Video Games: Doing Archaeology With A Shotgun

[The Anti-Targ]

On 27/02/2016 at 1:07 PM, Jack Bauer 24 said:

What's this about Naughty Dog stealing art from Ubisoft?

A painting in the background in one scene of the trailer uses a piece of concept art from one of the Ass Creed games. Instead of paying the artist and leaving the painting in the scene, they've gone the cheaper route and apologised and removed the painting from the scene.

Nothing actually to do with the game.

[Vels]

So I'm part of the way through Witcher 3 and loving it!

Just arrived at Novigrad and so far am enjoying the city scenery as a change from the farmlands of Velen.

Am obsessed with Gwent! Sinking lots of time into travelling around finding NPCs to play. My deck is only 4/5 strength so cant join the high stakes tournament yet...

Am making an effort to clear all the side-quests on or around my level before proceeding with the main quests but the more i explore the more i find so I'm getting over-levelled for the story missions...

[KiDisaster]

On 2/27/2016 at 5:43 PM, Inigima said:

Is this over? Where is it happening?

It was on Steam and is now over. I missed out on it myself. 

On 2/26/2016 at 11:45 PM, Slurktan said:

I also play, Slurktan#1350, I tend to play control decks so Warrior and Drag priest, or at least my version of drag priest.

Added you as well. I'm KiDisaster#1564 for anyone else who plays. 

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Vels said:

So I'm part of the way through Witcher 3 and loving it!

Just arrived at Novigrad and so far am enjoying the city scenery as a change from the farmlands of Velen.

Am obsessed with Gwent! Sinking lots of time into travelling around finding NPCs to play. My deck is only 4/5 strength so cant join the high stakes tournament yet...

Am making an effort to clear all the side-quests on or around my level before proceeding with the main quests but the more i explore the more i find so I'm getting over-levelled for the story missions...

If you want to win the high stakes Gwent tournament you need to have a full strength deck and not go in when you've just got a good enough deck to make the cut. You especially need Ciri and Geralt and the mystery elf spy, So you need to get all the cards that are available from the NPCs on Skellige.

This is what Gwent turns you into 

 

 

[Gears of the Beast]

On 2/27/2016 at 9:43 AM, Inigima said:

Stardew Valley is out on Steam, $15. It's early days yet, but I've put in about 2 hours, and though it's unofficial, so far it's the best Harvest Moon game since Friends of Mineral Town.

Made by 1 guy too, this game is a gem. 

[KiDisaster]

Man, I am so bad at Arena lately. I used to average 7+ wins and never even have to touch constructed, now I'm lucky to hit 5 or 6. More often than not I'm getting knocked out after 3-4 wins. Gone 1-3 a couple times too. I feel like it used to be a lot easier. Draft the cards that are likely to trade 2 for 1 and play for board control at all times. Sticking to that old strategy doesn't seem to cut it anymore what with all the new cards and meta shifts. 

Also I make stupid misplays a lot more often than I used to. Shaking off the rust is taking more time than I would've thought.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Explore the new Firelink Shrine http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/03/01/a-tour-of-the-new-firelink-shrine-in-dark-souls-3

[aceluby]

2 hours ago, Jack Bauer 24 said:

Explore the new Firelink Shrine http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/03/01/a-tour-of-the-new-firelink-shrine-in-dark-souls-3

Already have two days off for the release!

[l2 0 5 5]

Started playing Heavy Rain remastered. I never had a ps3 so never got to play it. Enjoying the different pov's so far.

[Muttering Bill]

18 hours ago, Jack Bauer 24 said:

Explore the new Firelink Shrine http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/03/01/a-tour-of-the-new-firelink-shrine-in-dark-souls-3

I haven't been following any of the developments on it.  After playing DS2SotFS, and running into the cheap ass dlc bosses (Sinh specifically) my enthusiasm has waned a bit.  But I've still got my pre-order in.  I'm sure it'll be great.

Playing Street Fighter V in the meantime.  No regrets.  It's a great game, despite being incomplete.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Muttering Bill said:

I haven't been following any of the developments on it.  After playing DS2SotFS, and running into the cheap ass dlc bosses (Sinh specifically) my enthusiasm has waned a bit.  But I've still got my pre-order in.  I'm sure it'll be great.

