What are you playing now?

[melkathi]

I'm definitely not a rabid fan of the Witcher myself, I find it to be a pretty flawed game. But the more interesting parts of the game come after the first Act.

 

Still, I think the one thing that the Witcher does better than most RPGs, or just most games in general, is atmosphere. There is something about the setting, the music, the graphics, the presentation that really drew me in in the first game. So many things that annoyed the hell out of me in that game, yet somehow... I still ended up kinda liking it in some way. Pretty polarizing game for me.

 

What really made me warm to the Witcher was stumbling through the town at night, drunk like a pirate crew on shore leave, and trying to fight off things in dark alleys. Loved the bleak atmosphere in that situation.

[BruceVC]

 

I wouldn't have thought the most vitriolic DA2 opinions were from Witcher fanboys anyway, they're far more likely to be Jilted Bioware Fans or Professional EA Haters.

 

Witcher may get used a bit as a comparison but if you have haters hating they're not going to be reasonable and say "The Witcher has some very good and well designed quests that require some actual thinking, but it does have a fair few kill x or fetch and carry quests as well which often involve trudging over the same areas", they're going to talk about the well designed quests and how DA2 definitely had none of those, nosiree, its quests were all complete asterisks, that nasty Laidlaw chap kept going on about awesome Bhutan too (been there, nice but not awesome so false advertising!!!) and my dog died immediately after playing- coincidence? I think not!

On all the sites I frequented when the two games were released, it was about 70% Witcher fans hurling vitriol at the then-unreleased DA2 and about a 50/50 split between Biodrones claiming DA2 would be the best RPG ever and fans of DAO who were outraged by the sequel's promised changes.

 

Anyway, about to try "KING'S BOUNTY CROSSWORLDS GOTY." No familiarity with the title, but it was $2.00 and had better review scores than most of the other games in the sale. Now downloading Alan Wake (which flew under my radar completely until about a year ago, since it didn't hit PC until 2 years after its original ecksbawcks release.)

 

 

Agx you need to be patient and continue to play Witcher 1, it does get better. If there is anything that confuses you about the plot please ask, you have always been very helpful with sharing insight in other games so don't be embarrassed. Have you had a threesome with the Vampiresses yet? You'll enjoy that 

[Calax]

playing heart of the swarm

 

its good, i like tyranids

 

story is overblown and melodramatic and heavy handed and ham fisted, the story in starcraft 1 was just as lame but was handled much more succinctly

I do feel like they pulled to much from the Tyranids (with Abathur's "I'm gonna keep making the swarm more perfect through GENES!" and the constant references to Biomass). Also, I feel like they put to much effort into characters that don't really go anywhere, and the one or two characters we should have had more time with, we didn't. 

 

 

And Kerrigan's "I just got my humanity back, I don't want to be a monster!" moments don't really go well with her "I'm gonna infect you with a tiny Larva that'll make you explode from the inside to prevent you from calling a fleet that'd get her long after I was gone" or "I'm just gonna tell a brood to kill everyone on a planet... because I can" moments

 

I feel like instead of having the "Primal" zerg dude, and the Brood mother as your secondary characters, they should have brought Stukov in earlier, with the captured Protoss playing that... angels advocate(?) to remind Kerrigan that she just keeps being a terrible person. I mean, it felt like the Brood Mother's entire point was to say "Kerrigan is trying to improve the swarm" and little else.

 

And for christs sake, acknowledge that Dr. Narud is Samir BLOOD DURAN!

 

 

[alanschu]

I hate the Tyranids.  Total ripoff of Starcraft's Zerg!

 

 

I love trolling Warhammer fans by saying that.

[HoonDing]

 

 

I'm glad so many people are getting into Sleeping Dogs now, too bad it didn't sell better initially.  I hope Squeenix still lets United Front do a sequel because for a first sandbox effort, they did an amazing job.  Imagine what they could do having learned from their mistakes?

You mean like introducing Emma Stone's character, then seemingly dropping her and never hearing from her again after your date? :D

Yes, all the girlfriends in Sleeping Dogs are woefully underutilized and underdeveloped.  I can live with them having the others drop in for a cup of coffee and never be heard from again, but I wanted more Not Ping in my life.  She did get a small part in the Nightmare in North Point DLC (as mentioned, the story DLCs are fun, but really short), but that's still not nearly enough Not Ping for my tastes.

