What are you playing right now?

[Fenixp]

I think what it boils down to is DA:I's "open world" works much better for me than Witcher 3's. If Witcher 3 was more tightly focused, I've no doubt I'd enjoy it more, as the parts when I was working on long quest chains were really enjoyable, whereas with DA:I I've basically ignored the story (mages, templars, demons, blah, blah, same old, same old is what I'm getting so far.)

Eh, don't know about that. Honestly I found it kinda boring - it felt like a world designed for a videogame as opposed to a believable place, which Witcher 3 nailed (and then ruined with overabundance of places of "interest" and nothing dynamic ever happening.) And the quests are all variations of "Bring me 3 bear asses" - EVERYTHING you do is a checklist of n things you need to bring to y, or n things you need to destroy or even erect (and it's not even the fun kind of erecting, just boring erecting). Generally, quest design in W3 is several levels above whatever DA: I threw at me, even tho I could do with less of "Use witcher senses to..."

 

Still, the low layer of how the DA: I's gameplay is constructed works a lot better for an open world - you've got a goal you're building towards, and the goal is one which makes sense to build towards by exploring, talking to people, making alliances. That was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. And then I had to erect. Uuugh.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Fenixp

[ShadySands]

More DDO

 

Got my Drowlock to 10 but I'm really starting to suffer from a lack of rogue hirelings. They are there but they cost shards or turbine points and I'm not trying to spend any money

[HoonDing]

still waitin for Technomancer

[Vaeliorin]

 

I think what it boils down to is DA:I's "open world" works much better for me than Witcher 3's. If Witcher 3 was more tightly focused, I've no doubt I'd enjoy it more, as the parts when I was working on long quest chains were really enjoyable, whereas with DA:I I've basically ignored the story (mages, templars, demons, blah, blah, same old, same old is what I'm getting so far.)

Eh, don't know about that. Honestly I found it kinda boring - it felt like a world designed for a videogame as opposed to a believable place, which Witcher 3 nailed (and then ruined with overabundance of places of "interest" and nothing dynamic ever happening.) And the quests are all variations of "Bring me 3 bear asses" - EVERYTHING you do is a checklist of n things you need to bring to y, or n things you need to destroy or even erect (and it's not even the fun kind of erecting, just boring erecting). Generally, quest design in W3 is several levels above whatever DA: I threw at me, even tho I could do with less of "Use witcher senses to..."

 

Still, the low layer of how the DA: I's gameplay is constructed works a lot better for an open world - you've got a goal you're building towards, and the goal is one which makes sense to build towards by exploring, talking to people, making alliances. That was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. And then I had to erect. Uuugh.

 

The key words there were "for me".  I'm not saying it's better designed as realistic areas (because it's not) but it's better designed in terms of being a fun game for me (I'm not even remotely a simulationist.  I care if a game is fun as a game, not how realistic it is.)  The points of interest in Witcher 3 were just horribly annoying.  I said the other day that I had somewhere around ~45 of them to do in Velen/Novigrad, spent hours getting it down to ~10, then hit the two noticeboards I hadn't yet because they were tucked up in the corner, and I had ~45 to do again.  And they're not fun, but I can't ignore them because it's not in my nature (heck, it was all I could do not to start the game over when I failed Gangs of Novigrad because I didn't go talk to Cleaver right away.)  DA:I's quests I just kind of do as I'm wandering around, and there's only been 1 "Go get me 10 X" quests so far that I hadn't already gathered the stuff I needed just playing the game (and it was go get me food for the refugees, which seemed an entirely reasonable thing to do, given I'm trying to win hearts and minds.)  There are the requisitions, of course, but those aren't that important, and again, just kind of happen while I'm wandering around doing other stuff.

 

Witcher 3's large quest chains are better, but the points of interest feel like busy work and padding, not an integrated part of the game, while all the sidequest stuff in DA:I just feels better integrated and like it's part of the exploration and regular gameplay.  That may change in later parts of the game, but that's how it feels to me so far.

[Fenixp]

Just FYI, there's an option burried somewhere in gameplay options which allows you to disable question marks. They're still in the game of course, but you don't see them on the map - depending on just how obsessive you are, this might work. And of course it's all just, like, our opinion, man :-P I liked Dragon Age 2!

[ShadySands]

still waitin for Technomancer

Just pre-ordered it myself

 

GMG has it 20% off right now if anyone is interested

[Labadal]

I'll be interested in your opinions.

[marelooke]

Still, the low layer of how the DA: I's gameplay is constructed works a lot better for an open world - you've got a goal you're building towards, and the goal is one which makes sense to build towards by exploring, talking to people, making alliances. That was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. And then I had to erect. Uuugh.

 

 

Yeah, that was kinda what I was getting at, but using a lot more words...

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

still waitin for Technomancer

Just pre-ordered it myself

 

GMG has it 20% off right now if anyone is interested

 

That's weird, I went to GMG and it says $44.99 and then I went on Steam and it's 15% off at $38.24.

 

Edit: Meh, if you try to leave the GMG site it gives you a voucher code for 20% off.

Edited June 26, 2016 by Wrath of Dagon

[ShadySands]

Sorry, I should have posted the code - 20off

 

Also, if anyone is interested in Civ6 you can use june23 to take 23% off that

[Fenixp]

Yeah, that was kinda what I was getting at, but using a lot more words...

