What are you playing now.

[WDeranged]

Looks like the brotherhood have taken up smoking 

 

 

 

Yeah, Honest Hearts seems incredibly appealing on the surface, a brand new landmass... Tiny landmass largely in the style of the main game with some unique aspects, yes! But then you find out just how incredibly forgettable it ends up being.

Wow, wow, wait. Tiny landmass largely in the style of the main game? This is so far away from the truth, it actually hurts. Honest Hearts features a complete new graphic set, and IMO in many places it looks a lot better than the nature in the Mojave. For me it is always a huge difference when I spend a long time in Zion and then go back to the Mojave. Also I find it hard to believe anyone else would see the obvious difference... different.

You can critizise the DLC in quite a few points, but IMO the landscape is not belonging into the list.

 

 

I think Honest Hearts might be my favourite DLC.  It doesn't do anything outstandingly brilliant but it's generally well done.  Interesting plot, Joshua Graham, very pretty location, Joshua Graham, survivalist's journals, JOSHUA ****ING GRAHAM!

Edited November 7, 2015 by WDeranged

[HoonDing]

Graham's boring (but at least not as long winded as that windbag Ulysses), his armour is ugly and his gun not affected by Cowboy perk.

 

Also you can't tell Caesar about him while on the other hand you can tell Veronica about Elijah (but not Christine).

[Wrath of Dagon]

All the DLC are good in different ways, except Lonesome Road is meh.

[the_dog_days]

It's not like story of Origins was particularly good either, I consider a "Provide for your family" . . .

In a life sim, sure but not as a sequel to an epic.

[GhostofAnakin]

More Wasteland 2.  I think I've mopped up all quests in Arizona.  One more big decision to make and that's it.

[Fenixp]

In a life sim, sure but not as a sequel to an epic.

The main issue is that the 'life sim' bits of the original Dragon Age were by far the most popular ones - the game was praised for its characters and their relations, but the storyline was massively meh. All DA2 did was to shift its focus towards what redeemed storyline of DA: O.

[Darkpriest]

I do not mind DA2 approach to overall story, but I do dislike fixed protagonist, when your gameplay area sucks ass, you reuse same areas and in fact there is not that much choice and consequence mechanics... if you go with fixed protagonist i expect games of TW magnitude, otherwise just keep various origins that will influence the personal story and have actually guts to go with meaningful choice&consequence. I do not even remember anything in that game other than no matter what you did you had to fight mages and templars in the last bit.

[Majek]

I wanted to play some Wasteland 2 DC but the new dialogue font made me quit after Vargas finished talking. I can't play like that and the changing the size makes it worse.

[Nonek]

I do not mind DA2 approach to overall story, but I do dislike fixed protagonist, when your gameplay area sucks ass, you reuse same areas and in fact there is not that much choice and consequence mechanics... if you go with fixed protagonist i expect games of TW magnitude, otherwise just keep various origins that will influence the personal story and have actually guts to go with meaningful choice&consequence. I do not even remember anything in that game other than no matter what you did you had to fight mages and templars in the last bit.

 

I found it quite difficult to find an overarching narrative, the game for me was not about the protagonists family, as I was not introduced to them, had no accumulation of empathy due to the clumsy writing and design, and could not even talk to them the majority of the time. Luckily they soon all died. Even if the game had been about providing for the family, (an outrageous notion as nobody needs to eat, drink or sleep in the Dragon Age world,) I would ask why Hawke ventured down into the Deep Roads after proving by accumulating 50 sovereigns that there was a perfectly adequate amount of money to be made in Kirkwall, running errands, thieving and slaughtering the bandits whom spawned every ten feet.

 

The second act I just could not find a reason to care about the Qunari, and honestly wondered why I was being bothered with this nonsense. Obviously a relationship with the incompetent guard captain Aveline, who frequently abandoned her post to do as I commanded was one factor, but she was only a passing acquaintance who I did not feel strongly about one way or the other. My Hawke had already stated that he wished to go back to Ferelden, had the money and had no loyalty to the strangers who stood around in his house not talking to him, "saving" the city was just not important to him in the least.

