Video Games: Deus X-Machinima (E3 Fallout)

[Werthead]

With over 50 games unplayed in my Steam queue and yet more on GoG, it only makes sense that I'd spend 30 hours on yet another XCOM campaign, just a few months before the sequel hits. But there you go. Doing a proper Enemy Within playthrough this time, using MECs and G-Mods (neither of which make a huge difference, to be honest). Just defeated EXALT, rather easily actually, which is surprising, and have way more funds and satellite coverage than I normally do during playthroughs. I might have just gotten too good at this.

Not sure what to play next, will probably return to and finish of Pillars of Eternity.

Meanwhile, GoG is celebrating the fact that more than half of Witcher 3 players are using GoG Galaxy. That's more than Steam and all the other platforms combined, which is pretty crazy.

[Werthead]

It's very hard not to lose nations at all. I lost two on this playthrough which is annoying as usually I can keep it to one. However, playing the long game mode (which isn't exactly The Long War mod, but it's much, much longer than the base game) makes it almost impossible to satellite-spam in time to keep all the nations happy.

Far Cry 2 is a very different game to the rest in the series. It's the most flawed game in the series by a mile (especially the insta-regenerating checkpoints of tedium), but it's also the most conceptually ambitious. A shame it never pulls off what it's going for. 3 and 4 are much dumber games, but also a lot more fun.

[Lyanna Stark]

Got Watch_dogs as well on the Steam sale and a couple of Assassin's Creed game I haven't tried. No idea when I'll have time to play them between work, commute, kids and etc. Oh well.

Also got like nearly 3 hours of time on Fallout this morning (yay! nearly a record for unbroken game time). Of course I picked the trait "Black Widow" since I was curious WTH that was all about. 10% more damage to men (?!!) and "opens new dialogue options". So I manage to get to Megaton and the tavern thingiemajig and talk to this sleek dude in the corner who's wearing a suit and sunglasses and I guessed was somewhere around 30-ish. My protagonist is supposedly a 19 year old girl in a bulky jumpsuit and a crew cut, who's never been on the surface before in her life, yet with mah imba skill I managed to sweet talk this dude into being, well, I dunno, my sugar daddy or something? Apparently out two sentence conversation made him decide "I have never met a woman quite like you". Guess the power of being in the vicinity of the magic hoo-hoo were just too much for him. Mucho bizarro.

[Fez]

Picked up another few games yesterday, although without logging into my steam account I couldn't actually tell you what they were. They did look good though (I think one of them was Just Cause 2 for $3). I think that puts me at around a dozen games this sale. There's still a bunch of things on my wishlist that are pretty good deals, but I think I'll hold off until the holiday sale before getting anything else. What I did get will last me long enough, particularly XCOM, and if I keep playing the Secret World as much as I have been, I barely need anything else anyway.

[Corvinus85]

With over 50 games unplayed in my Steam queue and yet more on GoG, it only makes sense that I'd spend 30 hours on yet another XCOM campaign, just a few months before the sequel hits. But there you go. Doing a proper Enemy Within playthrough this time, using MECs and G-Mods (neither of which make a huge difference, to be honest). Just defeated EXALT, rather easily actually, which is surprising, and have way more funds and satellite coverage than I normally do during playthroughs. I might have just gotten too good at this.

Good to know I'm not the only one, though you have me beat on the number of non-played games. One of the main reason I hesitated to buy games this sale. Just Morrowind 'cause nostalgia

[Werthead]

Tempted by Watch_Dogs for £10, but resisted because I have too many games to play and by the time I finally got round to it, it'll likely be cheaper. Did consider Prison Architect, but I don't do Early Access and want to see what the final result is like before plumping for it.

This War of Mine for £5.99 and Age of Mythology HD and Final Fantasy VIII for the same are tempting, but again they'll likely be half that in the Christmas Sale.

Aha! GoG had Door Kickers (basically the classic SWAT 4, but from an overhead perspective) for a fiver yesterday, but it had gone. Steam has it today, so I'll give that a go for that price. RPS have a review here and then named it Best Tactics Game of 2014.

[Lyanna Stark]

This War of Mine for £5.99 and Age of Mythology HD and Final Fantasy VIII for the same are tempting, but again they'll likely be half that in the Christmas Sale.

I was tempted by This War of Mine as well since it looked quite different.

[Jace, Extat]

I'm not trying to get you guys riled up or anything, but is it just me or is Fallout 3 bigger than New Vegas? I just feel like there's more shit to do in F3...

[Gears of the Beast]

I'm not trying to get you guys riled up or anything, but is it just me or is Fallout 3 bigger than New Vegas? I just feel like there's more shit to do in F3...

