Video Games: Thread Simulator 2016

[KiDisaster]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-08-mass-effect-andromeda-has-ditched-character-classes-but-will-let-you-respec-your-character

More info on Andromeda. 

Character classes are out, instead there's one big skill tree you can choose from. Respecs are available (with a narrative reason) to try out different play styles in the same playthrough. 

Paragon/Renegade is out. Conversation options now fall into multiple categories (Head, Heart, Professional, Casual) kinda like Dragon Age: Inquisition (or DA2 as well if I remember correctly). 

Also apparently your Asari squadmate's name is PeeBee and the human male is Liam. 

[Fez]

Someone pulled together a lot of information on neogaf, I think its from the December print edition of Game Informer. Some highlights for me are:

Quote

 

-Global cooldowns are now replaced by individual timers
-Powers are instead hotkeyed for quick use, no longer pausing to bring up a wheel and aim (you can still pause the combat but it's not how BioWare intends combat to function)

-Class system is gone; instead you have full access to abilities from all classes, you can mix and match skills from tech, soldier or biotics
-However, you can still specialize once you invest enough points into a category of skills, you unlock a profile that can get you bonuses for your particular play style

-The 'Kett' are the main enemy
-The team wanted players to experience the first time encountering a new alien species vs already having it established in prior games
-Rather than painting them as mortal enemies, BioWare wanted to make them feel foreboding but not ugly as they want you to also empathize with them

-There are more relationships in the game than any other Bioware game (as they noted fans make a big emphasis on romance in the games)
-The squadmate with the least amount of lines in Andromeda has more lines than the squadmate with the most amount of lines in ME3
-Due to complications in the awakening process, your sibling won't join you in combat but you can interact with them and build a relationship
-Many of these dealings are optional, and discovering more about the Ryder family is a plot thread
-BioWare is confident the details of this story are what differentiates it from a traditional "hero's journey"
-Loyalty missions return but they are not critical to the ending of the game; you can complete them after you complete the main story path for example

 

 

There's more in there than just these points. This stuff actually has me more hyped than the trailer.

[Jasta11]

This all looks pretty good. Ditching Paragon/Renegade is one of the best narrative moves Bioware could do, I'm happy about that. And squadmate content is always the best Bioware content, so bring it on.

Ditching classes is a bit more puzzling. I guess every possible Pathfinder is a Biotic, they might just not develop their skills if you don't invest in this branch.

The date the expedition launches also bugs me a bit. There doesn't seem to be much reason to actually go to Andromeda before the Reaper threat is well known, not when most of the Milky Way is still unexplored at the time. Perhaps the game will address this. It's also weird Shepard never hears of such a grand undertaking.

But all in all, I'm pretty excited. Now for some actual gameplay footage. Biower pls.

[DunderMifflin]

2 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Does it say who started it? Maybe at first it one only humanity's initiative, or only the Council's and then the Reaper threat accelerated things and got other species involved.

Andromeda Initiative is privately funded and not affiliated with the Systems Alliance. Not sure how that rectifies the time line though.

[KiDisaster]

Individual cooldowns is a very welcome change. 

[Rhom]

If I had known that I'd be sitting here at 1:30 with just as many states called as there were at 11... I would have gotten in some good FemShep time!!!!

 

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Anyone playing Civ 6 faced any sort of challenge from the AI? I'm attacking their cities with tanks and half of them still have spearmen! Its a joke how little they bother to upgrade their troops.

[Slurktan]

9 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Anyone playing Civ 6 faced any sort of challenge from the AI? I'm attacking their cities with tanks and half of them still have spearmen! Its a joke how little they bother to upgrade their troops.

Try playing at a higher difficulty.

[Fez]

9 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Anyone playing Civ 6 faced any sort of challenge from the AI? I'm attacking their cities with tanks and half of them still have spearmen! Its a joke how little they bother to upgrade their troops.

Its easy to get strategic resource-starved and not be able to upgrade most units. AI could've just gotten boned.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

5 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Try playing at a higher difficulty.

I mean this is at king level and it's almost every ai nation.

[Slurktan]

3 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I mean this is at king level and it's almost every ai nation.

Weird.  I usually get one or two like that and the rest upgrade.  I tend to find the ones that don't upgrade are the ones with hundreds (slight exag) of units.

[A True Kaniggit]

20 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Anyone playing Civ 6 faced any sort of challenge from the AI? I'm attacking their cities with tanks and half of them still have spearmen! Its a joke how little they bother to upgrade their troops.

