Hassat Hunter

(not having played ME3 though) Most game endings suck these days. Name one 2010/2011 game with a good ending. And back even before good endings are rare. Remember KOTOR2? DX:HR (push 1 of 3 buttons to end. Sounds like what's going on here. So why rage here, not there?)? DX:IW? ME2? etc. etc. EDIT: Heck, even PS:T, Baldur's Gate 2 and Divinity 2 and similar good RPG's have had a sloppy endgame...

Do I have veto rights as universally hated ex-mod? If so, cast

Well, here's my impression. Know I went in it hating MMO's (still do), rather wanting KOTOR3 and with a great dislike of what they did with Revan and the Exile (or the entire KOTOR2 for that part. Seems they didn't mind stealing the OST though). So yeah, went in the demo pretty negative. The end result did positively suprise me. Enough that I would be willing to shell 50 bucks for it. Not enough to pay a subscription at 12 euro a month. So end result; No TOR for me. Large impression from a roleplaying MMO-Noob and the difficulties in getting into one now follows. Warning; Spoilers aplenty for the Sith Warrior storyline. Sith Warrior. After getting an (IMO) cool skin the game started. Of course obviously first check the options (especially I wanted subtitles). So many stuff there. Don't even know what half does. With subtitles on the adventure could begin. So first murdered some enemies. Easy enough. Wandered around a bit, looting, some minor questing. The respawning enemies already quickly annoyed me. Especially when on the second level of the first tomb I recovered something, then had to walk all the way back. Decided to just ignore enemies, got stunlocked, first dead. I got a bonus mission to kill bugs, but hey, could do at the entrance, right? WRONG. I had to do that specifically on the second level... *sigh*. Afterwards had to run back again... What made it worse was later learning there was an exit to the academy if I just continued. Only dungeon I encountered in the entire demo who has 2 entrances though. I wasn't all that fond of the combat system, and not really in the mood to really have dozens of skills to pick (which I do now), so I stuck to just basic attack and vicious slash. Worked fine for the first 5 levels or so. Later did invest in them, and if you can properly handle them that wouldn't be that bad. Problem is (now having 2 bars enabled at lvl 15), it usually really isn't. The full bar got confusing, and now I have one bar dedicated to attacks and 1 to buffs. Still rather hard to properly do combat though. Firstly you have to handle the camera, which can be a pain. Second once a target is dead, you have to manually select the next. Which, with the amount of "enemies standing dead" seen isn't as easy as it sounds. Not to mention said camera can make selecting an enemy somewhat annoying too, especially in combat heavy instances. Third is distance. KOTOR you would just walk up to the enemy and whack him, here it's a red message easy to miss in the hectic fray. Walking up to enemies is also not as easy as I wish it to be, wish I could strafe without holding the scroll button, amongst other such tweaks. It's the same with peacetime situations, I don't understand why the "too far away" message appears instead of just walking up to that person to talk. Far more userfriendly IMO, and personally it would really make my life easier, especially shopping, not have to walk into their face but just click and sit back to shop. Maybe just a nitpick on my side though, but it really annoys me. Anyway, wasn't done yet with explaining why combat, to me, was clunky. 4; I am already starting to get sick of the message "Your target is dead." I suppose this is a lag issue, but it's really annoying the many times I finally select an oponent just to have that message appear, while I see them as like 50% health. Really tears you away in confusion just when you get on a roll using abilities and attacks. And 5, which is probably me not being a MMO player, but those timer thingies are really hard to follow. You have to watch the oposition, HP, rage AND the timers. Global, individual, unique... aargh. Doesn't help it seems global and individual use the same run-down thing on the UI. I find I spend most my time watching my bar rather than the screen just seeing my rage level, which rage ability is available again, wheter revenge is available (that one is soooo annoying. And it's the most powerful attack one has so you can't really ignore it). Many a "not enough rage" appeared on the screen that I just miss. Heck, during one Heroic my entire team died, and I didn't notice since I was too busy looking at what to use on the boss. Overall, the combat is not as fun to me as KOTOR. Luckily the overall difficulty isn't too high for regular gameplay so it's not really needed to become a pro in "watching the ability meter"... I can rage through the general game, and then get slaughtered all the time in Heroics. Always the one to go down first . Doesn't help I haven't really find a good way to bind medpacks to the quickbar. Right click doesn't work, and left usually puts the thing on my mouse instead of using a medpack. And then they heal barely and have 90 sec recharge. I stopped bothering with them long ago (maybe why I suck so much). Also during my first instances and actual Heroic (lvl 10/11, Sith Maurader) I noticed my obvious proneness to dying, and seemingly doing a lot less damage than all the other chars. Which I tied to being new to MMO, but at lvl 13 I finally found out the Sith Warrior skill trainer had this little "Sith Maurader" tab added, which had all kinds of cool new skills (shield of pain, 6 rage inducing standard attack with small recharge). After that Elites started dying to me rather than I to them. Overall, game's not really that new user friendly I think. Also completely social unfriendly. Heroic's is hell (more so for demo users, which cannot use chat or whisper unless whispered to. Which *never* happens). I usually tried bowing and waving and stuff, still after all the time they finally ask me the first comment is usually "Wasn't sure you wanted to join, Hassat". Doesn't help that 'Join team' automatically rejects with 'does not accept invitations' rather than, I don't know, asking the party leader if they want that person in their group. Would be a small step towards more instance friendlyness, still