marelooke
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Posts posted by marelooke
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Sir, your convoy awaits...
Those sheep need a good crutching, not something the average consumer would put up with. Unless rebranded as a ewe brazilian, perhaps. Plus one of the lambs looks like it has fly strike.
Yes, I am awaiting Sheep Shearing Simulator 2014, now that you ask.
Can't we just have a proper new Carmageddon? You know, to deal with all the sheep... ;-)
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http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/24cprc/leaked_screenshots_and_instruction_manual_for/
Some stuff from the World of Darkness MMO CCP was working on
Sad to say but judging by the synopsis RPS made it doesn't seem we're missing out on much. A shame really since CCP is one of the few companies I had any hope for of bringing some actual new stuff to the tiring line of WoW-clones. Maybe the issue was that it wasn't really CCP proper who was working on it.
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I'm also slightly worried about the lack of action in D:OS once you reach the first city early on since she got kinda bored already with all the text early in Jade Empire...
Hmm, youre the second person to mention this. I think it was Hassat Hunter that mentioned being ~16 hours in and there being little to no combat. Bummer.
Well, they added a (hidden) dungeon under the starting town (shown in the video in the last update), so it might not be *that* bad anymore. And given the interactivity of the environment it might turn out better than I imagine, still very excited for the release of this game
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I would've thought that Original Sin would be the opening gambit of that scheme.
Well, I've been trying to get her to expand beyond just platformers (she loves the Trines and Toki-Toris) and games that are playable with a controller (this is proving rather challenging, while I prefer to play games from the comfort of my desk she prefers to play games from the comfort of the couch...).
I'm also slightly worried about the lack of action in D:OS once you reach the first city early on since she got kinda bored already with all the text early in Jade Empire...
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Release date for Divinity: Original Sin is pegged as June 20, 2014.
I'm going to have to fast track my "getting gf into RPGs"-scheme...
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Last time my computer was working I was using a keyboard from the late 1980s. It is, in many ways, the tank of keyboards. I think it'd stop a bullet and still work.
That's why I bought a mechanical keyboard, except these are nowhere near the standards that IBM used to have.
These guys still make the original Model M (in the same factory) http://www.pckeyboard.com
I use one at work and still use my 1993 IBM Model M at home.
How well do those work to game on though (thinking Unreal Tournament and the likes)?
I've been considering a mechanical keyboard for a while (though probably not a Model M because the noise those make would make me rather unpopular at work. I used to have a colleague who had one and had to ask him to stop typing while I was on the phone with him because I couldn't understand a word he said. Also I prefer keyboards without slanted keys, much better ergonomically, though still fairly rare, alas)
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I want that outfit for a rogue, so I can roleplay as a Swashbuckler Errol Flynn-type, instead of that atrocious-tacky-cartoonish-looking one that looks like it was ported over from DA2's silly armor design department, currently showcased on their site.
One of their problems is their approach to rogues isn't what most people associate with rogues. The classes are Warrior, Also Warrior, and Mage.
Haven't looked closely at DA:I's classes yet but often I feel that there is: tanks, healers (luckily one can often get away without a dedicate healer role), ranged dps, melee dps, just like in MMOs.
Whether said ranged dps is a mage or a warrior specialized in archery makes very little difference in the grand scheme of things as aside from "flavour" they often play pretty much the same in combat. On top of that they usually give every melee class insane distance closing abilities such that being melee (rather than ranged) becomes rather irrelevant (eg. DA2's rogue/thief/whateveritwascalled) since getting around the battlefield is so easy that zero thought is required about positioning and the like (it's why I swapped my mage for a rogue in DA2, sturdier, same amount of damage and didn't run into LoS issues due to being on the edge of the battlefield).
I especially dislike specialized tank/healer roles (the addition of such to DA:O is one of the things I dislike most about that game, especially since you already have such a small party of which one will pretty much have to be a tank, iow Alistair or Shale (or the PC)).
The idea of a "tank" that "taunts" enemies (always wondered how you'd taunt something undead, "Hey you, zombie dude! Yer mom!") but does about zero damage is a (mostly) MMO mechanic that's been bleeding through to single player games.
It might've been an overly simplistic mechanic, but in that respect I preferred the IE games' "first come first get punched" attitude to encounters, especially combined with the enemies going for whoever hurt them the most, resulting in the player not being able to go bananas with their wizards unless they wanted to get more attention of $ENEMY than was healthy.
