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Video Games: Fantasy's Final '16


The Anti-Targ

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On 1/1/2017 at 8:34 PM, A True Kaniggit said:

The Mako controls driving you crazy yet? I started a new playthrough a few weeks back and am just about finished with the first game. I had forgotten how horrible driving the Mako could be. 

Edit: Beat Mass Effect and imported the character to ME:2. Completely forgot about planetary probing. Still an improvement over the Mako though!

(Late reply I realize)

I haven't even made it to the Mako yet... I only get a few hours a week of gaming time at present (basketball season for the boys).  I did manage to get named to the Spectres tonight, so I've made a little progress, but I put it down right after that.

Few thoughts/questions on the game:

Can John Shepard really not jump or climb over anything?  Is gravity really so strong in this universe?  Found it annoying at first, but I've gotten used to it.

Do all these various choices in my conversation responses actually play a difference in the overall story going forward?  If not, that's a lot of wasted time.

Still figuring out squad commands.  I think it told me (once and once only) what up/down/left/right do on my d-pad, but I still generally have no idea what I'm telling my squad-mates to do.  

Do my squad-mates use their special abilities automatically or are they only at my command?  Still figuring this out as I go, obviously.
 

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On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 6:27 PM, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 The 20th Anniversary Diablo Event finally launched on Diablo 3. It's a retro shout-out to the first Diablo. The graphics are all pixellated  and they use much of the music and sound effects from the first game. It features the four bosses from the first game (Butcher, King Leoric, Lazarus and Diablo). Looking forward to running it when I get home tonight.

I played through it with a brand new character last night to get the achievement.  Its got a lot of nostalgia going for it.  So many things I had forgotten from 20 years ago... :stunned:  When I got the Arkaine's Valor armor I actually smiled.  The item graphic was exactly as I remembered.  The music brought back memories as well and then whenever I stepped into a new level of the dungeon and the old quote for that level played.  It was great.

13 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

(Late reply I realize)

I haven't even made it to the Mako yet... I only get a few hours a week of gaming time at present (basketball season for the boys).  I did manage to get named to the Spectres tonight, so I've made a little progress, but I put it down right after that.

Few thoughts/questions on the game:

Can John Shepard really not jump or climb over anything?  Is gravity really so strong in this universe?  Found it annoying at first, but I've gotten used to it.

Do all these various choices in my conversation responses actually play a difference in the overall story going forward?  If not, that's a lot of wasted time.

Still figuring out squad commands.  I think it told me (once and once only) what up/down/left/right do on my d-pad, but I still generally have no idea what I'm telling my squad-mates to do.  

Do my squad-mates use their special abilities automatically or are they only at my command?  Still figuring this out as I go, obviously.
 

After my above mentioned Tristram nostalgia trip, I finally fired up my Mass Effect replay that has been on hold due to PS3 and television issues. 

1)  No jumping or climbing in these three games.  Its part of why people made jokes about it in the gameplay trailers for Andromeda when you can see the character jumping.  You can sprint with the X button and you can crouch with L3. 

2)  Many do.  As you make conversational choices there can be effects later in this game or even in the sequels.  Some of them are as small as seeing a news story that references what you did, others can be seeing characters pop up again later.  In true BioWare fashion, you basically have a Nice Guy (top option), Neutral (middle option), and Bad Guy (bottom option).

3)  You are correct that the game tells you precisely once what the party commands are.  Basically you can tell them to go to a specific area that you are targeting, wait where they are, or come to you.  Since its your first playthrough you won't realize this, but the game play for ME is very clunky compared to ME2/ME3.  On this replay, I am just playing on casual difficulty. 

4) You can set this in preferences I believe, but the default is for them to use abilities as appropriate.  There are a couple of exceptions like the biotic ability Stasis.  That one has to be triggered by you.  The AI generally seems to be pretty good about it.

Also, as a side note regarding the Mako.  You do not gain experience for any kills while you are in it.  So what I generally do early in the game is wear down any big bads that I run across (Geth armatures, Shai-Hulud type sand worms, etc) until they are almost dead; then I pop out and kill them with small arms fire to get the full XP.  Its kind of ridiculous, but that's how the game works.

Enjoy the games!

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7 hours ago, Rhom said:

(snip)

Enjoy the games!

Thanks for the info.  I'm still playing it casually, it hasn't really gripped me into devoting more time to it, but that'll probably come.  

On a different note... there was a game I read about several months ago I was interested in playing, but I can't remember the title and can't seem to find it.  It was on PS4 (probably XB1/PC as well), it was like a pixelated 2D dungeon-esque arcade type game.  Black screen with geometric player/enemies and such mostly.  Any ideas from the hive mind? I've tried looking it up but google isn't helping.  I think it was an indie title.

ETA: Nevermind, found it:  Brutal (guess my description was a bit off from memory)

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4 minutes ago, Ded As Ned said:

Thanks for the info.  I'm still playing it casually, it hasn't really gripped me into devoting more time to it, but that'll probably come.  

