Where's the Next Video Games Thread?... Oh here it is.

[MerenthaClone]

You also, at that point, have actually played all of DS2 a lot. You know the relative strengths of the monsters and know what to run from, where to run, and what's where in the first place. You know you can skip that Heide's dragon if you want, or that the ogre is...just there for some reason. A lot of what makes DS fun is that its very, very skill-and-knowledge based. Your gear and stats don't particularly matter that much compared to player skill. No, the beginning isn't that hard, but adding a one-hit-kill monster with a ton of health on the critical path (unlike the ones clearly off to the side in vanilla Things Betwixt) that you have to avoid while fighting more Hollows than in the base game? Yeah, its a dick move to totally new players, especially since one of the best pieces of advice for the series is "if you're finding the area you're in too tough, you might be going the wrong way. Try going somewhere else and see if its easier." Well, that's great, except...where? I know in vDS2, a bunch of people went to Heide's, said "holy shit this is hard" and then found the Forest and realized that they were on the right track. I did. Only now there's a dragon that doesn't even clue you into the idea that Heide's is kind of the second path to take and the first enemy you'll see in Forest is an ogre that has a ton of health and is likely to eat your head in a very janky hitbox grab attack. So a smart player goes "huh, Forest might not be the way to go either...and then they've decided the first two areas aren't actually the first two areas and now are just stuck.

Its way harder and only your experience makes you think it isn't, which is why it makes a great NG+ release.

e: I'm being harsh on it. I think its a better game than vanilla DS2. Some decisions are just bizarre and some enemy placements feel like a romhack edition, but it is better.

[Jace, Extat]

what about mortal kombat X? has anyone tried it yet?

It's pretty cool, I think. I mostly bought it so me and the BF could have a new game we could play together, but the story is surprisingly... ok. There's enough semblance of a plot and characters that it plays out like a campy kung-fu movie. And the combat is solid.

[Myrddin]

Any Disney Infinity fans here?

They just announced 3.0 Star Wars expansion.

Plus some new Disney (Mulan, Olaf, Tron, Mickey, Minnie) and Marvel (Hulkbuster and Ulton) characters.

I've been enjoying building stuff in the 2.0 Toy Box. Looking forward to adding SW assets to my options.

[Jace, Extat]

Got the day to myself and can't decide what to play while I watch football.

My front-runners are

A new Rome II: Total War campaign

Continuing the Mass Effect 3 campaign I started last night

Starting a new Skyrim game

Madden

or KOTOR

Guide me, board.

[RumHam]

You also, at that point, have actually played all of DS2 a lot. You know the relative strengths of the monsters and know what to run from, where to run, and what's where in the first place. You know you can skip that Heide's dragon if you want, or that the ogre is...just there for some reason. A lot of what makes DS fun is that its very, very skill-and-knowledge based. Your gear and stats don't particularly matter that much compared to player skill. No, the beginning isn't that hard, but adding a one-hit-kill monster with a ton of health on the critical path (unlike the ones clearly off to the side in vanilla Things Betwixt) that you have to avoid while fighting more Hollows than in the base game? Yeah, its a dick move to totally new players, especially since one of the best pieces of advice for the series is "if you're finding the area you're in too tough, you might be going the wrong way. Try going somewhere else and see if its easier." Well, that's great, except...where? I know in vDS2, a bunch of people went to Heide's, said "holy shit this is hard" and then found the Forest and realized that they were on the right track. I did. Only now there's a dragon that doesn't even clue you into the idea that Heide's is kind of the second path to take and the first enemy you'll see in Forest is an ogre that has a ton of health and is likely to eat your head in a very janky hitbox grab attack. So a smart player goes "huh, Forest might not be the way to go either...and then they've decided the first two areas aren't actually the first two areas and now are just stuck.

Its way harder and only your experience makes you think it isn't, which is why it makes a great NG+ release.

e: I'm being harsh on it. I think its a better game than vanilla DS2. Some decisions are just bizarre and some enemy placements feel like a romhack edition, but it is better.

I actually didn't play the original Dark Souls 2 a lot, Scholar of the First Sin was the first time I beat the game. I also missed the forest path and went to Heide's first. Both times actually, because when I started playing this version I somehow forgot that I had already made that mistake the first time around. I get your point though. I think the forest ogre would have been more of an issue if the player hadn't already encountered that one in Things Betwixt.

[Melphis Amekia]

Got the day to myself and can't decide what to play while I watch football.

My front-runners are

A new Rome II: Total War campaign

Continuing the Mass Effect 3 campaign I started last night

Starting a new Skyrim game

Madden

or KOTOR

Guide me, board.

ME3

[Corvinus85]

Got the day to myself and can't decide what to play while I watch football.

