Video Games: Next Stop... Andromeda

[Pliskin]

Shit, a Tomb Raider without Crystal Dynamics... that sounds very wrong, for whatever reason. Very very wrong.

And I like Deus Ex very much.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 06/02/2017 at 3:36 AM, Corvinus said:

Also, if you do every mission ahead of the Reaper IFF mission, then the reason why the team has to leave the Normandy before the attack becomes pretty silly. Bioware should have thought of a better alternative.

 

But you can't do every mission, unless you don't bother to wake up Legion. There is still Legion's Loyalty mission to be done and that can only be done after the Reaper IFF. But can you only do Legion's Loyalty mission after the Normandy crew has been taken? I don't remember. Seems kinda crappy that you have to either do Legion's loyalty mission OR rescue more of the crew, including Kelly Chambers but you can't do both.

IIRC having Legion's loyalty has consequences in ME3. So it's a good thing you can do it after the suicide mission.

[The Anti-Targ]

On a lighter note. The Last of Us coming true?

Just received this WTO notification in my email:

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4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): Food products containing Cordyceps militaris
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Draft of the use restrictions of Cordyceps militaris and warning label requirement of Cordyceps militaris products (2 pages, in Chinese)
6. Description of content: According to Articles 15-1 and 22 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, the conditions of manufacture and usage quantity of Cordyceps militaris provided for food use are proposed to be restricted, and food products containing Cordyceps militaris products shall be labelled with warning information.
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable: Prevention of deceptive practices and consumer protection

:-D

As you will know a Cordyceps fungus is the infectious agent that causes the "zombiod" mutations in The Last of Us.

Here's some actual facts about C. militaris

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Cordyceps militaris, a parasitic fungus, is a valuable source of many phytonutrients (plant chemicals) and is thought to provide an array of therapeutic benefits and support good health.

Cordyceps is a botanical genus that is comprised of hundreds of species, all of which are parasitic.

Certain species of cordyceps have been used in traditional medicine systems for thousands of years, particularly in Tibet, China and Japan. The term cordyceps is now used to refer to any number of species taken as a dietary supplement.

C. militaris infects certain arthropods, mainly caterpillars, and uses the body to host its growth and development. Traditionally, cordyceps was used as an aphrodisiac, energy enhancer and to treat respiratory ailments. Today, the supplement is in demand throughout Asia, Europe, South America and North America for its purported health benefits.

Cordyceps is used to support the immune system, act as an anti-viral agent, help control blood sugar and protect liver and kidney health. Although research is ongoing, there is insufficient evidence to include cordyceps like C. militaris into clinical practice, which is why it has not been adopted by Western medicine.

Because of its long history in traditional medicine, Cordyceps militaris is often used by natural health practitioners.

Kinda interesting that the premise for The Last of Us is not just based on a fungus that creates insect "zombies" but it's also a fungus that has been used by humans for thousands of years. So one can now actually imagine how this plague began: people using Cordyceps as a natural alternative to Viagra and other health benefits, and all of a sudden we become a new host for the fungus. We don't need some military-industrial bioweapon conspiracy to bring about the end of civilisation. We just need anti-vax Hippies. :-D

[Jon AS]

6 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

But you can't do every mission, unless you don't bother to wake up Legion. There is still Legion's Loyalty mission to be done and that can only be done after the Reaper IFF. But can you only do Legion's Loyalty mission after the Normandy crew has been taken? I don't remember. Seems kinda crappy that you have to either do Legion's loyalty mission OR rescue more of the crew, including Kelly Chambers but you can't do both.

You can definitely do both the mission and rescue the entire crew.

IIRC you can do one mission before the crew gets taken after the IFF acquisition. Plus Legion's loyalty mission rather explicitly relies on the Normandy's stealth drive, so having the first attempt just be the team going by shuttle seems like a silly idea.

[Rhom]

Yeah, my understanding is that if you have done everything else you want to do and then get Legion, you have time to do one mission before the whole crew is toast.

[Fez]

Finished off X-COM 2. Most satisfying part was to actually beat it. There's so few games I actually play all the way to completion (other than short-experience indie games), there's almost always just too much bloat or I otherwise lose interest. Since it only took 25 hours, it doesn't compare to the feeling I had finishing off The Witcher 3. But it was still good.

I noticed though in the after-game stats that I apparently beat the game much faster than the global average, even though I actually took longer to hit most of the upgrade milestones. I only played 31 missions total, the average was 41 missions. And there were at least 4 regions (possibly 5, I'm not sure how many regions are in Africa) that I never made contact with at all. Also, because of the fewer missions I earned much less of almost everything than the global average; but I actually sold 3x as much as the average on the black market. So I guess I went about the meta-game different from most players. I did have all the research done though; except for the Gatekeeper autopsy and anything that unlocks. And I hit all the equipment upgrades and had tons of proving ground items. So I dunno how so many players took so many more missions.