 

The third chapter was just so much pointless none decision making, I did not have to join with either Templars or Mages, I had slaughtered thousands (at least a city full) of each so had no fear, and nothing they could do or say would redeem either. I was uninterested in either side, had no loyalty or interest in the dead, reactionless, empty, ugly grey city and there were no silent strangers in my house who I was told were family. When I was forced into choosing a side I just clicked and sighed, skipped through the idiots who followed me derping about something, slogged through a number of combats again and then quit to desktop laughing when the Templar woman (the standard McGuffins slave) launched herself into space.

 

I've got to ask though, did she ever come down or make an appearance in Mass Effect?

 

Edit: Still, I endured the game for sixty hours or so, therefore getting my moneys worth and I liked some of the boots.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Nonek

[the_dog_days]

 

In a life sim, sure but not as a sequel to an epic.

The main issue is that the 'life sim' bits of the original Dragon Age were by far the most popular ones

Yes, and it worked for DA:O because it was an epic. Putting little moments to get to know the companions better was a breather in the midst of a blight (that threatens to destroy everything, bla bla bla), while DA2 was a fixed protagonist wondering around a city for a decade. In DA:O your the savior of Ferelden. In DA:I you restore torn reality. In DA2 your a cheap mercenary.

[Hurlshort]

I wanted to play some Wasteland 2 DC but the new dialogue font made me quit after Vargas finished talking. I can't play like that and the changing the size makes it worse.

 

I had the same initial reaction to a number of changes.  But I did get comfortable with it after a couple hours.  I think it is like turning to a radio station in the middle of a song, and how it just sounds like noise for a bit before you start to recognize the rhythm.  We were headed in expecting one thing and it was jarring to find something different.  

[Majek]

It's not the first time tried since DC was released, i just can't get over that font. :/

[melkathi]

The Melkathi's Mordheim Write-Up you have all been waiting for!

Introduction:
Mordheim was one of those miniature games Games Workshop would bring out and then abandon, similar to Necromunda, Gorka Morka and even Blood Bowl. In the year 1999 of the imperial calendar, a comet hit Mordheim, destroying large parts of the city, killing many of the people, and scattering chunks of warpstone all about. The warpstone - or wyrdstone - is coveted by many and fetches a great price on the black market. But someone has to brave the ruins of the city to gather it. The player commands one of the warbands doing just that.
The computer game is a free adaptation of the board game, not digitalizing the game like Cyanide did with Blood Bowl. As a result, the game can be seen as a turn-based tactics game, in the spirit of X-COM and others, the miniature origin overlooked by newer fans *shrug*

Gameplay

You send your warband on scavenging missions into the city. The game creates a number of random mission for you to choose from, and should those not be to your liking, you can pay scouts to look for more opportunities. Once you get going and your faction likes you, they will start offering you fixed story mission from the optional 8 mission long campaign each warband gets. The meat and bone though are the random missions.

Maps: Skirmishes take place in the two districts of the city currently in the game, the Merchant District and the Noble's District. EAch district has 4 layouts and those have nodes for randomized buildings. Every map layout has 11 deployment layouts with their own loot nodes and nodes for barricades and traps. So while a location will be very familar after a while, you will never be entirely certain of the paths available to you, as those buildings may this time not be connected on the second floor, that house's staircase may not be destroyed, its door not locked, and when you round that corner you may find yourself in a dead end.

