Drowsy Emperor

Not sure how about you, but for me, a big part of BG's scope was also my ability to role-play just about anything (the game wasn't too reactive about it but hey, I like Elder Scrolls) and to completely change playstyle just by swapping companions. Witcher 3 is a lot more limited in that respect - the world is huge, the quests are epic, some stories are absolutely stellar, but no matter what you do, you are and always will be Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher - and your decisions will always be constrained by this. Gameplay also eventually gets rather repetitive, without much you could do to make it more interesting. Eh, I suppose that's the main reason as to why Pillars of Eternity was my GOTY of 2015 as opposed to Witcher 3. The thing is, all that applies to Mass Effect series, arguably the best thing Bioware made since Baldur's Gate except its all much worse there. The world is tiny, the combat is reptitive, the entire universe revolves around Shepard etc. The old argument used to be that it would be too expensive to make a massive cinematic 3D game - one where the graphics would be the best that can be done up close but with a size that compares to the 2D generation. CDPR showed that it can be done. I don't find being a more defined character negatively impacting my enjoyment, because I have no problem being a "passenger" - watching someone else's adventure. Fundamentally what I want is to enjoy a good story and an interesting world and games that are extremely open as a rule fall apart in the narrative department. Even the world suffers because it "has" to be huge so its full of poorly disguised copy-paste content. The character on the other hand, whether he's the Bhaalspawn from BG2, Geralt, Nameless One, Tidus of FFX etc. provides context for the whole experience. Some characters are more open-ended than others but most of the time its just the illusion of choice anyway - the Bhaalspawn had 3 fundamental responses to most situations and so does Geralt (don't get involved, be nice, don't be nice). It just feels like you have more options because you can choose your class and party composition and fiddle around with these systems. The counter-argument is that Geralt is basically the three stock DnD classes rolled into one so you have just as much variety...

Watching some Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone gameplay since I don't have anything to play it on. My laptop can't do over 30 fps in it, for shame. It looks like they really did it this time, the writing seems much better handled, the characters more interesting - I actually want to play it, whereas with the second Witcher my gut feeling that the game was going to be a lukewarm experience turned out right. When I look at the game its amazing how far CDPR has come in such a short time - it took Bioware years to do something resembling a cinematic RPG experience, never really matching the same scope and ambition Baldur's Gate had. Seemingly, the Witcher 3 manages to do it. Dragon Age Inquisiton looks a generation or two behind by comparison.

Dark Souls. Found a Zweihander, promptly upgraded it to +5. Also Elite Knight Armor. I'm steamrolling Darkroot garden, one-shotting everything except the green knights and crystal golems which are all terribly slow. Dunno if I'm overleveled for the area at SL 31 or what but the difficulty has dropped off a lot. Destroyed the 2 Bell Gargoyles as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z6YPVsohzQ Random encounter with a new type of pokemon And he wasn't even standing in tall grass

I was reading articles about the 3DS, turns out it was hacked so that it can download games from Nintendo's eShop for free. They don't even bother to rip the games anymore. I can't tell whether that's hilarious or really really sad, or both. How could they design such easily exploitable internet infrastructure

Ran into 2 gargoyles. Almost killed one then his buddy decided to show up and throw me off the roof. I was doing pretty well though, they're not very intimidating vs my +4 Claymore. Maybe 4 hits and I had him down to 25%

Upgrading your weapon is probably the most important thing. Just keep playing and you will find out soon how to upgrade. The Claymore is a very solid weapon. My favorite greatsword for the early game. But is it worth blowing titanite chunks on?

In the land where a pocket knife hurts like getting hit by a combine harvester I'll take any piece of steel between me and the ugly strangers I can get.

Well I got a Titanite chunk, which is better than nothing. But I spent half an hour baiting him around the stone fountain by the bonfire. I have no idea what is worth upgrading and where to upgrade anything for that matter. I'm playing a Knight with the stock shield and Claymore.

And I really wanted that massive black phallic symbol ... Well that came out wrong

He's alone on top of a tower? What did I unlock?

Killed the Black Knight on top of a tower in Undead Burg in Dark Souls. He made me work for it. Reward totally underwhelming, a paltry 800 souls.

I realized the series is not for me - in fact Persona 3 burned me out on the genre (mostly) for good. 70 hours of grind in a randomly generated 200 level dungeon (all of it very similar) to see the outcome of a story that ultimately collapsed in on itself and amounted to nothing was the most soul draining experience I ever had in my 18 years of gaming. Haven't touched a jRPG for any length of time since.

