Videogames: Spooktober Season

[IlyaP]

On 10/31/2021 at 2:05 PM, Gorn said:

Bought Pillars of Eternity II on a whim on Steam Halloween sale. So far, I have no opinion on the writing and the gameplay since I just started playing, but it looks gorgeous. Probably the best-looking isometric game I ever played, every scene so far has been a feast for the eyes.

Also, I'm grateful for the option of turn-based combat instead of real-time-with-pause. Maybe I'll actually finish this one, unlike the first part.

Pillars 2 is so good. 

And so pretty.

And the sound design, the music, the art, everything is just so damn well made, so thought out. It's a work of art. 

[dog-days]

38 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Pillars 2 is so good. 

And so pretty.

And the sound design, the music, the art, everything is just so damn well made, so thought out. It's a work of art. 

Yeah, it's such a shame it doesn't seem to have sold very well. I'd love a Pillars 3, since Pillars 2 got so much right. I'm hopeful about the 3D game Obsidian are working on that's set in the same universe, Avowed, but another isometric game would have been awesome. 

[Fez]

On 10/30/2021 at 11:05 PM, Gorn said:

Bought Pillars of Eternity II on a whim on Steam Halloween sale. So far, I have no opinion on the writing and the gameplay since I just started playing, but it looks gorgeous. Probably the best-looking isometric game I ever played, every scene so far has been a feast for the eyes.

Also, I'm grateful for the option of turn-based combat instead of real-time-with-pause. Maybe I'll actually finish this one, unlike the first part.

I played PoE II in turn-based too, and it works pretty well. It's much more fun combat than RTWP I think. However, it runs into the same problem Pathfinder has, which is that the amount of combat was designed around RTWP. There's a ton of uninteresting filler battles with trash mobs that just eat up time and make the game drag on and on. Whereas a game designed to be turn-based from the beginning, like Divinity Original Sin 2, has far fewer battles and each one is a tailored, unique experience. I'm glad that more cRPGs devs are recognizing that games don't need RTWP just because that's what the Infinity Engine games had, but I wish more of them were designed from the ground up as turn-based games.

[Darryk]

On 10/31/2021 at 5:05 AM, Gorn said:

Bought Pillars of Eternity II on a whim on Steam Halloween sale. So far, I have no opinion on the writing and the gameplay since I just started playing, but it looks gorgeous. Probably the best-looking isometric game I ever played, every scene so far has been a feast for the eyes.

Also, I'm grateful for the option of turn-based combat instead of real-time-with-pause. Maybe I'll actually finish this one, unlike the first part.

I'm still playing the first PoE and enjoying it. I got it with The White March expansion which definitely takes it to another level.

It hasn't fully recaptured the Baldur's Gate magic for me (maybe cause I'm older) but The White March portion of the game is definitely the closest it has come to that level.

[Gorn]

2 hours ago, Darryk said:

I'm still playing the first PoE and enjoying it. I got it with The White March expansion which definitely takes it to another level.

It hasn't fully recaptured the Baldur's Gate magic for me (maybe cause I'm older) but The White March portion of the game is definitely the closest it has come to that level.

I really liked the story and the setting of PoE 1, and I tried to finish it twice, but I just couldn't. My main problem with it was chaotic combat, where I had to pause each second just to try and keep my characters focused on doing their part. Level-capping characters to 12 (16 with both expansions) was also a weird design choice for such a long game.

By comparison, I enjoy the turn-based combat of PoE 2 much more, and I feel like I can actually enjoy playing a high-micromanagement character such as a melee rogue.

[IlyaP]

18 hours ago, Darryk said:

It hasn't fully recaptured the Baldur's Gate magic for me (maybe cause I'm older) but The White March portion of the game is definitely the closest it has come to that level.

Between the sound design, situational dilemmas, dark humour, *gorgeous* level design, moral ambiguity, and interesting story, it's definitely the narrative highlight of the first game. 

[IlyaP]

16 hours ago, Gorn said:

I really liked the story and the setting of PoE 1, and I tried to finish it twice, but I just couldn't. My main problem with it was chaotic combat, where I had to pause each second just to try and keep my characters focused on doing their part. Level-capping characters to 12 (16 with both expansions) was also a weird design choice for such a long game.

By comparison, I enjoy the turn-based combat of PoE 2 much more, and I feel like I can actually enjoy playing a high-micromanagement character such as a melee rogue.

Really? You paused that frequently? 

I just gave everyone gun, had Durance bring on some AOE pain, and watched the pretty fireworks of pain go off all around the mobs I fought! Shiny!

I admit the level cap was a bit weird - but I think it was to prevent players from being TOO powerful to the point that it could make fighting anyone a piece of cake. Though I cannot confirm that theory as being accurate. 