Well I'm not sure about literally bigger but yes it definitely feels bigger, exploring the world is much more rewarding than in NV. Not only is there more shit to do but the stuff actually remains varied and fun for very long time, which is something they managed to completely fuck up in Skyrim.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

I'd have to disagree tbh. I'm still in the middle of New Vegas and I can see that I'm going to be replaying it, while Fallout 3 is larger in terms of area (a good third of NV is inaccessible as far as I can tell), I think it's also shallower.

Also Skyrim has a lot more content in it, while F3 is just so very brown so I don't really know what you mean, Gears.

Or am I forgetting a lot of F3's content?

[The Drunkard]

I'm not trying to get you guys riled up or anything, but is it just me or is Fallout 3 bigger than New Vegas? I just feel like there's more shit to do in F3...

[speech 30] No.

I find that there's much more content in NV if you visit every location and that the content itself is better. Quests tend to be fun, replayable (drastically so if they're in anyway related to the military side of things) and they make sense within the context of what's happening in the Mojave.

[Gears of the Beast]

[speech 30] No.

I find that there's much more content in NV if you visit every location and that the content itself is better. Quests tend to be fun, replayable (drastically so if they're in anyway related to the military side of things) and they make sense within the context of what's happening in the Mojave.

lol wow. Whoever made that ripped it from the original post but cut out the derisive pictures of Todd Howard. Interesting...

It should be pretty obvious why "look a bigger number" is a fucking stupid way of comparing quest content, it puts something like Ringo's Caravan Rules on equal footing with a quest like Beyond the Beef. Not to mention that Jace wasn't simply referring to quest content, stuff like Evergreen Mills is completely neglected in that stupid fucking picture.

[Jace, Extat]

I just feel like there's more... stuff. In F3 (Gears has the right of it). There's underground tunnels and subways and aircraft carriers and a ruined city and a cool rich tower and a shanty town and a whole Ghoul society.

In New Vegas there's a town, a town with a rollercoaster, Las Vegas, and desert...

[The Drunkard]

lol wow. Whoever made that ripped it from the original post but cut out the derisive pictures of Todd Howard. Interesting...

It should be pretty obvious why "look a bigger number" is a fucking stupid way of comparing quest content, it puts something like Ringo's Caravan Rules on equal footing with a quest like Beyond the Beef. Not to mention that Jace wasn't simply referring to quest content, stuff like Evergreen Mills is completely neglected in that stupid fucking picture.

I imagine it's more likely someone added those pictures to an already existing comparison.

Anyway, if I felt that a number alone was reason enough I wouldn't have talked about the quests in NV being more enjoyable, replayable and sensible than those in 3.

In New Vegas there's a town, a town with a rollercoaster, Las Vegas, and desert...

And Nellis, Jacobstown, Hidden Valley, REPCONN, Searchlight, Forlorn Hope, Helios, McCarran, etc.

[Gears of the Beast]

I imagine it's more likely someone added those pictures to an already existing comparison.

Nope, that was the original.

[Jace, Extat]

I imagine it's more likely someone added those pictures to an already existing comparison.

Anyway, if I felt that a number alone was reason enough I wouldn't have talked about the quests in NV being more enjoyable, replayable and sensible than those in 3.

And Nellis, Jacobstown, Hidden Valley, REPCONN, Searchlight, Forlorn Hope, Helios, McCarran, etc.

Not to sound bitchy, but the fact that I don't know what any of those things are makes me feel more confidant in my statement... Forlorn Hope does sound vaguely familiar, though...

[Lyanna Stark]

OMG no spoilers guys!! :P

(I don't mind much actually, unless it's a novel or something that really changes life completely.)

I made my F3 protagonist wear the Tunnel snake leather jacket and horn-rimmed glasses btw, so she looks like a cross between a very angry librarian and a biker.

Currently my main issue is that I haven't got the skills to do the side quests with the pipes, Moriarty has fucked off and I need to speak to him and pay him off, and I keep having to run back to Megaton all the time since I can't carry enough loot. Killed everything in that elementary school (took me four runs just to go back and bloody vendor all my crap, grr) and will look into WTH to do with the tunnel, but the running back and forth to vendor is KILLING my enjoyment. Currently I spend like 30% of the time exploring, 5% doing stuff that actually matters and the rest of the time just carrying stuff to vendors.