I wish there were a date with Inspector Teng.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I'm playing Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition and loving it. God damn it simulated dice, betrayed me again.

I hate the Tyranids.  Total ripoff of Starcraft's Zerg!

 

 

I love trolling Warhammer fans by saying that.

Does anyone know why Games Workshop didn't sue Blizzard? it's a more cast iron case than White Wolf had with Underworld. I've seen Chinese knock-offs that are a better attempt at disguise.

[Oner]

 

I'm playing Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition and loving it. God damn it simulated dice, betrayed me again.

I hate the Tyranids.  Total ripoff of Starcraft's Zerg!

 

 

I love trolling Warhammer fans by saying that.

Does anyone know why Games Workshop didn't sue Blizzard? it's a more cast iron case than White Wolf had with Underworld. I've seen Chinese knock-offs that are a better attempt at disguise.

My guess would be because they didn't look similar enough. I mean, 'Nids have a consistent aesthetic and while the Zerg are similar, they don't really share the looks.

[melkathi]

My guess would be that GW wasn't so trigger happy back then. It was only after StarCraft that they realized just how much money others were raking in with basically their ideas.

[Oner]

Possibly. Not their ideas, though they seem don't seem to care about that anymore either.

'Nids = Starship Troopers bugs + Aliens

Space Marines = Starship Troopers again, maybe other sources too

Tau may be inspired by Protoss

[Calax]

Also probably because initially, the Zerg were more divergant from the tyranids. With SC2 they've moved MUUUUCH closer (for example, many missions include "harvest local genetic info so we can adapt to local environment")

[Blarghagh]

You guys do realize that the pre-StarCraft Tyranids were a lot more "technicolor Xenomorph" and GW basically admitted that they changed the design aesthetic to look more like Zerg right? I mean, I'm the first to admit that both ...arCraft franchises liberally ripoff the Warhammer franchises, but this isn't one.

 

Also Calax, that was the way Zerg worked from the start. It's in the manual for StarCraft that the Zerg evolve by collection other species' genetic traits.

[melkathi]

Also Calax, that was the way Zerg worked from the start. It's in the manual for StarCraft that the Zerg evolve by collection other species' genetic traits.

 

They take other species' genetic material? Sounds almost like the Genestealers

 

Tyranids got fleshed out and their evolution and gene gathering got further looked at over the years. 1993 in particular saw a lot of Tyranid love with Tyranid Attack for Advanced Space Crusade and the novel Space Marine by Ian Watson. They showed very clearly how Tyranids take genetic material to evolve the swarm.

 

Of course after the popularity of Starcraft, GW had grounds to rethink the appearance of the Hive Fleets. (especially as the 'nids of the early 90s looked a bit silly)

 

That SC2 is moving closer to 40k is only natural: Andy Chambers wrote most Tyranid stuff for 40k and now is the Creative Director for SC2.

Edited March 15, 2013 by melkathi

[Serrano]

That SC2 is moving closer to 40k is only natural: Andy Chambers wrote most Tyranid stuff for 40k and now is the Creative Director for SC2.

 

Heresy!

[Keyrock]

I don't personally care who ripped off who.  What I care about is now that Slitherine own the Warhammer 40k license, will they make Dawn of War III like DoW II: Retribution where you can do the campaign as any race/faction?  I hope so, because I want to be the incredibly awesome Orks rather than being forced to play as crummy Space Marines again.  Waaaagh!

Edited March 15, 2013 by Keyrock

[Serrano]

Are they making Dawn of War? Rock, Paper, Shotgun said that Sega and Relic still have the rights to make a DoW3, in whatever form that will take. They said that Slitherine are known for turn-based games and is probably the direction that their 40k/Warhammer game will take. So really it's probably more like Chaos Gate 2, which would rock socks.

[Keyrock]

Are they making Dawn of War? Rock, Paper, Shotgun said that Sega and Relic still have the rights to make a DoW3, in whatever form that will take. They said that Slitherine are known for turn-based games and is probably the direction that their 40k/Warhammer game will take. So really it's probably more like Chaos Gate 2, which would rock socks.

