Videogames

[Nakkie]

Go!

I've been playing in Rift: Planes of Telara beta, and enjoying it immensely. Also looking forward to DA II.

ETA: because apparently I can't spell videogames

[The Anti-Targ]

Bump.

Yes we do. I suppose if nothing else than to minimise the number of issue specific / game specific video game threads. Oops, my bad.

[Ski the Swift]

I recently purchased Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I am quite ready for my life to be ruined and non-existent.

[Sad King Billy]

Just got dragon age origins, intend to make my first playthrough. Any character creations that are no-no? I'm thinking of a human rogue, want to learn/see as much of the gameworld as possible on first playthrough.

[Jon AS]

Just got dragon age origins, intend to make my first playthrough. Any character creations that are no-no? I'm thinking of a human rogue, want to learn/see as much of the gameworld as possible on first playthrough.

Rogue is a good choice since otherwise there'll be lots of locked chests early on that you won't be able to open (not that there is anything good in them).

You should check out the official forums for builds, people have broken down the mechanics quite comprehensively. The most important thing to know is that constitution and willpower are virtually useless stats for anybody, magic is clearly unimportant for anyone but mages and rogues only need enough strength to fulfill the minimum requirement for whatever armour and weapons you plan on using.

[Muttering Bill]

I picked up Rock Band 3 a few days ago - yup, still playing those games. I got the keyboard kit, which was kind of a waste. I tried out the keys on 2 songs, and I'll probably never touch them again. :dunno: Otherwise, the game has made some nice improvements over RB2. Career mode has been stripped down to almost nothing. It's just - here's your songs, and here's your progress on your songs. And that's exactly what I wanted.

[Space Bandito]

As a Steam Junkie I'll just pass on that Steam is having another week long deal-fest. Currently Arkham Asylum is $7.50. :thumbsup:

[Returned]

Waiting for Skyrim. :)

[madking]

Was thinking of picking up red dead redemption anyone here play it? Any good? I heard its setup like the grand theft auto games where its an open enviornment any other games setup like this? I like how you don't have to stick to the main story and can just explore

[TheBigTEA]

Talked some buddies into getting Sins of a Solar Empire and have been having madcap matches of that. If you haven't played that game and you enjoyed Homeworld and the sort of space combat game I cannot recommend Sins enough.

Edit: Red Dead is a great great game. If you liked the Grand Theft games you will love it.

[Fez]

I'm finally playing GTA IV. And once I realized I could ignore a lot of the features that were bugging me the first time I tried playing it, I'm having a lot of fun. Not as much as RDR, but still, its good. Really looking forward to LA Noire though, that looks amazing.

[haLobEnder]

Just started playing Dead Rising 2. I played the first one and really enjoyed it up until the final boss battle, which was just too insanely difficult to beat. It was the first time I ever chose to just youtube the ending of a game instead of playing it for myself.

As for Dead Rising 2 I'm already off to a bad start: The zombie outbreak has only just begun and I already want to restart the game every time a survivor dies; I don't even think it's possible to save any of them, but I feel like I should try.

I'm still also making my way through Rune Factory 3 on the DS. It's become my Civilization: Revolution of 2011 -- that is, a game you can just pick up anywhere and kill time with while you're going about your daily routine.

(I know this is rather nit-picky of me, but if this thread is going to become the new video game thread, is there anyway we can insert the missing 'd' into the thread title, or is 'vieogames' the way all the cool kids are saying it these days? )

[The Anti-Targ]

Rogue is a good choice since otherwise there'll be lots of locked chests early on that you won't be able to open (not that there is anything good in them).

For the most part the best thing about locked chests in Dragon Age throught the whole game is cheap XP. There aren't many locked chests that have good stuff in them.

I went with mage first because I almost never go with mage in my first play through. But I would think Mage is the better overall choice because of the solo mission you get to do which really beefs up your stats. You don't want to miss out on those goodies, and you don't really want Wynne or Morrigan to get them either.

I think my next play through is gonna be a female dwarf rogue, I wanna see Alistair give her the glad eye.

Playing the game on console, and being a bit of a trophy hound, I need to at least complete the origin stories of all the race origin options. I also need to get the one gold trophy of killing 1000 darkspawn. My first playthrough has netted me a little over 600 kills, so less than one more play through will get me that gold. But there's a glitch here because I should have got a trophy at 500 kills but it hasn't shown up. Not sure I'm going to be bothered with both of the silver trophies for getting a rogue and a warrior to lvl 20.

Of course there are trophies for each of the romances, so a 2nd play through with a female character will ensure those are covered off. I'll also have to make opposing choices about whose side to take in the treaties quests from my first play through to get those trophies (another glitch with the Daelish quest where the trophy I got was opposite to the choice I made). Then there's seeing all of the possible endings. If I'd been better about when to create new game saves I could have done most of that stuff in a single play through. Unfortunately I can't get the platinum unless I also buy Warden's Keep and Sulcher's pass, and I think Awakenings. Question is, is it worth getting those expansions?

On to something completely different. My son got Dj Hero 2 for his birthday and is loving it. It's pretty cool and a great music game. Music games aren't my thing, but I can certainly appreciate the quality of this game, pity it didn't sell well and it's been captured in the total collapse of the Hero music game franchise. It's also the first Activision game I've ever bought, I feel dirty.

