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Azure79

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Posts posted by Azure79

  1. Open at your peril:

     

     

    Okay so... eh. I just came home from cinema and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it yet. Some parts were great, others... not so much. Ben Solo is a terrible replacement for Darth Vader, and the scene where he kills his father is so terribly obvious that I just had to laugh. There's absolutely no emotional impact in the death scene of one of the most iconic characters of the entire Star Wars universe.

     

    Aso, Ben is a terrible noob who almost gets owned in light saber combat by a force-insensitive deserter and then REALLY gets owned by a novice force user without any formal training what-so-ever, and we're supposed to believe he's the one that wiped out Luke's Jedi academy? Yeah, riiiiiight.

     

    Much of the movie is also extremely conservative - it is painfully obvious that everyone involved did not want to repeat mistakes made in the prequels so the end result is a mash-up of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, often without the fun of the former and completely without the emotional impact of the latter.

     

     

    Still, in spite of all that, much better than the prequels were, but that is not saying much...

    Felt the same way.

     

    Some random spoilery thoughts.

     

     

    When the starkiller weapon destroyed the planet, I had no idea what planet it was or why they were destroying it. The whole relationship between the Resistance, the Republic and the First Order is vague. When Kylo killed Han, it lacked any emotional impact because I wasn't vested in the character of Kylo and his relationship with Han. Besides a few lines of exposition their relationship is never explored in any detail. I would have preferred Han dying in later movies after the whole family dynamic was better established.

     

    At some points, I felt like I was watching episode 8 without having seen episode 7. I would have liked to see how Kylo was seduced by the darkside, his deteriorating relationship with his family, the rise of the First Order, and the fall (again) of the Jedi Order. I really wish they would stop destroying the Jedi Order in every Star Wars related anything. 

     

    RoTJ was such a definitive ending for the series that I wanted to see the fruits of all the old characters'  efforts and sacrifices before things took a downward turn again. I wanted to see Leia run the New Republic, Luke leading a new Jedi Order, Han and Chewie with the Republic Fleet or just chilling with the family. Jumping right into TFA, it felt like nothing had really changed from ROTJ. Maybe that would have made for a boring first half of a new Star Wars movie, I dunno.

     

     

    I did really enjoy the film overall. Rey and Finn are great protagonists and I was grinning the entire first third of the movie at their exploits. Loved Poe and all the fighter squadron space battles. BB-8 is a great addition to the droid cast. Grinning all the time with the banter between Han and Chewie. Han and Leia scenes hit my nostalgia buttons with their love theme playing in the background. Thought the characters in the First Order were weaker, but hopefully they will be explored more in subsequent films. Planning to see it again soon. 

    • Like 2
  2. I have 8 characters on The Bastion. One character for each class. All are pretty low level except for my Agent who is 50 something. I mostly play for the storyline, but can't seem to finish any of them. The only one I enjoyed was Imperial Agent, though I've tried all of them. I did like trolling Darth Baras a lot. 

     

    I usually play for the first two or three planets, get bored by the side content and stop playing. I liked Agent because I could sneak through 90% of the content to get to the good stuff. 

  3. I'm interested since I find the underlying gameplay of Mass Effect 2 and 3 quite enjoyable and generally enjoyed the storyline except for the entire ending sequence of ME3.

     

    I'm guessing you play a crew of mixed species from the Milky Way galaxy sent to chart out an entirely new galaxy as some last ditch backup plan initiated by the Council in case the Reapers win. I hope that's why it's called Andromeda, because we will be exploring the Andromeda galaxy. You wake up in an Ark-like vessel at the beginning of the game and go from there. 

     

    Then Bioware can just ignore the very different ramifications of the three endings of ME3 and start all players on a clean slate. 

  4. Also not having any trouble with Arkham Knight PC. I have a 780gtx 6gb card and with gameworks and at 1920x1200 resolution, I average around 40 fps most of the time, which is fine in my book. I've read the game needs massive amounts of vram, so maybe that could be part of the issue. 

