Video Games: France not a WWI Nation

[Fez]

37 minutes ago, Jon AS said:

Even the crappy ending isn't nihilistic. It's trying to be hopeful. It's just really, really dumb.

Especially since, I don't know what everyone else is talking about, my Shepard lived through the ending (Destroy, high enough war assets). She definitely retired to a beach world with Liara; the end just cut to black before seeing anything beyond the confirmation that she's alive.

But nope, I'm not getting suckered into talking about ME3 yet again.

[karaddin]

That's exactly it Jace. Shooting bottles in the citadel is one of the best moments in all three games, and for me in gaming full stop. The most emotional moment was Thessia, I'd really bought into caring about Liara and going to her homeworld with her, sending her people to their death to buy just a tiny bit of time for your group knowing how long lived they are and how much is being lost, it was so sad for me.  Even just the time capsule Liara sends out in case you lose, its a small thing but its just so infused with Liara's feelings for Shepard - somewhere between intense friendship, unshakable faith and potentially love but not falling into hero worship - that requires more remoteness from the target than Liara has with you, regardless of how you've developed the relationship.

It wasn't the ending to the story I was hoping for, but the rest of the game up till that point was. That final conversation with Garrus before you head out as well, so real, much feels. 

[Proudfeet]

I'm getting blue screened whenever I play games. I haven't updated my driver for over a year, so guess my GPU is dying. 

[Fez]

I got a hankering to play Xenogears again over the weekend. I eventually came to my senses (sorta) when I remembered that's a 40+ hour game that I only just replayed maybe 3 or 4 years ago, so I still remember how it goes pretty well; and its not like the gameplay is THAT compelling. I did want something similar though, so I started playing Xenosaga again. I'm surprised by how well I'm remembering episode 1, according to my old memory card I haven't played it since 2005. I don't remember episode 2 at all though, so that'll be more interesting once I get that far. And I never played episode 3, I never bought it. It came out in 2006, which was right near the start of my 'fallow period' when I didn't play video games (other than Civ4 and sometimes WoW) for about four years. 

I've looked at the prices though, and ep3 is one of those seemingly random old games where the price went up instead of down. Its not at Suikoden II levels, but its still about $60-$70 for a used copy and $90+ for a new copy. So after I beat ep2 (assuming I don't get bored of all this), I think I'll just be watching the ep3 cutscenes on youtube or something.

And in Overwatch news, I'm now stuck in a vicious downward spiral in competitive play. I had a string of bad luck and very quickly dropped from rank 47 to rank 41. And its right around rank 41 where you're at the point where people regularly ragequit from the matches. To prevent people from doing this out of spite to harm the winners, the game no longer alters the skill ranking adjustments post-match to reflect that there were droppers. Problem is, I've been in more games where it was someone on my team who dropped than the other team, and 5v6 is incredibly hard to win (and 4v6 or anything below that is impossible), and its keeping me from ever building up enough momentum to break out of this area of the skill ranking. I've been hovering between 39 and 40 now.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Fez said:

I got a hankering to play Xenogears again over the weekend. I eventually came to my senses (sorta) when I remembered that's a 40+ hour game that I only just replayed maybe 3 or 4 years ago, so I still remember how it goes pretty well; and its not like the gameplay is THAT compelling. I did want something similar though, so I started playing Xenosaga again. I'm surprised by how well I'm remembering episode 1, according to my old memory card I haven't played it since 2005. I don't remember episode 2 at all though, so that'll be more interesting once I get that far. And I never played episode 3, I never bought it. It came out in 2006, which was right near the start of my 'fallow period' when I didn't play video games (other than Civ4 and sometimes WoW) for about four years. 

I've looked at the prices though, and ep3 is one of those seemingly random old games where the price went up instead of down. Its not at Suikoden II levels, but its still about $60-$70 for a used copy and $90+ for a new copy. So after I beat ep2 (assuming I don't get bored of all this), I think I'll just be watching the ep3 cutscenes on youtube or something.

