Cantousent

I have neither purchased nor played any bio games since DA:O. I never bought any of the ME games at all. That's not on principle, though. I haven't had as much time to play for some time and so I've been a little more selective. I think Bio has focused on gameplay aspects I don't like as much lately, but I still follow them and I might pick up some of these titles off STEAM if they're part of a special offer. I truly enjoyed DA:O on the first run, but I tried to replay with the free DLC and, while it started out pretty well, it just wasn't all that. After that, I just kept hearing bad stuff about the latest titles, from ME3 to DA:2.

:Cant's shuddering icon: Seriously, though, I think he did Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Siege, and Something of the Dead, didn't he? I saw Dungeon Siege, like I said. I know it was low budget, but it wasn't really that bad all things considered. That is to say, I figured it would be pretty bad and it was, but it wasn't absolutely completely horrible. I kept watching it while I did other stuff. There are some movies so bad I literally can't have them in the same room even if I'm not paying attention.

I think plenty of games could make good movies. In fact, a couple could make great movies. A fair number of them would make better movies than what we have at cinema at any given point. I think the problem is that most folks writing screenplays look to literature or original ideas more than entertainment software. However, as games demand larger budgets and greater returns, I think they'll come out of the shadows more and more. Even now, some games compete with movies for budgeting and profit. If I read correctly, the latest CoD surpassed all films in early sales and was quite expensive to produce. When games have an equal standing with movies, then movies will increasingly look to games for inspiration. On the other hand, I don't see games suprassing literature in terms of esteem. Maybe someday, but not as things stand now. As I understand it, movies have been the king of budget and profits for some time, but I don't think most folks seriously consider them as the artistic equal of books. Games will probably be no different. At least, that's how I see it. ...And I still think Alice would make an awesome movie! :Cant's wry grin icon:

Hey, it's only development purgatory assuming they actually make it. Alice is one of the few games I thought would make a good movie. We did see Dungeon Siege, which I must admit made a much better game than movie, although I think the 'war... war never changes' guy from Fallout played one of the people in the film. It wasn't as terrible as I feared, but that's because I feared the absolute worst. It was still B movie cheesy.

American McGee's Alice.

I finished the game last night and I really enjoyed Reinhart. I also got the perfectionist. lol That sort of desire to complete every side quest really kills me in games like Fallout and TES. I really enjoyed the game and I probably won't complete another full run for a while, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The hardest fight, at least in terms of number of attempts, was the Daeva Statue. I do have to say that I get irritated with end bosses these days. haha But that's every game these days it seems to me. Great fun, though. I think I'm going to replay Dungeon Siege again. I actually think I like the first and third games the best, although I had a lot of fun in a lan based party playing DS2.

Yeah, I only purchased the game recently as a bundle off of STEAM, so they might have fixed camera issues and whatnot. I will say that I am sometimes frustrated with where certain powers take effect. The fight that's taken me the most tries so far is the Daeva Statue on normal. I virtually always play a game the first time either on normal or, if there are more than three settings, the next one off of the hardest. This game does seem a bit easy, but the camera can be a pain at times. Of course, I feel that way about a lot of games, though, so I don't think much of it. As for this run, I'm past Stonebridge now, so I must be getting fairly close to the end. I think the whole 'dungeon siege' idea is clever and humorous. It didn't make me laugh out loud like some of the other things, but I noticed it and appreciated the joke. I think the humor is actually well done. It doesn't relentlessly break character to parody itself, and yet they managed to poke fun at the genre and even the title itself. So far so good. I'm really enjoying the game. It makes me want to replay Dungeon Siege something fierce, but oddly I don't feel the same way about DS2. I think a lot of die-hard fans might have complained about DS3, but I think DS2 was more of a departure for me personally. Since that's the case, I just take what I can get in terms of the DS core features. Anyhow, I don't know which character I will try next. My next run will, by necessity, be a lot slower, so I want to choose the character I'll enjoy most. I thought it was down to Anaji or the knight fellow, but I like the gypsy lady also, I think, so now I can't decide. There's a thread around here somewhere about characters that I'm going to find and read. Oh, i just reread your post. Katarina is her name and I'm actually kind of leaning towards her by just a smidge.

