Video Games: Console War Never Changes

[Hol Horse]

Inquisition didn't really feel like a Dragon Age game to me. Not that it's a completely bad thing, but them moving away from the story-driven forumla to an open-world style was kinda disappointing. And yeah, the DLC is just meh. The thing that worries me is that the game got a lot of prasie and love - especially from newcomers to the series. Normally this would be a great thing, but that most likely means that we'll be seeing a lot more of what Inquisition brought in the next installment(s) - such as fetch quests, lack of impactful choices, and general grindy-ness.

[MerenthaClone]

Someone actually gets the shards more than once? Good god. I couldn't stomach doing more than one path the first time through.

[Jon AS]

Someone actually gets the shards more than once? Good god. I couldn't stomach doing more than one path the first time through.

 

Of course! Planning out the most efficient paths to both get to wherever you're going while still collecting the maximum amound of shards along the way makes for hours of fun!

 

Seriously though, I really don't mind them. Most maps are pretty easy to navigate, and there are only a few shards that are difficult to get to.

[KiDisaster]

I did all the shards on my first playthrough cause I wanted to 100% clear every zone. Totally ignored them for my second one. No way in hell I was doing that again.

 

In other news Diablo 3 is ridiculous. The plot is some of the most predictable, nonsensical schlock Blizzard has ever written (and that's saying something) and the evil monologues are so hilariously bad it's almost awesome. "I AM ALIVE. NOW TO RETURN TO MY ULTIMATE GOAL, THE ONE THAT HAS ALWAYS ELUDED ME, BLAH BLAH BLAH" the way they specifically say everything that's happening just in case you missed it (even when no other characters are around) reminds me of really, really bad anime. 

 

BUT who plays Diablo for the story anyway...the gameplay is like crack. My killing started to slow down quite a bit as I pushed further into the forties and neared the end of act 3 and I went to try crafting a new weapon cause I couldn't find anything that did more damage than the level 35ish legendary two-handed sword I'd been using. Found out reduced level requirements is a stat you can roll on crafted weapons so I'm now using a level 60 two handed mace at level 48. 332% damage increase over my old sword so now I just hold down shift+left click and everything dies. Melting bosses before they can deliver their awful dialogue is the best. 

 

 

Seriously though, I really don't mind them. Most maps are pretty easy to navigate, and there are only a few shards that are difficult to get to.

 

There were a couple of shards on the Lost Oasis (or whatever it's called) map that took me fucking forever to find. The rest of the zones were all pretty straightforward. 

[Fez]

Inquisition didn't really feel like a Dragon Age game to me. Not that it's a completely bad thing, but them moving away from the story-driven forumla to an open-world style was kinda disappointing. And yeah, the DLC is just meh. The thing that worries me is that the game got a lot of prasie and love - especially from newcomers to the series. Normally this would be a great thing, but that most likely means that we'll be seeing a lot more of what Inquisition brought in the next installment(s) - such as fetch quests, lack of impactful choices, and general grindy-ness.

 

Considering how different all three games are, I'm not sure what a Dragon Age game is supposed to feel like to me. I agree that the focus on open-world over story-driven was disappointing, but, since its coming first, the next Mass Effect will be the test of whether this is the path Bioware is going all in on. Of course, even if ME:A isn't overly open-world it doesn't mean DA4 also wouldn't be, but it would at least open the chance.

 

The thing is, even though there's not enough of it and its too spread out, for the most part the main story beats of DA:I are really good. The Haven-to-Skyhold sequence, the Empress' ball, those are as good as anything Bioware has done in a long time.  If the next Dragon Age has more of that sort of stuff (and works on the way party member conversations go so that you don't need to agree with whatever they're doing to see most of their content), I'm fine with it also being open-world. And speaking of the Haven-to-Skyhold sequence, I'd really like to see them do more stuff like the solo snow trek; lengthy, non-combat sequences in uninhabitated areas. Apparently that whole sequence was one of the last things developed for the base game, originally you were named Inquisitor and got Skyhold in a much more vanilla way, so I'm hoping that's an indication of the way the development team thinking is trending now.

 

Has anyone played Everybody's Gone to the Rapture by any chance? Just saw the trailer and it seems interesting. It's $20 on the PS store and was wondering if anyone has given it a chance.