Turn-Based Combat: The two sides move their warriors based on each individual's initiative. You will move your faster people before your opponent's slowr once and the other way around. Each character has two distinct pools of action points: Blue strategic points and Red offense points.
Blue points are primarily used for mobility and other out of combat stuff. Each point allows the character to move in a radius based on their Movement value. Once you move out of the radius, a beacon is placed on the spot you left the range and that strategic point is removed. Should you retrace your steps onto the beacon, the point is refunded. Actions other than movement and dice rolls finalize all movement though up to that point - climb a wall? A die is rolled for the climb check and succeed or fail, no step up to then can be retraced. Trigger an environmental hazard or overwatch fire from an enemy archer? The specific strategic point's move gets interrupted, ends there and all movement p to then is final. Other than movement, Strategic points are used for climbing and leaping (one point), using consumables (2 points) and using out of combat skills (applying poison to your swords? 3 points). When engaged in melee, strategic points are used for defense, entering dodge or parry or other stances or are used to flee (and get cut down doing so). In combination with offense points they are used to orderly disengage from melee, to switch weapons or to aim with a ranged weapon.
Red points are used for the actual fighting. As a rule of thumb, 2 points = 1 attack. This can change based on circumstances - have a loadout that is "tiring"? Extra attacks will cost more. Charge attacks, a way to move beyond your Blue allowance, also cost an extra point. If no enemy is in range, you can end a character's turn with an ambush or overwatch stance (2 points), having them charge or shoot at the first enemy that gets into range. Spell casting is also done with the Red points. There is no mana, no number of spells known, only your action points limit how much you can do.

But Magic comes with great risks. Every time you cast a spell, after checking for successfull casting, there is a chance for side effects. Arcane spellcasters need to fear Tzeentch's Curse, divine casters Divine Wrath. The more a character casts in a round, the higher the risk. And the curse can be brutal. From tame effects like preventing the character from castin furtehr spells for a turn, to stunning the caster and everyone around them, to instantly going out of action.

Keyword Out of Action, after combat, all characters who participated in the mission gain experience. Those who were taken out of action during the fight roll once to check if they lost any equipment (on top of possibly having been looted by the enemy), then roll for the extend of their injuries. There are 27 inuries and except for the Near Death Experience (XP but can't take part in missions for 5 days), are all bad. They are likely to reduce stats, may onclude mental conditions (Megalomania prevents use of ranged weapons and spell casting), can result in lost limbs and of course death.
Based on their experience, characters can raise their stats and learn skills.

A battle ends when one side routs. After a warband's morale drops below a threshhold, they have to pass Rout Tests to keep going. Morale drops as warriors fall out of action.

The game at launch will only have an auto-save feature, so will at any difficulty always be played in "ironman mode".

Warbands
There is a choice of four warbands (if the game does well, the devs would like to add more). Each warband gets a choice of 1 Leader, 3 types of Heroes, 2 types of Henchmen and 1 Impressive. One of the hero types can be trained to fill the role of Leader, while both henchmen types can be promoted to Hero. Each character comes with a unique skill based on their type.

The Mercenaries

In a way the mercenaries are the standard jacks of all trade. Their warriors have the greatest selection of weapons, including pistols, hunting rifles and blunderbusses.

The leader of the warband is the Mercenary Captain, while the Champion can be trained to become one. Alongside the Youngblood that gives the warband 3 workhorses who can do anything, though their starting skill will predispose them towards specific roles - for example the Captain has an increased chance to parry and following a successfull parry can counter attack at a discount. That makes him a great front row tank.

The third hero of the warband is the Warlock. He brings magic to the mercenaries.

Marksmen and Warriors are the two henchmen types. Marksmen are some of the games best ranged characters, as the name suggests. When promoted to heroes they can become real deadly. Warriors bring extra melee to the warband.

Finally, the warband's Impressive is the Ogre, big, ugly and wielding melee weapons.

The Cult of the Possessed

The Chaos warband is a bit like Forest Gump's box of chocolates - you never know what you get until it mutates. The heroes and impressive of the warband will gain 3 random mutations as they level up. While these can be powerfull, they can also take characters in directions you hadn't intended, when for example your heavily armoured tank can no longer wear armour or carry a shield. Especially the danger of arms mutating into weapons and forcing a two weapon fighting tyle onto characters, has many players favour that style from the get go.

The Magister is both the warband's leader and spellcaster. While they can become skilled archers, magisters' starting ability reduces casting costs after a successfull melee attack. Coupled with their starting spell - weapon of destruction - being a strong buff, this adds to the "hit hard" direction of the warband.

The heroes are the Mutant, the Marauder and the Possessed. At first the Mutant looks similar to the mercenary heroes: an all-rounder. But mutations can change that. The Marauder and Possessed are melee warriors, of which the Possessed is restricted to unarmed fist attacks and thus the aforementioned two weapon style.