a long way to go still after that though. Also probably my newness that Heroics can just be confusing. Did one called "Saving face". Why did everyone need explosives? Do we need to place them all (backup arrives after 1 does, so, no? I didn't). Why could I just respawn at checkpoint, not by meddroid when I died? Why did my entire team finish it, disbanded the group and I was still left at 'defend from slaves' goal? Especially that last one sucked. Back to Korriban though. During my next few sidemissions I quickly learned that something really weird was going on with the DS/LS choices. As in, the LS was pretty much always the best. Though, being Sith, you would be punished for doing so. So instead of being smart, being an idiot was really promoted. Make a dangerous beast threatning all stronger or less? Less? LS! Ending a war quickly, so the sith resources can be used wisely or continue it on for mere pleasure? Being wise? LS! Kill a dangerous opponent you're after and end something once and for all, or rather kill his family, pissing him off further? End it? LS! And so we could continue on. I usually picked DS just for getting DS points (and not all DS is gained in LS/DS choices, though rarely are there LS gained seperately), though I did not in several cases just because while my Sith Maurader is bloodthirsty, I atleast would make it so he's not a complete idiot. During the later missions you did have to walk all the way back usually after doing something, which is a pain. Often I would just let myself die to respawn in base, skipping all the useless combat. You overleved fast doing just quests anyway, so having to do so much battle while just walking about gets pretty tiresome. Then the story there ended, and I got to something Kaas. Can't remember the name. But first massive freaking wasted space ship. What's up with those docking bays? Also after finally warming up so to TOR it launches me to such a MMO-point. I hate the place. So many people loitering, so much walking, so many vendors spread out so far. First went to the crew training. Since this is the demo, and no ship and I had no crew (just Mission Vao) I decided to skip them, just initiating convo with trainer for Codex entries (read: XP). Then came to the vendor stand. Lvl 50 PVP gear, lvl 50 PVP gear, lvl 50 PVP gear, lvl 50 PVE gear, lvl 50 PVE gear, lvl 50 PVE gear, recommendation gear (by then I had a whooping 7 Korriban's, not enough for even 1 item), recommendation. Ugh. Thought to get some good stuff, only to find that it's pretty much all based on endgame players. All I got was a 200 credit necklace to grant to Mission, everything else was locked up tight with restrictions I couldn't meet. Haven't even *tried* trading... can't recall right now what the 4th tab was about. In the end; I REALLY hate that place. Couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Fortunately ran into the Black Talon though, that was a fun romp with 3 people (did it twice to see differences, barely any. Also to train social. *That* little for 2 full runs? Forget it! And then later people in chat say it's the best place to get social points. Yikes!) even though as mentioned I suck. What was even more stupid was that if I died I got booted (long loading screen), then had to re-enter (yay, long loading screen). Can't I respawn inside there? After all all the running back to where you die is enough even without those ridicilous long loading screens. Now to finish my story (did you get this far? You're crazy you know!), although I probably forgot a point or 3 I did want to make in this humongous post, teammates. Well, teammate. Mission. Good to have around, although it's somewhat strange you get a pure goody two-shoes as apprentice when Sith (she always gives - when I am being dark. -1 though compared to +15 though, so hardly that much a loss. Only twice had another negative, -30. That cut in...) She seems ridicilously stronger than me, killing peeps faster than I can do myself. And is a greater tank. Why the heck am I the hero here? The downside is the lack of conversations. Only had 1 so far (lvl 15 as mentioned before). I would have liked some more talking with them. And less repeatal battle lines. I heard her repetoire of "end of combat" lines too much *already*. Wonder how bad it would be if you got lvl 50. They really need to tone that down. Another thing that's really needed is comparing windows for your teammate (would 1.2 add this? Or did I imagine people saying that?). Equipping myself is easy (although I also made the mistake of selling my mod armor since it's boosts sucked). Even without the comparrison in the end, just having them next to each other is a great help. For Mission though I have to go back and forth between her item's popup and the one in the inventory. Annoying. Even more so when it's a quest reward (or worse, a loot option during teamgame), so you can't open your inventory to compare. More than once took an alternative reward just due to that. Should be a simple fix/addition, don't you think? Oh, remembered one, still somewhat unsure on need/greed/X on a reward when with the team. First I just thought it was need or greed (get item, sell item?) till someone complained in my first flashpoint why I didn't pass up item X. So I learned you could X out if you don't want it. Which I do most of the times now (though I notice most people don't do this and just go for need of greed. Wheter just due to greed or not knowing like I, I don't know). Not exactly sure what greed does either. You all the money? Split in the team? Anyway, since I hit level 15, and am somewhat tired of going on with my Sith Maurader as is, I probably when starting again tomorrow will choose a new Republic class. I do enjoy it enough to keep playing till the free demo's done, but as mentioned, not enough to pay a subscription. I probably would barely play, also seeing my huge backlog of Steam/GOG games (thanks x-mas sale), and of course work on TSLRCM. A SP game one could play on there own time, but with this MMORPG time is money, which would not really support my laidback approach to RPG's (I do notice I explore a lot less in TOR than most RPG's. And not just because most maps are filled with needless filler (rooms) and there is nothing interesting to discover going "off-path"... which is kind of a shame too really.

