GhostofAnakin

Jumping back and forth between Shadow of Mordor and Far Cry 4. I'm finally able to play Far Cry 4 while connected to the internet.

Finally was able to play Far Cry 4. Had to change my settings for my PS4 to not automatically connect to the internet in order to do so. Very early in the game -- so I can't really comment one way or the other about it.

Still enjoying Shadow of Mordor, though still incredibly lost about the story.

Those were hit or miss for me. Some of them I just "saw" the pattern right away, even if it was rather complex. While others had me stumped even when they weren't that intricate.

I can't even start a game of Far Cry 4. It gets to the starting screen and after I press the X for start, it hangs up at "logging in." The music keeps playing, but nothing happens. What the hell?

Playing through some Shadow of Mordor. I gotta admit I'm just going around killing things. I should have probably paid more attention, but I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to do other than kill "captains".

The only part in that entire game I loathe playing through is the Ellie fight with the "boss" on that one level. Largely because I suck at tossing distractions and using the distraction to sneak up behind them.

Yeah, PSN being down is really screwing with my ability to play my games today.

Ditto Cassandra romance. I also had some personal quests fail to start, so that further limited my companion material. Still, in spite of the issues I mentioned, I'm still looking forward to a second playthrough. In great part due to comparing notes with a friend yesterday who had significant differences (well, for bioware anyway) in his story. He got the blue ending, while you chose the green?

I knew I should have waited for the Boxing day sales. Shadows of Mordor is $35 off, at $34.99 Far Cry 4 is $20 off, at $49.99 Assassin's Creed Unity is $20 off, at $49.99 Destiny is $30 off, at $39.99 Dragon Age is $20 off, at $49.99 Hell, I could have gotten a PS4 console bundle (Last of Us, Far Cry 4 and some other game) for the same price I paid for my PS4 + Last of Us.

This was probably obvious to anyone, but it only clicked for me tonight when I was replaying Skyrim. I was trying to figure out what it was that was "off" about the open world design BioWare went with in Inquisition. The lack of villages/cities with lots of people living there/walking around. Most of the maps in Inquisition didn't have a village. There were outposts, half-filled old forts, and some little collections of individuals (like the tiny Dalish camp in the Exalted Plains), but none of the maps had large, sprawling villages with plenty of citizens and sidequests/stories associated with those citizens. IMO, that's what I felt was lacking in their open world approach. The open world games that do succeed at being sandbox games with great worlds are the ones that have multiple cities/towns you can pass through, each with their own quests and backstories.

Decided to play Skyrim again after having not played it for 2 years. Bethesda does some things wrong, but world building isn't one of them. In terms of the scenery itself, the landscape (ie. trees, mountains, buildings) look more like a painting than "realistic", but they still are able to capture the epicness of the world nicely. The dialogue still is meh, though.

I noticed the bolded as well. It seemed the pacing this time was off, in terms of companion progression (ie. what they reveal to the player throughout the game). Every other Bio game in recent memory, it seemed they had something important to reveal after each major story progression you passed. In Inquisition, it seemed like you had access to their "personal quests" early on, and thus learned pretty much everything about them early on. I romanced Cassandra in my second play through, and I thought the pacing of her romance was extremely front loaded. I got the "sex scene" about midway through the game, and wondered if there'd be something else closer to the final battle. But there wasn't, not really. The only thing there was was the option to "spend some time together" where the exact same cutscene showed them making out in the blacksmith building. Maybe it's the open world that screwed up the pacing and spacing of the companion progression. Whatever the case, it did seem to be the most front-ended of all recent Bio games.

I'm finding the court approval meter a little bit annoying because I'd like to enjoy the area without being under time pressure, thats not so great. That was the worst part of that quest. The "timer" whenever you were in off limits areas. Granted, you can earn enough approval through various methods that losing approval for adventuring where you're not supposed to be isn't a big issue. But for me, it was just the psychological aspect of feeling like I'm being rushed in those areas. Honestly, that's one quest I think that should have been fleshed out even more as part of the main quest. Maybe actual missions or tasks from the three rulers so you can get a better idea of what they're really like. It would have fleshed out the Celene/Briala/Gaspard characters more if that was the case. Instead of simply Josephine getting you an invitation, maybe you needed to do some favors for one of them and get an invite from whichever one you did favors for. That sort of thing.

I played a bit more of the MP. My gosh, was this tacked on last minute or something? There's like 3 maps, with the exact same route to take for every mission. It's like an endless loop from a flashback to DA2's respawning bad guys in the alleys of Kirkwall. The way to unlock different character classes is incredibly cheesy, too. You either have to grind for a ridiculous amount of time and hope to find weapons/armor you can salvage for material, or you have to pay. Since there's no way I'm paying extra money, that means grinding. On top of that, the combat is just bad. I actually liked ME3's MP, found it a bit addicting. I can honestly say the only reason I've kept with DA's MP these past couple of nights is because a]I have nothing else to play at the moment and b]I was giving it a chance to prove me wrong, that it would get better the more I played it.

Canada. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/lords-of-the-fallen-limited-edition-playstation-4/10317774.aspx?path=93c67539c42deef0c23b572dbe065184en02 I was wrong about the date deadline, though. It's until December 24th.

Lords of the Fallen is on sale at Best Buy until December 30th. $25 off regular price.

When Sten's horns were removed, they neutered his outgoing personality.

The multiplayer is crap. I actually enjoyed ME3's MP, but this one is just bad. The problem with the MP for me is that it's an action setup but with the combat more geared to pause-and-play. ME3's worked because they basically turned the combat into a 3rd person shooter. This one doesn't because you can't use strategy or scout out the enemy formations because everything happens in real time.

Cassandra is more Sten than Iron Bull.

I actually did the Astrarium things and unlocked the achievement. Got some neat weapons/armor that might have helped earlier in the game, but way under my character's current level to be effective now. I also unlocked the achievement for upgrading my potions. The only achievement I haven't unlocked is harvesting 50 herbs from the garden (I only have two planters, so it's taking forever to harvest them).

There's nothing left for me to do in my warrior play through. Finished the SP storyline, cleared the non-main quest maps of all their quests, and have even hunted down every single dragon in the game. I suppose I could try to figure out all the Astrariums, but that's boring. MP, here I come I guess.

I've only got 3 games so far for my PS4. DA:I, Destiny, and CoD: Advanced Warfare. You've played DA:I, Destiny falls short of what it attempts, and CoD is the same as all the others except it's got jetpacks. I did pick up Far Cry 3 and a cheap version of Assassin's Creed Blackflag. But I haven't played either yet.

People who talk about how games were better back in the day remind me of parents who complain about how their kid's music sucks compared to the masterpieces back in their day. Not even saying they're wrong. It's just funny how similar they sound to my parents when I was younger and they'd always comment on how music is trash nowadays compared to theirs.

I'm going to attempt the DA:I multiplayer tonight. Not sure how well I'll do considering a]I don't know anyone else who has the game and will have to join a public lobby and b]I never use my mic when playing online against people I don't know. I also will have to get used to playing the game like an action game, rather than in combat mode (which is how I played every combat encounter in SP).