EDIT: a quick look at the (horrendously slow loading) DA:I website tells me that the holy MMO trinity will be present again, just like in DA2.
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^Many people felt Irenicus' Dungeon served as a tutorial level. There was even a mod allowing you to skip it and start outside the dungeon.
Many people were wrong then
Irenicus' Dungeon was a major part of the story. I can't blame them for wanting to skip it the umpteenth time through though (same as the entire Asylum/Underdark thing getting a bit old after the 7th time through)I reckon the NWN2 OC got this right. You had a neat tutorial (the fair), but you could pick a convo option with your step father immediately, which made you skip to the more urgent attack on the village. However, if you were a completionist, you missed out on a few xp by not doing all the stuff in the tutorial fair, which I do think is indeed fair.
I'm OCD enough to always go through it, and then be annoyed by it, but I'm quite willing to accept that that is just me
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I bought Dead Space 3 recently despite it being on Origin (due to it being on sale for a price I deemed acceptable
).Combat seems to be more clunky than I remember. I mean, I get hit way more often and Necromorphs in general seem to be faster and tougher than before, guess they want to force more use of stasis. There's also lots more of them on average. Seems they just went full out for a shooter feel (get jumped by loads of necromorphs all the time, spam health packs).
The weapon upgrade system also seems more complex, I personally don't really care for it very much so so far it hinders me more than anything.
Also I was aware Ellie got a makeover, but good lord, it's looks even worse ingame than on the screenshots I saw. Was that seriously really necessary?
And then she runs around with cleavage that wouldn't be out of place at some award ceremony, seriously is Isaac the only one with enough brains to wear a space suit when visiting derelict spaceships?
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The India rape frenzy the media stirred up is epitome of bombastic and misleading journalistic work. The rate of rape in the US is 28 to 100000 individuals. The worst indian city has a rate of 10 at same sample size. Even with severe under-reporting it is questionable whether the rate of rapes in India is higher than the US. The UK has 23 at same sample. Sweden has 53.
These are US Department of Justice statistics.
I have no particular affinity towards India but I hate this type of slander, rifling through other people's dirty laundry while knee deep in your own crap.
Those statistics to me say more about how acceptable it is for a woman to go to the authorities about it (and be taken serious) than about the actual number of rape crimes that happen.
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Character creation should, as has been pointed out before, come first, before any intro sequences.
Personally I'd prefer BG2's solution of making a dedicated tutorial level, entirely separate from the game, over making the first area of the game into a tutorial.
Imho this solves two common problems:
* having to go through the darn tutorial each time you start a new game (= annoying)
* having to use Google or restart the game if you missed something in the tutorial or took a long break and could use a refresher (happens to me pretty often)
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The new combat system looks good to me from what little I've seen. But as a caveat, I did enjoy the combat, even the filler, of Dragon Age 2. Quite frankly, as long as you give me a group of characters with particular strengths and weaknesses that require some degree of micro, I'm going to have a good time.
I'm far more worried about their implementation of choice and the fact that it's hard to evaluate that without playing it yourself. Thankfully Darrah clarified the outlandish ending claim to something a bit more workable. I think that shows a bit more self-awareness than previous.
The only micro-managing I remember doing in DA2 was picking particular party members. I probably also occasionally made them quaff a health potion, other than that I don't remember there being much reasons for touching them all that much.
Didn't dao have "regen to max outside combat"? I see numerous people talking about it like it's a welcome reversion from da2, but the last time we've seen bio do non-regenerating health was... Kotor?
Yeah, I'm not sure why this is seen as a step forward other than making the game arbitrarily more "hardcore." Wasn't it Avellone or Sawyer who pointed out that drinking a health potion when your health is low is neither difficult nor tactically interesting? To me, this should go into the dustbin of RPG features, along with "pre-buffing."
Whether regenerative or non-regenerative health are a good idea depends on how they're implemented. If it's more trouble to find somewhere to rest than to push through with less than maximum health then I feel it adds a tactical aspect, assuming the game is designed in such a way that going forward without maximum health is a viable option.
I more often find myself think "meh, he'll survive until my other character can murder the hell out of his assailant(s)" when the health just regenerates after a battle. Otoh if that's not the case I'll be a lot more careful with positioning knowing that otherwise I'm stuck with a squishy character on low health for however long it takes until the next opportunity to heal up.