     

    I'm trying to get used to the controls which have changed. In earlier games, I could control Batman's attack direction by swiveling the camera with the mouse, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. It seems wholey dependent on using WASD to determine the attack direction which I find awkward. Now I have to hold W to keep Batman attacking in the direction I swivel the mouse, which can be inconvenient when trying to work in other combo moves. 

  5. Just finished the game as well. Took me 122 hours, but I didn't visit about half the question marks in Skellige.

     

    Best game I've played in a while. Can't wait for the two expansions. I hope we get to visit Nilfgaard, Kovir or Zerrikania. I want to know more about the Witcher schools in different areas and why all of them are dying out. There seem to be plenty of monsters giving grief to people, so I don't think Witchers have grown obsolete in any way. Maybe a lot of knowledge has just been lost? 

     

    Anyways, I wouldn't mind if CDP releases witcher contract missions here and there and really make them involved and mysterious. I loved visiting a desolated tower or ruined village haunted by a ghost and piecing together what happened: like a good mystery and horror story in one. I would gladly pay for a well written quest. 

     

    Definitely planning a 2nd go through and trying some different things. 

    • Like 1
  6. I completed my gwent collection today!

     

    I stuck with the Northern Realms the whole way through with Foltest the Siegemaster to bolster my siege engine line at the last minute. I learned it doesn't always pay to have a full special card deck. I usually trimmed it down depending on what the opponent played. Like Hoonding said, Monsters are weak to scorch and also frost, so I would have 1 clear weather card, 1 decoy card, 2 frost cards, and 1 scorch card, to guarantee I would get some combination of those cards. Then I would play slow, trying to bait the other player to overextend so I could decimate their ranks with frost and/or scorch later.

     

    I recently learned how to tweak my input settings so I could quickcast signs with different hotkeys. I'm enjoying combat a lot more like this. Actually now that I think about it, I would love a hotbar across the bottom of the screen like DA:O where I could assign keys. Then I wouldn't have to keep going back into menus to use different potions, bombs and oils. 

     

    Anyways, miniscule complaints in a grandiose game. I'm drawing near the end with 112 hours of game time and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

  7. Before I read 16 pages of comments I'll just say after watching the brief E3 gameplay trailer, if the dog is the first companion you meet and stays with you for the rest of the game, I will buy Fallout 4. 

     

    One of my  favorite things to do is take my dog on hikes, so if I can do that and kill mutants and raiders and stuff, I'm good to go.

     

    Also I think Bethesda improved their quest making skills. I thought quests in Skyrim were much better compared to F3, so I hope quests in F4 will be even better. 

  8. I just finished the part where Geralt shares a night of drinks with his fellow Witchers. Laughed pretty hard. I actually thought the game was coming to a conclusion, but was pleasantly surprised when it kept going. About 95 hours in and still loving it.

     

    Storywise, I wouldn't mind a game with Ciri as the protagonist. CDP doesn't seem to have a problem with knocking back a character's power level at the start of a new game. Geralt is constantly starting at level one with basic gear despite collecting powerful items in previous games. Substitute witcher signs and potions with magical abilities and it'll be good I think. 

     

    I really can't praise this game enough: excellent side quests, good humor, great characterization, rich, beautiful and detailed game world, Novigrad. I love Novigrad. Best city in an RPG in recent memory. Can't wait for the two planned expansions.

     

    I wish one of the future free DLCs was wolf school gear. I kept expecting it to pop up, but never did. 

    • Like 2
  9. I am enjoying this game immensely. 

     

    I was exploring Novigrad yesterday and came upon a little district where all sorts of dyes were being prepared. A small thing, but I was impressed by the colors and the attention to detail that I also find everywhere else in the game. 

     

    The world is beautiful and a joy to roam around. I love the extensive side quests, witcher contracts and treasure hunts that encourage exploration. 

     

    My only beef is with the combat, which still feels clumsy at times, but is a vast improvement over Witcher 2. If I could map the signs to individual keys to activate immediately upon button press and had a separate quickfire button for bombs, I would enjoy combat much more.

     

    Definitely game of the year for me, unless Arkham Knight leaves me totally speechless. 

    • Like 2
  10. First post mirrors my thoughts exactly. 

