Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Chevre]

For the first DS, here are some of my recommendations:

Elite Beat Agents
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (though if you've played beyond Gen IV of the real series the DS titles may be a little disappointing, I think they're great though)
Ace Attorney (I mean I'm only somewhat through the first one but it's great so far and there is a 10-page thread loving on it)
Professor Layton

[Untrod Tripod]

so Dragon Age 3 dropped yesterday?

I bought it, but it's 25 gigs of digital download so I guess I'm starting tomorrow

also they make you use Origin, which can fuck right off

[PJ.]

I'd be willing to see if i'm any good at fifa 15 some time. I'm running 2k15 for NBA though. I don't like madden because it's a bad game.

[esuriospiritus]

also they make you use Origin, which can fuck right off

whaaaaaaaaaat?

DA:O is on Steam, somehow I thought the rest would be too

[Sudo_Nym]

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

[hasdgfas]

If you bought DA2 while it was on Steam, you still have it on Steam though, so there's that?

[Sudo_Nym]

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

[Flameaxe]

I'd be willing to see if i'm any good at fifa 15 some time. I'm running 2k15 for NBA though. I don't like madden because it's a bad game.

I'll probably find 2k15 when its on sale too. I generally hate madden games but meh, its a game. Easy to learn game for when people are over.

I've liked Fifa 15, don't bother with 14. Its too bad the new NHL game was garbage, maybe they patched it to fix stuff.

[Untrod Tripod]

EA is just

the worst fucking company

[bv310]

At least DA isn't thoroughly broken like AC:Unity is.

[bv310]

Also yeah, bought DA:I, so I'll be downloading that overnight. I'm a big DA fan, so I'm psyched to get back in to that world.

[esuriospiritus]

A friend told me that DA:I is like a Bioware'd Skyrim. And considering that when I played Skyrim I basically told him "I wish I could play a Bethesda-style open world game with a Bioware-style story" ... I may have to get into the franchise. However, I tried to play DA:O several years ago and couldn't get into it, which was partially a function of it lagging horribly on the clunky computer I had at the time and partially because I hated the combat style.

I seem to have that problem with all the early Bioware games I've played, actually. ME1 was my first game that qualified even remotely as a "shooter" so that was engaging enough the first time, but now trying to play it is torture due to all the micromanaging required. And KOTOR was so bad that I had to basically turn the combat off to get through the rest of the story.

I have DA:O on Steam, so I may have to give it another try sometime early next year (I fully expect Pokemon ORAS to keep me occupied until January/February).

[Sudo_Nym]

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!

[esuriospiritus]

So did I!

I'm afraid to try KOTOR2 because of everything I've heard about it (essentially, what you said with different words). Is it worth playing despite its defects?

[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/.

[Untrod Tripod]

aaaaaaaaaaand it won't start

[Untrod Tripod]

oh, it doesn't meet the minimum requirements >_>

apparently having a quad core is necessary now?

[hasdgfas]

I'm looking forward to DA:I, but I feel like I need to play through the first two again, because it's been way too long.

I will also say that, even though it's blatantly unfinished, KOTOR2 is still one of my top 5 games of all time. It's absolutely worth playing, simply because it does things with the Star Wars universe that I don't think I've ever seen in any other game.

[theaceofspades]

DS or 3DS?

it has an i at the end....?

[Parama]

DSi is normal DS then, essentially.

[Untrod Tripod]

fuck Bioware

[xRECKONERx]

yeah welcome to the party

Dragon Age sucks anyway. like it's about as bad as storytelling gets. Not a single original idea can be found in that series

[Untrod Tripod]

the first game was great

the second game had good battle mechanics and went in a new direction

I'm interested to see where the third one went and I think it's kind of fucking ridiculous that they released it with only support for a processor that most people aren't going to have

[zoraster]

don't most gamers have quad cores (or more if you use AMD)? My machine is 3 years old and it wasn't even an option to get a dual core when I was looking, and my machine wasn't top of the line or anything.

[Untrod Tripod]

is it a laptop?