Video Games: This is (Elite) Dangerous

[Werthead]

Just picked up Valkyria Chronicles and The Banner Saga. Which would people recommend I play first?

Same as above, Banner Saga you can see off in about 10 hours (certainly less than 15). VC will take you a good 20-30 hours just for the main campaign. The semi-optional skirmishes will double that, easily.

[Werthead]

Want to go to Alpha Centauri in Elite: Dangerous? One word: don't.

This is the exact same hilarious thing they had in Frontier. Hyperspace drops you out near Alpha Centauri A, which is great, except that the only inhabitable planet, Eden (and its station, Hutton Orbital) are located in orbit around Proxima Centauri, which in turn is orbiting AC A and B at a distance of 0.22 light-years. You can't jump straight to Proxima, you have to fly there manually. When with the Supercruise turned up to 2,000 times the speed of light still takes an hour and is flat-out impossible for any ship lacking an auxiliary fuel tank.

They'll probably fix this at some point and allow you to jump to individual stars in a system, but for now this is annoying. And hilarious for veterans of the previous games in the series :)

[Derfel Cadarn]

Lol Alpha Centauri. I remember that from Frontier Elite II. God how I loved that game. One thing I hated was how pointless exploring was. I love how identifying potentially habitable planets is in the new game.

In frontier I liked visiting Epsilon Eridani (where Babylon 5 is set) and Wolf 359 (where the Borg pwned Starfleet).

Just reinstalled Elite Dangerous and still too scared to undock outsode of the tutorials. I nees to figure out how to make money. Theres a couple of missions but my cargohold is too small.

[Durckad]

I finished playing through Half-Life 2, Episode 1, and Episode 2 so I'm moving on to another game. I picked up Final Fantasy VII on Steam for cheap so I'm going to give that a go seeing as I never finished it back in the day.

After a couple of hours of playing, it holds up rather well, aside from the monotonous qualities of the early battles (there's very little strategy at all or customization at all) and the horrid writing. The graphics are generally awful, as one would expect from a really early 3D game (they tend not to hold up as well as the later 2D games from the same era), but the actual 2D backgrounds are amazingly blurry and pixelated at times. It doesn't really bother me and I can certainly play the game without any issues, but it does make finding things in the background a bit difficult. I'm going to have to search around and see if there are any graphical mods for the game.

[Werthead]

Not for the backgrounds. They were scanned at 640 and 640 they will remain forevermore, unless Square ever re-scan the original artwork. They've even refused to do that so far.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Wolf Among Us worth trying out if I enjoyed both seasons of Walking Dead?

I didn't like Walking Dead but found Wolf Among Us really fun even if the story arc was really unsatisfying. I like the characters and story of Wolf way more interesting.

[Mark Antony]

I'm gonna give it a go :)

[Centrist Simon Steele]

It depends what you like about it. The "start over when you die, but keep your improvements" thing is common to Roguelikes; RL is a marriage of that and Symphony of the Night style Metroidvanias. Abyss Odyssey is a close-ish match, but I thought it was just okay.

Do you have any form of DS? The best Metroidvanias post-SOTN were the DS Castlevanias (Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia). There were also good GBA ones if you have a GBA or an older DS with a GBA slot. They lack the Roguelike elements but offer the same sort of gameplay.

You might also look at Super House of Dead Ninjas on Steam, which plays differently but has some elements in common with RL.

Beyond that, I am always on the hunt for proper Metroidvanias, so I'd love to get some new recommendations. A lot of the games billed that way (e.g., Shadow Complex, Guacamelee!) aren't really the same style.

I don't know what I like about it the most. At first I was pissed about permadeath now I love it. I have played all the Castlevanias on 3Ds and I found Rogue to be closer to Symphony of the Night than some of those sequels for some reason. I think I'll look at Super House of Dead Ninjas and I Abyss Odyssey looks to be just okay like you said. But if the price is right I'll probably grab it.

I never played Order of Ecclesia now that I think about it.

[l2 0 5 5]

If you want a shit ton of good games for $25 check out the Valve complete pack on Steam. Well worth $25.