     

    Thanks Obsidian for making a game that gives me exactly what I wanted in a RPG. I'm 25 hours in and I'm only 5 levels deep into Od Nua. I would have been happy with just this massive dungeon, but remembering this is just a bonus and there is still a huge world and story left to explore fills me with a great joy I haven't felt in a long time in games. 

     

    I would gush on, but I have a dungeon to explore and plunder.

     

    Thanks Obsidian!

  11. Well, I finished it a few days ago doing almost everything I could. I only have a few fetch quests and "go find this spot in the map" type quests in my journal, which I won''t bother doing. In total I spent about 120 hours completing the game. I played on PC using M&KB, normal with FF on. 

     

    Out of 100, I'd give it a 85. I give Origins a 91 and DA2 an 80. Overall, I really enjoyed the game, but was disappointed with the overall story and finale.

     

    Things I liked:

     

    -Huge outdoor areas to explore with beautiful environments.

    -Enough interesting places to explore that made large areas worth running around in.

    -Companions were interesting and not as annoying as I thought they would be. Generally well written, well acted and likable.

    -Dragon battles were suitably challenging and fun.

    -Crafting system was overall well done: lots of crafting materials, options and plans to keep things interesting. 

    -Interesting lore reveals that set up the next game

    -Important choices at the end of every story mission

    -Combat offers a nice variety of skills and tactics

    -The DA keep did a good job of importing past choices

     

    Things I disliked

    -The main plot is pretty short and uninspired. The plot details I found exciting seemed to set up an expansion or sequel.

    -Menus are clumsy and too layered.

    -Limiting only 8 active abilities was a poor choice, regardless of platform. Why can't I use all abilities my character has learned when I want?

    -Switch between normal mode and tactical cam mode is not as seamless as it should be. The tactical camera is limited and clumsy to control, especially in indoor areas.

    -Ending seemed rushed and felt uninspired and the big bad never felt threatening in anyway. 

    -Combat is still asymmetrical with enemy HP bloat, though it didn't feel as bad as DA2.

    -There are few interesting combat encounters. Mostly, it was just running into enemies in the wilderness. I don't remember any encounters where enemies had advantageous positioning with traps at key points.

    • Like 1
  12. A little update about the control scheme as I'm playing. 

     

    I've fiddled more with the controls and discovered there is auto-attack in tactical cam. If you enter tactical cam, issue orders and unpause from within the tactical cam itself, your party members will auto-attack, even the one you are controlling. 

     

    What was confusing was when you enter tactical view, it auto-pauses and un-pauses when you leave tactical view. Being used to the control schemes of the previous games, I naturally thought of the process as pause-issue orders-unpause cycle. I was actually going back and forth between two different play perspectives that had different control schemes: thus my initial frustration.

     

    The pause feature and the tactical cam are two different functions in DAI. You have to think of tactical cam as entering a different system then pausing and unpausing from there. So now I enter tactical view using the mouse wheel and then use spacebar to pause and unpause from there. Once I figured this out, the combat played a lot like DAO and I'm having a lot more fun. 

     

    I feel the camera itself is still very limiting still. It needs more zoom out and panning the camera is still a chore. If you're ever in a wooded area or enclosed space, the tactical camera does a poor job of showing you the entire battlefield. It can definitely be better optimized. 

     

    I would still like autoattack in non tactical camera mode for easier battles. 

     

    Overall, I'm having a lot of fun exploring, collecting and questing. The environments are great to look at: vastly improved over the two previous games. Varric's and Cassandra's banter while exploring made me chuckle a few times. 

    • Like 1
  13. I have around 10 hours played. Currently in the first large area the Hinterlands. I am playing with KB&M setup. Just some general thoughts. 

     

    1: Combat control is clunky

    -There is no autoattack for the character you currently control.  You either have to mash or hold LMB1 or R. Oftentimes, the character I was controlling would do nothing because I would keep forgetting to hold a button, being accustomed to auto-attack as I am.

     

    -If enemies move out of attack range, you don't automatically follow, probably because there is no auto attack. You have to manually stop attacking and move closer. It is annoying.

     

    -There is no 'click on the ground' to move to that spot outside of tactical camera mode.

