What art thou playing milord? Ye Olde Thread 3.0

[WrightOfWay]

Just finished Persona 4 about a week ago. I'm not a huge fan of JRPGs but damn that game was good. It was a little slow to start but very good nonetheless.

Haven't really thought about what I should play next. Might get around to finishing Cave Story now that someone upthread mentioned it.

[Muttering Bill]

New DLC announced for Left 4 Dead. New campaign and a revamp of Vs. mode. The kicker... free for PC users, $7 for 360. I think we all know whose fault that is.

I'm used to MS charging for every little thing they can. At this point all I want out of them is rounded prices. $7? Now I've got $3 of points left over with nothing to do with. Ok, I could buy a RB song, but that still leaves me off by $1. Bastards. Make it $5 or $10 and maybe I'd have picked it up.

The content will include Survival maps and a co-op campaign, but the real story is in a revamped version of the Versus mode. The goal is to be able to play a complete game in 30 minutes. "A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, and item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay," Valve explains.

Ok, a few new maps in a mode that I don't play, nothing to say whether the new co-op campaign will be available in Versus, and it doesn't sound like they've changed Versus at all. We can already complete the game in less than 30 minutes, and there is already a recharge on infected. WTF?

It could very well be an MS issue, however, there have been many free content releases for other games over the span of the Xbox 360's life. Battlefield: Bad Company got an entirely new game mode for free and Rock Band has several free songs for DL as well.

I don't know about BC, but the RB free songs were all promotional tie-ins for one product or another. And the free L4D download they had a while back was sponsored by Drag Me To Hell. They were only free because someone paid off MS to make them so.

Anyway, I also picked up Mothership Zeta. Played it for about an hour, and it hasn't really drawn me in yet. I think I'm with Wert: time to retire FO3 and just wait for New Vegas.

I started Killzone 2, and am impressed so far. I didn't really care for the demo because it had lousy controls, but the finished product is better in that respect. And while it looks incredible, it all too gray - but that's probably how it looks that good.

[Stubby]

I re-playing NWN 1 on the initial campaign. For a lark, I decided to start at the beginning with a character that was at level 12 in the Shadows of Undrentide campaign.

I was pleasantly surprised when the encounters and the treasure that I could recover in the initial campaign had all levelled up as well. I was amazed at that level of attention to detail in the game design. Its like playing the game for the first time in some of the areas.

EDIT: Typos

[Darkostar]

Currently I'm playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance again, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics A2. I love SRPGs.

[Werthead]

Reinstalled Knights of the Old Republic for my first-ever replay of the game since my first time five years ago. I was concerned because after completing it I'd lent it to several friends who'd reported not being able to get it to install and, sure enough, it wouldn't install first time around. Realising drastic action was required, I stuck the CD under the tap and wiped it down, and it installed with no problems at all.

Then of course, the second problem of getting it to work, which I wasn't expecting. I'd just replayed Jedi Outcast (2001) and Jedi Academy (2003) without a single issue at all, so Knights of the Old Republic (2004) crashing every five minutes did seem to be a bit unnecessary and annoying. I eventually discovered it's down to the game making the questionable-even-back-in-2004 choice of using OpenGL as the graphics render. Fortunately, as I have an nVidia card you can set the control to force the card to switch to OpenGL mode which keeps the game running with no problems. It still has a tendency to crash, but only about once every five hours or so, or to put it another way, it is rather more stable than Fallout 3 ;)

So anyway, racing through Taris' sewers again is fun. For the second time running I completely forgot the way you're 'supposed' to kill the rancor and ended up engaging it in a huge fight involving a flurry of thermal detonators and sonic grenades. Meh, still worked. Mission and her Wookie friend, the inter-party bickering, ah all the fun memories came flooding back. I remember the first time round specialising in laser weapons, which left me a bit butty with the lightsabre when I eventually got it, so this time I went for melee right from the start and it seems to be a much stronger choice. I'm going through Gamorrean guards and those mutant things in the sewers much more easily with the cortical swords than I ever did in stand-off fights.