[Fez]

Started on Borderlands: The PreSequel. Its essentially just more of the same, and I'm fine with that. Maybe I would've wanted to see more innovation if I paid full-price, but for $30 I'm fine with what's basically just an expansion pack. The Oz mechanic is kind of annoying (and considering it doesn't even affect one of the four characters, I don't see why they bothered putting it in at all), but I like the low gravity stuff. I tried all the characters for a few minutes, but I'm going with Nisha for my first run. Her action skill seems crazy over-powered, but maybe that's just because I generally have mediocre-at-best aim when on my own. I'm also liking the story quite a bit too, perspective flips and descents-into-villainy are always fun. And Gearbox, or at least the Australian ones, have gotten even better at incorporating story into the game through the radio channel. Plus, I find it hilarious that everyone on the moon is Australian.

I also picked up Elite: Dangerous, because its not like I have enough games already to play. I am going with the Xbox controller. I was worried I wouldn't have enough buttons at first, but once I discovered I could map things to require two buttons that opened things a lot more. There's still a few actions I need to go through the UI to get to, but so far those are all things I rarely need. I've actually started the game three times now. The first two I didn't know what I was doing, and within an hour was in a worse place than when I started, so I deleted the save and tried again. I'm only about two hours into this third save, but so far its going better. My biggest success was figuring out what I was doing wrong with docking before and can now get it down quite quickly.

I completed one hauling mission that paid 4k credits (no other mission available to me that I understand how to complete has offered nearly as much) and have done three trading runs netting a total of 2k credits. So clearly I need a faster way to make money. I do finally have enough to start upgrading my ship, but I need to be careful to keep enough in reserve to still trade and rebuy my ship if it blows up (mistakes I made the first two times). I'd also like to move away a bit. There's 400 billion (!) stars out there and I've only been to maybe five of the ones that surround the starting system. And I want to get involved in the storyline, which I do know is a thing and is going to be about the Emperor's succession, but I have no idea how to engage it. I assume it involves running missions in certain systems though (presumably Imperial ones). Wert, do you know?

[Derfel Cadarn]

I finally undocked in Elite and completed ny frst mission. I feel like I've done something major, and all I did was transport 2 tons of scrap to a systen two jumps away, for 2k credits. My next mission is to buy two units of slaves and return them to that station so threy can be freed. Not sure what'll happen if I get scanned; will I get fined for illegal cargo?

[Red Hermit]

I finally undocked in Elite and completed ny frst mission. I feel like I've done something major, and all I did was transport 2 tons of scrap to a systen two jumps away, for 2k credits. My next mission is to buy two units of slaves and return them to that station so threy can be freed. Not sure what'll happen if I get scanned; will I get fined for illegal cargo?

If you get scanned with illegal cargo you will get a hefty fine and end up losing credits, regardless of mission type. Might wanna practice getting into stations without getting scanned beforehand. Although from your post it sounds like you won't have enough credits to buy the slaves.

[Werthead]

I also picked up Elite: Dangerous, because its not like I have enough games already to play. I am going with the Xbox controller. I was worried I wouldn't have enough buttons at first, but once I discovered I could map things to require two buttons that opened things a lot more. There's still a few actions I need to go through the UI to get to, but so far those are all things I rarely need. I've actually started the game three times now. The first two I didn't know what I was doing, and within an hour was in a worse place than when I started, so I deleted the save and tried again. I'm only about two hours into this third save, but so far its going better. My biggest success was figuring out what I was doing wrong with docking before and can now get it down quite quickly.

I completed one hauling mission that paid 4k credits (no other mission available to me that I understand how to complete has offered nearly as much) and have done three trading runs netting a total of 2k credits. So clearly I need a faster way to make money. I do finally have enough to start upgrading my ship, but I need to be careful to keep enough in reserve to still trade and rebuy my ship if it blows up (mistakes I made the first two times). I'd also like to move away a bit. There's 400 billion (!) stars out there and I've only been to maybe five of the ones that surround the starting system. And I want to get involved in the storyline, which I do know is a thing and is going to be about the Emperor's succession, but I have no idea how to engage it. I assume it involves running missions in certain systems though (presumably Imperial ones). Wert, do you know?

I've been doing salvage jobs, running off and getting black boxes and data files for 11-15K a pop. It's still slow, but fairly reliable. Using either starting Sidewinder or Eagle (if you pre-ordered), trading is a hideous grind until you can afford a Hauler with its crazy cargo capacity, at which point it becomes rather easy. The starting ships are actually pretty good at combat, so that's a more reasonable path to take as well if you can get to grips with the flight model.