And in Overwatch news, I'm now stuck in a vicious downward spiral in competitive play. I had a string of bad luck and very quickly dropped from rank 47 to rank 41. And its right around rank 41 where you're at the point where people regularly ragequit from the matches. To prevent people from doing this out of spite to harm the winners, the game no longer alters the skill ranking adjustments post-match to reflect that there were droppers. Problem is, I've been in more games where it was someone on my team who dropped than the other team, and 5v6 is incredibly hard to win (and 4v6 or anything below that is impossible), and its keeping me from ever building up enough momentum to break out of this area of the skill ranking. I've been hovering between 39 and 40 now.

I loved XenoGears long ago.  I haven't played it in at least 15 years I think.  Also really enjoyed XS Ep 1.  I remember hating the combat in Episode 2.  I also really liked Episode 3.  I did feel that it was a bit rushed.  The games had some amazing set pieces and KOS-MOS was one of my favorite characters in video games for a long time.

[MerenthaClone]

1.75gb patch downloading in overwatch; here's hoping its Ana.

[Kalbear]

8 hours of DX MD play reviewed.

This sounds neat:

Quote

Second, though they require the same Praxis points as other augmentations, they also require you to permanently disable one of Adam’s other augmentations. This is passed off as something like ‘cooling excess heat’ but it’s a very gamey mechanic. So to unlock the Tesla weapon, I chose to permanently block Adam’s Hacking Fortify abilities for the rest of the game. It’s a hard choice, given you have idea what demands later levels will make on you.  

And this...sigh.

Quote

Start climbing and the other apartments in Jensen’s block might be empty of people, but true to Deus Ex there’s ways and means to sneak into them. And they’re packed with story. Indeed, DeMarle tells me that there was a level designer who was solely devoted to environmental storytelling in the city hubs. “She’d work with artists to decorate these (flats) to tell these stories, and later work with the narrative team to craft these stories… the environmental stories are akin to writing poetry—you’re just putting in glimpses through emails and it’s the reader’s responsibility to connect the dots and make up their own story.”

 

[RumHam]

I finally got back to Overwatch and tried competitive mode. It's been slightly frustrating just trying to finish the ten matches on Xbox. Half the time someone quits at the start and the match just aborts. Other times people quit later in the match despite the penalties.

Then one match my team was about to win and I got disconnected from Xbox Live. I reconnected to see that counted as a loss. I guess they have to factor in people who unplug their router or whatever, but I feel like there's a better way to do it. Like they could just keep track of how often you leave a game overall and then softban you into a pool of other quitters. Or ban you from competitive mode altogether. A disconnect when you're losing should always go down as a loss, but maybe program the game with a little common sense? If someone has a sudden disconnect during a game where they were wiping the floor with the other team, they probably didn't do it on purpose.

Edit: I ended up with a 57 so I gather I shouldn't complain. But that still took longer than it should have and could have handled disconnects better. 

[MerenthaClone]

Ana is a ton of fun.  Good?  Not sure, its hard to tell with how many people are playing her now, but she's definitely a good off-healer class.  She won't replace Mercy or KoTH Lucio, but she's pretty decent all around.  Kind of like Zenyatta, maybe?  Who is also someone I really want to try out now that his health is significantly upped.  

[KiDisaster]

Been messing about with WoW again. Got the old itch thanks to the xpac coming out next month. The pre-patch went live yesterday and I was playing my Warlock. The Destro spec hasn't really changed all that much. Pretty much the same rotation I was using before. Grimoire of Supremacy is the only major change in terms of talents, instead of upgrading the standard demons you can have either an Infernal or a Terrorguard as a permanent companion. I've been rolling with the Infernal because the new model for them is AWESOME and he holds aggro better than the other guy. 

The new cinematic is cool. Sylvanas has put some clothes on finally which is a nice change. Totally shipping her and Varian now. But the opening of the two airships crash landing in the new zone seems way too similar to Pandaria  

They made some weird changes. Honor is no longer a currency (when you log in you get a piece of mail with gold in exchange for your honor, 35 silver per point I think it was), Glyphs are no longer a thing (I'm kinda happy with that, they were annoying), party/raid wide buffs are no longer a thing, and now if you want to hide your helm or cloak you have to go to a damn transmogger instead of just enabling the option in the menu! So annoying. Transmog items being made into an account wide collection is really nice though, no more BOP epics and blues taking up space in bank tabs. 