Darksouls and Brethren are the henchmen. Neither mutates, making it easier to plan their advancement. Brethren are the game's other good archers, with a bonus to accuracy for overwartch shots. Darksouls are melee warriors who never retreat from battle. When promoted to hero status, since they can wear heavy armour, wield shields and do not need to fear mutations, they can become the warband's main tank.

The Chaos Spawn is the warband's impressive. Like the heroes it mutates. Due to its chaotic nature, it never suffers permanent injuries - instead it is banished back to the warp (read: dead).

Clan Eshin

The Skaven of clan Eshin are fast and agile. They have the game's highest movement value and best dodging skills. Their speed lets them outmanouvre the physically stronger warbands, and surround and swarm careless warriors. While lacking access to the heavier ranged weapons, they bring warlock pistols and shuriken to Mordheim.

They are led by an Assassin Adept, who comes equiped with poisoned "Weeping Blades" and who reduces dodge and parry chances of opponents. The Black Skaven is the combat hero, while the Night Runner, who gains extra movement range after successfully jumping/climbing, is the fastest character in the game.

The Eshin Sorcerer is the warband's spellcaster and helps keep it focused, comming pre-packaged with the Guidance skill, which temporarily removes the symptoms of mental disorders of a target, such as Amok or Stupidity.

Warpguards are the only rats who can wear heavy armour, thus filling a similar role to the Possessed's Darksoul. Verminkin are the lowest rank in skaven society and will probably be little more than extra bodies.

The Rat Ogre is the warband's impressive. It is very powerfull but suffers from stupidity and has to pass an inteligence test each round to do anything if it isn't in combat.

Sisters of Sigmar's Mercy

The warrior nuns are the least flexible of warbands: they are restricted to melee weapons, and further restricted to blunt weapons. On the upside, with one exception, they can all wear heavy armour, including their spellcasters. And yes, unlike the other warbands, they have multiple casters - divine spellcasters who's casting chance is unaffected by armour.

The Matriarch, the warband's leader, is the righteous antithesis to the possessed's Magister. Instead of having melee attacks reduce casting costs, her spell casting reduces the cost of the next melee attack. The Sister Superior is the hero that keeps the warband's heavy armour from weighting them down too much. She has a "For Sigmar" ability which increases a target's movement value to skavenlike speed. The Purifier is the warband's second caster, yet can be even deadlier when in melee. The last hero is the blind Augur, the only sister to be restricted from wearing armour, but their best scout, using her divine sight.

Sisters and Novices are the henchmen. This may be the warband that benefits the least from promoting henchmen to heroes, as the Sisters' starting skill is a movement boost when picking up wyrdstone - not something that can be further build upon through a promotion. Still, novices are great at dodging.

The warband's impressive is the Maiden of Sigmar. She too is a divine caster, wears heavy armour and is immune to ranged attacks. She is the only normal sized impressive.

While the sisters have three times the number of casters than other warbands, the dangerous nature of magic keeps them from spamming spells and has them concentrate more on bashing people's heads in with hammers.

 
The AI

The game is complicated. The maps have many levels and many potential paths. Characters have many options for actions to take. On top of that, to make the enemy warband feel real, they have to have the same motivation as players: loot. There are too many variables for the AI to ever be able to play on parr with the player. Instead of letting it cheat, the devs have decided to buff the AI's stats. Based on mission difficulty, AI warbands get a bonus to their stats, including hit points and damage. Still, the devs are working hard on getting the AI to do as many as smart moves as possible. But it is still a work in progress. And cost/benefit rewards have to continuously be tweaked - for example in one build the AI could be blocked from moving if someone with overwatch was covering their route, as the AI was trying to avoid being damaged, while the Skaven Night Runner would continuously climb up and leap from the same wall to buff its movement. As these problems are revealed, the devs work on fixing them. But it does seem to be the price to pay when making a complex game.