 

All I know about it is that apparently the movement is very slow. It seems like a small complaint, but its slow enough that reviewers have been docking it points. Pretty much all you do is walk around, like Gone Home, so the fact that you're essentially crawling can make crossing a field or such take way too long. I heard Dan Ryckert saying that it got to the point where he was refusing to check out optional paths because he knew it would literally be 10 minutes each way for maybe 45 seconds of content.

[Jon AS]

There were a couple of shards on the Lost Oasis (or whatever it's called) map that took me fucking forever to find. The rest of the zones were all pretty straightforward. 

 

IIRC I had trouble finding the bridge you have to raise to get to the big rock in the middle of that map, and in the Hinterlands one shard is up on a pillar in the dragon area. That one is annoying to reach because the movement controls could be a bit better.

[Fiddler]

 

 

In other news Diablo 3 is ridiculous. The plot is some of the most predictable, nonsensical schlock Blizzard has ever written (and that's saying something) and the evil monologues are so hilariously bad it's almost awesome. "I AM ALIVE. NOW TO RETURN TO MY ULTIMATE GOAL, THE ONE THAT HAS ALWAYS ELUDED ME, BLAH BLAH BLAH" the way they specifically say everything that's happening just in case you missed it (even when no other characters are around) reminds me of really, really bad anime. 

 

BUT who plays Diablo for the story anyway...the gameplay is like crack. My killing started to slow down quite a bit as I pushed further into the forties and neared the end of act 3 and I went to try crafting a new weapon cause I couldn't find anything that did more damage than the level 35ish legendary two-handed sword I'd been using. Found out reduced level requirements is a stat you can roll on crafted weapons so I'm now using a level 60 two handed mace at level 48. 332% damage increase over my old sword so now I just hold down shift+left click and everything dies. Melting bosses before they can deliver their awful dialogue is the best. 

 

 

I recently went back to Diablo 3 (on 360) to try and finish the achievements for it.  I still have the hardcore achievements (beat these bosses, level to this level blah blah blah) and an achievement for reaching 70 with all the classes.

 

Playing a Demon Hunter on hardcore and just beat Diablo and started the expansion.  I still find the game addicting as hell.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Just got Far Cry 4 on a great deal for $13. Looking forward to checking it out.

[Werthead]

Satellite Reign's launch trailer looks pretty good.

 

The game is out on 28 August. Totally up for this one.

[Tyrellius]

Wow - this (its D&D) looks well interesting!  I'll have to see if I can find some lets play footage of this.  Strange all the RP themed channels use their own bodged software when a tool like this is out there.

 

I'm enjoying my PS4 quite a lot lately.  I'm using it more for single player games and getting away from the PC.  Most of my time gaming on the PC is spent hating on other players - LoL is turning me into a bitter person.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Anyone know what the total file size is for Elder Scrolls Online on PS4. Install + all patches?

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

I did all the shards on my first playthrough cause I wanted to 100% clear every zone. Totally ignored them for my second one. No way in hell I was doing that again.

 

In other news Diablo 3 is ridiculous. The plot is some of the most predictable, nonsensical schlock Blizzard has ever written (and that's saying something) and the evil monologues are so hilariously bad it's almost awesome. "I AM ALIVE. NOW TO RETURN TO MY ULTIMATE GOAL, THE ONE THAT HAS ALWAYS ELUDED ME, BLAH BLAH BLAH" the way they specifically say everything that's happening just in case you missed it (even when no other characters are around) reminds me of really, really bad anime. 

 

BUT who plays Diablo for the story anyway...the gameplay is like crack. My killing started to slow down quite a bit as I pushed further into the forties and neared the end of act 3 and I went to try crafting a new weapon cause I couldn't find anything that did more damage than the level 35ish legendary two-handed sword I'd been using. Found out reduced level requirements is a stat you can roll on crafted weapons so I'm now using a level 60 two handed mace at level 48. 332% damage increase over my old sword so now I just hold down shift+left click and everything dies. Melting bosses before they can deliver their awful dialogue is the best. 

 

 

 Yeah, the story is pretty much ass. Like you said, it's the combat that sells it. That and cobbling together fun builds. Big patch release today. They are adding a whole new layer to the power creep. The Kanai Cube is introduced which allows you to strip legendary effects off of weapons/armor/jewelry and use them as passives without having to equip the actual gear. It also allows you to reroll legendarys, transmute crafting materials, and turn rare items into legendarys. Should be fun.  

