Video Games: Fantasy's Final '16

[Kalbear]

On 12/5/2016 at 4:24 PM, Corvinus said:

WELL DAMN, it was my GPU. I pulled out the graphics card, turned my computer on, and went into my bios. Now what to do. The card worked fine before in terms of doing stuff in Windows. It just messed up the bios for some reason. Frantic online searches to commence.

Update: Got it fixed. I had to update the motherboard BIOS to work better with the graphics card. The SSD is installed and is making everything super fast, so I am ready for Mass Effect ANDROMEDA!!!

YAY LOGIC

[Corvinus85]

10 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

YAY LOGIC

[The Anti-Targ]

13 hours ago, KiDisaster said:

I don't see why a need to procreate would make gay relationships an issue. Gay couples can raise kids too (Not that I think you meant anything to the contrary). 

Even if we assume that any and all methods of artificial insemination are off the table for some reason, there's still no reason Breeders A & B would have to remain together after they'd done their Apocalyptic Societal Duty if they didn't want to.

But the idea of mandated, utilitarian sex between people who aren't attracted to each other is not one I care to explore much 

 

It's not the raising, it's the having. 

Who knows what sort of policies a society on the brink of collapse would need to implement in order to maximise the chances of survival. We try to mandate utilitarian procreative sex with endangered non-human species. Unfortunately with those species we can't just have a quiet word and say please, take one for the team. In a completely fragmented society like in TLOU it's likely each community would make up its own rules on this. In order to minimise inbreeding one might need to take a very hard scientific utilitarian view. One might also need to have exchanges with other communities in order to refresh the genetics a bit. Some communities might decide that humanity is not worth saving and homosexual relationships are encouraged to eliminate the chances of accidental pregnancies. And then you might have closeted heterosexuals sneaking off for a quickie and hoping they hit the right time of the month that a pregnancy does not ensue.

[Fez]

So this seems kinda nuts.

Quote

 

Perhaps more controversially, Final Fantasy 15's story is to be tweaked with new cut-scenes that aim to clear up a muddied plot. "We're hoping to delve deeper into the story, adding scenes that will give you new insight into character motivations, such as why Ravus walked the path he did," said Tabata of what's to come after the updates to Chapter 13. "We will need a little time with these, as they'll need to be localised and voiced in other languages, but we'll let you know the details once everything is set."

Beyond that, Tabata and his team are also looking at making new characters playable in the story, as well as introducing customisable avatars.

These updates will be free - and will sit separately to the DLC packs already announced and that form part of a season pass - yet it's a move that leaves a slightly sour taste.

 

Even if its free, patching changes to the story is just bizarre. If I'd already played the game I'd be pretty pissed-off. The article notes how this is a much bigger change than what Mass Effect 3 did with its ending. I'd also note that they didn't change the ending, they just made the cutscene longer (and Leviathan was also important lore-wise, but was traditional DLC); whereas it sounds like SE is making changes throughout the FFXV story.

[Ded As Ned]

I need some suggestions for PS4 games for my 5 year old that we don't already have on the PS3.... internet searches so far haven't been very helpful.  

Here's what we already have and I'm not looking to re-purchase for the PS4:
Pretty much every Lego game
Minecraft 
Ratchet & Clank

Ideas?

[Guy Kilmore]

4 hours ago, Fez said:

So this seems kinda nuts.

Even if its free, patching changes to the story is just bizarre. If I'd already played the game I'd be pretty pissed-off. The article notes how this is a much bigger change than what Mass Effect 3 did with its ending. I'd also note that they didn't change the ending, they just made the cutscene longer (and Leviathan was also important lore-wise, but was traditional DLC); whereas it sounds like SE is making changes throughout the FFXV story.

That is kind of weird!

Oh well, I guess there is more fishing on the horizon!

[Rhom]

19 minutes ago, Ded As Ned said:

I need some suggestions for PS4 games for my 5 year old that we don't already have on the PS3.... internet searches so far haven't been very helpful.  

Here's what we already have and I'm not looking to re-purchase for the PS4:
Pretty much every Lego game
Minecraft 
Ratchet & Clank

Ideas?

Sadly, almost every game I owned for the PS4 until recently was also available for PS3.

However, for kiddos I think the gameplay on Dragon Quest Heroes is good stuff.  Think Dynasty Warriors in the DQ setting.