On a different note... there was a game I read about several months ago I was interested in playing, but I can't remember the title and can't seem to find it.  It was on PS4 (probably XB1/PC as well), it was like a pixelated 2D dungeon-esque arcade type game.  Black screen with geometric player/enemies and such mostly.  Any ideas from the hive mind? I've tried looking it up but google isn't helping.  I think it was an indie title.

Sounds like Hyper Light Drifter, which thanks to google I can confirm is on the PS4 as well as numerous other platforms.

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2 minutes ago, briantw said:

Sounds like Hyper Light Drifter, which thanks to google I can confirm is on the PS4 as well as numerous other platforms.

It was Brutal, actually.  Just found it, apparently it's a PS4 exclusive. (the game title doesn't help with google searches either lol) Hyper Light Drifter is in my queue as well though :)

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Disaster struck in my XCOM2 campaign. I had gotten the alien hunters dlc, and had no idea what that had in store for me. I was doing fairly well, but I had let the Avatar counter run too high, so I started taking out blacksites. On my 2nd blacksite mission, a king-berserker or whatever it's called shows up and starts mowing down my squad. I was completely unprepared for that and had to high tail it out of there. With my elite soldiers out of commission, the next mission, extracting a VIP, was also a disaster. I was able to extract the VIP, which I needed because I was desperately short on intel, but I ended up sacrificing my squad, with only one soldier making it out. Now that berserker seems to constantly haunt me in every mission and I have no idea how to deal with it. Its "reaction" ability is ridiculous, and I simply do not have the firepower to take it down before it decides to flee.

The Avatar counter actually got to max, and I was facing 20 days until I was to be defeated, but in the next blacksite mission I was successful and brought the counter down by 2 points. I am hanging on by a thread here. 

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You are very lucky to experience the Mass Effect ride for the first time.

Small advices (I would have liked to have at the time):

  • Save a lot. The autosave in ME1 is fucked up. I once easily lost 2 or 3 hours of playtime.
  • Set your companions to use their abilities themselves, but also use the power wheel (if you're on console) to command them and make huge biotic combos. It's one of the very fun things in ME.
  • Go to Liara first (and Benezia last if you don't want to have it difficult).
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After playing a bit more of XCOM 2, I've gotten a better hang of the changes made from the first one. Combat has definitely gotten more enjoyable after leveling my squad members up a bit more and getting more abilities. The turn limit thing hasn't really been an issue, but it feels unnecessary and a bit annoying to have my options limited like that. And I've decided I outright dislike the meta-game. There's too many different things to pursue at once and it takes forever to do any of them. On top of that, things happen that I simply can't do anything about. For example, there are two Avatar missions that have popped up on the far side of the globe from me. Meh.

I've also been playing more HITMAN, and I'm really liking that. After spending about 10 hours on the Paris map, I decided to get the Italian map. I still didn't buy the whole season because I wanted to make sure Paris wasn't a fluke; and it wasn't a fluke. I liked Paris a lot, and I think the Italian map is even better. I've got a ton left to do in it, and even Paris wasn't totally done (I finished most of the Assassination Challenges, other than the Suit Only ones; but barely touched the Escalation stuff), but I'm thinking I will get the rest of the game. I'm wondering though, what's the most cost-effective of doing that? And how do I make sure I get the bonus mission? I've heard there's at least one wrong way of buying the game where the bonus mission costs extra to get.

Also, for the hell of it, I decided to try out Guild Wars 2. Its been pretty fun, and I haven't even spent any money yet. I need to figure out though if any gems are included if I buy the expansion (the base game is free now) or if those are only available through separate real-money purchases. If its the former that's fine, but if its the later, that's a design decision I can't support at all; and it looks like a lot of level 80 content requires gems to play. I like a lot of the gameplay tweaks they made to the standard MMO design though, like having abilities tied to which weapon you equip. And having a fully voiced character is so refreshing (even if it only happens during main story stuff).

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1 hour ago, Fez said:

After playing a bit more of XCOM 2, I've gotten a better hang of the changes made from the first one. Combat has definitely gotten more enjoyable after leveling my squad members up a bit more and getting more abilities. The turn limit thing hasn't really been an issue, but it feels unnecessary and a bit annoying to have my options limited like that. And I've decided I outright dislike the meta-game. There's too many different things to pursue at once and it takes forever to do any of them. On top of that, things happen that I simply can't do anything about. For example, there are two Avatar missions that have popped up on the far side of the globe from me. Meh.

 

I think XCOM 2 takes a while to get used to if you are coming off the back of playing XCOM 1. However as you hit the mid/late game I think its superior. Those first few missions are certainly tough, because you have to take huge risks to complete your quest. What I did figure out is that you can let the Avatar counter get quite high because after that theres a 30 day countdown, giving you time to bring it down again. 

Its been a while since I played it but I do recall that your main focus has to be contacting other regions. Its ok to not do everything, you can get away with it, the meta game is about efficiency and finding the optimal path, not trying to whack every mole.