Wyrdstone Smuggling

Wyrdstone is the most important thing in the game. You can find it scattered around the battlefield and gather it up. Of course warpstone is dangerous and whoever picks up a piece of wyrdstone will experience side effects, which may include damage, temporary penalties to damage resistances or even bonuses.
You require wyrdstone, as your warband's patron will request regular shipments. And as your warband's rank increases, so will the size of these shipments. If you miss a shipment, the next shipment request will be larger. Miss too many shipments and you lose the game.

Excess wyrdstone can be sold to various factions through the Smuggler's Den. There are four major factions (one for each warband) and four minor factions (two respectively shared between mercenaries and sisters, and possessd and skaven).
Selling to factions increases reputation and unlocks rewards. For a warband's main faction that means more time to respond to shipment requests and greater income. Minor factions give trainign discounts for skills. All factions have item rewards and can offer henchmen and heroes for hire. After spending a lot of wyrdstone this way, warbands can even gain access to a henchman and hero from the respective other warband.

The game is being developed by a new studio: Rogue Factor. Focus are the publisher.


And I can't remember what else I wanted to say. As always.

edit: remembered some bits I forgot, fixed some wrong information I have no idea why I wrote wrong, and fixed some typos.

Edited November 8, 2015 by melkathi

[GhostofAnakin]

Sacrilegious comment incoming: Wasteland 2 is more fun than Pillars of Eternity.  It's drawn me in a lot more than PoE did.  But maybe I'm just more a fan of guns than swords and magic.

[HoonDing]

Filling in your tax returns is more fun than Pillars of Eternity.

[GhostofAnakin]

Filling in your tax returns is more fun than Pillars of Eternity.

 

Eh, I wouldn't go that far.  PoE was a solid game.  I just don't think it was a "gotta keep playing this for just one more hour" type of game.  Whereas I think Wasteland 2 is.

[Nepenthe]

 

I played (even) da2 like 6-7 times

 

Damn, that's some next-level masochism.

 

Then again, I've played through NWN 1 OC 4 or 5 times, so maybe I shouldn't talk. 

Meh. Da2 was a reaction to when all the people were claiming that bio games were formulaic save the world efforts. I had no issues with that, but I can appreciate a departure from it. Da2 has (just) enough enjoyably written characters for a fun romp through the game and it's thankfully short enough to be played roughly in a weekend, which is something I really appreciate these days. + I usually play as a 2h warrior, which benefits most from the gameplay changes and suffers least from the camera etc.

[teknoman2]

I wanted to play some Wasteland 2 DC but the new dialogue font made me quit after Vargas finished talking. I can't play like that and the changing the size makes it worse.

of all the things that one could say are wrong with the game, this is what got you? some people are just beyond my comprehension.

Edited November 8, 2015 by teknoman2

[Majek]

of all the things that one could say are wrong with the game, this is what got you? some people are just beyond my comprehension.

 

 

 a great font in retail is changed to **** font in DC in a game where there's plenty to read and you  can't comprehend people disliking it? edit:

Edited November 8, 2015 by Majek

[teknoman2]

 

of all the things that one could say are wrong with the game, this is what got you? some people are just beyond my comprehension.

 

 

 a great font in retail is changed to **** font in DC in a game where there's plenty to read and you  can't comprehend people disliking it? what kind of a subhuman with a defective brain are you then?

 

to be honest i didnt even notice that it changed since i still read the text just fine

[Bartimaeus]

Hey, some of us are really obsessed about stuff like that. Although, personally, not so much that I begin calling other people subhuman and mentally defective when they don't understand my weird annoyances...

[HoonDing]

 

of all the things that one could say are wrong with the game, this is what got you? some people are just beyond my comprehension.

 

 

 a great font in retail is changed to **** font in DC in a game where there's plenty to read and you  can't comprehend people disliking it? what kind of a subhuman with a defective brain are you then?

 

Not an autist, maybe?

[WDeranged]

Blitzed Hoover Dam for House and was surprised to realise I'd never done it before.  I'd also never properly listened to the NCR radio during the final battle, it was cool hearing the catastrophic consequences of me skipping all their quests 

[Keyrock]

I didn't notice the change in font for W2 DC either.  Doesn't bother me at all.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited November 8, 2015 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

Comic Sans or bust.