[Werthead]

Feeling kind of listless on the video game front. Cities: Skylines is good, but it's not exactly gripping my attention. I need to reinvest in a game.

The sensible thing to do would be to go back and finish The Witcher 2. But it's not very good, which makes it hard to do that. Completionism demands it before I can play The Witcher 3 though. Maybe finish off Final Fantasy IX. I think I'm exactly halfway through both games and neither are mega-long as RPGs go. Pillars of Eternity is mega-long but I'm about of a third of the way through it. Having just finished Tyranny I'm not sure I want to pile back into the same engine again (although that might actually make more sense, whilst I'm retaining knowledge from the game).

I also have a whole bunch of FPS I need to get through. I should play a few of those, as they're usually pretty short, not massive time investments and reasonably fun. Right now I have Rage, Fear 2 and 3, BioShock 2 and Republic Commando (yup, better late than never) sitting in the unplayed pile.

In terms of other games unplayed, I have Dragon Age: Inquistion but I'm lukewarm on the series and I don't want to commit to a massive new giga-RPG right now without finishing a few of the others. For adventure games I've got Life is Strange, The Longest Journey and Dreamfall (yes, I know) and the GoT Telltale game. I played the first episode and thought it was dull, but I guess I should finish off the rest.

Alien: Isolation could be a contender. Hmm.

[Melphis Amekia]

Why no Dreamfall Chapters? In any case, Life is Strange, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (and Chapters), and the GoT Telltale Game are all amazing, and since it sounds you haven't played them before, I think you should try those if you'd prefer trying out something new right now.

[Jace, Extat]

Hey all ya'll computer faces. I sat down with my computer man recently and promised him a lot of money if he made me a lot of computer. These are the parts he identified on the newegg.com

Processor:

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 88W BX80646I74790K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600

 

$340

Graphics Cards:

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GV-N1070G1 GAMING-8GD 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card

$420- He has me getting two.

Motherboard:

ASRock Z97 Extreme4 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

$115

Memory:

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

$120

So these are the parts he showed me, as well as a couple of terabytes of solid state hard drives. What do you guys think? It seems a little... cheap?

I trust him, he's made me a computer before, but I told him I wanted 4 Titans and he looked at me like I was stupid (which, to be fair, I am) and when I tried to get him to tell me more about his choice of parts he got genuinely offended and weirdly suspicious like I had some evil motive for asking.

I don't know, what do you guys think? Will it run the virtual realities and that Star Citizen game that is never going to be released?

 

[Melphis Amekia]

Well, I am not as into computer parts as before, so others are probably better to advise on the rest, but one glaring thing I find here is just 8 GB DDR3 RAM. Not that that's actually too little - in fact, it's sort of enough, for now - but if you want a system that lasts for some time, I'd get 16 GB DDR4 RAM(2133 MHz start). On newegg, the price listed is 93 $, and for 8 GB of that RAM your computer guy recommended the price is 58$, so I assume it would me 120$ for 16 GB. If you can get the DDR4 RAM , that would be a lot better imo(and a motherboard that supports DDR4 too). That is just my opinion, though, and others can probably give better advice.

[l2 0 5 5]

I saw a LoU2 theory that's spreading since the trailer dawned. I'll spoiler up for those who have not played the first game.

Thoughts:

 

Apparently some people are in belief that Joel is not alive for the second installment after pulling out their microscopes and fishing poles during the trailer.

1.) Joel enters the house with a white aura shining around him as if he's some godly, spiritual figure. This leads some to think that Joel is merely a voice inside Ellie's head for this installment, and that he has died somewhere in the last 5 years. I think that's a little much.  I think the white aura around Joel was simply to add drama to his entrance into the trailer. No more than that. He was the main lead in the first game, and the trailer opens up with Ellie on the camera, only to create a dramatic entrance for Joel. Also, he's carrying a gun into the house so I don't see why a dead person would need a gun.

2.) Some folks are reading into Joel's words to Ellie, "You really gonna go through with this?", as a sign that he's dead because he's not involving himself in whatever she is doing. Once again, reading too much into this. Ellie was a strong-willed and independent 14 year old when we last saw her, and now she's presumably an even more strong-willed and independent 19 year old. I think it's logical to think that she now does not include Joel in every single venture she embarks on. I think it's also a possibility that she doesn't even live in the same confines as Joel anymore. She may not even be at Tommy's Dam. She could be close by, sure, but to think she and Joel see each other every day I think is unlikely. Surely she's formed her own thoughts and opinions on what happened in Utah. That, and the fact that she's grown into an adult has most likely created a little distance between her and Joel. She clearly consulted Joel on what she wanted to do, but I think she's far past the point of asking for his permission.

