Tale

I'll be. So Gaider didn't write anyone to be funny in DA2? Just one more thing to dislike about it. Semi-serious, Kirby did good in making a character with wit.

I enjoy Gaider's characters. He has a flair for making them humorous and likeable. Alistair and Awakening Anders both had a sense of humor, they were sarcastic, and it was their endearing trait without which I wouldn't have remembered their names. But Gaider instead wrote Varric for wit in DA2, leaving Anders with someone who wasn't able to get the same humor and charm into the character, or perhaps didn't even want to.

I remember him from Alpha Protocol, too. I'm actually surprised he hasn't posted since 2011, I remember the name too well. Good luck to him.

Dead Space 3 The intro to the game is everything people feared about it. Which is hilarious, because they're sabotaging their own game. It starts with some very light shooting of some extremely humanoid necromorphs. Quickly followed by CINEMATIC MOMENTS that wouldn't have been out of place in an Uncharted game, with you repelling down a cliffside and trying to avoid debris. Then the very next sequence has you shooting human soldiers. Then a few real necromorphs finally appear, but it's generic narrow city areas. Followed by another CINEMATIC MOMENT. And that's when you finally get the suit, go into space, and get to the part you bought the game for. Everything up until that point could have withstood being cut from the game. And maybe replaced with something quicker that gives the same general plot. I'm in "Chapter 5" and I feel like the game just started. It's promising so far, but that intro gives an awful impression. Though I don't like that some missions require co-op. What the heck?

And if you don't know what you're choosing, it's also not much of a decision. You don't know you're helping Anders blow up the chantry. So yeah, it's a little bit of a gotcha. He's telling you he needs this stuff to calm Vengeance down. He's lying to Hawke and that deceit is carried on to the player and that's the point of lying, deceit, and omission. To steal from a person their ability to make decisions. I like that you bring up the magistrate, though. You've used the same example from the other side in previous discussions. Such that letting him go causes him to continue killing. So we have the magistrate taking vengeance or the kid killing more people. I like that idea.

What makes a decision bad? Is it the outcome? My philosophy is sort of that all choices should be roughly equal, but I like the idea of some being more challenging or ambiguous than others. But they should ultimately all be appealing, assuming we're not talking about going into boss fights wearing only a speedo unless there's some foreshadowing that the monster is weak to buttcracks. You don't have to make every outcome happy. But they should end up roughly equal, even if one path is a bit more circuitous to get there. Or if it's simply uncertain. For example, a player chooses to befriend a demon, they could just choose to kill it, but they choose to explore the idea that a demon can be redeemed or whatever. If they kill it, it's over. If they choose to redeem it, then it becomes a threat again, people are hurt and new conflict arises. But in the process of resolving this conflict, a demon of pride changes into a spirit of confidence. Or a desire demon becomes a love spirit, whatever. The idea being that some choices should present challenges, not judgements of being good or bad. The player who killed the demon can see that their choice was right because they stopped the additional threat that hurt people. The player who chose to redeem the demon can see that they were right, the demon can be redeemed, but has to decide for themself if it was worth the risk and the fact that people got hurt.

I think focused efforts on MP or SP can only be a good thing. I used to hate the idea of MP only games, feeling that there's enough SP games out there with good tacked on MP and then mods on top of that where I'd never need to buy a dedicated MP game. But as I've grown up, I became more discerning. Half-Life 2 DM, the two Transformers games, Space Marine, they all were fun in their MP modes. But they still never lived up to Team Fortress 2 or Battlefield 2142. And Call of Duty's single player campaign will never live up to Half-Life, Singularity, or Bioshock. The competition for good MP and SP games is fierce. The market has so much overwhelming choice. These little half-baked modes tacked onto the game they put their actual efforts into just seem like a waste of time for me to play when I could play something more serious. But if someone's on a budget and gets bored of the last game they played, maybe it's a good idea.

Disappointed like most everyone else. At least around here. I hope it's good, though, and helps bring in money to the studio. I just don't see it strengthening the brand. But it may help them expand the brand for more opportunities in the future.

What? Dag nabbit, Valve.

My one complaint against Spielburg is that he didn't backhand Lucas during pre-pro or production of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Pretty much all classes are broken at level 14. Jew's not really unique in that. Though the comment does make it seem more interesting as it does a wider variety of things at once.

Wish I could. The hallucinations the second player has are what I'd really like to see. But alas.

