Tale

I'm always surprised to hear about people's problems with Clear Sky. Because nobody ever echoes the problem I had with it. It's pitch black at night. And no way to skip through night. So it's just wandering around, bumping into rocks, or hanging out at a camp for an hour or longer of real time. The actual length of time escapes me, because the second time night came around, I stopped playing the game altogether. I really do need to play CoP. I own it, but it's on the pile. By insert-deity-of-choice, I think you may be right! That's an observation I never quite caught. Then again, I never minded linear design. It's not usually as bad as the op's image illustrates.

Amazing. That happens to me all of the time when my friends want me to help them move. Such a shame.

My personal problem (if problem is the right thing to call it) with this is that, assuming the tension is truly founded due to the randomness and the unreliable nature of the patterns, then you're right that it's not a challenge. But it is luck. Does the random element truly have a place in stealth games? If I do everything perfectly and still get caught, I'm going to feel a bit robbed. Left to either savescum (in which case the random element is a design failure) or shoot them. Now, I do see a resolution to this problem. Namely enabling some mechanic that allows a recovery from luck based failure. "Oh no, they spotted me in a way I could not have predicted or accounted for, I must quickly press X to ____. Saving me from discovery." But that might kill the tension you want.

I don't know where I can say I fall on that. MGS 1 and 2 can be fun for me, but I have to intentionally restrict myself. Just shooting people with a tranq gun, then running by, can be boring. But watching the patrol pattern and timing movements to sneak behind their back is almost like an action-puzzle game. 3 and 4's camouflage systems didn't really improve my enjoyment of the sneaking. Splinter Cell's not too different. Except you're sometimes trying to find a way to sneak right in front of the guy through a shadow. But you're still fighting the urge to just say "#@%@ it" and knock him out.

Yeah it's called Metal Gear on high difficulty levels, and we manage. The original Metal Gear or the Solid games? Solid games become dependent upon memorization at harder difficulties, either from trial and error, or having played the lower difficulties. Neither do I consider an ideal design for games. But I accept them as fair gimmicks on a case-by-case. I guess there's probably a way to play those higher difficulties without the prior knowledge, but I can't imagine doing so and it being entertaining.

Still on Dungeon Siege 3. Finally got I don't expect to finish it tomorrow either. My backlog is just getting worse.

Monthly fees also include things like server maintenance and customer support. It is a service, after all.

I imagine that may not be SFW for some people because of the audio. But haven't listened to it myself, yet. So, FYI guys.

Quite a bit less as I recall. Maybe 10.

I think it is Q on keyboard. Or is that change stance?

I've been trying to do a heal tank build (creative destruction with the vampiric upgrades) with Reinhart. It's slow going and only Normal, no idea how it'll work on Hardcore. Doing it with Anjali was something I toyed around with in the demo. It's cool to see that it works out really well in Hardcore.

Being completely first person kind of kills it feeling like Gears of War. A total lack of blindfire and inability to see over the cover while in cover does that. More like what Crysis 2 has. I find it obnoxious in FEAR and Crysis 2. Crysis 2 at least lets you mark targets so you can tell their position while in cover. FEAR... the game gets much better when you no longer need cover.

Not playing now, but TV Tropes convinced me that I need to play Scribblenauts. So I had to purchase it. Which is more recommended? Scribblenauts or Super Scribblenauts? I hear Super has some control improvements, but Scribblenauts has better puzzles.

There's been a couple of recent Halo games. ODST and Reach. I don't believe Singularity or Bioshock have formal cover, either. Aside from that, I don't think recent vs. older is really relevant to the discussion. Recent leans towards cover because its practically part of the standard toolbox, like assault rifles. But my point was that FPS games were successful on consoles before that point.

Console shooters were doing just fine without hiding behind crates. Halo being one of the more popular examples. Exceptions to the rule kind of hint that the rule does not actually exist. Or that's there's something significantly wrong with its conception as a rule. Games playing similar is rarely the fault of a single popular mechanic. That's usually more deliberate follow the leader. Games playing like Gears of War because they want people to like them the same as Gears of War, not because they both use cover.

My understanding is that there's a level select. You can replay individual missions. And it will save that data.

Still on Dungeon Siege 3. The stories about it being short kept making me think that it would have ended already. But I know I have at least one dungeon area left. And expect another after that. I think that'd make me happy with it. Besides, I have like 9 or 10 levels left until cap. Anyway, lots of fun. Probably too easy on Normal. Oh and I still haven't recruited Lucas. Don't know if I missed something or not.

Have you been into the Mornweald and done the quest at Gundric mansion?

I don't know that LA Noire was that great. It's good, but it's probably the top of the list for games I wouldn't have regretted missing while not actively disliking. It doesn't seem to justify that 7 year development time.

I was in a guild with the guy behind number 7. Nice guy, good sense of humor.

I kind of would like to see Bachmann as president. In the way that I like to push big red buttons that say "DO NOT PUSH." You know something bad is going to happen. You just don't know what. And there's only one way to find out.

I always pictured mkreku as something of a dirty hillbilly (exactly like his avatar, in fact), but this challenges that idea.

The password can be found in there.

It feels like they cut something out of that final episode. It's not as interesting as some of the others they've done. Part of the reason it feels they might have cut something, is the episode description says that they chase into Hill Valley's future. But that doesn't happen at all. And it says the chase involves the present, too, but that's not technically true either.

Me and Calax did a full co-op FEAR 3 run. Lots of fun. I found out that you can possess even the Phasecasters and Phastcaster Commander. But the latter are too big to fit through doors.