The best bit is remembering the 'twist' and playing the game through again in full knowledge of the twist is very illuminating. Astonishing how it stands out at you like a sore thumb in dialogue with other characters.

[Mackaxx]

Sega Mega Drive collection thingame

I've spent a few fun afternoons playing around with this thing. One thing that stands out is how short many of these games were. This is in part because I can pause and save games at whatever point I want, effectively giving me infinite lives. What this does is take away all the times you would have had to start again from the beginning. For many of these games the longevity was in the difficulty.

Anyways, the games coming with the collection are overall a pretty good selection and whats nice is that many of them are two player, something sorely missing in modern titles.

I held off in picking this one up until the price dropped and now that it has I'd recommend it as worthwhile. It's not like playing dodgy ROM emulations on your computer, these games play well with the xbox controls and look great on a HD TV whether you stretch them or not. I'm not really into the smoothing effect mind you. I couldn't stand playing them as ROMS but somehow on a console the fun returns.

Of the games in the collection I still believe Kid Chameleon kicks ass, Ecco the dolphin is still great relaxing kinda hippy fun, Decap attack which I'd never played is incredibly similar to my favorite master system title 'psycho fox'. I never played the Phantasy Star titles (1 to 4 on this disc) and I'm wondering if I should bother, any opinions out there? Same goes with the other RPGs on it like shining in the darkness and shining force 1 and 2.

Strangely toejam and earl was omitted.

[The Space Pope]

Shining Force 1 and 2 are pretty awesome. Basically a more streamlined version of Final Fantasy Tactics.

[Serious Callers Only]

It like playing dodgy rom "emulations" in your xbox.

For fucks sake.

[Mackaxx]

Except i've done the same thing beforehand on my old modded xbox and having tried both have concluded that it is not in fact as you describe.

For the sake of reproduction.

[Werthead]

Interesting. HK-47 is possibly more awesome than I remember. "I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HOSTILE!"

Also, I think I recall just killing all the Sand People before instead of talking to them, so I missed out on the back-history of Tatooine. I thought for a second they were insinuating Tatooine was Earth, except that the whole twin-suns thing rather obviously rules that out. Still, possibly an Earth-analogue, maybe the original human homeworld in the Star Wars universe?

[Jacen]

I love this videogame related pic.

[gladius]

Finished Vampire bloodlines. It is a very good game with an interesting setting. I played with the last true patch and noticed a few bugs (one game stopping). The retail version must be unplayable.

The various organizations didn't convince me, and since everybody is trying to use you, it's best to choose your own path. I fought Ming Xiao without blood packs and flamethrowers, playing as a toreador. Hardest boss ever :wideeyed: .

I disliked the limited options in some quests, the game passing moral judgment on you in the serial killer quest ( are you happy with yourself, or something similar in the quest notes), references to bush (no one likes him, but this is a game not the real world ffs) and after this game, I will immediately delete any game with lengthy playtime in the sewers.

[malek]

Reinstalled Knights of the Old Republic for my first-ever replay of the game since my first time five years ago. I was concerned because after completing it I'd lent it to several friends who'd reported not being able to get it to install and, sure enough, it wouldn't install first time around. Realising drastic action was required, I stuck the CD under the tap and wiped it down, and it installed with no problems at all.