Playing Street Fighter V in the meantime.  No regrets.  It's a great game, despite being incomplete.

I've been playing off an on with the SFV as well.  It is incomplete for sure.  There were key characters that were left out that never should have been... how do you release a Street Fighter game without Blanka?!!?  I also miss having a true single player Arcade mode.

That said, the game is still a lot of fun.  I'm still ranked down near the 20,000's but I win about half of my games.  Always a close fight though.

 

[Caligula_K4]

On 2/29/2016 at 8:51 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

If you want to win the high stakes Gwent tournament you need to have a full strength deck and not go in when you've just got a good enough deck to make the cut. You especially need Ciri and Geralt and the mystery elf spy, So you need to get all the cards that are available from the NPCs on Skellige.

This is what Gwent turns you into 

 

 

To add to this, the key to winning the high stakes tournament (and a lot of the harder Gwent matches) is spy cards, along with scarecrows so you can steal your opponent's spy cards. As long as you can consistently get more cards than your opponent, and as long as you have a deck with lots of high cards, you'll be in a good place to win.

Anyway, enjoy Witcher 3. I finished it a month back and it's simply a phenomenal game. I'm looking forward to getting back into it and playing the first DLC when I have some more time.

[Slurktan]

17 hours ago, Muttering Bill said:

I haven't been following any of the developments on it.  After playing DS2SotFS, and running into the cheap ass dlc bosses (Sinh specifically) my enthusiasm has waned a bit.  But I've still got my pre-order in.  I'm sure it'll be great.

Playing Street Fighter V in the meantime.  No regrets.  It's a great game, despite being incomplete.

How in God's name is Sinh cheap?  Just cause he flies around?  That's what a dragon should do, you just wait for him to come to you.

[briantw]

10 hours ago, Caligula_K4 said:

To add to this, the key to winning the high stakes tournament (and a lot of the harder Gwent matches) is spy cards, along with scarecrows so you can steal your opponent's spy cards. As long as you can consistently get more cards than your opponent, and as long as you have a deck with lots of high cards, you'll be in a good place to win.

Anyway, enjoy Witcher 3. I finished it a month back and it's simply a phenomenal game. I'm looking forward to getting back into it and playing the first DLC when I have some more time.

Your gwent strategy is spot on.  A powerful Nilfgaard deck is basically god mode in gwent due to all the spy cards coupled with the neutral spy cards you can get as well.

[Muttering Bill]

20 hours ago, Rhom said:

I've been playing off an on with the SFV as well.  It is incomplete for sure.  There were key characters that were left out that never should have been... how do you release a Street Fighter game without Blanka?!!?  I also miss having a true single player Arcade mode.

That said, the game is still a lot of fun.  I'm still ranked down near the 20,000's but I win about half of my games.  Always a close fight though.

 

You're doing way better than me.  I'm still ranked around 150k.  Winning maybe 1/3 of the time.  The trouble is that there are so many Kens and Ryu's running around that I don't see other characters enough to know how to fight them.  Well, yesterday I managed to get matched with more diverse opponents, and everyone seemed to be playing more strategically.  A lot of great matches, regardless of who won.  Hopefully it's a sign that the DP spammers are getting bored. 

5 hours ago, Slurktan said:

How in God's name is Sinh cheap?  Just cause he flies around?  That's what a dragon should do, you just wait for him to come to you.

No, it's because he breaks my weapon after about 15-20% of his health.  He's really not even hard; his attacks are very obvious and easy to avoid.  But after my 4th broken sword, when I'm trying to dig around my inventory for something that will suffice (as I only have the 1 upgraded weapon), and he's just flying around overhead bombarding me with fire nonstop...  he just doesn't leave enough time to make those adjustments.

And that's with using the Bone Knuckle Ring to slow weapon degradation.  I've also tried hot-keying Repair Powder, but the by the time I get the "weapon at risk" message it's already too late.

[TheButcherCrow]

4 hours ago, briantw said:

Your gwent strategy is spot on.  A powerful Nilfgaard deck is basically god mode in gwent due to all the spy cards coupled with the neutral spy cards you can get as well.