Thanks for the heads up, C2B. I've finished finished the DLC and one path. Now I'm on the alternative path. I don't know if there's any difference between doing one or the other first, but I'll find out next run. I also don't know how much longer the game has. Assuming I'm about half way done, it'll be a fairly standard length, I think. If I'm over two thirds done, I think it'll a bit short. With replay, it will be well worth buying, though. Most games are short these days, although the FO and TES franchises make for some long games.

I finished the DLC. I hit every side quest along with the main story line. The influence thing is a little under-done, at least to my mind, but it's not bad. I think it might enhance replayability. The only problem I have at this point, having gotten to Stonebridge and done the DLC, is this:

Ah, I see the point now. DS3 has limited me to two characters so far, the main and one joinable. I don't mind it. I kind of thought DS2 totally changed something I loved about DS1, which was the ability to completely multi-class. Of course, I never really went in for more than two at a time, but I still enjoyed the flexibility. As far as parties goes, I don't know how many characters I had at one time in either game. I need to replay them, which I might do at some point after I finish 3.

"When I went to write this, I meant to praise you, but looking at what you've released in the last 6 years, you've really not done anything special." I don't hold it against you that you didn't enjoy the game, but that passage makes no sense. I mean, if you came to write something, and meant to praise Obsidz, why would you suddenly decide you didn't find them praiseworthy? If you came intending to praise the developer, you'd think you had something for which to praise them. If you created an account without knowing anything about them, why would you praise them? You subsequently came to understand their games after setting your mind on praising them? Did you set your mind to praise them several years ago, create this account, see the games, and at that very point decide you actually hate them? I don't spend as much time on the forum as I did in the past, and I certainly never really liked fighting with disgruntled players even when I was here more often, but your post is non-sensical. At any rate, if you hate the game, fair enough. Different strokes for different folks. I've been quite happy with the game. To be fair, I think I felt more or less the same way about Dungeon Siege 2. Maybe not the depth of feeling, but I was disappointed.

Yeah, you might end up having some strange bastard email you, eh Gorth. hehe Seriously, though, there must be some place to serve up the file if you get it finished and tested a bit. That would be an awesome service for the community.

I definitely plan on replaying as I get the chance. I like Reinhhart, but I think I might enjoy playing the warrior dude or the archon.

Thanks for the info, C2B. I got to a point where I could choose two different paths to take and, at that same point, the DLC path was also available, so I went to the DLC. Last night, I chose to take the DLC path and ended up with the only really tough fight I've seen in the game so far. I'm playing on normal, which I almost always do on first runs, and the Daeva Statue was a real bitch. I tried several times last night and kept getting the smack down. When I got the chance to take a swipe at her today, I beat her on the first shot. Granted, I changed up strats and was much better (not to mention much more alert) about reacting to her specials. The multi-armed bimbo got the beat down she deserved. Overall, I'm happy with the DLC. I think I'm done with most of the side quests, which makes it pretty short, but I guess that's common for DLCs in general. If there's some other thread into whch the mods want to merge this one to clean things up, I don't mind. I just didn't want to slog through months worth of threads. I don't know why the font size was so small in my post, but I edited it to make it larger. weird.