My bad, need to read more carefully.  Well, whoever winds op making the next Dawn of War, let me play the campaign as my race/faction of choice, please, pretty please with a cherry on top.  Same goes for the turn-based game Slitherine will wind up making.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Keyrock

[Serrano]

If they do that then hopefully they'll take another shot at the Total War style campaign map. I thought Retribution's campaign felt too watered down where they were trying to allow players to complete the same missions with wildly different units and stratergies, it made the whole thing seems very effortless and shallow compared to the absolutely excellent Chaos Rising.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Serrano

[Oner]

You guys do realize that the pre-StarCraft Tyranids were a lot more "technicolor Xenomorph" and GW basically admitted that they changed the design aesthetic to look more like Zerg right? I mean, I'm the first to admit that both ...arCraft franchises liberally ripoff the Warhammer franchises, but this isn't one.

 

Also Calax, that was the way Zerg worked from the start. It's in the manual for StarCraft that the Zerg evolve by collection other species' genetic traits.

I didn't remember whether the redesign or the Zerg came first.

[Calax]

 

Also Calax, that was the way Zerg worked from the start. It's in the manual for StarCraft that the Zerg evolve by collection other species' genetic traits.

Admittedly I didn't really get into 40k's lore prior to being a Starcraft fan, but it felt like in the manual the Zerg weren't "steal dna and evolve it right there and then to deal with specific environmental challenges" like the Tyranids are known for. Instead it was more "this piece of wildlife has pretty cool blades! *yoink*" with stolen genetic code being used on a more generalized basis. And the pace that it happens is straight Tyranid.

 

Also they added a reference to the concept of a digestion pool.

[Bos_hybrid]

So currently playing the StarDrive beta some thoughts:

 

Game is real time with pause, so no click to end turn. The UI is pretty good, the research tree seems a bit small for my liking. Diplomacy is standard with some nice touches, spies are useful. Seems to have random events built into it which is good to see(discovering signals from a pre-space flight species), graphics are nice. Is very easy to mod.

 

Designing your own ships is great, how well you design it, is actually important, placing armor(external and internal)/weapons(energy vs ordinance)power plants and power lines incorrectly throughout your ship, can cause some disasters. I designed a line of cruisers with minimal bulkheads protecting the reactor..... Not a great idea.

 

Overall I'm enjoying it.

[Keyrock]

If they do that then hopefully they'll take another shot at the Total War style campaign map. I thought Retribution's campain felt too watered down where they were trying to allow players to complete the same missions with wildly different units and stratergies, it made the whole thing seems very effortless and shallow compared to the absolutely excellent Chaos Rising.

Agreed, but the trade off of being able to play as the awesome and hilarious Orks was worth it to me.

[Serrano]

Ah yes, the hat scene

[Malcador]

The Belial fight in SC2 was pretty funny, less of a pain than it was in D3. Seems like they did a retcon on the Zerg origin, though, but I guess they have to give the Horde treatment (non-evil race corrupted by the Big Bad, now redeeemd).

 

Kerrigan's interactions being "I don't like killing" or "OBEY ME!" is a bit worn. Abathur is kind of funny in the moments when he wants to analyze Kerrigan.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Malcador

[Calax]

The Belial fight in SC2 was pretty funny, less of a pain than it was in D3. Seems like they did a retcon on the Zerg origin, though, but I guess they have to give the Horde treatment (non-evil race corrupted by the Big Bad, now redeeemd).

 

Kerrigan's interactions being "I don't like killing" or "OBEY ME!" is a bit worn. Abathur is kind of funny in the moments when he wants to analyze Kerrigan.

Heh, I didn't realize that the Belial fight was what they were copying. I knew they were copying SOMETHING from D3 with that, just not exactly what.

 

And yeah, they did a pretty serious retcon on both the Zerg origins, and Kerrigans relationship with Raynor. I was willing to let the Kerrigan/Raynor thing go in WoL because it seemed more like one of those "Character has a crush so he embarks on a crusade to save the crush". But in HotS they make it into pretty much "these two were passionate lovers prior to her infestation".

[Oner]

It has been a while, but I read some quotes from SC1 that seem to hint at the new Zerg twist. Maybe I was just reading too much into it though.