My front-runners are

A new Rome II: Total War campaign

Continuing the Mass Effect 3 campaign I started last night

Starting a new Skyrim game

Madden

or KOTOR

Guide me, board.

ME3

Seconded

[Slurktan]

The hell? Some of the really annoying spots have been toned down in return for a harder, weirder start that only would be interesting to people who played DS2 obsessively. Adding in dragons to Heide's, the ogre in the Forest, Yore Branch blocks everywhere...

It feels very much NG++ to me. If they'd released it in this state originally, some of the "harder for harder's sake" complaints might actually have been justified. I like it better too, but that's because I played DS2 a lot.

See I don't think the start is harder. Particularly the Forest, you don't have to fight the cyclops for instance and the fight at the top of the ladder is much, much easier right after it. They did add an archer on top of the wall to the section where you go find Cale, makes things more interesting. Other than that I can't really think of anything too difficult other than Heide post Dragonrider but then I think they did that purposely as a sort of test before you can become a sentinal. However if you think the one dragon added in Heide is hard.... well I don't know what to say. The dragons are amongst the easiest enemies in the game and that one even moreso since you can just pincushion it safely if you really can't handle attacking feet.

I've now gone through the Bastille and I loved it. Why? The pursuer. I fought him 3 times and he even has a couple new moves to boot. I love that he actually pursues you now instead of the 2 fights in the total game in vanilla NG. Sure he's still pretty easy but I just like that he springs up. I hope it continues.

As for your complaint of Stone people, they give you more Fragrant branches of Yore to make up for it. The one in Things Betwixt even has a neat little fight there. If you go to it early it's much more difficult as you likely won't have a bow so you have to handle taking a quarter fall damage, then dealing with 3 basilisks in a small area plus an archer on top. I really liked it. Made me think on how to approach it.

Inigima,

I've never had a problem with the PvE hitboxes so I'm not sure if it was tweaked or not, one thing that might make it better is that it is 60 FPS which it definitely was not on the PS3. Enemy tracking is the same from what I've seen but I've never really had a problem with that either so your mile may vary.

One thing they definitely did do was make it easier to get some of the rare armors and such by taking enemies that only appeared in NG+ and adding them to normal. For example in original DS2 there were these ninja guys with plague masks that only appeared in the Flexile Sentry boss fight in NG+ and beyond; they dropped the shadow armor and their helmet. Now there are a few that you fight in the main area of No Man's Wharf right off the hop. Same thing with Heide armor. You can now get it (if you get lucky drops) on your first run through Heide's tower.

[Rhom]

Any Disney Infinity fans here?

They just announced 3.0 Star Wars expansion.

Plus some new Disney (Mulan, Olaf, Tron, Mickey, Minnie) and Marvel (Hulkbuster and Ulton) characters.

I've been enjoying building stuff in the 2.0 Toy Box. Looking forward to adding SW assets to my options.

We play quite a bit of Infinity around the house. Going with an entire 3.0 rather than just adding to 2.0 is unsurprising, but still disappointing. I already have two of the figure bases sitting out (because the 1.0 game worlds don't work on the 2.0 pads). I also just wish they'd open it up to let all the characters play in the worlds. Or at the very least, allow the Marvel characters in the Disney worlds. Its frustrating when I can't stick Baymax and Hiro into some of the Marvel stuff. Ah well.

We may be getting this as well. Will have to see.

[Myrddin]

We play quite a bit of Infinity around the house. Going with an entire 3.0 rather than just adding to 2.0 is unsurprising, but still disappointing. I already have two of the figure bases sitting out (because the 1.0 game worlds don't work on the 2.0 pads). I also just wish they'd open it up to let all the characters play in the worlds. Or at the very least, allow the Marvel characters in the Disney worlds. Its frustrating when I can't stick Baymax and Hiro into some of the Marvel stuff. Ah well.

We may be getting this as well. Will have to see.

Agreed. At least after you finish it the first time or something. It would also be nice if you could port playsets into the toybox. Yeah, I could recreate New York (mostly) or Neverwhere in the toy box, but having a starting point helps.

The toy box I'm building now is combining the Raiders of the Lost Ark Peru temple with the first Guardians of the Galaxy "Raiders" temple. With some other ideas thrown in (because who doesn't like a pole ride over bubbling lava). :) Triggers and traps are fun to build. Getting to know a lot of the programming tools available.

Already thinking about building a Cloud City that I can re-skin later.

When you upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0, you had to buy the whole starter kit again? I thought you could download the 2.0 separately (for a fee), use the same base, and then buy the new playsets? Maybe this option wasn't advertised very well...

ETA: Looks like there will be an option to by 3.0 game disk outside the starter pack.

Good. I don't want the prequel trilogy playset anyway. :) At least not at first...