I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to best jump into this argument when I see you've summed up my feeling more succinctly than I ever could. For the record I like Dragon Age: Origins. I liked it enough that I overlook my one agency related complaint about the Wardens. Seriously, he just stabs Ser Jory, what a bastard. Though I do like to poke holes at the fact that the Grey Wardens as a single organization should have splintered into national institutions a long time ago. And Mass Effect 2's even more ridiculous forcing the player into Cerberus without letting me kill the crew members in their sleep while scrawling "FOR ADMIRAL KOHAKU" in their blood along the ship's walls. For me, good railroading is when the tracks you're forced down give more than they take. I bought into the premise of saving the world when I bought Dragon Age: Origins. So forcing me down the tracks of being a Warden just enables going towards that. It helps me to save the world and fix everyone's stupid problems. Similarly I bought into saving the galaxy in Mass Effect 2. And when I was forced to join Cerberus, I was not forced to actually help Cerberus. You get to save the galaxy and you don't even have to murder any Alliance soldiers or admirals. You can tell your boss to just bugger off, if you'd like. Dragon Age 2, however, failed to give anything when it forced you down tracks. And its plot is convoluted enough that you can't really see what you're heading towards from where you start, so there's no premise to buy into. Ultimately almost everything you aspire to achieve in the game you will fail at, and I can't help but be bitter towards the tracks because I see them leading only to that failure. It's a railroad whose tracks only lead into the side of a mountain. Disaster. And that's also how I view Mass Effect 3. I never liked the Crucible to begin with. But that's a rant for another time.

Beat Dead Space 2 over the weekend. I really liked it. Enough that I'm giving strong consideration to ordering Dead Space 3 despite my worry about how microtransactions might have influenced it. Started up Dark Souls 2 as well. Gameplay is solid as ever. It's weird though, they wanted to get people interested in the story more so they did more exposition at the beginning. But now it seems more directionless. You're just trying to get rid of your curse. No real clear destination to that goal. Dark Souls 1 they start off telling you to ring the bells. And then more goals unravel from that.

I think people overestimate how much is put into the romances. And even what constitutes the romance sometimes. Their struggle with main plots seems like something deeper. But that's kind of true for the industry, so whatever unique challenges Bioware faces that they aren't quite overcoming is something I can only speculate. I'll just blame too-many-cooks. It's my default.

Don't worry, you're only missing COD with some crappy mechs. Not to discount anyone else's opinion on this game, but this is kind of how I felt after playing the beta a bit. But to each their own. I've heard lots of positive discussion that painted a different picture. So I'm actually a bit surprised. I'd like to hear elaboration from one who actually played, if you're up for it. Just for informative purposes. I have no interest in playing multiplayer shooters myself.

I don't agree. I can't agree. First off, I have to say they're totally separate. I see no connection between the ideas of "romance" and "RPG experience." But second is that I don't think most RPGs are even equipped for what I'd consider a well written romance. To me, a well written romance needs two things, conflict and time. I look at Farscape with Crichton and Aeryn, it's not until around season three that the romance really becomes what you'd identify as a romance. Along the way, they get jealous, they fight, they keep getting pulled apart by circumstance or their own goals, one of them even dies, and then only after all of that conflict is resolved do they get together. When I look at RPGs romances, I only see the room for all of that when the romance spans multiple games or the game is mostly about that one romance. It's part of why I like Viconia's romance and Morrigan's. Viconia's is little but conflict and it takes from Baldur's Gate II to Throne of Bhaal to resolve. Morrigan's is faced with obstacles, her own nature, and her leaving with the child. Eventually resolved in Witch Hunt. But still, neither really enhanced what made these games RPGs, they simply inserted interesting character drama alongside.

My favorite was that she would die and then become a zombie and then it's okay because she's not your sister anymore technically. That was just a joke probably to make fun of other people who wanted the romance. I don't have any evidence to back up that claim, mind you. It is simply what I choose to believe.

I'd say she raises valid concerns but then turns them on the head and invalidates everything with stupid crap that comes out of her mouth. Did things change that drastically from her first video and later works? The big criticism I had of her work is that it was dull. That's it really. It came across like a high school essay. Lacked entertainment value, expressiveness, useful insights, or anything to really hook the viewer. It was like reading a grocery list, only instead of cheese and milk, it was video game princesses. It wasn't offensive or stupid, just dull.

Dead Space 2 You probably don't recall, but I tried playing it when it first came out. It had reproduceable freezing errors and I started thinking my PS3 was dying. 3 years later, my PS3 is still chugging along, so I think I can relieve myself of that worry and try playing again.

I beat Stick of Truth last night. Great game, desperately needed more difficulty. I beat the final boss on Hardcore while actually trying to hold back so it would last a few more rounds. I need to stock up on Sunny D for next week, though.

Are you pressing A to detonate?

Caution doesn't mean you can't use it, it means you have too much and are about to crap yourself. If you're actually unable to use it, it sounds like it skipped updating the UI. Because when you do crap yourself, it drains all your mana. Try using a mana potion. See what happens.

Bell's actually kind of obvious. Maybe too obvious. There's a bell on the fence. Use the cowbell there. The mouse is a bit more hidden. It's almost like he's behind a secret passage. Let's just say that there's some pipes that you can walk around you might not realize.

As far as I can tell, you're not supposed to skip that one. The earlier instances were true loops where skipping was the only way out. This one is unique throughout and he just gets over it on his own.