Also I've been messing around with pet battles for the first time. Playing Pokemon with my Baby Winston pet and kicking squirrels' asses is cool. 

[Werthead]

Been playing Watch_Dogs. It's...okay, I guess? It's just GTA with a much crappier story and a far less living city (although a very pretty one) and far shittier car handling. And worse combat. Actually, that makes it sound really bad. It's not, really. Doing the Assassin's Creed/Far Cry thing in a modern city actually works (even if it's still massively derivative) and some of the hacking ideas are really nice. Using cameras to scope out a target location and kill have the guards present with environmental dangers is clever. But if feels like the stealth mechanic is really undercooked and there's not enough penalties for being identified or spotted.

I was left with the feeling that it's a passable game (especially for £5) but for GTA clones, both Sleeping Dogs and Mafia (especially the first one) are vastly superior.

[Talleyrand]

Finished Banner Saga 2 - it was fun, mostly the same as the first with a couple improvements here or there. Being Bolverk and the Ravens was a nice change from Rook & Hakon. Neither of Saga were particularly long so I'll probably give them another run through and try make all the 'good' decisions and 

Spoiler

Have Alette as leader for 2.

The story was pretty good, no real huge stand out moments of great writing but no real let downs.

The ending felt a bit abrupt, so I'm guessing they're guaranteed a sequel at this point. It was just Ivar beats up Bolverbellower then sudden cut scene of explosion then the snake is dribbling on Bolverk and then done.

I chose to side with the King over Rugga but accidently double clicked through some of the dialogue at the end of that encounter - is there something going on with the Horse people?

 Still can't decide what the better choice in that bit was though.

 

[Fez]

9 minutes ago, Talleyrand said:

Finished Banner Saga 2 - it was fun, mostly the same as the first with a couple improvements here or there. Being Bolverk and the Ravens was a nice change from Rook & Hakon. Neither of Saga were particularly long so I'll probably give them another run through and try make all the 'good' decisions and 

  Hide contents

Have Alette as leader for 2.

The story was pretty good, no real huge stand out moments of great writing but no real let downs.

The ending felt a bit abrupt, so I'm guessing they're guaranteed a sequel at this point. It was just Ivar beats up Bolverbellower then sudden cut scene of explosion then the snake is dribbling on Bolverk and then done.

I chose to side with the King over Rugga but accidently double clicked through some of the dialogue at the end of that encounter - is there something going on with the Horse people?

 Still can't decide what the better choice in that bit was though.

 

 

Spoiler

News comes in of a nearby massacre caused by horse people. Its not clear if the ones with you were responsible for it before joining you, but the dialog emphasizes just how many horse people are inside the walls with you, how well armed they are, and I think something about an expression on Canary's face.

I suspect its just a cheap cliffhanger and it'll turn out to have been caused by other horse people, but maybe not and the third game will start out with a battle inside the city walls.

Also, siding with the King is clearly the better choice. Siding with Rugga forces you into a battle against the Varl, who always side with the King. There's no way to avoid it and no indication in advance that that would happen. Its the only time over both games that I restarted from the previous checkpoint (I force-quit the game before it could save) since I thought it was too cheap by the game

 

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Been playing Watch_Dogs. It's...okay, I guess? It's just GTA with a much crappier story and a far less living city (although a very pretty one) and far shittier car handling. And worse combat. Actually, that makes it sound really bad. It's not, really. Doing the Assassin's Creed/Far Cry thing in a modern city actually works (even if it's still massively derivative) and some of the hacking ideas are really nice. Using cameras to scope out a target location and kill have the guards present with environmental dangers is clever. But if feels like the stealth mechanic is really undercooked and there's not enough penalties for being identified or spotted.

I was left with the feeling that it's a passable game (especially for £5) but for GTA clones, both Sleeping Dogs and Mafia (especially the first one) are vastly superior.

I thought the driving was fine in Watch Dogs, and the hacking was generally pretty enjoyable even if it wasn't exactly challenging or realistic.  The controls in general were really well done, and better than most GTA games (controls have always been where that series has suffered...they're never terrible but they're never as good as other comparable games).  The story was godawful, though, and I didn't give a crap about any of the characters.