http://www.swtor.com/weekendpass You would think they wait for 1.2 (you know, better first impression)... Oh well, BioWare and demo's, eh? Atleast glad I get to try it...

Does this fix it?

Doesn't require George Lucas consent. Does require LucasArts consent though... which is equally unlikely though. And yeah, you're probably better off looking for KOTOR2 conversations on our (TSLRCM's) official board; http://www.deadlystream.com/forum

Started Claptrap Revolution only to notice it's level 35 TOO. Of course Zombie Island already leveled me from 36 to 42 (well, 41.5, but I got the remaining .5 from the one Moxi quest and challenges completed while doing Moxi). So... yeah. What was the point of having 2 exactly same leveled DLC? Either way one of them is going to be too easy... :/ As for Drakensang, no idea. But my local shops have both for 7.50 euro. Cheap enough . What did you pay?

I played ME2 as engineer (as did ME1) so no issues with that, my powers where mainly against armor and shields. And turrets. And yes, there were multiple infinite wave sequences in ME2. The one I remember best is recruiting Tali, when one bad-ass Geth had to be killed, and Geth just kept spawning inbetween those sequences. One of the areas where I needed to reload most, as they came from all directions and you had to push forward. Later I read in a FAQ it was simpler just to nuke the Geth, and since my heavy weapon was entirely unused in ME2, I suppose I should have done that too. Silly me... Still like ME1 more than ME2. Mostly due to it's plot, and I liked exploration with the MAKO. Better way to spend time than scanning... And that ME3 trailer does look great. Isn't going to change me getting it cheap though (as I do all my games). Still got plenty of games on GOG and Steam (and in boxes) from X-mas sales that I can't even finish all before that time...

