marelooke

Uhh, Half-Life 2? Yeah, and that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I'd bet every last cent in my bank account that the vast majority of people using steam are doing so because of 'blockbuster games exclusive to the platform' rather than having optionally downloaded the client and deciding to do their purchases there in a manner completely free of influence or compulsion. Getting steam from HL2 or Skyrim or whatever is every bit as much being 'forced' to use steam as origin is for recent EA games or Uplay for Ubi games, but for some reason people seem to think it's been freely chosen because... well I'm never sure exactly why, there's certainly no logical reason for it except Valve being the first to do it and most successful at it. Defaultism is not free choice, quite the opposite. True, I forgot about HL2, though I can't get enough data from Steam to verify if that actually was my first Steam game (it probably was, although I remember jumping through hoops for my account details at some point early on). And I was pretty majorly annoyed by Skyrim (I especially ordered a disc to avoid any of the walled gardens, ugh, that'll teach me to do more research). You forget one thing here though, Valve is a game developer (well, they were anyway), while EA/Ubisoft are publishers, so we're talking about *a lot* more games in the latter two cases (not to mention the reputation the former has vs the latter two) Also my first Origin game (DA2, according to my email archive) got Origin applied to it retroactively, it wasn't an Origin game when I got it from the EA webshop. They later removed that download instead forcing the use of Origin (and installing Origin then tied my already installed game to that platform). Luckily many Kickstarters provide an option to avoid the walled gardens. And as I mentioned, there's developers like Larian that regularly provide keys for multiple platforms for the same price (it's not like not doing it will help against piracy if you're releasing DRM free, so might as well make it as convenient as possible for your paying customers) For now. They all want as big a piece of that same pie as they can get, after all.

I'm guessing that most people prefer Steam because they chose to use it because it was convenient (and there were no alternatives) whereas UPlay and Origin were crammed down our throats by their respective publishers (by making their "blockbuster" games exclusive to their platform, see Dead Space 3 and Mass Effect 3 as examples in the case of Origin). I avoid UPlay due to some bad experiences with limited activations on that platform, I'm not sure if they still do that crap, avoiding it has more become a matter of habit (although istr something about having to release a key for Far Cry 3 or somesuch before uninstalling so I guess they do) I dislike Origin because (on top of it being forced on me by EA as stated above): - it freezes my desktop for up to a minute when it starts - they keep displaying my profile in French, even though it's set to Dutch in the settings. I have to switch it back every damn time I use the application. Just using English (as I do in Steam) isn't even an option (nor is using German for that matter, which is also an official language in this country). That said, nowadays I tend to prefer games that are also available outside these three walled gardens though either Gog or the Humble Store. The best option is when I can get a game at once through both a direct download channel (Gog, Humble Store or download from dev site) and Steam (so I can have the convenience of Steam without necessarily being locked into it), Larian, for example, tends to hand out Steam keys on top of making their games available through their own store (eg. the Divinity Anthology box included a Steam key for all three games on top of the non-Steam installer).

I should probably start finishing some games instead of serially starting new ones that are on my backlog. The last victim being Legend of Grimrock. I should note that I've never played any of the "old school" games it's getting its mustard from, so I'm fairly unlikely to appreciate any of the mechanics based on nostalgia alone Anyway I made it to level 4 and am enjoying it so far though I think I'd have preferred if it were turn based, especially the time based puzzles can be rather annoying in my experience. I quit my current session (due to it getting rather late, or early, depending on your point of view) in some puzzle room with trapdoors in level 4 (I solved the other 3 puzzle rooms you can access from the lvl4 entrance hall already), from the looks of it this bit could become a rather frustrating trial and error affair (I tried running through twice, first time I got stuck before a closed door and fell down to the floor below, second time I noticed a hidden door and fell through the floor there somewhere) I'm also still mucking around a bit with Dragon Commander, I had to restart the campaign (because of other computer and no Steam Cloud support) and accidentally left the difficulty on normal. I think the correct terminology for what happened is that I got "wtfpwnd". Restarted on "easy" and I'm moving forward again. Still in Act I though since I'm metagaming and stacking up on research points and gold to start Act II with (not doing so was the mistake I made the first time though...).