If you want the more detailed version, Jim Sterling has a number of videos about the thing on his Youtube channel. TL:DR Its two brothers throwing out shovelware out of Unity assets, got slammed by Sterling, attacked him and tried to sue him over it - managed to blow the whole thing so out of proportion that Steam is kicking their ass. I'm in full agreement with Jim that Steam needs some form of quality control, because the kind of **** that's appearing on the platform now is worse than at any point in the last 20 years. Its not that hard to identify the scammers, but they shouldn't be allowed in the first place.

Look, each review is a subjective opinion. But there are still some standards of excellence in the gaming world. There are compelling reasons why games like FF (or at least some of them), Chrono Trigger etc. are regarded as they are - and I can see that even though I personally may not like them. For example, I'm not enamored with Chrono Trigger at all - in fact, I played it only recently, but to anyone who has played the genre its immediately apparent why the game is considered great. Excellent pacing, story stripped from many of the most obnoxious JRPG conventions, fluid and relatively fast combat, variety and inventiveness in setting - all great for its time and very good even today. Final Fantasy games had insane production values for their time and most of them pack a decent story and gameplay as well. And the series at least tries to reinvent itself with every iteration - even if it fails occasionally. These are just two examples. By comparison, what does SMT have that makes it qualify to be in the same crowd? In my experience these are games that have intriguing ideas that they never manage to deliver on married to rote dungeon crawling and, essentially, a grittier version of pokemon.

So, now objectively worse sequel in a series that hasn't changed in 13 years somehow qualifies for critical acclaim? Also Shin Megami Tensei is now somehow in the same league as (insert favorite) Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and other 9/10, JRPG cream of the crop type games? Despite no game in the series (that I've played - and that list includes Persona 3/4, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1+2) ever being anything but gibberish in the story department, at most decent in production values and gameplay (if that's your sort of thing). The **** is the point of scoring games if showing up gets you a 9/10. Come on guys, we're not IGN here

I finished New Super Mario Bros 2. About 25 hours to get to 100% completion. Its a decent game but its easy to see why it wasn't received all that enthusiastically by critics - it doesn't really add anything to the Mario universe. One might argue that more of the same would be fine as well, but with Mario being around for so long, its kinda less forgivable, particularly as Nintendo showed they could introduce interesting changes to the overall formula.

I just commented that 9/10 is too much for a game that's the same thing but worse as something released 13 years ago. Not the rest of the stuff from the post above. I don't even see anything contentious about it, its just common ****ing sense. Not even Nocturne got such scores back in the day - so it appears SMTIV is somehow failing upwards.

So they bundle the Sims now with Deus Ex Final stage of cybernetic enhancement - hovering green octahedron above your head

I must be the only guy to play through half the free trial period only to ask myself why I'm playing this incessant grind, drop the game and never look back.

I concluded that Nintendo has the most rabid and toxic fanbase in existence. They were posting some Shin Megami Tensei IV reviews for the 3DS on Reddit and giving it 9/10 and I asked: how can you give SMT IV 9/10 when it looks like a strictly worse version of the now 13 years old Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne. It literally changes nothing from the formula except trying to make realistic graphics on the 3DS, so the game ends up looking like a PS 1 game. Worse of all, the series has its head stuck up so far the ass of ancient JRPG design that it can now only be played if you lived under a rock for the past two decades of gaming. Boy did that start a ****storm.

IMO the Anniversary edition more or less encapsulates what the games were about in a modernized form. But the Uncharted formula was easier to make and more palatable to an audience weaned on shooters so the reboots went that route. I almost got suckered in as the opening to TR (the new one) was really good, but at some point it just became about murdering droves upon droves of enemies and I concluded that I didn't feel like playing a shooter so off the hard drive it went.

The press is slamming The Last Guardian for bad controls and camera, saying its as bad as Shadow of the Colossus but that we can't forgive that in 2016. How do I get out of this parallel universe?

At that level of fidelity and complexity, hell will freeze over before the game builds up an amount of content respectable enough for a full release. I fully support the idea and toyed with the concept for years in my head, but its ludicrous to think it can work out when oiled machinery such as Activision burns through 50 million making a short, linear CoD game. Grand Theft Auto V cost 137 million, Destiny 140. Star Citizen has 123 mil and is implied to dwarf them in scope on every level, like 3 separate genres rolled into one. Plus, they must have burned through a ton of that cash up front hiring people, setting up etc.

I think people were just hungry for the dish of a genuine Fallout like RPG when it came out. I would hesitate to describe New Vegas as anything more than good. It leaned way too much on Fallout 2's wacky wasteland as opposed to F1's comparatively more serious tone for my tastes. And mechanically speaking, it was rather clunky as well.