The Emperor's succession crisis has triggered a slave revolt in the Sorbago system. The Emperor's son has promised to end slavery, which has resulted in his very sick father disinheriting him. His bastard daughter is now angling to inherit the throne by playing the conservative ticket. The inference is that the son is stirring up this rebellion in Sorbago, perhaps as a suggestion that a very similar wave of revolts will spread across the Empire if he is kept off the throne.

Now my interest is piqued. Is Elite: Dangerous only available from the official website for it?

Yes. Apparently there were issues with Elite: Dangerous using Amazon's servers to host the game and Valve not being happy about it. I'm not sure about that, as Valve hosts MMOs and multiplayer games that use outside services. I suspect that may be a bit of a smokescreen so Frontier can make the largest amount of money to start off with and then put the game on Steam 6-18 months down the road.

I finally undocked in Elite and completed ny frst mission. I feel like I've done something major, and all I did was transport 2 tons of scrap to a systen two jumps away, for 2k credits. My next mission is to buy two units of slaves and return them to that station so threy can be freed. Not sure what'll happen if I get scanned; will I get fined for illegal cargo?

Yes. Stay away from security Vipers and you should be fine. The tricky bit is docking. If you fly into the 7.5km range and ask for docking permission, you can get it without being scanned. Then line up and blast through the portal at maximum speed. If you're line up correctly, you can even use the afterburner. The second you clear the portal the Vipers outside can't scan you any more. The rationalisation is that all ships are scanned and inspected when they dock, but your shady contacts can bribe the right people to make sure you don't get reported. A remote scan from the Vipers can't be dodged that way.

If you're carrying illegal cargo it's also a good idea to avoid investigating transmission sources, as often you'll find government ships fighting pirates and you'll get scanned that way. If you're clever you can dump the cargo quickly and come back to pick it up once the other ships have moved on.

[Fez]

I've been doing salvage jobs, running off and getting black boxes and data files for 11-15K a pop. It's still slow, but fairly reliable. Using either starting Sidewinder or Eagle (if you pre-ordered), trading is a hideous grind until you can afford a Hauler with its crazy cargo capacity, at which point it becomes rather easy. The starting ships are actually pretty good at combat, so that's a more reasonable path to take as well if you can get to grips with the flight model.

The Emperor's succession crisis has triggered a slave revolt in the Sorbago system. The Emperor's son has promised to end slavery, which has resulted in his very sick father disinheriting him. His bastard daughter is now angling to inherit the throne by playing the conservative ticket. The inference is that the son is stirring up this rebellion in Sorbago, perhaps as a suggestion that a very similar wave of revolts will spread across the Empire if he is kept off the throne.

Yeah, I've only done trading as a way to pick up a few extra credits at refueling stops while I slowly travelled across about a quarter of explored space. And it really was a few, 1k was an amazingly good return for me. I've had more success running hauling missions and 'shopping' missions (where they want you to pick up stuff and bring it back); there was one, they wanted 4 tons of silver, which I managed to buy from a nearby extraction system for something like 3.5k per and was rewarded with 36k. It was great. I've started building up my savings, I've got 68k in the bank and have spent probably around 30k upgrading my sidewinder (I didn't preorder) in various. I haven't gotten into combat yet though, which I'm looking to do. I've completed the fighting tutorials, so I know how, but I don't want to spend most of my money on an FSD Interdictor yet, and that seems to be nearly necessary to complete any of the pirate or bounty missions.

Regarding story, I found an archive of the email newsletters that Frontier has been putting out so that caught me up on some of the lore. I also read the manual for one of the '90s Elite games (I think it was Elite II), which had some lore as well. And I've kept up on the newsfeed stuff, so I understand the current situation somewhat*. Right now I'm in Jera, because I was only a few systems over when it popped up in my newsfeed as a story locale. I just did my first mission for the Jera Social Democrats, getting faction influence by collecting non-lethal weapons for them. Its a busy place, 479 ships have gone through in the past 24 hours; a lot of the systems I've been since the leaving the immediate area around the starting system were <100.