I know it's becoming more and more de jeur with open ended worlds, shitloads of stuff to explore, and you need to put 80+ hours into everything before it even makes sense. All well and good, but for me? I have maybe, on a good day, 2 hrs of game time per day, maybe. And that means I won't be doing any reading or watching of any TV or movies or anything else that day. Meaning I might get in active (not AFK) game time say 8-10 hrs a week, if I am dedicated. I will lose interest in a game that needs you to put in 80 hrs like woah before you really get somewhere.

Not saying F3 falls into this category (cos I've just been whinging it and checked absolutely no "do it like this for quality of life" quides) but it is becoming more and more common. For us with more busy lives, it's a total PITA too. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with Angry Birds.

As a total aside, checked out the newest Thief game but it got very mixed reviews, especially on the story part. I couldn't figure out from the reviews which part of "story" people thought was bad, just that it bad (extremely helpful, except not).

[Gears of the Beast]

Currently my main issue is that I haven't got the skills to do the side quests with the pipes, Moriarty has fucked off and I need to speak to him and pay him off, and I keep having to run back to Megaton all the time since I can't carry enough loot. Killed everything in that elementary school (took me four runs just to go back and bloody vendor all my crap, grr) and will look into WTH to do with the tunnel, but the running back and forth to vendor is KILLING my enjoyment. Currently I spend like 30% of the time exploring, 5% doing stuff that actually matters and the rest of the time just carrying stuff to vendors.

Sounds like you're hording too much haha. Do you have a place to dump the stuff you don't need on you but want to keep? At level 8 you can get the strong back perk. Also, take the strength bobblehead from Lucas Simms' house in Megaton, it'll give you +1 strength which should increase your carrying capacity.

[Red Hermit]

OMG no spoilers guys!! :P

(I don't mind much actually, unless it's a novel or something that really changes life completely.)

I made my F3 protagonist wear the Tunnel snake leather jacket and horn-rimmed glasses btw, so she looks like a cross between a very angry librarian and a biker.

Currently my main issue is that I haven't got the skills to do the side quests with the pipes, Moriarty has fucked off and I need to speak to him and pay him off, and I keep having to run back to Megaton all the time since I can't carry enough loot. Killed everything in that elementary school (took me four runs just to go back and bloody vendor all my crap, grr) and will look into WTH to do with the tunnel, but the running back and forth to vendor is KILLING my enjoyment. Currently I spend like 30% of the time exploring, 5% doing stuff that actually matters and the rest of the time just carrying stuff to vendors.

I know it's becoming more and more de jeur with open ended worlds, shitloads of stuff to explore, and you need to put 80+ hours into everything before it even makes sense. All well and good, but for me? I have maybe, on a good day, 2 hrs of game time per day, maybe. And that means I won't be doing any reading or watching of any TV or movies or anything else that day. Meaning I might get in active (not AFK) game time say 8-10 hrs a week, if I am dedicated. I will lose interest in a game that needs you to put in 80 hrs like woah before you really get somewhere.

Not saying F3 falls into this category (cos I've just been whinging it and checked absolutely no "do it like this for quality of life" quides) but it is becoming more and more common. For us with more busy lives, it's a total PITA too. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with Angry Birds.

As a total aside, checked out the newest Thief game but it got very mixed reviews, especially on the story part. I couldn't figure out from the reviews which part of "story" people thought was bad, just that it bad (extremely helpful, except not).

It's tempting in these games to try to milk all the cash out of a dungeon that you can but it really isn't necessary. Some looting discipline will make your experience much more enjoyable. To start I would only loot items that are worth at least 10 times what they weigh, then crank that up to 20 times when money is less of an issue. Try to keep less than 100 weight on you when venturing out. You may want to look up a safe place to store your collectibles and extra gear. If you have to make multiple trips to a dungeon you need to learn to be more picky.

[Red Hermit]

I just feel like there's more... stuff. In F3 (Gears has the right of it). There's underground tunnels and subways and aircraft carriers and a ruined city and a cool rich tower and a shanty town and a whole Ghoul society.

In New Vegas there's a town, a town with a rollercoaster, Las Vegas, and desert...

Fallout 3 has better exploration, New Vegas has better storytelling. I'm more of an explorer type so I've spent much more time playing F3, but I can see why many others prefer NV.

Honestly I'm not really crazy about following quests in these games. I like to lose myself in the environments and feel like I'm out in the middle of nowhere. Learning about ruins via visuals, notes, and computer logs is preferable to having an NPC tell me all about it.

One of my favorite design aspects of F3 is that every location, even small unmarked ones, has some kind of rare loot to find. A skill book, a bobblehead, unique weapons/armor, a nuka cola quantum, a mini-nuke. A lack of meaningful loot is one of the biggest flaws of Skyrim.