the other two games.

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Well, that feels pretty bullshit, but at the same time, I think they figured out that Andromeda's system was not what Mass Effect players wanted, so they're better off focusing on ME5 to right the ship instead of pumping out DLC for ME4.

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I didn't hate Andromeda, either, but I think it's a game that really suffers from Bioware's sudden addiction to open world MMA style gaming in a single-player game. It especially hurt ME, since that was a series that relied more on set-pieces and characters, which Andromeda gutted. Not getting even one DLC is a bit weird though, since DA2 was the last Bioware game to get serious heat, and it still got a 2 major DLCs and a bunch of item packs.

[Sudo_Nym]

I also feel like the squaddies in Andromeda were far less developed than in previous games, as well.

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ME and DAO had open world elements, but DAO was open more like Baldur's Gate was open- you had an area you could explore, and there are some sidequests you only find if you do explore, but mostly each area is designed with a "go through this way" mentality.

And somebody actually tweeted one of the game developers about why the doors at Kadara Port in MEA took twice as long to open as other doors, and the dev replied that it was done deliberately, to make Kadara feel more worn down- everything there is made from scavenged tech, including the door servos, so it takes longer. I don't remember people finding that answer satisfying.

[Sudo_Nym]

I don't think they ever actually released a Playstation port for ME1, did they? I remember that they made those weird comic book intros primarily for the Playstation market, since they were releasing ME2 for the playstation, but weren't going to release a port of ME1, so the comic book was a way to cheat in import choices.

[Sudo_Nym]

Into the Breach is really good/annoying

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My biggest problem with Into the Breach is that it combines "You're screwed, and there's nothing you can do about it" with "It's actually demonstrable your fault that you're screwed." Like, I keep getting into scenarios where I can't stop the Vek from destroying something, and then realizing that if I'd done something different last turn, I'd be better positioned now. It's also really addicting, though, since it's clear what's happening and why, and solving a turn feels awesome.

[Sudo_Nym]

My biggest problem with Into the Breach is that it combines "You're screwed, and there's nothing you can do about it" with "It's actually demonstrable your fault that you're screwed." Like, I keep getting into scenarios where I can't stop the Vek from destroying something, and then realizing that if I'd done something different last turn, I'd be better positioned now. It's also really addicting, though, since it's clear what's happening and why, and solving a turn feels awesome.

yeah. it pisses me off when i drop into a scenario and on the first turn the vek lock down a bomb or something and i have literally no way to deal w/ it

I think the key is realizing you *have* to let certain things die in the game. You can get power back, you can't get objectives/pilots back nearly as easily.

The difficulty spike is real though - I'm two achievements shy of perfect, one of which being HARD MODE which is harder just by means of throwing more vek at you per turn.

Yeah, recognizing that sometimes you just have to take the damage is definitely what lead to a rise in my game.

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Frost Titans are so OP, partly because freezing a Vek is basically a one-hit KO, and partly because frozen Vek still count as alive and on the map for spawns- the game will actually spawn fewer Vek in future turns if you leave Vek alive but frozen instead of killing them. Add in that frozen Vek also deny a square, and they act as an auxillary target for unfrozen Vek, and that if the frost artillery is shielded (by having Bethany pilot), it becomes immune to its own freeze, and it's just ridiculous.

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I don't have a PS4, but I've seen LPs of it. Detroit does seem pretty restrained for a David Cage project.

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I mean, they didn't immediately go hard into magical bullshit, there's no pointless sex scene for the sake of having one, and the acting isn't ludicrously hammy. As you say, there's some cheesy moments, but there's very few outright bad scenes like there were in Heavy Rain or Indigo Prophecy. Or Beyond Two Souls, which was basically just cheesy from start to finish.