[IlyaP]

Couldn't handle the really weird darkness in color filtering in Mass Effect 2, so I begrudgingly went and bought the Legendary Edition (it's on sale on Steam at the moment). I'm *hoping* it improves the lighting and coloring, which currently feel like all hope and joy and rainbows were sucked out of the game. 

In the meantime, as it's a *gulp!* 110 GIG install, it's back to Mass Effect: Andromeda for me, which I am really enjoying. 

[IlyaP]

Has anyone here used this mod who can also speak to its stability? 

https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/17

Was talking to my bestie tonight about how the Over the Shoulder view in ME2 was driving me absolutely bonkers and then we found this. I'm thinking I might leave ME:L installing overnight and then give ME2:L a try with that mod to see if it makes the camera view a bit more like in Andromeda, which I *much* prefer. 

[polishgenius]

After replaying Iconoclasts I have changed my avatar/sig etc in honour of one of my all-time favourite villains that I'd honestly forgotten how much I liked. 

[IlyaP]

Finally caved and picked up Mass Effect: Legendary Edition - in part because of the readily-available FOV mod that looks like it'll address the giant bugbear I had with ME2 of having to look immediately over Shephard's shoulder, which ate up too much screen space. 

Guess it's time to go and blow 300+ hours...

[Rhom]

3 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Finally caved and picked up Mass Effect: Legendary Edition - in part because of the readily-available FOV mod that looks like it'll address the giant bugbear I had with ME2 of having to look immediately over Shephard's shoulder, which ate up too much screen space. 

Guess it's time to go and blow 300+ hours...

300 hours?!!?  Doing what???  None of the games are 100 hour excursions.

[kungtotte]

3 hours ago, Rhom said:

300 hours?!!?  Doing what???  None of the games are 100 hour excursions.

If you do every side quest and do multiple playthroughs to experience every romance option and every possible ending I can see you hitting several hundred hours.

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, Rhom said:

300 hours?!!?  Doing what???  None of the games are 100 hour excursions.

Well I was exaggerating for effect, but I had heard that some completionists could spend about that amount of time across the trilogy.

[Rhom]

4 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Well I was exaggerating for effect, but I had heard that some completionists could spend about that amount of time across the trilogy.

Only if you’re doing what @kungtotte says and playing multiple times.  Even as a completionist; I don’t think any single game in the trilogy reaches near 100 hours.  The first game is definitely less than 40 for a single completionist play through.

[Morpheus]

The Binding of Isaac: Repentence DLC is out on switch, now I too can be annoyed by balance changes and nerfs. 

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

Only if you’re doing what @kungtotte says and playing multiple times.  Even as a completionist; I don’t think any single game in the trilogy reaches near 100 hours.  The first game is definitely less than 40 for a single completionist play through.

Yeah, I did pretty much everything when I replayed the first game and it was somewhere in the 30-40 hour range.

[Fez]

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

Only if you’re doing what @kungtotte says and playing multiple times.  Even as a completionist; I don’t think any single game in the trilogy reaches near 100 hours.  The first game is definitely less than 40 for a single completionist play through.

Yeah, total runtime across the entire trilogy is about 100 hours. Only way to go much longer is to really take your time with some of the repeatable DLC, like trying to hit all the high scores in the ME3 combat arena.

[Caligula_K3]

Yeah, when I first played Mass Effect 1, I got through it in about 20 hours - now when I replay it it's more like 15. I don't do everything, because most of the side content in that game is repetitive and boring, but I do some of the more interesting sidequests.

Mass Effect 2 usually takes me 30-35 hours to 100%.

Mass Effect 3 is the longest, about 50-60 hours or so.

This is one of the best things about the Mass Effect games - they are very focused experiences. The only reason I could see the playtime going way up is if you play on Nightmare mode - I usually stick to Normal for ME1 and Veteran for the next two. On Nightmare, though, I'm sure it takes a while to get through some of those fights.

[Fez]

Been slowly making my way towards the end of Pathfinder: WotR. It's a 9/10 (10/10 when they fix the remaining bugs), but it's definitely turned into a slog to the finish line. I'm only playing a couple hours a week now, so I suspect it'll last a while longer too. But I've wrapped up all but one of the companion storylines (and the one that's left has a lot of not well-designed puzzles to do) and a lot of the plot threads in the main story line that I care about have been resolved. Not everything yet, and I do want to see how things end, but it's hard to stay motivated after almost 200 hours.

I've also been playing Bravely Default II. It's a neat game. Kinda simple story for a JRPG, but the mechanics are a lot of fun. I also really like the look of the game; at least of the backgrounds and the monsters. The character models take some getting used to, but the various job costumes are pretty neat. Also, it seems like at least half of the voice actors in the game have Scottish accents, and that's just a lot of fun (the VA for Elvis, yes there's a main character named Elvis, is in fact actually Scottish too; even though it sounds like such an over-the-top fake accent he's doing).