Still, I found it to be a perfectly average game.  The problem was it suffered from a massive amount of hype that it came nowhere near living up to, which only heightened the whole graphics controversy.  

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Talleyrand said:

Finished Banner Saga 2 - it was fun, mostly the same as the first with a couple improvements here or there. Being Bolverk and the Ravens was a nice change from Rook & Hakon. Neither of Saga were particularly long so I'll probably give them another run through and try make all the 'good' decisions and 

  Reveal hidden contents

Have Alette as leader for 2.

The story was pretty good, no real huge stand out moments of great writing but no real let downs.

The ending felt a bit abrupt, so I'm guessing they're guaranteed a sequel at this point. It was just Ivar beats up Bolverbellower then sudden cut scene of explosion then the snake is dribbling on Bolverk and then done.

I chose to side with the King over Rugga but accidently double clicked through some of the dialogue at the end of that encounter - is there something going on with the Horse people?

 Still can't decide what the better choice in that bit was though.

 

The game was planned to be a trilogy from the very beginning, so yes, there'll be a third one wrapping up the series.

I also think it's a brilliant setting with a tremendous atmosphere and art direction. My favourite fantasy video game world of the last decade, easily (maybe Dishonored's is not far behind).

[Talleyrand]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

 

  Hide contents

Also, siding with the King is clearly the better choice. Siding with Rugga forces you into a battle against the Varl, who always side with the King. There's no way to avoid it and no indication in advance that that would happen. Its the only time over both games that I restarted from the previous checkpoint (I force-quit the game before it could save) since I thought it was too cheap by the game

 

 

Spoiler

According to one of the guides the Varl will side with you should you choose Rugga if Ludin died before reaching the city

and @Werthead agreed, once this trilogy is over I wouldn't be opposed to more games in the setting - maybe before this bunch when the world is in a bit more of it's normal state and less apocalyptic and depressingly desperate.

I'm quite fond of the Varl, especially liked the conversation between Bolverk and the drunk Raven that looks like Gunnelf's long lost twin. Where they both mention that he mentions he hasn't enjoyed being a mercenary for a good few centuries but it's not like he can do anything else because there's no females of the species to settle down with and he's spent too long being a fighter to learn anything else.

[Jasta11]

Been coming back into XCOM 2 with a few mods, notably the Long War perk and laser packs as well as A Better Advent which adds a slew of enemy variants, and other mods which add Dark Events and mission types. And I'm enjoying it a lot, playing on Legend without Ironman. The mods add some difficulty so I have something like 7 dead soldiers so far, but the mission packs adds some missions that hand you extra soldiers that you can take home if they survive; to balance that, said missions are freaking hard so you usually have to use them as plasma fodder. The patches have also improved the performance quite a bit, it's far less choppy than it used to be.

Also went back to World of Warcraft because the new xpack is coming and I can now pay the sub fee with gold. Gotta say, I love what they did with Fury warriors. It's less about waiting for procs and crits and more about slashing and chopping everything in sight until you can slash and chop even harder. You feel like a meatgrinder, which is exactly my idea of WoW Warriors. I also tested out and liked the new Fire mage and Survival hunter, as well as the cool new transmogrification system. Once change I don't like is that we can't change talents on the fly as before, you need an item to do so now. Why Blizzard, why.

[RumHam]

Anyone try Rimworld yet? I was never able to wrap my head around Dwarf Fortress. This seems similar but maybe more accessible.

[Jace, Extat]

On 7/15/2016 at 2:00 PM, Fez said:

Especially since, I don't know what everyone else is talking about, my Shepard lived through the ending (Destroy, high enough war assets). She definitely retired to a beach world with Liara; the end just cut to black before seeing anything beyond the confirmation that she's alive.

But nope, I'm not getting suckered into talking about ME3 yet again.

Isn't the survival ending one that was added after the patch due to outrage? 

[KiDisaster]

4 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Isn't the survival ending one that was added after the patch due to outrage? 

I don't think so. The one they added later was the "SO BE IT" ending if you shoot the small child deity thing.