GhostofAnakin

Two games on my radar: Game of Thrones and Max Payne 3. Anyone played either? Comments?

There was a story. It may not have been very deep, but at least it was coherent (IMO) up until the end of the second game. The end of the second game and continuing into Brotherhood started to bring elements in that made the story confusing.

Roofles.

I don't know what to think of the Game of Thrones RPG. I hate using online review scores because I don't think very highly (for various reasons) of those doing the review. But I haven't seen anyone talking about the game on the forums I visit. Strictly based on the scores of the two main sites I've visited, it's a mixed bag. IGN gave it a 4 out of 10, which seems horrible. Gamespot gave it a 7 out of 10, which is a solid title. Although I will say, both actual write-ups (forgetting the review score) made me a bit intrigued about the game. Seems the consistent thing is how it's a pretty good story.

Still playing Witcher 2. I'm losing a bit of steam, though. I'm primarily just pushing through to try out the various "big" decisions in different ways. Probably would have been easier if I'd originally kept saves at crucial points my previous play throughs.

This. At least D3 can fix the major issues plaguing its release (ie. server issues, bugs, etc.). We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts.

Geez, just when I thought I saw it all, I stumble upon a new quest I'd not seen the first couple of times through. It involves the Blue Stripes, getting drunk, and a tattoo.

Finished Witcher 2 for the second time, taking Iorvath's path this time. Witcher 2 is exactly what Mass Effect 3 was promised to be. Now that's what I'd call a game where the player's choices matter and have an effect on how the game plays out for each individual player.

I can't win the fight against Cynthia in Chapter 3. I wanted to pay her back for what she did in Chapter 2, but the fight against her and that other mage is just impossible for me. It's such a small space to move, so every single shot of lightning or fire from them hits me. Plus they're constantly using that shield that doesn't allow me to damage them. Not to mention the other dude multiplies, so I'm up against basically 4 mages all firing bolts at me while shielded from my attacks. What. The. Hell. I had less trouble fighting the friggin' dragon or any of the other boss fights than this, simply because of how much damage those stupid lightning/fire bolts do, and how they're shielded from my attacks 90% of the time.

In regards to the hit/flop mentality, I'm curious why a publisher would even fund a project they forecast will "flop". Financially speaking, what's the point in even allocating funds for a project if they don't think it will sell well, or at all? Or is it a case of them sinking as little as possible in the off chance that it will actually make money? Sort of a low risk investment that could pay off?

Stupid confusing map caused me to fail a sidequest. There was one quest where I had to go to a certain spot, but the map made it difficult to figure out which level the door to that spot was. So after trying for a bit, I got fed up and decided to move on to a different quest and go back to the sidequest later. After completing that quest, however, it turns out I can't go back to that quest because the people involved are no longer available. Ugh. Stupid map.

The annoying part is how it fluctuates. If it were just a case of the sound being too low, I could just crank up the volume. Or if the sound was constantly too loud, I could just lower the volume. But as it is, if I crank up the volume for the "whisper" bits, it becomes really, really loud for the "shout" bits. I play with the subtitles on, too, for this very reason. I tried it without subtitles, but I had a tough time understanding what was being said during the bits where they were speaking so softly. Not being a tech/audio-geek, I've always wondered what causes this. Not just with the Witcher 2, but any game with some audio issues (Mass Effect 1 had this for me - a lot of my talks with Garrus aboard the Normandy it was like he was whispering to me).

Anyone playing the XBox 360 version? If you are, are you having sound issues? I've found that sometimes during dialogue, the characters are either talking so low I have to crank up the volume to hear what they're saying, but then suddenly so loud that it's like they suddenly DECIDED TO SHOUT FOR NO REASON! The strange thing is it's the main characters who are the worst at it. The non-important NPC's voice volume is usually okay. It's just when Geralt, Triss, Roache or Dandelion talk that half the time they seem like they're whispering, the other half they seem like they're shouting at the top of their lungs.

One minor issue: I hate the map, especially when you're in Vergen (sp), with the various levels. If an objective shows on the map, it's difficult to tell where to go since sometimes there are like three or four levels of buildings where that one objective marker seems to be pointing to.

Just finished Chapter 1 on my second play through, choosing the opposite side this time. I think it's really cool that the end part of that chapter plays out differently than if you chose the other option (which I did on my first play through).

This is why when I played the Witcher 2 and got to the end, it was such a refreshing change from that horrible ending Mass Effect 3 ended on. Both involved no boss fight (or in the Witcher 2's case, the option by the player to avoid a final boss fight), and both involved the player being told why things went down the way they did. The difference is the Witcher 2 gave the player the opportunity to ask a bunch of questions to flesh out the "whys", while Mass Effect 3 had the player sit there like a stooge listening to some translucent SpaceChild ramble on nonsensical explanations.

That link to the Free Radicals article is quite something. It seems to reinforce this notion that publishers don't care about quality, but only about releasing the game as quick as possible.

Started on my second play through of the Witcher 2. Seriously, this might be a reflection of how crappy the stories have been in the majority of the recent RPGs I've played, but I'm really digging the Witcher 2 story.

This is one of the things that really bugs me about games making it so you have to have internet access to play any sort of DLC content associated with a game because of that authenticity requirement each time you start up the game, especially when a lot of the time it's their servers that are causing the issue, not just a case of someone simply not wanting to be connected to the 'net.

Finished my first play through tonight. I'm going to play it one more time and see what making different choices does to affect the story. It seems a lot shorter than the first Witcher game.

Not a fan of the "mist" parts in Chapter 2. Specifically, the parts where it's unclear whether you have to walk through them or not to accomplish a task because the mini-map doesn't really say (or is sometimes even labeled wrong about where you need to go). For instance, I had to go online to figure out how to retrieve the Dun Banner from the catacombs because from the mini-map, it looked like the only way to get to the ! marker was by going through the mists of battle again to get to the Kedwuen side. But when I tried that, it kept sending me back to the Vergen side of the map. Similarly, when I was going to the dragonslayers' hideout, again the mini-map made it seem like I had to go through the mist battle, but there was actually a different path to take. Overall, though, I really like the story. Some interesting political intrigues, and the decisions aren't quite "good" or "bad". A lot of times the decisions come down more to "which side do you agree with".

It seems like a pretty safe project to take on, to me. The graphics don't have to be top notch (South Park cartoon is hardly great graphics), and the franchise itself has quite the following, allowing for a potentially big market for the game. Not my ideal choice -- I'm not really a South Park fan, so my interest in this game is about "meh". But from a financial aspect, I think this is a safer game for them to take on that a few they have.

PC version? I'm finding the arm wrestling in the XBox360 version quite easy.

I don't really like the sneaking in the game. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to tell if you're still hidden (until it's too late and they're charging at you, of course).