Pfff, you're lucky I didn't start using metaphors. Now that's where the real walls of text start.

[Malcador]

Still pushing on in Overwatch, not running into many scumbags of late, worst has been people with nicks like 'Getoffmeho' or white kids trying to be gangsta on the voice chat. Zarya is becoming my favourite, after Pharah, is nice to shield people and I don't play as a tank traditionally, spend most of the time charging down snipers or support (this is by design, but I pretend this is my realization/innovation to make myself feel smarter).

[ManifestedISO]

Whew, been a long time since I sat from ten in the morning 'til 2am with an isometric RPG. Seriously, I am six-member partying like it's 1999, with PoE.

 

Except, back then I could do gaming marathons. Now, my back hurts, my neck is sore, and my wrist is on pins and needles.

[Labadal]

Beat Apotheon and Dust: An Elysian Tail. I have beaten these games on console, but I am now trying to finish up as much as I can in my Steam library. I'm also going through Satellite Reign and Tales of Hearts R.

[teknoman2]

I'm still struggling with the combat system of Last Remnant. Add to that the cheating of boss and mini boss enemies and i wonder where do i find the will to persevere.

Last one i met has a skill that activates out of it's combat turn that gives it infinite attacks during the turn. Combine that with the fact that the chance the game will let you use the revive command is 1% for no reason at all and you have a completely invincible enemy

[HoonDing]

 

 

Whew, been a long time since I sat from ten in the morning 'til 2am with an isometric RPG. Seriously, I am six-member partying like it's 1999

 

 

 

with PoE.

 

 

 

with PoE.

 

...

 

 

 

with PoE.

 

'k

[Fenixp]

Rest assured that the other ~85% of players really enjoyed Pillars, me included :-P I actually liked it a fair bit more than Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games combined, but I guess I'm in a minority there.

[melkathi]

Rest assured that the other ~85% of players really enjoyed Pillars, me included :-P I actually liked it a fair bit more than Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games combined, but I guess I'm in a minority there.

 

 

 HoonDing is 15% of the playerbase?

[Fenixp]

... Yes. That's what he does with his life, creating alts and writing up negative Pillars of Eternity reviews.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, unfortunately, there's more than just HoonDing who think PoE is a giant steaming pile of pure unfun.

[Fenixp]

You're HoonDing's alt too, Bartimaeus? ... The plot thickens.

[Labadal]

I can understand why people don't like Pillars. I can see its faults that don't bother me and some that do, but in the end, I enjoyed the game.

[Tale]

I finished XCOM 2, played a game called Stories which had some interesting stuff going on, and then moved on to the Deadpool game.

 

It's a bit on the dumber side of Deadpool, but has quite a few chuckles. And it's up to High Moons quality from their Transformer games.

[Malcador]

Played some Subnautica, seems ok, even if I am terrible at such games

[Gromnir]

I can understand why people don't like Pillars. I can see its faults that don't bother me and some that do, but in the end, I enjoyed the game.

we got loads o' poe complaints. we had issues with the companions as the writers were far too willing to use the joinable npcs as sources o' exposition-heavy info drop for world lore.  given that the companion quests often felt like a mini-game, we were frequent going through the same, tedious dialogues looking for a new option 'mongst all the old stuff, and the old stuff were not particular engaging. for a few o' the companions, we had to check the journal to be realizing that we had actual completed the joinable's quest as the resolutions were frequent forgettable.

 

the barbarian class, used by josh as some kinda gleaming example o' how the poe attribute system allowed for unique builds such as the genius barbarian were ironic an example o' the exact opposite o' flexibility.  the barbarian's carnage ability were/is so integral tied to intelligence that it is jackarse stoopid to play anything other than a genius barbarian.  poe were not 'posed to have class defining abilities and it were s'posed to allow flexibility o' attribute spreads.  the barbarian is actual the prime example o' the class that failed in those regards, in spite o' being an oft used example o' success. 

 

etc.

 

is loads o' additional criticisms that we has posted elsewhere already.

 

the thing is, when you get down to core problems with poe, am thinking the developers erred with basic vision.  unlike bg, the combat in poe were more complex and less forgiving. for the more casual crpg fan, poe combat were a slog from one brutal combat encounter to the next.  unfortunately, the hard core crpg fans has become increasingly polarized over the years.  if you is gonna make a game with hardcore appeal, you gotta accept that your audience will be small.  crpg grognards is having much difficulty coexisting, so obsidian's choice to aim for no-bad-builds were making it impossible for certain significant sects o' the crpg zealotry to embrace poe's heresies. and combat mechanics were only one example o' how the developers chose to go a bit too hardcore for the casual gamer, and fundamental wrong for the self appointed purists.  is sad, but the obsidian's transparent attempts to embrace casual and hardcore expectations actual resulted in the game being more o' a niche title.

 

we like poe, in spite o' many flaws.  even so, we can recognize that poe is very much a niche title.  poe were 'posed to appeal to fans o' the ie games.  the failure to make such a game is only partial the fault o' obsidian. the ie fans has become increasing clannish in the intervening years since iwd2 were released. folks who liked the ie games back near the turn o' the century has had considerable time and innumerable games to further refine their crpg tastes.  to make a game that would appeal to ie fans were much easier in 2000 than in 2015.  failure to make all ie fans happy were inevitable.

 

HA! Good Fun!