415 replies to this topic

[Daeric]

Jon

Just make sure you have a very stable military and financial base in your shogun 2 as when the Emperor demands it everyone will hate you. Through you can re vassel people after that event.

[Revan Baratheon]

ICE CROW, on 09 December 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

Pretty Crappy?

Mass Effect 3

Journey
Halo 4
Borderlands 2

Diablo 3
Dishonored
Darksiders 2
Catherine
Dragon's Dogma
Max Payne 3
The Walking Dead
Sleeping Dogs
Guild Wars 2
Assassins Creed 3
Far Cry 3

Not to mention a whole bunch of great Indie titles on PC,PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. I don't know what games you have been playing but it has
been a pretty good year maybe not the best compared to other years in last 5 or so but still a damn good year.

Lol I suppose I'm more of a casual gamer, haven't really played any of those games u mentioned. I've heard of them ofcourse but I hate the sneaky assasin type games, not into ME trilogy having played ME1 and not really got into it, and the rest weren't really my type either.
On the other hand, I did enjoy the total war series,the witcher series, skyrim,sw battlefront and kotor etc. none of which came out in 2012.
I was just agreeing with that other dude's opinions when I said it was pretty crappy..
I guess it's really subjective, I actually should have written it was a pretty crappy year in gaming for me, didn't mean to include anyone else
when I said that ,sorry.

[Revan Baratheon]

Daeric, on 09 December 2012 - 10:47 AM, said:

Jon

Just make sure you have a very stable military and financial base in your shogun 2 as when the Emperor demands it everyone will hate you
. Through you can re vassel people after that event.

Dude I'm playing on hard mode, got a question, can u get unlimited vassals?  Also is gunpowder mastery the only way to get muskets? Cause I'm Oda clan and could really use some.Btw do u think its safe/advisable to keep numerous vassals? Cause they all have hostile relations with u cause of the -100 penalty of "past griviences" thanks for the help!

[OllieOwl]

Anti-Targ: I've seen Phantom Pain. Yeah, what could it be if not MGS-related? Might be MGS 5. The guy with the hook must be Big Boss or a clone of him or something. The same haircut, the bandage is over his right eye, which is the eye he looses in Snake Eater. So pretty much everything points to it being something related to Metal Gear Solid. The title actually has small hatches where you can fit in Metal Gear Solid V as some people on the internet have pointed out. So it probably is something from either Ground Zeroes or something to do with MGS V. It seems like there is very much focus on Big Boss at the moment though. I don't know, but I kind of like Solid Snake more.

[haLobEnder]

ICE CROW, on 09 December 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

Pretty Crappy?

Look how many of the titles you mentioned are sequels though. A lot hinges on what your opinion of those franchises are, and the only one I can say I'm a serious fan of is the Mass Effect series. I'm starting to get into the original Borderlands enough that Borderlands 2 is beginning to look appealing, and Far Cry 3 looks fairly interesting despite my dislike of Far Cry 2, but as a whole, there were very few titles that spoke to me and my interests this year. 2013 by contrast is filled with games I can't wait to get my hands on.  
And yes I'm primarily talking AAA titles here. There were definitely some great indie/niche titles released this year, though I don't know if any of them other than The Walking Dead had a profound enough impact on me that I'd consider them Game of the Year contenders. (I say this having only just started Journey last night, so we'll see...)

Tyrellius, on 09 December 2012 - 02:39 AM, said:

Anyone been playing Baldur's gate?  I'm away from home so haven't had a chance to download it yet.

Yeah, I've been playing it on and off since release. I think the Black Pits is mostly pointless as it's not integrated into the full game, so the only real draw is the three new companions. Overhaul has been pretty good about releasing some much needed patches --at least 3 that I'm aware of-- though I have to wonder why the (allegedly) best version of a game that's 14 years old needs so many bug fixes in the first place.

Leviathan I, on 09 December 2012 - 06:10 AM, said:

How can you blame a game for being popular? If a game is selling a fuck ton of copies it means people enjoy playing them. You can't just say "well I enjoy this genre, therefore everyone else should". FPSs dominate because tons of people find them fun/addictive.

In my experience popularity is rarely indicative of somethings quality. Farmville is popular, Limp Bizkit was popular, Pet Rocks were popular. I'm sure I'd enjoy Halo 4 a bit more than any of those things, but I do think it's popularity --and the dominance of FPS games in general-- has just as much to do with extravagant marketing campaigns, focus testing and peer pressure as it does with putting out a quality product.
And as you say, there's an 'addictive' aspect to these games that is very much intentional on the game developers/publishers part. I think it's an alarming trend in video games that publishers are increasingly trying to monetize on gaming addiction, instead of letting someone have fun with their game for several hours and then letting them move on.
Perhaps I'm just not made for these times...

Edited by halO bendeR, 09 December 2012 - 11:59 AM.

[OllieOwl]

halo bender: Yeah, the Desmond parts in revelations wasn't good at all. They were pretty bad actually. I just played them to know a little more about his past.

[Aerys Blackfyre]

I've just started playing Dragon Age Origins! I've installed the game, created my character and now I'm ready to go!

[PhoenixFlame]

Share your choices! It's always fun to hear what paths people took.

[Aerys Blackfyre]

I'm a male human warrior with white hair named Aerys

I've set the difficulty on nightmare... is it too much?

[Inigima]

PhoenixFlame, on 09 December 2012 - 01:48 PM, said:

Share your choices! It's always fun to hear how all paths people took result in the same outcomes.

[haLobEnder]

Aerys Blackfyre, on 09 December 2012 - 01:50 PM, said:

I'm a male human warrior with white hair named Aerys

I've set the difficulty on nightmare... is it too much?