Blah. I've stopped playing Civ 6 until the AI gets fixed. I'm tired of getting invaded by one country, and then having the rest of the world accuse me of being a "warmonger" and invade me as well.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

12 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Weird.  I usually get one or two like that and the rest upgrade.  I tend to find the ones that don't upgrade are the ones with hundreds (slight exag) of units.

Yeah I've seen AI spam units continuously. Maybe it runs out of money to upgrade or something. I can't tell. 
 

 

5 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Blah. I've stopped playing Civ 6 until the AI gets fixed. I'm tired of getting invaded by one country, and then having the rest of the world accuse me of being a "warmonger" and invade me as well.

At higher difficulty levels the AI's reaction to me is often incredibly unfriendly to begin with, and it seems to take a very long time to get them back on my side. You notice this because you have to get a delegation in the exact turn you meet them or it becomes impossible. The only time this hasn't happened was with France, who, in the most interesting development of the game for me so far, became friends with me, paid me a bunch of money to go to war with Germany, and then totally backstabbed me. 

[KiDisaster]

Why are all of these games I was looking forward to getting such shitty PC ports?

Looks like Dishonored 2 might be going on the "wait till it's dirt cheap" list as well. 

[Rhom]

FemShep is still wandering aimlessly across the Citidel trying to track down why the alien madam was mean to the big manatee looking thing... addressing the needs of some alien merchant or something... and general fetch quests.

This is the part of the game I recall dragging quite a bit the first time through. 

Also, I forgot how tedious combat can be in ME1; so I just stuck it on Casual and figure I'll hammer through this thing.

[Fez]

33 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Also, I forgot how tedious combat can be in ME1; so I just stuck it on Casual and figure I'll hammer through this thing.

That's what I did when I had my trilogy replay a couple years ago. ME1's gameplay is just not fun.

[Jasta11]

54 minutes ago, Rhom said:

FemShep is still wandering aimlessly across the Citidel trying to track down why the alien madam was mean to the big manatee looking thing... addressing the needs of some alien merchant or something... and general fetch quests.

This is the part of the game I recall dragging quite a bit the first time through. 

Also, I forgot how tedious combat can be in ME1; so I just stuck it on Casual and figure I'll hammer through this thing.

ME1's gameplay is indeed shit. ME2 is an improvement, albeit too stripped down. ME3 hit the perfect middle ground as far as I'm concerned, and I hope Andromeda doesn't deviate from this formula too much.

I also caved in and bought Tyranny. It's very cool so far, the backstory is intricate (and customisable!) and the writing top-notch. I mean, it's Obsidian so that was inevitable, but still. Gameplay wise, I noticed it has a nifty magic creation system. It's limited for now in the 2 hours I've been able to play thus far, but couldend up being quite fun to use.

I want to play Dishonored 2, but 1) I had to make a choice, $ and time wise, and 2) I'm never, ever pre-ordering a Bethesda game again no matter how much I like the franchise.

[A True Kaniggit]

5 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

 2) I'm never, ever pre-ordering a Bethesda game again no matter how much I like the franchise.

I'm guessing the reason is Fallout 4?

[KiDisaster]

Pretty much any Bethesda game is a good reason to not pre-order Bethesda games. 

[Fez]

5 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

I also caved in and bought Tyranny. It's very cool so far, the backstory is intricate (and customisable!) and the writing top-notch. I mean, it's Obsidian so that was inevitable, but still. Gameplay wise, I noticed it has a nifty magic creation system. It's limited for now in the 2 hours I've been able to play thus far, but couldend up being quite fun to use.

I want to play Dishonored 2, but 1) I had to make a choice, $ and time wise, and 2) I'm never, ever pre-ordering a Bethesda game again no matter how much I like the franchise.

I really want to get Tyranny. But I'm forcing myself to wait. I got enough games on my plate right now, and I'm already deep in a story-based game anyway with Witcher 3. Which is going pretty well, I'm about 20 hours in now and just met the Crones. I stand by everything I said before about the game, but I want to add that the music is really incredible; especially in combat. I just hope it can keep my interest, 80 hours (or whatever) is a long time.

I also want Dishonored 2, but its easier to wait on that for a while to see if the bugs and port problems get patched up.

I cancelled my WoW subscription again. It was fun for a while, but now there's nothing left for me except the mythic+ and raiding grind and that's gotten old.