Seeing how I started Maxi and Zombie Island too pretty recently (assume same x-mas sale ), I get the feeling. It was pretty hard to get the game to actually minimalise for me to allow me to get Steam up and copy the keycode to the clipboard (and eventually into the little activation box). Making the window active was no issue for me... making it unactive was. But yeah, the same goes for Maxi (taskmanager minimalising/maximilsing does the trick for me). Haven't tried the other 2 DLC yet, probably starting Claptrap Revolution today. And that's also what I am playing at the moment

IIRC they made the "intro" so bloody instead of great like the DA:O origins since "xx% of the players left before finishing them". Probably because they didn't expect a RPG. Looking at the avarage Steam game, even full blown FPS show similar drops of like 90% starting the game, but only 75% only proceeding beyond tutorial/mission 1/prologue/whatever. So, yeah, the data is accurate, the lesson learned is wrong. Will we see repeat preformance? We shall see. I already call anyway that the MAKO and Hammerhead are even further dumbed down to a railroad shooter segment. Apparently TOR already has that too. I suppose this time I wait for the gold version (if one is made). Still little annoyed I miss out Shadowbroker, but I am not really wanting to purchase DLC seperately through EA...

Isn't DA2 proof that they, in fact, cannot? I was going to say that when reading that post. Maybe the was proof that Malcador was well aware they aren't? Because if they can "with user intel" go from DAO to DA2, well, you can expect the worst if they 'listened' here too... I suppose they go with that these are travel-light ships, capable to do what a Sovereign has to do 2000 years over. Also "solves" the issue of why the heck all the ME1 stuff when they pop up just 5 years later... BioWare: "Problem solved" And the galaxy minigame, just based on that video, looks worse than ME2. Darnit. What's up with "active scanning"? And yes, I agree the Reapers turning in looked silly too. Wonder if when they catch up it's just game over (I suspect, which would be lame ) or something else entirely...

So... any way to play the ME3 demo on PC without Origin?

Same here. Mostly the x-mas sale responsible... Although no-where near 100 games. And yeah, never buy when not on sale... it's just more expensive than the stores. Heck, I got DX:HR for less in a store during the x-mas sale... PS. Why does Steam keep telling there is "DLC for my game" when it's for a game I don't posses... keeps happening :/

Ehm... ME1 forced you normal... unless you complete the game twice. ME2 you can put the hardest difficulty up from the start (much better). I am sensing comparing ME1 difficulty 3/5 with ME2 difficulty 5/5 in this thread...

Well, gonna try the demo when it hits PC. Then wait till it's discounted like with the other two ME's (and heck, pretty much all games. Allows one to avoid titles like DA2. No pre-ordering for me...) A stupid plot is far more forgivable for 20 euro than for 50 euro. And maybe one even finds the gold edition with all DLC...

I haven't made a single comment regarding gameplay in these threads. So why people claim I overlook ME1's faults and hammer ME2's, I have no clue. It's true. But I still can see the faults ME1 made. Also those ME2 made. And it's a little hard to see how much more of a plot ME1 has, wheter ME2's is flinter-thin, and covers barely 10% of the game, a pretty major difference. Can't deny that. And yes, I do like a more plot-heavy game than lots of side-quests with major plot. Also, Mako beats Hammerhead, exploring planets beats scanning planets, ME1's shooting beats ME2's in my opinion. Inventory beats using single weapon pretty much all the game, also getting a new weapon rather than just buying upgrade X. I rather liked having side-quests covering several planets instead of the small maps all of ME2's where. There also things I liked better in ME2, so it's not all bad. I enjoyed both games, though I haven't considered replaying either. I tried with ME1 immediately and quick shortly after, didn't even try with ME2... All have nothing to do with the plot point I tried to make in the past...