Then of course, the second problem of getting it to work, which I wasn't expecting. I'd just replayed Jedi Outcast (2001) and Jedi Academy (2003) without a single issue at all, so Knights of the Old Republic (2004) crashing every five minutes did seem to be a bit unnecessary and annoying. I eventually discovered it's down to the game making the questionable-even-back-in-2004 choice of using OpenGL as the graphics render. Fortunately, as I have an nVidia card you can set the control to force the card to switch to OpenGL mode which keeps the game running with no problems. It still has a tendency to crash, but only about once every five hours or so, or to put it another way, it is rather more stable than Fallout 3 ;)

So anyway, racing through Taris' sewers again is fun. For the second time running I completely forgot the way you're 'supposed' to kill the rancor and ended up engaging it in a huge fight involving a flurry of thermal detonators and sonic grenades. Meh, still worked. Mission and her Wookie friend, the inter-party bickering, ah all the fun memories came flooding back. I remember the first time round specialising in laser weapons, which left me a bit butty with the lightsabre when I eventually got it, so this time I went for melee right from the start and it seems to be a much stronger choice. I'm going through Gamorrean guards and those mutant things in the sewers much more easily with the cortical swords than I ever did in stand-off fights.

The best bit is remembering the 'twist' and playing the game through again in full knowledge of the twist is very illuminating. Astonishing how it stands out at you like a sore thumb in dialogue with other characters.

I'm replaying KOTOR 2 at the moment :thumbsup: What a brilliant, brilliant game :cheers: If only they managed to finish it :tantrum:

[Goldaline]

I recently bought Morrowind, having loved Oblivion despite all its flaws & felt really excited about playing it, especially as so many people claim that it is far superior to Oblivion but i think i played it for about 4 hours, stopped to have some food then never went back to it. I really want to like it but it all feels so depressing & such hard work. The magic sucks, talking to anyone seems to involve wading through vast swathes of irrelevant text, the persuasion tool is completely ridiculous, the map sucks, the entry level fights seem far too hard & everything is just so dull & miserable. It really is not enticing me to continue whatsoever :(

Should i give it another chance or have i just come to it far too late?

I'm currently playing Mass Effect through again instead. I'm aiming to be a renegade type character but i keep accidentally racking up more paragon points.

[Brys]

Give it another chance - it's got a slow start, but the main quest picks up a bit later on (and is much, much better than the Oblivion one). It has a worse combat and magic system than Oblivion, but in pretty much every other way its better. It's also a lot harder at the start because it doesn't have scaling - but from level 7/8 it's not too hard. There's always going to be quite a bit of text, so if that's you're main problem, it won't improve.

There's an expectation that you'll go and level up a bit before trying to do anything too tough.

To get started, join one of the Great Houses (Hlaalu in Balmora, Redoran in Ald'Ruhn or Telvanni in Sadrith Mora I think), and follow their questline. Make some money, get some new equipment (remember to check new towns merchants - they tend to sell different stuff).

There are also a ton of mods around to improve stuff like the combat and magic if you're playing the PC version.

The environment's also reasonably varied, so explore around a bit.

If after another few hours of play you still don't like it, it's probably just not your type of game. To me, all of the problems you mention are pretty much the same as ones in Oblivion (except for text - there's a lot of relevant text, just think about what topic isn't usually there for the NPC and ignore the rest of it), so what was it about Oblivion you liked?

Anyway, just finished playing Planescape: Torment for the first time (almost - it crashes right towards the end in the Fortress of Regrets, and I can't find a way around it, so I can't get to the ending).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I recently bought Morrowind, having loved Oblivion despite all its flaws & felt really excited about playing it, especially as so many people claim that it is far superior to Oblivion but i think i played it for about 4 hours, stopped to have some food then never went back to it. I really want to like it but it all feels so depressing & such hard work. The magic sucks, talking to anyone seems to involve wading through vast swathes of irrelevant text, the persuasion tool is completely ridiculous, the map sucks, the entry level fights seem far too hard & everything is just so dull & miserable. It really is not enticing me to continue whatsoever :(

Should i give it another chance or have i just come to it far too late?

I'm currently playing Mass Effect through again instead. I'm aiming to be a renegade type character but i keep accidentally racking up more paragon points.

Clearly you are incapable of recognizing beauty. I'd stop if I were you.