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On 1/7/2017 at 11:32 AM, Corvinus said:

Disaster struck in my XCOM2 campaign. I had gotten the alien hunters dlc, and had no idea what that had in store for me. I was doing fairly well, but I had let the Avatar counter run too high, so I started taking out blacksites. On my 2nd blacksite mission, a king-berserker or whatever it's called shows up and starts mowing down my squad. I was completely unprepared for that and had to high tail it out of there. With my elite soldiers out of commission, the next mission, extracting a VIP, was also a disaster. I was able to extract the VIP, which I needed because I was desperately short on intel, but I ended up sacrificing my squad, with only one soldier making it out. Now that berserker seems to constantly haunt me in every mission and I have no idea how to deal with it. Its "reaction" ability is ridiculous, and I simply do not have the firepower to take it down before it decides to flee.

Things that are good against rulers:  Anything that doesn't cost an action at all (eg Lightning Hands), DoT effects like fire/acid, and Frost Bombs.  That last one is a godsend because it'll prevent its reaction ability from going off for about three actions, so you can unload with everything you can.  Bladestorm is also worth a mention for the Berserker King because you can kite him past the soldier with Bladestorm and get free damage on him that way.  

After playing a bit more of XCOM 2, I've gotten a better hang of the changes made from the first one. Combat has definitely gotten more enjoyable after leveling my squad members up a bit more and getting more abilities. The turn limit thing hasn't really been an issue, but it feels unnecessary and a bit annoying to have my options limited like that. And I've decided I outright dislike the meta-game. There's too many different things to pursue at once and it takes forever to do any of them. On top of that, things happen that I simply can't do anything about. For example, there are two Avatar missions that have popped up on the far side of the globe from me. Meh.

The turns prevent you from just inching across the map one tile at a time overwatching with everyone, which was both the most optimal and most boring way to place XCOM:EW.  Maybe look into the True Concealment mod:  it gives you a shorter timer, but also doesn't start ticking down until you blow concealment.  Could be something you like, though I personally don't use it.  You'll be able to deal with those Avatar missions eventually, and they give you goals to work towards as you expand your contact list instead of just expecting you to go wherever.  The overworld is the weakest part of the game, I think, but after enough EW, I think its drastically improved and I'd like to see them work on it more.    

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And I've decided I outright dislike the meta-game. There's too many different things to pursue at once and it takes forever to do any of them. 

I liked the idea of the metagame in XC2, but the direction they went in with it was a bit stupid. It overloads you too much rather than making you have to make genuinely tough decisions. The first game had this - not being able to deal with 3 alien incursions at one despite having 30 guys in the barracks ready to roll and not having the option to build more Skyrangers - but it didn't feel quite as annoying.

Interesting to see where they go for XCOM 3, although we're likely still a year away from it being announced and it'll likely be a 2019 release. We should get Phoenix Point, from the original creator of X-COM, next year though. That looks genuinely excellent, in a similar vein but with a far better-integrated metagame (like the original 1990s X-COMs).

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Bah that only means that you won't get a discount with all the DLCs, and that it will be all the more expensive to get all of them (beside the GOTY edition or whatever). I don't understand the hate for season pass. If you think it's stupid to buy something before you know what's in it, I agree, but just don't buy it before hand, and wait when the DLCs are really out.

The infuriating Bioware/EA practice is the fact that you need to pay a fortune for DLCs to complete the story, not the season pass. Its absence only makes it worse.

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On 11/01/2017 at 4:53 AM, Ded As Ned said:

Whoever recommended Knack for my 5 year old for Christmas awhile back... that was a good call!  Kudos! He loves it and hasn't hardly put it down

That was probably me, since everyone else who has a PS4 either hates it, or has never given it a second's thought, and in either case would never recommend it. I thought it was OK for the amount I played it, but I recognised that it would be a fun game for kids on the right difficulty setting. And my 15 year old (at the time) son played it to completion so it can't have been complete trash. It came in for a lot more harsh criticism than it deserved probably because it was a hyped launch exclusive for PS4 which did no live up to the hype.

Has no one mentioned the Scalebound cancellation yet? Seems like the one of the bigger news stories in gaming right now. Disappointing for MS I imagine. I haven't read anything about how things went down but I can't imagine MS cancelling a strongly promoted exclusive lightly.

I finally have a PC capable of playing current gen games. And because my brother plays on PC only these days I'll probably move my Bioware library to PC so we can co-op / MP together. Which may or may not mean playing DA:O and DA2 on PC and maybe an "ideal" playthrough of DA:I on PC as well to set up a preferred a world state for whatever comes after DA:I. But because the keep exists I could just not bother. Thankfully with ME: Andromeda making a complete break from the world state we've meticulously managed through ME1-3 I can just pick up ME:A for PC and move forward from there. Thanks to playing a decent amount of Smite on PC in the last few years I won't have a horrible transition to KB+M controls like the time a few years back when I played Mass Effect on PC after not having played PC games for ages.

Looking forward to XCom 2 on PC and really really looking forward to Pillars of Eternity.

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Has no one mentioned the Scalebound cancellation yet? Seems like the one of the bigger news stories in gaming right now. Disappointing for MS I imagine. I haven't read anything about how things went down but I can't imagine MS cancelling a strongly promoted exclusive lightly.

It sucks that this is how I find out about it too. Bleh. Was really looking forward to this.

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