For some people, the social aspect of the game keeps them going. This is how casual players who don't have a chance in hell of being useful in raids enjoy the game. They can come on and kabitz and, if they decide they want to do a little raiding, a strong group can carry them. I know a lot of folks who enjoy this style of play past level max. Others like helping newbies in a guild do quests or achieve goals. There are folks who enjoy crafting or gathering and the prospect of these things keeps them interested. For me, I only wanted better gear and more trophies. That might sound sad and pathetic to some folks. Nevertheless, to be perfectly candid, that's what I wanted. I enjoyed doing end game game raids, progressing through end bosses, and getting better gear. I think Humanoid somewhere up above made the same observation I'm going to make now. ...Or, more appropriately, I'm going to agree with him wholeheartedly. I hate dealing with end game because after you've made your kick-ass healer and have her decked out with stuff and You've finally made something of her, the xpac comes out and you're stuck moving ahead. That could be good, right? Not really. You end up grinding grinding GRINDING for rep, doing the same sorts of daily quests, jumping through the same hoops, trying to keep a group of often volatile, egocentric, and vain team-mates together, and then filling in the spots when folks drop out for various reasons. For my part, I have never fought with folks about gear, but I've seen more people leave successful groups because they deserved first dibs than any other single reason. At the end of all that, I just coulnd't stomach the thought of playing a new MMORPG. Hurlie had good advice, sure. Play for the other things and don't get stuck on gear and prestige. Sadly, that's not what I want. I have never seen an MMORPG that was as good at the other RPG aspects as a good single or lan based RPG. Once I got sufficiently jaded, it was all over for a while. It's been several months since I've played one and, frankly, I'm glad raiding isn't sucking up every bit of free time I have any longer. That goes double for the little lady. On a different topic, I started out fairly positive about ToR, but as time went by and folks kept spitting vitriol at WoW and acting ilke, based on the Star Wars license, ToR would clean house, I found myself quietly rooting against it. I loved Star Wars when I first saw it in theaters in... 1977? I still have nostalgic feelings about the franchise but, for all of its considerable influence in pioneering successful Sci-Fi cinema, I don't think I'd hold it in the same esteem if it came out now. I love the fact that Star Wars made Sci-Fi truly cool, but that's no reason to buy a game based solely on the license.

So, did this end up being the WoW killer everyone said it would be? Will WoW now slip into the dustbin of MMORPG history with ToR standing over its corpse like a triumphant gladiator?

Having no better place to post further observations of the game, I'm going to double post. If it offends anyone, or they even care about it at all, I suppose the moderators could delete the thread or move it to the graveyard. Whatever. Anyhow, I've played the game throughout the time since I first posted as best I could. That's the better part of twelve straight hours. Apparently long enough that I couldn't edit the original post. I was a little leery of it at first, since it seemed to me that it wasn't going to be as fun as the first two games. I was wrong. It's addictive and I think it might actually be the best of the three. In the first one, the player could make a pretty kickass multi-class character. I think the strongest character in terms of survivability and damage in the first game was either fire/melee or nature/melee. As I saw it, the second game punished the player for multi-classing. You saw your end game talent, and went to it as fast as possible. This one doesn't let you multiclass, which is just fine. You still have some ways to customize your character, which is cool, but the fact that you start with one of four presets and then pick up the other choices works very well for me. To be fair, I hate over engineering my characters, so I suppose some braniac with a 5k IQ and a degree in game theory could tell me a million ways in which I'm wrong, but I play the game for myself and that how I see it. Probably the only reason I'm posting is because of the dead mule, which made me laugh out loud. I've gotten to stonebridge and the cat herding humor works for me, which is undoubtedly a result of my less than refined tastes. Also, I notice that Sawyer is having a lot of fun with the game. I had my suspicions about the hound when I found the lore early, but between the Jackal and the Black Hound in the talent tree, I think it's pretty clear we're getting some of the flavor that might have made it into other titles that might have been. All good stuff. Diogenes would be proud. I put off the purchase until recently, but it would have been well worth it at original price. Of course, I probably couldn't have played it very much until now even if I'd purchased it earlier, but I would gladly have supported it with a full price payment had I known it would be this good. Still not as fine a game as New Vegas, but I still view New Vegas as a masterpiece. Hard to compete with that. I didn't use any spoiler tags, but I didn't post anything specific about the plot and the stuff about talents isn't hidden from the player in the first place. Locked, yes. Hidden, no.