     

    -I've found Tac-cam(TC) mostly useless. First off, it doesn't zoom out anywhere near where it would be useful. Unlike DAO where TC is simply the most pulled out view and you can stay in TC and play normally, in DAI once you enter TC, the game automatically pauses and goes into the TC system. From there you can issue orders etc. The problem is once you resume time, you can't stay in TC mode to watch events unfold. It kicks you back to the system where the rules are different. Therefore you can't reissue orders on the fly but have to re-enter TC mode. More often than not, it kicks you back to the over the shoulder angle you had before, so you immediately lose track of every order issued. I eventually stopped using TC altogether. I remapped the pause function to spacebar and play at the zoomed out level right before TC. Then its almost like regular pause and play but with the annoyance of having to hold down a button to autoattack. 

     

    -Taken together, combat feels unwieldy and is pretty frustrating. Really, all they had to do was just copy DAO's TC and enable autoattack and most of these problems would be non-existent. 

     

    2: The tactics menu has been gutted considerably. Granted I didn't use it much in the previous two games, but it was useful to set up frequently used tactics for smoother unpaused gameplay. I'm still early in the game, so perhaps more options unlock as you play.

     

    3: It's not all bad though. I think the art design, music and overall atmosphere are really great. The map I'm currently exploring is huge and has a lot of twists and turns with various quest objectives. I've found all the NPCs I've met so far to be likable and the dialogue system has been improved and expanded from the usual nice/****y/aggressive choices from DA2.

     

    Just my 2 cents. I have tinkered with the controls and have found a comfortable compromise when it comes to combat. If Bioware patches in auto-attack, I think I'll be able to overlook most of the shortcomings that currently exist. The core of combat is still fun and the combat animations have been improved. Cross-class combos are still there and I do enjoy the tactical aspects of party-based play. I just completed a rift battle where my level 4 party faced off against level 8 demons. It was challenging and fun. I had to use all my skills accordingly to stun dangerous enemies, focus fire on weaker enemies and then use cross class combos to take out powerful enemies quickly. 

     

    Here's hoping for a good patch by Bioware. 

    • Like 1
  14. I hadn't heard about this, but from what little I've read so far the greatest tragedy seems to be the shutting down of the Fine Young Capitalist game jam event. I'm not sure what the opposing party found so offensive about the giving women with no programming experience an opportunity to express their ideas, while receiving 8% of the profits with the rest going to charity. 

     

    It's hard to find sympathy for either side when ultimately, these are the actions that occur.

  15. Only 8 active abilities per character?

     

    That sounds especially bad for mages. I enjoyed having lots of options as a mage in DAO. 

     

    The combat keeps moving in a direction I dislike. First limiting weapon styles to classes and now this. Does anyone now if we can switch between different weapon sets at least? I don't know why they keep trying to restrict player options instead of just letting players play how they want. 

    • Like 2
  16. I liked ME3 multiplayer.  If you played with a good group it was lots of fun setting up combos and warp explosions. This type of gameplay doesn't interest me in the long term and with all the great rpgs coming out, I doubt I'll invest much time in it.

    • Like 1
  17. I'm surprised the Keep asks questions about very minor quests in both games. I actually don't even remember what most of the DA2 questions are asking and I really don't feel like playing it again to remember. 

     

    I nice comic book like presentation that leads you through the story of both games while you make decisions at certain points would be nice. 

  18. i'm currently catching up on some console games. 

     

    I've been playing God of War Ascension. I think I'm almost done. Pretty typical GoW fare, which I enjoy. The only gripe is sometimes the action is so frantic and the camera pans so far out, that I can't keep track of what I or the enemies are doing, which has lead to some cheap deaths. Overall a good experience for what I paid. 

     

    Next up is Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge. I had heard bad things about vanilla NG3, but read that Razor's Edge brings it closer to the NG 1 and 2 experience, so I'm eager to play it. 

     

    After that, I'll probably sink my teeth into The Last of Us. I got it for my birthday last year, but never got around to it. 

     

    I have to get into the Beta for PoE too. I've anticipated the game for so long, I'm almost afraid to actually play it, if that makes sense. 

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