Eh, I can't (and won't) blame them for trying to get out of that political mess. I can (and will) blame them for trying to rip off their customers though. Especially since the former is only speculation. So far nothing I've heard from a purely gaming perspective properly justifies these "Redux" versions. Here's to hoping they clarify things a bit, preferably soon before the backlash reaches truly epic proportions.

Too bad the devs went bancrupt and the map was never properly fixed for the PC version (running it on a way lower res is not an acceptable workaround for me). But yeah, I enjoyed The Saboteur more than just about every other GTA style game, until I got fed up with the map issue. Shame really.

Nothing they say in the article really makes me want to buy the Redux versions. I mean, having improved stealth in 2033 would be nice, but not "only 50% off if you already own the games"-nice. The cynic in me is wondering how much truth there is to the rumour of the developer wanting to make an easy (certainly easier and faster than developing a new game) buck on their existing games in order to be able to escape from the mess that is the Ukraine-situation.

Got some time to continue my Dead Space 3 playthough, get near-ish to the end now (I'm in chapter 13 or 14 or so). There is some seriously cringe worthy situations in there. Cringe worthy in the sense that you go "Seriously? Are you for real?" not the "Ewwww, gross" type of cringe worthy. Still annoyed by Ellie's make-over, not (just) because of the make-over per se but because her face model seems bad... somehow. The other characters don't seem to have this problem but hers looks "off" in a way, almost as if they'd been messing with it until the very end and then ran out of time to finish it properly. Oh well, can't say I care much for any of the characters I'm dealing with anyway (big difference with DS1), I'm more interested in more background on the markers and what exactly happened on Tau Volantis.

Could be the way you play the game, but I've also noticed I've become less critical towards certain games as time go by. Dragon Age for example, almost hated the damn thing when it came out but year or two later I actually liked it when I went back to it. So it's kind of learning to take things as they are, at least in my case. Might be because the game is properly fixed when you come back to it (it's also why I no longer bother playing most games at release) Oh, and I finally started playing Portal 2

I'm well aware of that Going to Larian tomorrow for some Original Sin goodness... So. Very. Psyched. Cool, keep us updated! (And don't forget to ask about the reloading for better loot ) *runs like hell*

Is that sarcasm? I haven't played the game but it got pretty bad reviews. It looked pretty cool though. But yeah, I remember now, Hunted was the reason I was wary of Tides of Numenera at first, exactly because Hunted looked great and then got bad reviews. Let's hope Tides of Numenera won't end up the same way (especially since I backed it). By the way, it will be very interesting to see whether all those new Kickstarter-funded RPGs will make the list in the next years, and whether they'll get a good ranking. I have high hopes for Divinity: Original Sin, Tides of Numenera and of course Pillars of Eternity. And Wasteland 2 is apparently excellent already, but it's not my cup of tea I think. Personally I enjoyed Hunted. I got it cheaply in a Steam sale knowing very little about it. It's a fun little romp through lots of winding corridors all alike (quite literally). The story is pretty weak, though the ability to actually fail and only find out at the very end was pretty interesting (and probably pissed off quite a few people). The story just serves as an excuse to shoot (I liked the "archery") or hack down enemies in a rather arcady fashion. The combat mechanics were very simple but effective imo, combat also wasn't terribly hard, so if you're looking for a challenge you probably need to look elsewhere. It's not a game I'd have expected inXile to make and if I'd have bought it at full price I'd probably have felt cheated. I also don't know anything about how it was marketed or anything, so maybe people's expectations at release were off due to promises that were made. I didn't have any expectations as I wasn't even aware who made the game when I bought and played it.

On that note, the original Shadow Warrior wasn't too shabby either, even though I never got too far in it (back then I only had access to the demo). I should probably go back to it and try to finish it (it got re-released shortly before the new game came out).

