GhostofAnakin

Trying to decide whether I want to do a third run through Mars: War Logs, or play one of my backlog of games (Dishonored, Dark Souls).

Seconded. It's why a lot of my favorite games are known more for the strength of their story than their gameplay.

Finished Mars: War Logs on the side of Honor Grant this time. You learn a lot more about the motivation of Wisdom when you side with Honor. It's almost as though this was intended as the "optimal" choice, with siding with the Resistance a way to just expand on the other side of the conflict.

Playing through Mars: War Logs still, this time siding with Honour Grant. It's actually interesting to see it from the other perspective. I'm getting more insight into stuff I didn't get when siding with the Resistance.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised. Most games I play I tend to enjoy more if I have a degree of intrinsic customization (aesthetic customization doesn't appeal to me as much). Not always. I don't think games that don't include these will die out altogether though, especially in light of my previous comments in this post. RPGs are the genre I tend to prefer, so for the most part I, personally, don't mind the shift. I agree with this. Part of it for me is it makes replaying the game have more of an appeal when I can try different setups for my character.

Second play through of Mars: War Logs. I get a kick out of how everyone I talk to thinks Mary is an airhead. The voice actress sounds like she's 8 years old.

I see EA has expanded BioWare's gay romance option to even their sports titles now.

If you hate Witcher so much, why even bother with the next game? Just so your complaints about the series can be up-to-date? Haha I never got that either. "I hate this series so much that I absolutely HAVE to play the new game just to have something to complain about. I hope they never make another game! ... but I'll buy it if they do."

Finished my first Mars: War Logs play through. Ended up siding with the Resistance, even though Marco's a dink. Solid game. Worth the purchase considering how cheap it was. There's definitely some key "decisions" you can make in the game that warrants another play through just to see how they play out differently.

How do you like the game? I've been watching some videos and am kinda drawn to the aesthetics and the premise. But combat looks unbelievably clunky and obviously there's no way to judge the storytelling from a bunch of YT clips. I'm finding it harder and harder to drag myself to try new games so I'd rather not waste the effort if it's not very good... It's obviously a budget title, so you can see it lacks that extra polish. And some of the voice acting looks like they just got some of the game designers read the lines in their spare time. But it's actually a pretty good game. Good atmosphere, the story's good (so far -- haven't finished yet, so it could lay an egg at the end), and while the combat is kind of clunky, it's no worse than your typical RPG game take on real time combat, similar to what you'd find in the Witcher or Arisen 2 (two recent RPGs that had real time combat). For me, especially given the cheap price, it's a game I'd recommend. You're basically paying DLC price for a full game that's on par with most recent decent RPGs you pay full price for.

Anything non-fantasy related and I'm in.

You get significant bonuses when your reputation changes from neutral, that's why it takes so long. Don't remember it being at the end of Chapter 2 though, for me it was closer to beginning/middle. I must have missed out on one of the "jumps" in reputation. I'm into Chapter 3 now and I've only gone up to "good" reputation. If I do actually reach max reputation at this point, it won't be until the end of the game when it probably won't matter.

I can't seem to change my character's reputation in Mars: War Logs. I'm playing as a goodie-goodie, but I'm near the end of Chapter 2 and still neutral despite being a damn nice person. On my next play through I'm just going to be a jerk and extract serum from everyone I beat.

Chapter 1 of Mars: War Logs was more interesting than Chapter 2 has been so far. It seemed to move a lot faster, and seemed to have more interesting quests.

I honestly don't understand this. Not a criticism by any means, but I can't understand how people still find stuff they missed even after they've played NV a few times already. Is it a case of me metagaming or something? Every play through, I find and complete all the quests. The only exception are when you have different factions and you can choose one side or the other. But even in those cases, I'll usually complete that quest's alternate paths in no more than 3 or 4 play throughs.

Poor old guard Bob. After all he did for me, he died on his way to the train. And apparently my character simply didn't care. Bob: "Got...shot. Won't make... it." My guy: "Yeah, tough luck about that. Anyhoo..." *leaves him on the ground without even checking to see if it's just a flesh wound*

I liked it on its own, but I didn't like how it fit within a supposed 3-game story arc. It did, however, have the best sidequest missions in any of the three games. Mass Effect 2 actually fits the second act formula for a particular type of a three story arc. Same as Star Wars, for instance. It's kind of common with stories that plan for trilogies, but don't really PLAN for the trilogy if that makes sense. The second part doesn't really make any headway in concluding the arc, it just fleshes things out. People criticize it because "Mass Effect 1 ended with the Reapers coming to the galaxy, Mass Effect 2 ended with the Reapers.... coming to the galaxy." But, The Empire Strikes back didn't end with the Empire on the run. It ended with Luke knowing more about Vader. And in context of Mass Effect 2, we learn more about the Reapers. If the Collector base had paid off similarly, it could have been that connection the trilogy needed. The reason Mass Effect 2 fails to push the story forward is Mass Effect 3's fault, not Mass Effect 2's. As if Return of the Jedi had all but ignored the family connection, save for a passing mention during the final battle. ESB would have turned into the weird midqual where they just meet the guy who blows up the second Death Star. That's kind of what I meant, though. It didn't fit within the 3-arc story because, like you said, ME3 seemed to ignore pretty much the majority of it. And the things ME3 didn't ignore, they made trivial.

The voice acting is really sub par in Mars: War Logs. It's like they paid some folks $5 off the street to read lines. Other than that, I'm enjoying the atmosphere of the game.

I liked it on its own, but I didn't like how it fit within a supposed 3-game story arc. It did, however, have the best sidequest missions in any of the three games.

Decided to buy Mars: War Logs. Only an hour or so in, and so far I'm enjoying it. I like the setting (so far). It does look like a budget title, less polished than what I'm used to, but it's not that big of a deal.

Wasn't a big fan of Spec Ops: The Line. I don't know what it was about it, to be honest. I just didn't dig the story.

Hmm.. Sam's is a definite yes, then.

Are the DLC backstory DLC or something? Or do they run concurrent with the main game's story? Or are they even story at all, but rather just "challenge maps"?

Sam's DLC sounds interesting. I might give it a shot. Sounds like I should pass on the other one though.

Maybe about mechs and Raiden, nothing else. Did you play through Samuel's chapter as well? Or other DLC? No, I haven't played any of the DLC. Just the core game. Worth the time and price to get the DLC?