I really like the system they've set up for driving story events, where what players actually do (running missions for specific factions, killing NPCs, etc.) is what determines outcomes. It allows for a really dynamic experience, and allows for far more to occur than if Frontier had to script out everything. If I wanted to, I could find an out of the way system, exclusively run missions for a minor faction there and cause its influence to skyrocket to the point where it takes over the entire system; possibly causing the system to switch allegiance to a different major faction. There isn't really a tangible reward, but it would be neat to see happen. Also, it seems like Frontier does give a reward of sorts for stuff like that by writing up some fluff for the newsfeed that everyone can see.

*One big thing I don't know though is, are there supposed to be aliens? Or is everyone human?

[Red Hermit]

I haven't gotten into combat yet though, which I'm looking to do. I've completed the fighting tutorials, so I know how, but I don't want to spend most of my money on an FSD Interdictor yet, and that seems to be nearly necessary to complete any of the pirate or bounty missions.

If you want to make money doing combat don't worry too much about missions. Nav beacons and resource extraction sites are good places to hunt for wanted targets. You can also find a fair amount of bounties checking the unidentified signal sources you come across. The nice thing about flying a generalist ship is you can haul cargo and collect bounties along the way.

[Werthead]

Regarding story, I found an archive of the email newsletters that Frontier has been putting out so that caught me up on some of the lore. I also read the manual for one of the '90s Elite games (I think it was Elite II), which had some lore as well. And I've kept up on the newsfeed stuff, so I understand the current situation somewhat*.

*One big thing I don't know though is, are there supposed to be aliens? Or is everyone human?

The lore in the series has never been terrifically consistent. In fact, it's a bit like the Odyssey books by Arthur C. Clarke: the same themes and ideas are in each game, but each game may be set in a subtly different parallel universe to explain the inconsistencies. Elite, for example, was set across eight different galaxies with no familiar star systems in it at all (although there are some oblique references to "Old Earth") and no mention of a Federation or Empire. When Frontier came along with its 1:1 Milky Way and billions of star systems, they included Sol and the familiar nearby stars and placed the core starting systems from Elite (Lave, Zaonce, Riedquate, Tionsila, Leesti, Diso etc) in their own cluster about 50 light-years from Sol, which was a big retcon. Then First Encounters made Lave and those other worlds into part of the Alliance.

Frontier (set in 3200 AD), First Encounters (3250) and Dangerous (3300) are more or less compatible with one another, although there's been some serious expansion of settled space in Dangerous. The area controlled by humans is a lot bigger (maybe roughly twice the size as in the previous games) and so there are a lot more human-colonised worlds to go to. So even there, there's been some retconning going on. Bizarrely, there's some technological advances from Elite not in the other two games which are back in Dangerous, like the in-system jump drive (in the middle two games you simply travelled everywhere at standard speeds, but with a massive time-acceleration function instead).

As for aliens, there are some around but they're mostly microbiological and, at best, a few animal-like species. The big exception are the Thargoids, a race of insectoids flying badass hexagonal warships. In the original Elite they make frequent raids into human space but no organised incursions. In Frontier they're simply MIA and in First Encounters they launch an invasion into human space. A bunch of elite pilots from the Federation, Empire and Alliance fend them off and, if you follow the storyline in the game, you forge a temporary peace agreement with them. Based on what the developers have let slip, this agreement will expire and the Thargoids will show up. That's a few months down the road, apparently, but 'isolated encounters' may be introduced to the game earlier.

[Jabronius Maximus]

DA: Inquisition is $40 on Origin, just as a heads up. From what I've read, this game is well worth even $60, so this is a good deal. Downloading it myself right now.

Also I'm starting to like Origin more than Steam. It's easier to navigate and doesn't have that community fluff which I don't like. Their chat support is also awesome. That said, it's EA, so they're bound to mess it up somehow.

Edit: I'm also strongly considering the Mass Effect Trilogy for $15. Worth it?

[Jace, Extat]

DA: Inquisition is $40 on Origin, just as a heads up. From what I've read, this game is well worth even $60, so this is a good deal. Downloading it myself right now.

Also I'm starting to like Origin more than Steam. It's easier to navigate and doesn't have that community fluff which I don't like. Their chat support is also awesome. That said, it's EA, so they're bound to mess it up somehow.

Edit: I'm also strongly considering the Mass Effect Trilogy for $15. Worth it?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Lord Hanna]

God damn hackers shutting down the xbox/sony servers.

[Mark Antony]

Yeah can't get on xbox live :(