3.) I think the most pragmatic reasoning for Joel not being dead for the whole game is simple: Why would Naughty Dog do that? Druckmann said that he threw around a lot of ideas about a new cast of characters for LoU2, but it just never felt right. Ellie and Joel were the only way the story could be told. I agree with that. If this is the case, why would ND announce the comeback of Ellie and Joel, only for us to find out that the main lead from LoU is going to be a spiritual figure for Ellie that will pop up in a few cutscenes to offer guidance and counsel whenever she meets a fork in the road? I don't think that will be the case.  Ellie will be the main lead in this installment, yes, but having Joel serve as a mere ghost would not do well for the plot.

Conclusion: I don't think Joel is dead.

[Kalbear]

Counterpoint: Joel needs to fucking die.

[Jace, Extat]

26 minutes ago, Planetsider said:

Well, I am not as into computer parts as before, so others are probably better to advise on the rest, but one glaring thing I find here is just 8 GB DDR3 RAM. Not that that's actually too little - in fact, it's sort of enough, for now - but if you want a system that lasts for some time, I'd get 16 GB DDR4 RAM(2133 MHz start). On newegg, the price listed is 93 $, and for 8 GB of that RAM your computer guy recommended the price is 58$, so I assume it would me 120$ for 16 GB. If you can get the DDR4 RAM , that would be a lot better imo(and a motherboard that supports DDR4 too). That is just my opinion, though, and others can probably give better advice.

He says I'll have 16 gigs of ram, I may have linked the wrong thing.

[The Anti-Targ]

5 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

I need some suggestions for PS4 games for my 5 year old that we don't already have on the PS3.... internet searches so far haven't been very helpful.  

Here's what we already have and I'm not looking to re-purchase for the PS4:
Pretty much every Lego game
Minecraft 
Ratchet & Clank

Ideas?

Rocket League. Though it might be rather mechanically too difficult and frustrating for a 5-year old, but it is as child friendly a game as you can get. Soccer with flying cars, what's not to love for a kid?

Knack. It gets a lot of flack from gamers, but for kids it is fun and cute.

29 minutes ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

I saw a LoU2 theory that's spreading since the trailer dawned. I'll spoiler up for those who have not played the first game.

Thoughts:

  Hide contents

Apparently some people are in belief that Joel is not alive for the second installment after pulling out their microscopes and fishing poles during the trailer.

1.) Joel enters the house with a white aura shining around him as if he's some godly, spiritual figure. This leads some to think that Joel is merely a voice inside Ellie's head for this installment, and that he has died somewhere in the last 5 years. I think that's a little much.  I think the white aura around Joel was simply to add drama to his entrance into the trailer. No more than that. He was the main lead in the first game, and the trailer opens up with Ellie on the camera, only to create a dramatic entrance for Joel. Also, he's carrying a gun into the house so I don't see why a dead person would need a gun.

2.) Some folks are reading into Joel's words to Ellie, "You really gonna go through with this?", as a sign that he's dead because he's not involving himself in whatever she is doing. Once again, reading too much into this. Ellie was a strong-willed and independent 14 year old when we last saw her, and now she's presumably an even more strong-willed and independent 19 year old. I think it's logical to think that she now does not include Joel in every single venture she embarks on. I think it's also a possibility that she doesn't even live in the same confines as Joel anymore. She may not even be at Tommy's Dam. She could be close by, sure, but to think she and Joel see each other every day I think is unlikely. Surely she's formed her own thoughts and opinions on what happened in Utah. That, and the fact that she's grown into an adult has most likely created a little distance between her and Joel. She clearly consulted Joel on what she wanted to do, but I think she's far past the point of asking for his permission.

3.) I think the most pragmatic reasoning for Joel not being dead for the whole game is simple: Why would Naughty Dog do that? Druckmann said that he threw around a lot of ideas about a new cast of characters for LoU2, but it just never felt right. Ellie and Joel were the only way the story could be told. I agree with that. If this is the case, why would ND announce the comeback of Ellie and Joel, only for us to find out that the main lead from LoU is going to be a spiritual figure for Ellie that will pop up in a few cutscenes to offer guidance and counsel whenever she meets a fork in the road? I don't think that will be the case.  Ellie will be the main lead in this installment, yes, but having Joel serve as a mere ghost would not do well for the plot.