 

Tales of Berseria is still going strong. There's been some way too JRPG-ass JRPG moments, but I'm liking the game quite a lot. I even caught myself grinning a few times during the some of the cutscenes and that almost never happens. No matter the emotions I feel, I'm usually stone-faced while playing video games (sometimes there's a furrowed brow).

[MisterOJ]

Does anyone on here play Overwatch?

I've been playing it for the past couple weeks. I like it and find it frustrating at the same time, because queuing as a solo player sucks so hard at times. When you get in a group of players who actually understand that you need tanks and healers though, it's awesome. Since virtually no one ever wants to play as a healer though, I find myself taking one for the team and playing as Mercy probably 80-90% of the time. The upside is that I've gotten really good with her. The bad side is that I'm still pretty bad with just about every other character due to lack of playing time with them.

[Proudfeet]

I know that feeling. I used to be a tank main. Then I became a support main. And now I can't play them anymore.

Try playing Ana. Ana is basically half a DPS and sleep darts always feel satisfying to hit. Otherwise, be stubborn and make someone else switch. Or play mystery heroes on arcade. I got halfway competent at more heroes there though it sucks when you get a random hero you don't want to play.

[Week]

I play a couple nights a week - I usually end up as S76, D Va, Junkrat, Lucio, or Zenyatta. I dabble a bit with Zarya, Mei, and Reinhart if the team setup allows (or needs it - i.e. Reinhart). It's pretty entertaining when you have a team running well.

I have FFXV still unplayed - I want to start it at a time where I can binge a few solid hours for a few days straight though.

[KiDisaster]

Ratchet and Clank 2016 is super fun. Think I'm gonna try to get the platinum trophy. It'll only be the second game I've ever done that with. Well, I did get all the achievements for Fable II but that was Xbox. 

[Werthead]

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Dragon Age kept its lead writer from games 1 to 3, and it shows. That series is much more internally consistent and flows far better from one game to the next (even if not in the gameplay department). There's been some support since Origins for some of the big lore reveals that have happened in Inquisition. That's a level of planning ahead you simply did not see in Mass Effect.

Not entirely correct. Brent Knowles led a lot of the design on Dragon Age: Origins and he left BioWare in a fuming anger over EA's command that BioWare churn out a quickie game to help ameliorate the costs of DA:O. The fact that David Gaider and Mike Laidlaw stayed meant they could adapt the story as required in a way that made sense (if you squint a bit).

 

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Wait what? What about Crystal Dynamics?

 

Square owns Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal (with its 2 teams). They've put Crystal Dynamics (formerly on Rise of the Tomb Raider) on an Avengers game, Eidos Montreal Team 1 (formerly worked on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided) on Shadows of the Tomb Raider and Eidos Montreal Team 2 (formerly on Thief) on a Guardians of the Galaxy title.

So Deus Ex gets shafted. Again.

[Jon AS]

3 hours ago, MisterOJ said:

Does anyone on here play Overwatch?

I've been playing it for the past couple weeks. I like it and find it frustrating at the same time, because queuing as a solo player sucks so hard at times. When you get in a group of players who actually understand that you need tanks and healers though, it's awesome. Since virtually no one ever wants to play as a healer though, I find myself taking one for the team and playing as Mercy probably 80-90% of the time. The upside is that I've gotten really good with her. The bad side is that I'm still pretty bad with just about every other character due to lack of playing time with them.

I play it quite regularly. And yes, at some point you really need a good team, otherwise you'll never progress. When you do (as I had the random fortune this weekend), you get a whole new level of enjoyment out of the game.

I'm not so much fussed up team composition. Some balance is obviously good, but anybody who thinks going "2-2-2" is all that's required to do well isn't paying attention. Actually working together and trying to achieve the map objective instead of treating the game as a team deathmatch are key.

[MisterOJ]

11 minutes ago, Jon AS said:

I play it quite regularly. And yes, at some point you really need a good team, otherwise you'll never progress. When you do (as I had the random fortune this weekend), you get a whole new level of enjoyment out of the game.

I'm not so much fussed up team composition. Some balance is obviously good, but anybody who thinks going "2-2-2" is all that's required to do well isn't paying attention. Actually working together and trying to achieve the map objective instead of treating the game as a team deathmatch are key.

I'm playing the game at a very low level right now. I get that. But still, I think you need some kind of healer. At least at this level of play. There have been so many matches where, if I didn't switch to Mercy, it would have been six straight up offensive and defensive characters and no tanks or support. Or five offensive/defensive characters and no support. I just don't see how something like that could be feasible at any level of play.

[Jon AS]

56 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

I'm playing the game at a very low level right now. I get that. But still, I think you need some kind of healer. At least at this level of play. There have been so many matches where, if I didn't switch to Mercy, it would have been six straight up offensive and defensive characters and no tanks or support. Or five offensive/defensive characters and no support. I just don't see how something like that could be feasible at any level of play.

Oh, yeah, usually one healer is pretty damn essential. I was mostly talking about people who want to stick to a strict formula when it comes to team composition. They tend to have a very narrow view on what characters can do (e.g. they tend to think that Mei is a straight up DPS character...).