I also find it slightly more enjoyable to come out of a battle severely bruised with the knowledge that carrying on is probably not a very good idea so I can return whence I came, heal up and go elsewhere rather than just getting wiped out. One could argue that this is possible with regenerative health as well but I feel that there a "close call" doesn't deter as much from trying to press onwards into territory above one's level anyway.
That said, I dislike prebuffing, I'm not psychic
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Ehm, nobody wondered where the skills are? Some kind of hotbar would be really nice, instead I see useless buttons for stuff like settings, the journal et all. Quite a lot of people will never use these once they learn the shortcuts and being able to free up that screen space for more useful stuff would be really nice.
As would a way to do most things with shortcuts of course, in BG2 I could do pretty much everything (including casting spells) using only shortcuts, freeing up the mouse to be used solely for environment interaction, which was really nice (and one of the reasons the PS:T UI is one of the worst ever, sorry, it sucks).
Another more recent game with a rather good UI was Dragon Age: Origins btw.
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Woohooo!
Just be advised, one of their beta testers was **** enough to leak their beta and forced them to release the mod before they intended, so don't expect it to be in perfect state. I have been waiting for this mod for years, and nicely put I hope the leaker gets cancer in his willie.
There was even talks of some sort of deal with them and GSC, but that apparently went down the drain as a result of the leak.
Some people really have no sense of honor.
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I'm currently playing Demonicon, mopped up the first two bosses. There seem to only be a few spots where you can make a choice that has any impact and other than those binary choices the game appears pretty railroaded which is rather annoying as the decisions made by the characters (PC icluded) are often rather nonsensical (putting it mildly)
Had to drop my new FEAR playthrough due to my laptop not being able to handle it (Intel graphics card...
), it will have to wait until I have more reliable access to my (ageing, but still with a much better graphics card than the laptop) desktop.Tried to get my girlfriend into Jade Empire, but all the talking at the start ended up being way too much (and watching her play it made me realize how much bloody talking there is early on)
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It sure looks promising, but maybe I'm daft, but I just found a post by Allan Schumacher who seems to be saying I can't buy this game on Steam (and definitely not any dlcs):
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I keep seeing this excuse, but then we have games like Everquest 2 being sold on Steam. The ONLY way to get DLC is through Sony's store and you can't purchase anything but the game on Steam, yet it's still there. Fallout 3 the ONLY way to get the DLC without the GOTY version is by using GFWL. There are many, many examples that say you're making up this excuse.
Because they're old games grandfathered in. Much like Dragon Age Origins (which is still for sale on Steam too).
Then the question would become "why don't you want to sell your dlc on Steam?". Why are you restricting your sales to an obviously inferior system when Steam is right there?
Valve and EA both lose from this arrangement, as far as I'm concerned.
EDIT: This is no longer DA3 relevant. If you wish to continue the values of EA vs Valve and their digital delivery services, please take it to the off topic forum."
Please tell me, this is all a misunderstanding on my behalf!
I don't see how this is not relevant (though the respective merits of the services are, of course, not relevant to the subject at hand).
EA is trying to force people towards Origin, it's that simple. Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 3 are not available through Steam either (or any other means besides Origin, afaik. Even the disc version of ME3 *requires* Origin, which really pissed me off btw).
I find this trend of (single player*) games being tied to some digital platform disturbing, even more so if they're tied to a very specific digital platform (fwiw, Skyrim being tied to Steam *really* pissed me off as well, especially since I bought the disc version just to avoid Steam)
* Yes, yes, I'm aware of ME3's multiplayer and it is my personal opinion that they ought to have used the money they wasted on that crap on creating a decent single player experience instead.
Shame poor you, don't you get Steam or Origin in your country? Is that why you don't like them?
I'll make videos of me playing DA:I and I'll share them with you, that will be almost as much fun as you playing the game itself
Getting trolled for stating facts, not something I'd expected from you, Bruce
You ruined my faith in humanity, now I'll go back to my corner and cry
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It sure looks promising, but maybe I'm daft, but I just found a post by Allan Schumacher who seems to be saying I can't buy this game on Steam (and definitely not any dlcs):
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I keep seeing this excuse, but then we have games like Everquest 2 being sold on Steam. The ONLY way to get DLC is through Sony's store and you can't purchase anything but the game on Steam, yet it's still there. Fallout 3 the ONLY way to get the DLC without the GOTY version is by using GFWL. There are many, many examples that say you're making up this excuse.