I found that a full-powered Northern Realms deck with all the add cards, all the spies, two decoys, one commander's horn (plus Dandelion), the 7-rank, neutral front-burner (Villentretenmerth) and your leader set to "clear all weather effects" is unbeatable.  The key is playing with the minimum number of cards you need so as you always get a good draw at the start of a game.  I average about 100 points in a fully-fought round and i can whip that out twice in a match.  The draw card (siege line, medic) that pulls a previously used card from your discards is a vital key, it can allow you to play an ungodly amount of spies in one round.  Against a Nilf deck, I reckon I played every spy in the game in one round. The other advantage to NR is getting a card back after a round win, so vital. My highest single round score is 209 but I reckon I could break 300 with the right draw and opponent.

[briantw]

12 minutes ago, TheButcherCrow said:

I found that a full-powered Northern Realms deck with all the add cards, all the spies, two decoys, one commander's horn (plus Dandelion), the 7-rank, neutral front-burner (Villentretenmerth) and your leader set to "clear all weather effects" is unbeatable.  The key is playing with the minimum number of cards you need so as you always get a good draw at the start of a game.  I average about 100 points in a fully-fought round and i can whip that out twice in a match.  The draw card (siege line, medic) that pulls a previously used card from your discards is a vital key, it can allow you to play an ungodly amount of spies in one round.  Against a Nilf deck, I reckon I played every spy in the game in one round. The other advantage to NR is getting a card back after a round win, so vital. My highest single round score is 209 but I reckon I could break 300 with the right draw and opponent.

I feel basically the same about the Nilfgaard deck.  I think I lost one game after I got the deck up to relatively full power, and that was because I got basically the worst possible draw that my deck could have.  I'd use the leader card that let me draw a card from my opponent's discard pile, which essentially means I'd get a free spy card back every game.

[TheButcherCrow]

11 minutes ago, briantw said:

I feel basically the same about the Nilfgaard deck.  I think I lost one game after I got the deck up to relatively full power, and that was because I got basically the worst possible draw that my deck could have.  I'd use the leader card that let me draw a card from my opponent's discard pile, which essentially means I'd get a free spy card back every game.

The only thing about the Nilfi deck is that it doesn't have those add cards that the NR does and as a result, has a lower potential force score.  Also, if you run into a really powerful monsters deck, the leader card is totally useless.  With my deck, I tend to use round 1 to acquire cards (while still doing enough to win the round) and pull as many as poss from the CPU.  They will then almost certainly throw the second round, leaving me with 150-200 force strength for the final round.  Either way though, if you win it doesn't really matter how you did it   I haven't lost yet with my Scoia deck either and that is purely because the ability to choose to play second puts you at an advantage almost immediately.  They need to put in an online Gwent mode, imo.  That would rock.

[Werthead]

No Man's Sky has a release date: 21 June on PC and PS4.

[The Anti-Targ]

3 hours ago, TheButcherCrow said:

The only thing about the Nilfi deck is that it doesn't have those add cards that the NR does and as a result, has a lower potential force score.  Also, if you run into a really powerful monsters deck, the leader card is totally useless.  With my deck, I tend to use round 1 to acquire cards (while still doing enough to win the round) and pull as many as poss from the CPU.  They will then almost certainly throw the second round, leaving me with 150-200 force strength for the final round.  Either way though, if you win it doesn't really matter how you did it   I haven't lost yet with my Scoia deck either and that is purely because the ability to choose to play second puts you at an advantage almost immediately.  They need to put in an online Gwent mode, imo.  That would rock.

I love playing monsters, but it's a hard win with them. I haven't managed to build up a decent enough Scoia deck for it to be a reliable winner vs difficult opponents. But I've played nearly everyone there is to play.

BTW is there a lot more Gwent to be played (and cards to collect) in the DLC content? I haven't decided whether to get the DLC yet but if there is plenty of Gwent to be had I think I might be sold.

For Online Gwent they need to have a lot more cards, and they should make decks have a 30 card minimum so that you are't just staking your opening hand with OP cards. But it would be fun.