I mean seriously, you're complaining about dated aspects of gaming. Yeah, Oblivion beats it in some of those categories (though if you think speechcraft was better in Oblivion you are nuts) such as streamlined magic and combat, but it was made YEARS later. Did you not know you were going back and playing an older game? I mean if I went back and played Daggerfall for the first time (which I plan to do some time) and complain about it's perceived clunky interface, then I'm missing the point.

You have to accept old games for what they are. I played Baldur's Gate for the first time last year. Yeah, it had some issues because it was like almost a decade old, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and recognizing it for what it is.

[Werthead]

You have to accept old games for what they are. I played Baldur's Gate for the first time last year. Yeah, it had some issues because it was like almost a decade old, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and recognizing it for what it is.

Bad example, as Baldur's Gate's interface is still pretty good even today. Load it up in the BG2 engine (from only a year later) with all the UI improvements and better graphics options (higher resolution!) and it's pretty much flawless. Probably a better interface than KotOR or the later BioWare games, which get a bit confused due to the 3D, camera-on-your-shoulder approach.

You need to look at something like Might & Magic VI from the same year as BG to see a really clunky, old-school interface.

[Sad King Billy]

Anyway, just finished playing Planescape: Torment for the first time (almost - it crashes right towards the end in the Fortress of Regrets, and I can't find a way around it, so I can't get to the ending).

have you installed the official patch? Look here for example.

You can find unofficial patches here. Some come with additional content, so it may or may not be feasable in your case... At any rate, good luck.

[Goldaline]

Clearly you are incapable of recognizing beauty. I'd stop if I were you.

Charming :rolleyes:

I mean seriously, you're complaining about dated aspects of gaming. Yeah, Oblivion beats it in some of those categories (though if you think speechcraft was better in Oblivion you are nuts) such as streamlined magic and combat, but it was made YEARS later. Did you not know you were going back and playing an older game? I mean if I went back and played Daggerfall for the first time (which I plan to do some time) and complain about it's perceived clunky interface, then I'm missing the point.

You have to accept old games for what they are. I played Baldur's Gate for the first time last year. Yeah, it had some issues because it was like almost a decade old, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and recognizing it for what it is.

I don't really think that the problems that i had were to do with it being dated. Plenty of my favourite games are pretty damn old now. I am happy to accept how horrible the characters & their movement appear (the scenery makes up for it despite the monotone drabness), the dodgy fighting & plenty of other things which do seem to simply be signs of its age. But I don't see how this age requires every character, no matter how "random" to greet you with swathes of text with seemingly no difference in tone or dialect between people, it to be seemingly so difficult to succeed as a mage-type character (from what i have seen so far, i could be wrong on this), people's conversation preferences to be completely random so that someone can be happy to accept a bribe one moment & then be disgusted the next, initial fights to be so hard & the whole world to be painted in varying shades of brown.

It's not even that old.

Brys: thank you for the advice. It sounds like there is definitely (muddy brown) light at the end of the tunnel so i'll give it a second try in the manner that you suggested.

It definitely seems like the kind of game that i should like/love, so i definitely don't want to give up (especially considering how much effort it took to get it to actually load on the 360)

I generally prefer characters to speak via text rather than voice acting so i think once i get used to how cold the interaction feels it shouldn't get in the way too much.

[Werthead]

I think I'd accept the argument that Morrowind is (maybe) deeper but harder to get into and decidedly much less friendly to new players than Oblivion. In fact, that very complaint that if you start playing Morrowind and try to start following the main quest you will be dead very, very quickly is the primary reason why Bethesda brought in the whole level scaling thing in the first place. The problem with Morrowind is that it is very unclear what quests and jobs are suitable to your current level, so it's very easy to just go out and get twattered straight away.

Morrowind is hideously overrated, I feel. Compared to the BioWare/Obsidian RPGs, more linear though they may be, it doesn't really stand up very well. Hell, I had a lot more fun playing Fallout 3 than I ever did with Morrowind.

And the cliff racers can ESAD as well. By themselves, they are as annoying and offensive as the level-scaling in Oblivion ever was.