I tihnk DS3 shows off some of the talent we've come to expect in Obsidz games. The story and dialogue are splendid. I haven't read any other posts in this section since I just purchased the game recently and only got a chance to start playing yesterday, but I'm sure I'm not alone in appreciating the value. I just hope I can finish with my character of choice, the mage, before vacation ends. I suppose some folks might not like it, but the way the dialogue wheel works is great. I've seen it in other games and sometimes enjoyed it and sometimes not. The gist of what the player wants to say is sufficiently clear that I haven't been irritated that I've intended one thing but said something different. On the other hand, the extended responses have been well done, seemed perfectly natural, and reflected my choice. This is one of the things that Obsidz always does well. The game has a real Dungeons and Dragons feel in many locations. For example, I did the haunted mansion a while back. The whole thing is apparently a side quest and there was a side quest branching out from that story line as well. It managed to move as quickly as any other action RPG, but I was struck by how well the environmental aspects drew me into the story, such as the sound effects, the quick bits of dialogue, and the various items. For example, the lever had at least four different choices for intereaction. It's not a lot, nor would I expect or even want much more time on interaction in an action game, but it is enough to make it interesting. ...And that's just a lever. I say the game is surprisingly well done because one of the major gripes I've had with Obsidz games in the past is stability in the engine. The graphics are pretty, the game is stable, and the interface is interesting. I was pleasantly surprised that all these things came together. My one true gripe at the moment is that I find the ability to interact with my inventory takes longer than I'd like. I guess I'd better look at the STEAM manual and find out if there are shortcuts I haven't seen yet. If I could just press one button to bring up the inventory without the cute little animation that I find increasingly irritating as I play, then I think I'd be happy with the setup. Overall, the inventory seems a little weird to me, but not particularly bad per se. Maybe it's a console related thing. I suspect there's some way for me to switch between characters rather than always running the main PC, but I'll have to find that in the manual also. So far I've been happy with the way the npcs take care of themselves in combat, so no big deal. BTW: What the hell happened to the forum? Must have gone through a major upgrade or something since the last time I signed on.

I played the Limbo demo and would have gotten it but the wife didn't think much of it. Clever game, though.

I'm having terrible heartburn again. I'll be damned if this is a heartattack. One glass too many too close to bed time more like it, but I feel like hell. I hope I can get a few hours of sleep before I have to get up.

How old is your neice, Wals? Mine just turned eight summer of this year and she's completely into the Wii. She loves girlie stuff, much much more than her mother did. Of course, her mother is a complete and utter harpy, but the kid is golden. She's all into Animal Crossing and Wii sports. She loves angry birds on the ipad, also, but you didn't say you wanted a console or ipad game, so I can check to see what she likes for the computer.

Do you still have the same dynamic with tanks, heals, melee dps, and range dps? I tanked through Arthas before the next xpac and then switched to healer. If I could get enough mileage from the quests, then maybe I'd be able to take Hurlies advice and not get caught up in maintaining end game raiding skills and kit. How does the game stack up agains WoW in terms of crafting and other non-combat stuff? I mean, I actually enjoyed crafting quite a bit, even stuff like fishing and cooking were a lot of fun. Hell, I would have left WoW even sooner if I hadn't had fun finding stuff using archaeology. The fact that you can phase into your own separate instance area so you aren't competing with every other sorry bastard trying to kill the same three mobs is good news, but the overall talent trees sounds pretty much like WoW as far as I can tell. ...And will I be stuck in hours of theorycraft in order to be an effective [insert role here]?

Ever since you took your humanitarian trip to India, I've actually had a lot of respect for you, Ros. I mean, I've known a lot of liberals who talk the talk in terms of charity, but you have walked the walk. Makes it easier to take you seriously when you talk about poor folks. It's been a couple years since I volunteered, and I used to spend a lot of time doing volunteer work at various places. Anyhow, I think Walsh and I should take a humanitarian trip to the African veldt. Humanitarian trip or a safari.

I'm tempted to try that, Fio. Of course, the last time you convinced me to see something, Firefly, I ended up depressed because they cancelled one of the best series I've seen in a long time before the end of the first season. Bastards! :Cant's wolfish grin icon: I'll probably give Pandorum a try sometime this week.