Hmmm, weren't the keepers actually robotics, instead of organic. Or do I miss-remember here? Not really. It was made pretty clear the only way the Reapers could arrive fast was this way, otherwise it would take them a loooong looong time. But apparently that changed for ME2. Which, as already been stated, makes Sovereign's plan a little stupid. Why risk so much when you can wait 10 years and just take everything by force? As also already stated, Tim was the Cerberus boss. And doesn't really seem the terrorist leader ME1 made Cerberus out to be. They were pretty much an additional baddy that seemed to be added in late-time. If they were so essential to the ME-plot for part II, why not more consideration in their implentation. Which gives me more fear there was no over-arching plan for ME and they just make up stuff as they go. Not good for a trilogy based on story-telling. Except at the end of #1 one appears. The only one in known galaxy space sure (retconned with the derelict reaper in ME2). Except they didn't. And stuff got sillier as the game progresses. By the time the endboss appeared I was really going "WTF BioWare? What where you guys thinking?" The 'choice' and ending scene just made stuff even worse. When plot is as non-existant as it was in ME2, I actually expect it to be somewhat right. And match the premises set up in the first game. Why the heck is it a trilogy otherwise? They never explained their "silly thing"... Perhaps I should have tried nanana-ing though, would have made it more fun not having to deal with retconning everything I learned from ME1 and thus losing any plot progression I was hoping for. And don't even get me started on "bullets are better than infinite firing guns which do a little overheating". That's so insanely silly... (and heck, that's there explenation) it blows a mind...

Buying a game I have AGAIN just to play it... not really a fan of promoting that... Not sure. It's some kind of UbiSoft own-made stuff apparently (from what I gathered)

Well, mentioned Reaper change. "We hate organics, we kill all life. Machines are supreme. All organic life must die" "..." "Yeah, not really. We turned them into us, we're part organic. Instead of killing we enslaved them. Also we want to make a robot our of you, since we're not supreme at all..." Sheppard; "Issues much?" "We need to use the relay to get here, otherwise it would take soooooo much time..." "You know, about still in your life-time, apparently. I've waited thousands of years. I cannot wait 10 longer. We cannot wait 10 longer. You made us..." Then there's Cerberus getting some major do-over. The Council dissaproving the Reapers when it actually attacked the Citadel. Sovereign being the only... wait, there's a defect one here too.

It's a sad day when you buy a boxset of your favorite series and have to return it just because they screwed up the disks. Also, to try and install Beyond Good & Evil on Windows7 and have it fail due to the DRM. Ugh... Any workarounds are welcome... :/

Well, the story (if one can speak of that) of ME2 was weaker than a pazaak-made pyramid . Basically it was just gathering your team. The actual "main plot" was pretty non-existant. Unlike ME1. And with all the ME2 bickering people haven't even mentioned the plot making no sense taking ME1 into account. What you learn there of Reapers doesn't match whatt we learn in ME2 of Reapers. It looks like the games where made with no overarching plot in mind. Pretty bad for a trilogy. Which makes me kind of fearful of #3 to be honest. Especially with co-op added to "decide the ending"... like I wanted that

The same reviewers who state AP was a bugfest and ME2 was bugfree? Excuse me if I don't take their word on it... gigantive massive buginess can be easily "forgotten" in big-budget titles (think all Bethesda games. And suddenly F:NV was more buggy???). Anyway, interested to hear about people here if the full game sucks as much as the demo. As for the user who wondered if they went the Dragon Age II tour, yes, I had that impression too. And that's hardly a plus, bogged down POS UI that was (and is present here).

Maybe it brings other companies shame to see how crappy a port EA can shove us (seriously, that demo was one of the buggiest pieces of software you find) down our throat? And they all wanted to be able to do that... ???

Online reviews anyway. Payed mags are generally better, since they can't get away with garbage like online sites can...