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Still playing Third Age Total War as the High Elves. Both Orc factions and Isengard have been destroyed, so there is peace and prosperity in the the north and west (yay). Trouble is, Sauron has acquired the One Ring, so the game spent a few turns bashing me over the head with messages telling me how fucked I am. :lol: Anyone ever killed Sauron in the open field? The Balrog was tough, but not invincible.

[Jace, Extat]

Tried to play Total War: Attila as the Western Roman Empire last night, total fucking disaster. There's a reason that it says 'Legendary' under the difficulty description. It's just too fucking big to manage! At the outset of the campaign I had like 12 active armies, migrating hordes in every part of my empire, and barbarians dreaming of freedom at every border.

 

I disbanded 5 armies to try and stabilize my economy, and instead of surrendering Britannia I sent my young emperor to raise a force and smash the Celts and Picts. I thought this would accomplish the goals of securing my northernmost provinces, and give my emperor some influence when he won a few battles with an overwhelming force.

 

Then I hit the 'end turn' button and watched as half a dozen different factions went to war with me and sacked as many cities. Then I quit the campaign and went back to playing as the Eastern Roman Empire, where I can spend outrageous amounts of money to solve my problems.

 

 

I also purchased 'The Last Roman' DLC. Which goes against my hatred of DLC, but I'm really into this game right now.

[Talleyrand]

I'm playing the Rise of the Three Kingdoms mod for Medieval 2 - set in China during the Three Kingdoms Period with a lot of inspiration from Romance of the Three Kingdoms which means certain generals can fucking shit up. So I'm course I'm playing as Lu Bu, problem being there's only one Lu Bu and Cao Cao has about fifteen legendary generals and a couple dozen full stacks. 

 

It's a fun change, nothing too big compared to Third Age but its nice to see a china centered one. I've always wondered why we haven't got an official one set in China yet.

[The Anti-Targ]

Inquisition didn't really feel like a Dragon Age game to me. Not that it's a completely bad thing, but them moving away from the story-driven forumla to an open-world style was kinda disappointing. And yeah, the DLC is just meh. The thing that worries me is that the game got a lot of prasie and love - especially from newcomers to the series. Normally this would be a great thing, but that most likely means that we'll be seeing a lot more of what Inquisition brought in the next installment(s) - such as fetch quests, lack of impactful choices, and general grindy-ness.

DA2 is my favourite game because it's got the tightest story. Story-wise I don't think DA:I meanders off much more than DA:O. Sure you can waste a lot of time running around doing stuff in DA:I that does not move the plot forward, but that's your choice. If you want to play the game as a tight narrative then you set the difficulty low and more or less play it in story mode so that you don't need to worry about level farming, or shard farming (shards are only useful to get those elemental resistances, and you don't need those resistances on low difficulty) to get you through the difficult battles.

 

Damn, I had a question about DA:I I wanted to ask but I can't think of it right now.

 

 

NVM.

 

Has anyone played Everybody's Gone to the Rapture by any chance? Just saw the trailer and it seems interesting. It's $20 on the PS store and was wondering if anyone has given it a chance.

I understand it falls into the pejorative category of "walking simulator". I watched the Jimquisition episode on this topic, and as always he has a very balanced view of quirky game genre's. There are good walking simulators and there are bad walking simulators. From what I gather in the video he puts Rapture in the middle somewhere, and was largely disappointed because it was middle of the road for that type of game. His examples of best in class were Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and The Stanley Parable, with a reasonable honourable mention of The Vanishing of Ethan [Somebody]. One of his complaints about Rapture (and Ethan whatisname) is that the story you are being told third hand sounds a lot more interesting and exciting than the game you're playing while you're being told the story. So when a walking simulator is being done right, the story you are being told is as interesting as the game you are playing. Which really applies to all story driven games when you think about it.

[The Anti-Targ]

I'm enjoying my PS4 quite a lot lately.  I'm using it more for single player games and getting away from the PC.  Most of my time gaming on the PC is spent hating on other players - LoL is turning me into a bitter person.

Play Smite. Here's one person's opinion on why Smite is awesome, which includes reasons for why Smite inherently has a less shitty community (though no online gaming community is completely free of shitty people). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDbVeCEcCCU 

[Corvinus85]

Tried to play Total War: Attila as the Western Roman Empire last night, total fucking disaster. There's a reason that it says 'Legendary' under the difficulty description. It's just too fucking big to manage! At the outset of the campaign I had like 12 active armies, migrating hordes in every part of my empire, and barbarians dreaming of freedom at every border.