*cough* Valve? *cough* Looking forward to Divinity: Original Sin and Unrest as well. Not sure when Planet Explorers is due, but that's high on my list as well. There might be some other KS games but I'm not really following them enough to know how close to release they are ( they'll be done when they're done )

Played a few different things a bit recently. Rerturned to Guns of Icarus Online for a single match, graphics seem to have improved since I last played quite some months ago. Can't say much else since the game I ended up in wasn't particularly interesting. The addition of keyed voice commands seems rather useful, not everyone has or wants to use a microphone in random groups and communication is key in this game (at least, assuming the match ends up being somewhat of a challenge) Also gave my friend a little demonstration of how much harder XCom: Enemey Within is compared to the original (assuming you don't (ab)use the overpowered stuff). We ended up in a rather pickly situation involving a cyberdisc, a mechtoid, a sectopod and some mutons. Ended up being a rather challenging and fun fight. Good thing it wasn't on iron man though We also had a look at Dragon Commander, the first act was pretty fun, the second pretty frustrating. Apparently you just have to squeeze everything you can out of the first act so you get a proper chance in the second (otherwise you start outgunned, outnumbered and with pretty much no gold or research points). I'll see if I can manage anyway with what I have, but the fact that "gaming" the first Act is the accepted and recommended solution to the start of Act 2 points to some questionable design decisions there imho.

Also worth knowing that if you sell the book to a vendor they will then stock it indefinitely, as such you can get two points out of each book. (istr reading somewhere that Tripp somehow didn't work for this, though in my expreience doing this with Tripp worked fine)

Sure, but the publishers of those with a bigger budget pay them more... Anyway, looks like it might be worth picking up in a sale sometime.

Okeeeee, it seems I'll need to pick up my (unfinished, due to a game breaking bug) Awakening playthrough again...

Varric easily is the best companion in the Dragon Age series, I'm glad he will be back (unless they manage to mangle him beyond recognition, of course )

Looks like it could be a fun game, but day 1 DLC *and* UPlay? I'll pass for now.

Well, the only quest I gave up on without Obfuscate was the one where you had to hide the webcams in the flat. There were a bunch of others that were kinda hard (the museum, the parking lot and the theatre come to mind), but not impossible. Eh, EYE mostly suffered from badly explained overly complex mechanics resulting in a learning cliff that made EVE Online seem like Tetris in comparison. Never really noticed the problems you mention, but I avoided open combat if at all possible. I mean, I remember combat being clunky, but not getting stuck in doors...

Personally, I would love to see Obsidian make a Fallout game(like NewVegas) set in the ruins of New York City. Would be worth it to see Deathclaws infesting Madison Square Garden. I'd be interested to see Europe for a change. That's still uncharted territory. I don't know if I would. Quite a bit of the setting of Fallout is tied to the American 50's, Cold War paranoia especially, and I don't know if it would work as well in Europe. That said, a Fallout(or Fallout-esqe game) set in London, Paris, Berlin, or Madrid would be pretty interesting. Well aside from Europe dissolving into warring city-states I know rather little about the "old world" side of the Fallout universe, I guess that if the USSR was a thing then Berlin with the wall could make for some fun post apocalyptic politics if done right, especially since the adversaries are right next to one another unlike the US and China (Visiting China and seeing the other side of that conflict also could be fun, though it would be a lot harder to make it immersive for a mostly Western audience I imagine) Ehm, but I fear this might be slightly off-topic in this thread, unless BioWare is making a post-apocalyptic game? Come to think of it, the Berlin wall could make for a nicepost-apocalyptic Romeo and Juliet story, what do you think Bruce?

Personally, I would love to see Obsidian make a Fallout game(like NewVegas) set in the ruins of New York City. Would be worth it to see Deathclaws infesting Madison Square Garden. I'd be interested to see Europe for a change. That's still uncharted territory.

Yups, gotta run your errands for Mercurio and the Voermans first.

Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle is in the current sale. For some reason that title rang a bell but I can't recall why. Seems to have quite some negative comments. What do you guys think, is it any good? I already grabbed the three Grotesque Tactics games, a bit of parody sounded like fun.

This subject has come up before. Imho the best tutorials are those that are entirely separate from the main campaign and as such can be entirely ignored once one understands the mechanics (and, as a result of them being separate, can be rerun at one's leisure if a certain mechanic is unclear or one returns to a campaign after a long break) Case in point: the tutorial of Baldur's Gate 2 (which, contrary to popular belief, was *not* Irenicus' dungeon as there was exactly 0 explanation of gameplay mechanics in there), I assume BG1 also had such a tutorial, but I never looked at it since I Played BG2 first, so I already knew the mechanics.

Malkavians are also fairly Stealth oriented (they also have Obfuscate, for example)