For your first playthrough? Yeah, I'd think that's a little over-doing it. At least until you know the game's base difficulty.
Then again, that's coming from someone who doesn't like the 'challenge' presented from higher difficulty levels; I'm usually quite content on 'normal'.
At least you picked the best starting origin (imho) in terms of what offers you the most fulfilling storyline.


Just downloaded the latest Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings II; Lots of bugs, but still quite fun.
Before that I started playing Red Faction: Armageddon. Could go either way on this game -- I love the destroy/create mechanics, but on the negative side of things, I hate that they scrapped Guerrilla's open world in favour of another on rails shooter.

Edited by halO bendeR, 09 December 2012 - 02:19 PM.

[Aerys Blackfyre]

Inigima, on 09 December 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

what do you mean?
about the difficulty af the game again... is nightmare too much? usually I play at max level and it's ok (Skyrim, Oblivion, Kingdoms of Amalur,...) but sometimes it's a catastrophe (gothic 3, game of thrones,...)

well, for now, against the giant rats, no problem!

Edited by Aerys Blackfyre, 09 December 2012 - 02:22 PM.

[haLobEnder]

Aerys Blackfyre, on 09 December 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

what do you mean?
about the difficulty af the game again... is nightmare too much? usually I play at max level and it's ok (Skyrim, Oblivion, Kingdoms of Amalur,...) but sometimes it's a catastrophe (gothic 3, game of thrones,...)

How familiar are you with computer RPGs circa the early 2000's? There's a level of tactical skill needed in DA:O and games of a similar nature that one doesn't need to play Skyrim at higher difficulties. It's more akin to playing an RTS like Command & Conquer at a higher difficulty.

Edited by halO bendeR, 09 December 2012 - 02:24 PM.

[Aerys Blackfyre]

halO bendeR, on 09 December 2012 - 02:23 PM, said:

How familiar are you with computer RPGs circa the early 2000's? There's a level of tactical skill needed in DA:O and games of a similar nature that one doesn't need to play Skyrim at higher difficulties. It's more akin to playing an RTS like Command & Conquer at a higher difficulty.

ok, I think I understood what you mean... let's see how it goes! I can always change it later...
(I named my dog Ghost... I know, shame on me... )

Edited by Aerys Blackfyre, 09 December 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[Leviathan I]

Halo and Merentha: I think you're looking passed the larger problem and attributing to the dominance of CoD. The larger problem is that publishers are a bunch of shitcunts who only care about selling copies. This is why there's been all this kickstarter stuff because every dev knows the publisher is going to hinder the game in some way.

[Ran]

Due to matching computer upgrades, Linda and I received matching AMD game bundles. She's not a gamer, so...

I have a Steam activation code for Sleeping Dogs.

Two 20% off codes for Medal of Honor: Warfighter on EA's Origin system.

And one PC download voucher for Far Cry 3 from Ubisoft's online shop (which also tacks on a free $15 voucher to use on anything else on their shop -- though if you aren't going to use that part of it, please feel free to send me the voucher code, I'll use it towards AC2 or something

Message me if you want one of these. First come, first served.

ETA: Oh, yeah, also a Steam activation code for Nexuiz (CryEngine-based Unreal Tournament-a-like).

Edited by Ran, 09 December 2012 - 06:51 PM.

[Jon AS]

Hm, managed to build myself into a famine in Shogun 2. I naively assumed that markets would add to the overall supply (capitalism, fuck yeah!), but it turns out they consume stuff. On top of that, I first thought that the food shortage I had was a random event that would go away in a turn or two. Oops. I think I may have messed this up too much to recover.

[Merentha]

Downsize your citadels, start investing in farm and farm tech.  It should be alright in a few years, though it might set you back a while.

[Jon AS]

Merentha, on 09 December 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Downsize your citadels, start investing in farm and farm tech.  It should be alright in a few years, though it might set you back a while.

Yeah, I'm undecided whether to write this off as a practice run or try to salvage it. I'm not all too happy with the speed at which I expanded early on, and now I'm surrounded by some pretty powerful clans who are growing increasingly hostile towards me. I don't think I can beat even one of them in a straight fight (and any war on one front will leave me completely exposed on the other, I recon).

One thing that doesn't seem to have changed from older Total War games is that the AI still gets to cheat when it comes to maintaining massive armies, while the human player has to juggle military maintenance and infrastructure improvements.

[Werthead]

Six hours in, Far Cry 3 is a qualified success so far. Much more successful in nailing what it's supposed to do than Far Cry 2, with much better writing and characterisation and much better integration of the various game systems and the plot. Graphically great (although the similarly jungle-set but FIVE-years-older Crysis definitely has it licked), its combat is a lot better than its forebear (enemies can't survive three headshots in a row any more) and getting around is far less tedious due to the way you permanently conquer outposts when you clear them and hand them over to allied forces. There is a lot more variety to the map and how to get around, though the ditching of the bus system in favour of the more traditional fast travel is a bit unfortunate (I preferred the rationalisation for it in FC2). The skill tree is a nice touch as well. Oh, and tricking a tiger into charging into an enemy camp and slaughtering everyone present never gets old.

The biggest problem with the game is the inventory stinginess, and the fact that if you want to be able to carry a decent amount of loot and cash around with you, not to mention more than one gun, you've got to spend several hours at the start of the game hunting animals, killing them and using their skins to make holders for your stuff. It's a nice idea but goes way overboard with it, requiring you to slaughter half the island's animal population just to get an inventory that might prove halfway useful.

In summary, it keeps the best ideas from FC2 and FC1, ditches the crappy ones and generally ends up being extremely entertaining. Certainly not game of the year (it's way too silly and, beyond the open-world aspect, generic in its FPSness, and lacks the replayability of XCOM or the atmosphere of Dishonored), but much better than most people were expecting.