 

I disbanded 5 armies to try and stabilize my economy, and instead of surrendering Britannia I sent my young emperor to raise a force and smash the Celts and Picts. I thought this would accomplish the goals of securing my northernmost provinces, and give my emperor some influence when he won a few battles with an overwhelming force.

 

Then I hit the 'end turn' button and watched as half a dozen different factions went to war with me and sacked as many cities. Then I quit the campaign and went back to playing as the Eastern Roman Empire, where I can spend outrageous amounts of money to solve my problems.

 

 

I also purchased 'The Last Roman' DLC. Which goes against my hatred of DLC, but I'm really into this game right now.

Lol, I'm not even going to touch the Roman factions... yet.

 

If you play with the Franks you start on good terms with the Western Romans, however, it's still a good idea to declare war on them. I did that, and everyone else became my friend. 

 

And right now my economy is so powerful that I can spend money to solve my problems. 

 

And I said it before, and I'll say it again, the world is crazy. Garamantia, from northern Africa, has a whole of bunch of regions in Germany and Eastern Europe. I made an alliance with them and drew them in my war against the Huns, finally turning the tide. The Huns, I think, keep spawning hordes somewhere in the east, because every time I seem to beat them, more armies show up. I suppose they did that to balance the issue that they don't settle, so they need to keep pace with the empires which can raise armies from settlements.

 

And not to let the AI beat me at this craziness, I sent a fleet in the Mediterranean to start a raid and scorch policy along the coast against one of my main enemies, Axum. Yes, Axum which conquered all of Egypt, all the coastal regions of the Levant, and some other north African regions. So with my kick-ass fleet I desolated 2 cities, skipped Alexandria because it was too well guarded, "liberated" a city that became Judea, and conquered Antioch and Cyprus.

 

And fuck climate change. It got so cold, that it's snowing all the way to Turkey, and even in spring all of Europe north of Italy is covered in snow. So you can only march for half a year without suffering attrition.

 

Regarding The Last Roman, I will probably play that one with the Romans. It looks good.

[Melphis Amekia]

I understand it falls into the pejorative category of "walking simulator". I watched the Jimquisition episode on this topic, and as always he has a very balanced view of quirky game genre's. There are good walking simulators and there are bad walking simulators. From what I gather in the video he puts Rapture in the middle somewhere, and was largely disappointed because it was middle of the road for that type of game. His examples of best in class were Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and The Stanley Parable, with a reasonable honourable mention of The Vanishing of Ethan [Somebody]. One of his complaints about Rapture (and Ethan whatisname) is that the story you are being told third hand sounds a lot more interesting and exciting than the game you're playing while you're being told the story. So when a walking simulator is being done right, the story you are being told is as interesting as the game you are playing. Which really applies to all story driven games when you think about it.

 

Did he mention Gone Home? I loved the game and I think it should be besides Stanley Parable as a great example, but you could make a case it was a bad one... I think. Maybe.

[l2 0 5 5]

All I know about it is that apparently the movement is very slow. It seems like a small complaint, but its slow enough that reviewers have been docking it points. Pretty much all you do is walk around, like Gone Home, so the fact that you're essentially crawling can make crossing a field or such take way too long. I heard Dan Ryckert saying that it got to the point where he was refusing to check out optional paths because he knew it would literally be 10 minutes each way for maybe 45 seconds of content.

 

 

 

I understand it falls into the pejorative category of "walking simulator". I watched the Jimquisition episode on this topic, and as always he has a very balanced view of quirky game genre's. There are good walking simulators and there are bad walking simulators. From what I gather in the video he puts Rapture in the middle somewhere, and was largely disappointed because it was middle of the road for that type of game. His examples of best in class were Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and The Stanley Parable, with a reasonable honourable mention of The Vanishing of Ethan [Somebody]. One of his complaints about Rapture (and Ethan whatisname) is that the story you are being told third hand sounds a lot more interesting and exciting than the game you're playing while you're being told the story. So when a walking simulator is being done right, the story you are being told is as interesting as the game you are playing. Which really applies to all story driven games when you think about it.

 

 

 

I enjoy solving mysteries but I like it when other characters are involved. This seems to be a lot of interacting with orbs and memory-like holograms. It seems interesting, but I can't justify $20 for 4-5 hours of wondering around putting pieces together by myself. Thanks for the replies.