Because they're old games grandfathered in. Much like Dragon Age Origins (which is still for sale on Steam too).
Then the question would become "why don't you want to sell your dlc on Steam?". Why are you restricting your sales to an obviously inferior system when Steam is right there?
Valve and EA both lose from this arrangement, as far as I'm concerned.
EDIT: This is no longer DA3 relevant. If you wish to continue the values of EA vs Valve and their digital delivery services, please take it to the off topic forum."
Please tell me, this is all a misunderstanding on my behalf!
I don't see how this is not relevant (though the respective merits of the services are, of course, not relevant to the subject at hand).
EA is trying to force people towards Origin, it's that simple. Mass Effect 3 and Dead Space 3 are not available through Steam either (or any other means besides Origin, afaik. Even the disc version of ME3 *requires* Origin, which really pissed me off btw).
I find this trend of (single player*) games being tied to some digital platform disturbing, even more so if they're tied to a very specific digital platform (fwiw, Skyrim being tied to Steam *really* pissed me off as well, especially since I bought the disc version just to avoid Steam)
* Yes, yes, I'm aware of ME3's multiplayer and it is my personal opinion that they ought to have used the money they wasted on that crap on creating a decent single player experience instead.
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You're eating at a restaurant, the staff gets a few order mixed up making so a few expensive meals go to wrong people and they have begun to eat them. Then they take the food from away from everyone and start the meals again.This is a very interesting article and has serious future consequences if not addressed
I have solution. You wipe every item and all currency from every player, you leave each player with a few basic items and 100 coin. This applies to every player, no exceptions.
This may sound draconian as the obvious argument is " why should a player who hasn't exploited the system be punished ". But to be honest you can gain the items again. The reality is I don't know now how they are going to fix this imbalance. Its much harder to address then people may think
And if they just leave it then it will start utterly destroying the game economy as time goes on, so rather do something now that may sounds drastic but will fix the problem
Bet that will go over well with the customers, the management and their pockets. The players; even those that exploited the bug, might not feel that they are at fault. After all they weren't using a cheat engine, they were exploiting a failure in the product, so the onus lies with the maker.
Especially if the maker was aware of the mixup before the food actually got served to the customers.
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I don't know that anybody expected TESO to be bug free and now we have evidence why: Bethesda are hacks.
This is a very interesting article and has serious future consequences if not addressed
I have solution. You wipe every item and all currency from every player, you leave each player with a few basic items and 100 coin. This applies to every player, no exceptions.
This may sound draconian as the obvious argument is " why should a player who hasn't exploited the system be punished ". But to be honest you can gain the items again. The reality is I don't know now how they are going to fix this imbalance. Its much harder to address then people may think
And if they just leave it then it will start utterly destroying the game economy as time goes on, so rather do something now that may sounds drastic but will fix the problem
And do this every time something like this happens? Because, trust me, this is the first, but it won't be the last time (and no, not because it's Zenimax, but because MMOs are complex software, even EVE has had it's fair share of similar issues and they take their in-game economy *very* seriously).
If you can't detect it after it's happened you're stuck with it imho and you need to find a more creative way to deal with it. And Zenimax should probably do some serious auditing as to why such a game-breaking bug that was apparently *known* made it into production. Wouldn't be surprised if heads are gonna roll on this one (whether it's the right heads that will roll is another matter entirely).
If they do go ahead and roll back *all* accounts (which I think would be a big mistake) they should at the very least compensate all players with a free extension of their subscription for their (Zenimax') ****up.
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Aaaaaaaaaaah, my eyes, it burns! What a fugly layout is that? (not that I'm too bothered, but does this mean all the DA:O achievements, screenshots and stuff are going away as well?)
I don't think I've visited, much less posted to the BioWare forums since around the DA2 release and this ugly white sterile corporate layout and attitude certainly aren't going to draw me back...
The assimilation now seems complete, every bit of old BioWare has been stamped out. Let's hold a minute's silence for our fallen comrade.
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Pac-Man, or: how relativly simple individual behaviours when perfectly combined create a great overall impression and near infinite replayability.