[Rhom]

Agreed. At least after you finish it the first time or something. It would also be nice if you could port playsets into the toybox. Yeah, I could recreate New York (mostly) or Neverwhere in the toy box, but having a starting point helps.

The toy box I'm building now is combining the Raiders of the Lost Ark Peru temple with the first Guardians of the Galaxy "Raiders" temple. With some other ideas thrown in (because who doesn't like a pole ride over bubbling lava). :) Triggers and traps are fun to build. Getting to know a lot of the programming tools available.

Already thinking about building a Cloud City that I can re-skin later.

When you upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0, you had to buy the whole starter kit again? I thought you could download the 2.0 separately (for a fee), use the same base, and then buy the new playsets? Maybe this option wasn't advertised very well...

You are way more ambitious and patient than me! :lol:

As to the upgrade, I tried setting the Incredibles playset on the 2.0 base and it wouldn't work. :dunno: Will have to look into this option for the Star Wars.

Speaking of characters I would have liked to be able to play in the Marvel sets... I would have liked to take the Incredibles in there.

[Howdyphillip]

I just bought Knights of the Old Republic for my cell phone for $3.00. I love technology. I would have never even imagined something like this when the game first came out. I haven't played through it in years, so this should be fun.

[Rhom]

I just bought Knights of the Old Republic for my cell phone for $3.00. I love technology. I would have never even imagined something like this when the game first came out. I haven't played through it in years, so this should be fun.

Let me know how it is on the mobile.

I am finishing a playthrough of Dragon Quest V on mine. I have contemplated Baldur's Gate, but I don't know how it will hold up either.

[The Anti-Targ]

I just bought Knights of the Old Republic for my cell phone for $3.00. I love technology. I would have never even imagined something like this when the game first came out. I haven't played through it in years, so this should be fun.

What platforms is it available on in the phone / tablet department? I've always wanted to give this game a go.

[Werthead]

Dog chases cat in GTA5.

It escalates pretty quickly.

[Jasta11]

Got the day to myself and can't decide what to play while I watch football.

My front-runners are

A new Rome II: Total War campaign

Continuing the Mass Effect 3 campaign I started last night

Starting a new Skyrim game

Madden

or KOTOR

Guide me, board.

ME3. Do you have any of the DLCs? Leviathan is good and Citadel is pretty amazing, if s bit overly fanservice-y.

[Howdyphillip]

Let me know how it is on the mobile.

I am finishing a playthrough of Dragon Quest V on mine. I have contemplated Baldur's Gate, but I don't know how it will hold up either.

It is actually playing rather nicely. It is not as easy to control as the xbox controls were of course, but it is actually very playable.

What platforms is it available on in the phone / tablet department? I've always wanted to give this game a go.

I bought it for Android as I have a 6.3 inch screen on my phone. I wouldn't want to play it any smaller than that though. There is some squinting involved to read the inventory lists.

[Gears of the Beast]

NMA is reporting a rumour that Fallout 4 will be announced by Bethesda at E3 with 20-30 mins of gameplay video. If true I might die of excitement, I was expecting a dramatic announcement and a short trailer with some gameplay in it - like Bethesda's brilliant Fallout 3 trailer for E3 2008.

[Jack Bauer 24]

NMA is reporting a rumour that Fallout 4 will be announced by Bethesda at E3 with 20-30 mins of gameplay video. If true I might die of excitement, I was expecting a dramatic announcement and a short trailer with some gameplay in it - like Bethesda's brilliant

.

But the demo is apparently going to be closed doors...yawn.

[Fez]

Playing KOTOR still for the first time. Not sure how much more I'm going to play though. I'm liking the party characters just fine, but my fears of just not caring what happens due to not being invested in Star Wars lore are really starting to shine through the more Star Wars-y the game gets (I just meet the Jedi Council on Dantoonine).

I haven't stopped it yet, but I've also started up Vampires The Masquerade Bloodlines. I did not realize it would look quite so dated (think I expected Oblivion-level graphics), and the combat controls are almost even jankier than KOTOR's are, but its an interesting setting so I'll see how long I can keep playing.

I did stop playing Wasteland 2 a while ago. I got much further this time, nearly 20 hours, but then I reached the Rail Nomads camp. The area was so massive that I had to zoom all the way out to properly navigate and see what was going on big-picture, meaning I could barely see any details, and so I was just running back and forth on a boring-looking screen with gameplay mechanics that weren't particularly interesting. The overall story seemed like it could've kept my interest, but it was moving so slowly, and the smaller stuff was just boring. In general I don't like games where all/most of the party are player-created ciphers, so that was an issue to.

I also still need to get back to Pillars of Eternity. I do want to finish that, but after 30 hours I was starting to get bored of the gameplay there too, and there's so much I still need to do. Eventually.