Conclusion: I don't think Joel is dead.

Conversely, seeing as Joel in the trailer is as mentally and physically functional as in the first game, there doesn't seem to be much point in having the characters so tightly bound as they were in the first game. With Ellie being highly competent at survival neither one of them needs a protector. So I don't expect Joel to feature heavily in the game, live or dead. Which means him being an hallucination / the manifestation of Ellie's conscience would probably make no difference to the amount of screen time Joel would have. The main problem with him being a ghost in her mind is that it really limits the dramatic potential, since it's just Ellie arguing with herself. Unless Ellie has another significant relationship with someone, then there's no dramatic hook

 

11 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Counterpoint: Joel needs to fucking die.

In TLOU2, in Act 3, I think yes. If Naughty Dog wants to continue making games in this world and not get stuck in a rut. But the PSX panel with Druckman, Johnson and Baker suggests Naughty Dog kicked around a lot of ideas for a second game, but could not come up with a compelling story without Joel and Ellie. So, to naughty Dog TLOU is Joel and Ellie. Makes me think they might call it quits at two games. Naughty Dog seems to be happy to end franchises if they feel there isn't a decent story to tell. They nixed Jak and Daxter despite the fans begging for Jak 4 because they did not like the ideas they were coming up with for a 4th game. 

The good news if TLOU ends with two games is that with a blank slate, having ended Uncharted and TLOU we get to see something completely new from them.

 

But by far the most important question from the TLOU2 trailer is, how many people are going to get Ellie's forearm tattoo over the next few years?

[Mudguard]

2 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Hey all ya'll computer faces. I sat down with my computer man recently and promised him a lot of money if he made me a lot of computer. These are the parts he identified on the newegg.com

Processor:

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 88W BX80646I74790K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600

 

$340

Graphics Cards:

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GV-N1070G1 GAMING-8GD 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card

$420- He has me getting two.

Motherboard:

ASRock Z97 Extreme4 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

$115

Memory:

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

$120

So these are the parts he showed me, as well as a couple of terabytes of solid state hard drives. What do you guys think? It seems a little... cheap?

I trust him, he's made me a computer before, but I told him I wanted 4 Titans and he looked at me like I was stupid (which, to be fair, I am) and when I tried to get him to tell me more about his choice of parts he got genuinely offended and weirdly suspicious like I had some evil motive for asking.

I don't know, what do you guys think? Will it run the virtual realities and that Star Citizen game that is never going to be released?

 

Not sure why he recommends getting an older processor and motherboard.  The i7-4790 is a couple years old now.  Newer processors require a socket 1151 motherboard, so the motherboard he recommends can't be upgraded to the current generation chips.  Seems like if you are getting two Geforce GTX 1070s, which is a whole lot of video processing power, you might as well get a current generation processor and motherboard.

For example, Newegg has this processor for the same price:

Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530

I think performance is similar for the two chips, even though the i7-4790K is older, but I'm not sure why he's recommending the older chip over the new one.

[Jace, Extat]

Oh! Thank you! Would you have any suggestions on the motherboard?

[Jace, Extat]

15 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

Not sure why he recommends getting an older processor and motherboard.  The i7-4790 is a couple years old now.  Newer processors require a socket 1151 motherboard, so the motherboard he recommends can't be upgraded to the current generation chips.  Seems like if you are getting two Geforce GTX 1070s, which is a whole lot of video processing power, you might as well get a current generation processor and motherboard.

For example, Newegg has this processor for the same price:

Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530

I think performance is similar for the two chips, even though the i7-4790K is older, but I'm not sure why he's recommending the older chip over the new one.

Oh thank you! Would you have a recommendation on motherboard?

[Kalbear]

The Asus Z170 is pretty good for that generation. 

[Mudguard]

14 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Oh thank you! Would you have a recommendation on motherboard?

 

Just now, Kalbear said:

The Asus Z170 is pretty good for that generation. 

Yeah, the Asus z170 would work fine if you are building a normal sized computer (regular ATX case).  If you are building a smaller sized computer (mini ITX) you need something else.  When I built my computer a couple years ago, I used the following website:

https://pcpartpicker.com/

You can look at recommended builds and also build from scratch using the system build section.  It will automatically make sure everything is compatible, so when you select your processor, only compatible motherboards will be shown.