I found this talk about Pac-Man's mechanics to be really really interesting: http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
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Yeah a compelling story is probably one of the things that appealed to me in the TRreboot. I enjoyed the story as it unfurled and also finding the various text pieces that hinted at the back stories going on.
NOTE: *minor* spoilers.
TBH I thought the story started out very strong but really took a nosedive in the second half of the game. I get that Lara is supposed to be inexperienced, but apparently that equals "stupid" (it also doesn't hinder her from turning into "the terminator" halfway through the game); I facepalmed (hard) irl when she actually shouted at someone dragging a kidnapped person around. I mean, really? Ok sure, in my experience I keep my cool better than most, so maybe I can't properly relate, but I'd certainly expect that very quality in someone who's supposed to be a "leader" and a "survivor".
That was the most prominent example, there were a few other things that bugged me (like her hiding things from the rest of the group for no good reason resulting in more trouble down the line).
Personally I also thought the ending was pretty weak and no real reason was given why she'd continue digging through tombs after such a harrowing experience. Most sane people with that much money would stay the hell away from trouble after that. I mean she lost how many friends on that adventure?
In other news, I started playing FEAR again. Damn those newfangled shooters with their aim help and other crap have made my aiming skills weak...
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Lara gets impaled somewhere in the beginning of the game without much ado, then later there's an entire cutscene focused on her getting crippled and whimpering after she falls two metres down.
That was funny.
That, and the zombie samurai army she kills entirely on her own. I think she kills more than old-skool Lara does in all her games combined.
It was bizarre how the game completely ignored the wound from the beginning. Wolverine regeneration ftw
Yes, the focus is way too much on graphic killing for my tastes. In the new Tomb Raider everything wants to kill you and you need to kill everything else, either because its an obstacle or for xp and salvage.
Well they had to replace all the puzzling by something... Guess they went with combat. While I never actually finished a Tomb Raider (I think I quit the first one after Palace Midas). I always thought the level wide puzzling was a defining characteristic so I'm somewhat sad the puzzles have been relegated to very small and very optional puzzle rooms.
Call of Pripyat was great. The only thing that didn't work was the finale and the game could have used more polish.
If I get in a Stalker mood I tend to fire up SoC and not CoP (and certainly not CS...)
I guess I just like the premise and atmosphere better in SoC. If it were possible to run SoC in CoP's engine I'd be all over that...
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That's a shame, I just remembered it the other day and thought they were probably working on it.
I did wonder how they were going to make the game work. To make a credible vampire/werewolf/mage game you'd need enormous urban environments because these creatures are rare and a huge system to generate NPC's to make the town come alive, along with everything else. To me it always sounded a bit like over-reaching from a company whose primary MMO has far less content.
It was my opinion at the time (and it still is) that its beyond the cost effectiveness of current technology (if the game is to look any good).
I'm not surprised it got cancelled. As an EVE player (well, mostly a skillqueue knight lately) it was fairly obvious that WoD was on the backburner. Maybe they'll come back to it later but what I'd really like is a proper (spiritual) successor to Bloodlines.
Irenicus' Dungeon was a major part of the story. I can't blame them for wanting to skip it the umpteenth time through though (same as the entire Asylum/Underdark thing getting a bit old after the 7th time through)
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), it will have to wait until I have more reliable access to my (ageing, but still with a much better graphics card than the laptop) desktop.
VtM: Bloodlines, with spoilers
in Computer and Console
Posted · Edited by marelooke
Guess that depends. Sure generally the response is "Oh poor dear, you're so messed up!", but often you hear your character say stuff that (s)he couldn't possibly know yet. I mean, a Malkavian basically "spoils" bits of the ending when you're talk to the Seeress on the beach very early in chapter 1...
Also the (first) Malkavian conversation with Jeanette is a pretty big spoiler. I'm not sure if it keeps up this pace thoughout the game since I never made it very far past chapter one as Malkavian (I'm a wizard guy, so I tend to gravitate towards the Tremere and seriously, a katana wielding, stealthy, blood magic using vampire wizard, what's not to like?) but the spoilers early on made me very wary of ever recommending a Malkavian for a first playthrough. (though I'm pretty sure the "Omfg my character already knew that!" when figuring out the Jeanette thing afer totally having missed the references in earlier dialogue might be worth it), though I guess it'd only work for someone not aware that Malkavians can have insight into the future through their insanity (and as such might ignore/miss all the clues strewn through their conversations)