[Fez]

I picked up A House of Many Doors and its amazing how similar it is to Sunless Sea. I'm only a couple hours, but I generally like it quite a bit, though its got some problems. Because of how similar Sunless Sea is, and how much more polished that game feels, I think I'd only recommend AHMD to people who have already played Sunless Sea. This feels almost like a total conversion mod, even though supposedly its all original code (The Sunless Sea developers helped support the game, so its all kosher either way though).

The basic structure of the game is still going around to different locations in a vast area of darkness and monsters (though here its a massive, parasitic, multi-dimensional house instead of an underground sea) and slowly uncovering many different stories. I'm not sure if the map is random though. As near as I can tell, this isn't a rogue-like (which Sunless Sea never should've been either), so there's not really a need for randomness; except to support replayability I guess. There seems to be a primary, main story to slowly unlock as well, which I suspect can help focus the game if it seems like there's too many threads going on.

On the plus side from Sunless Sea, I think the writing may be even better here (or at least its on par; maybe it just seems better because its fresher). Also, even though, or perhaps because, the UI is simpler, its easier to keep track of what stories I'm following, what items I have, what my relationships with various people and places are, etc. There's also some quality of life improvements like fuel not taking cargo space and supplies not being a thing at all, so I'm free to focus my cargo space entirely on items used to advance various stories. Also, combat is much more engaging; it happens on a separate screen and feels very inspired by FTL. Finally, there's some really gorgeous painted art in the game.

On the downside, the areas between locations seems to be massive, drab, and already extremely repetitive. There is a way to unlock fast travel, but its only between major cities and it seems to be fairly expensive, which means a lot of time playing is going to spent traveling. And with the in-game map entirely focused on functionality, it feels a bit like traveling through a massive excel spreadsheet; with the real game only happening when you land on the right cells.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Leap said:

Knights of the Old Republic

Is this that awesome Bioware RPG with the sassy robot that everyone loves? Or one of those MMO ones? Cause I've always meant to try that sassy robot one. 

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, KiDisaster said:

Ratchet and Clank 2016 is super fun. Think I'm gonna try to get the platinum trophy. It'll only be the second game I've ever done that with. Well, I did get all the achievements for Fable II but that was Xbox. 

Did you play the PS2/3 Ratchet and Clanks? I don't know if it's because of nostalgia goggles but this reboot of the original game is not as good as the previous gens' games IMO. The original trilogy of games on the PS2 were among my favourite PS2 games. R&C 2016 not so much for PS4. Of course my taste in games has evolved somewhat since the PS2 era.

Re Overwatch:

I don't like FPS games so I wouldn't play Overwatch myself, but for a "bit on the side" at no $ down Overwatch fans should give Paladins a shot. They are a lot alike and Paladins gets shit as being an Overwatch clone, but the two games were pretty much in development at the same time. Paladins has just spent more time in Beta (and still is in open Beta)

My son has been playing it a lot in the last month (still university summer holidays here), including playing ranked, and is having a lot of fun. He actually mains tanks and healers (frontlines and supports) in ranked and has found that he is sometimes able to carry on those characters. However he likes to master all characters (he started off with that practice in Smite), and so he ground out casuals to get minimum mastery for ranked on all characters. The lesson from him is that you just have to be selfish if you want to master more characters across the classes. In casuals it doesn't really matter all that much to get team balance right because it's about the fun and not so much the wins right? But even in ranked you get team comps with no tanks or no healers, and those comps can win, but just require more coordinated play. You don't see teams winning with no healer and no tank, but you can get away with only having one of those classes.

[Werthead]

57 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Is this that awesome Bioware RPG with the sassy robot that everyone loves? Or one of those MMO ones? Cause I've always meant to try that sassy robot one. 

Yes. Knights of the Old Republic I and II are excellent single-player RPGs, and very much the forerunners to Mass Effect. KotOR may be the best game BioWare has ever made (although there's a strong challenge from Baldur's Gate II).

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 Anyone here played the Warhammer game Mordheim: City of the Damned? Been thinking of grabbing that one on Steam. Looks interesting. 

[KiDisaster]

38 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Did you play the PS2/3 Ratchet and Clanks? I don't know if it's because of nostalgia goggles but this reboot of the original game is not as good as the previous gens' games IMO. The original trilogy of games on the PS2 were among my favourite PS2 games. R&C 2016 not so much for PS4. Of course my taste in games has evolved somewhat since the PS2 era.

I played the first one back when it came out, so I'd have been like 12 at the time I think. I don't really remember much of it, and I never played any of the sequels. I'm really enjoying this one though. It's very simple and quite repetitive but in a similar way to Sunset Overdrive it just reminds me of simpler times I guess. Those older styles of games that were ubiquitous when I was growing up, the 3D platformers and whatnot. Also I've found myself laughing out loud at some of the terrible gags in the cutscenes, so that's fun. 

It has made me want to play Jak & Daxter and Psychonauts again.