[The Anti-Targ]

(I know this is rather nit-picky of me, but if this thread is going to become the new video game thread, is there anyway we can insert the missing 'd' into the thread title, or is 'vieogames' the way all the cool kids are saying it these days? )

I think it must be street talk. A bit like some people say "ah'ight" (sp?) instead off "all right"?

[Jon AS]

I went with mage first because I almost never go with mage in my first play through. But I would think Mage is the better overall choice because of the solo mission you get to do which really beefs up your stats. You don't want to miss out on those goodies, and you don't really want Wynne or Morrigan to get them either.

You only (potentially) get one extra talent point as a mage. Since you'll finish the game at about level 24 that's not really going to make a difference.

Playing the game on console, and being a bit of a trophy hound, I need to at least complete the origin stories of all the race origin options. I also need to get the one gold trophy of killing 1000 darkspawn. My first playthrough has netted me a little over 600 kills, so less than one more play through will get me that gold. But there's a glitch here because I should have got a trophy at 500 kills but it hasn't shown up. Not sure I'm going to be bothered with both of the silver trophies for getting a rogue and a warrior to lvl 20.

I never bothered much about the achievements (some, like deal 200 damage in one hit, were kind of fun to try for), but I've played the game enough that I've got 97/100 apparently (this includes Awakening and some DLCs). Killing myself for the sake of an achievement never seemed all that appealing, and I always figured that the "Kind of a big deal" one for never being knocked out in combat would be always beyond my grasp (because even I am not that obsessive), but then I did it with a warrior specialising in two-handed swords without even trying. In fact he stretched that run all the way through Awakening and Witch Hunt (okay, so at level 35 the latter wasn't really all that difficult...). And looking at the character stats I just noticed he has 1337 kills! Heh!

[Sad King Billy]

For the most part the best thing about locked chests in Dragon Age throught the whole game is cheap XP. There aren't many locked chests that have good stuff in them.

I went with mage first because I almost never go with mage in my first play through. But I would think Mage is the better overall choice because of the solo mission you get to do which really beefs up your stats. You don't want to miss out on those goodies, and you don't really want Wynne or Morrigan to get them either.

I think my next play through is gonna be a female dwarf rogue, I wanna see Alistair give her the glad eye.

Playing the game on console, and being a bit of a trophy hound, I need to at least complete the origin stories of all the race origin options. I also need to get the one gold trophy of killing 1000 darkspawn. My first playthrough has netted me a little over 600 kills, so less than one more play through will get me that gold. But there's a glitch here because I should have got a trophy at 500 kills but it hasn't shown up. Not sure I'm going to be bothered with both of the silver trophies for getting a rogue and a warrior to lvl 20.

Of course there are trophies for each of the romances, so a 2nd play through with a female character will ensure those are covered off. I'll also have to make opposing choices about whose side to take in the treaties quests from my first play through to get those trophies (another glitch with the Daelish quest where the trophy I got was opposite to the choice I made). Then there's seeing all of the possible endings. If I'd been better about when to create new game saves I could have done most of that stuff in a single play through. Unfortunately I can't get the platinum unless I also buy Warden's Keep and Sulcher's pass, and I think Awakenings. Question is, is it worth getting those expansions?

On to something completely different. My son got Dj Hero 2 for his birthday and is loving it. It's pretty cool and a great music game. Music games aren't my thing, but I can certainly appreciate the quality of this game, pity it didn't sell well and it's been captured in the total collapse of the Hero music game franchise. It's also the first Activision game I've ever bought, I feel dirty.

I've gone forward with my human rogue, just finished the tower/battle mission, and already I run head-on into the wall that plagues all my games: I can't throw anything away. Everything seems to have at least ssome possible purpose, or might be useful later on - especially gems and craftable items (at least, I think they're craftable, but I don't know).

I also can't decide to specialise in ranged weapons or double daggers (I refuse to double-wield anything else than daggers, it just seems so wrong), and I can't stick to any pre-determined role - one minute I'm the arrogant atheist noble, the next the warm brother/whatever. Not necessarily the games' fault, but my own flaw. I do already know I'm going to romance morrigan, because who can resist officer Sun?

As for stats, do I gimp myself if I stamp all points into dexterity and cunning, or what would be necessary numbers for the other stats? Currently level 6; str13 dex26 wis12 mag11cun 25 (+3) con 14. Lastly, is it useful to max stealing in the game, or does it boil down to a somewhat unnecessary additional source of income?

[The Anti-Targ]

I've gone forward with my human rogue, just finished the tower/battle mission, and already I run head-on into the wall that plagues all my games: I can't throw anything away. Everything seems to have at least ssome possible purpose, or might be useful later on - especially gems and craftable items (at least, I think they're craftable, but I don't know).

I also can't decide to specialise in ranged weapons or double daggers (I refuse to double-wield anything else than daggers, it just seems so wrong), and I can't stick to any pre-determined role - one minute I'm the arrogant atheist noble, the next the warm brother/whatever. Not necessarily the games' fault, but my own flaw. I do already know I'm going to romance morrigan, because who can resist officer Sun?

As for stats, do I gimp myself if I stamp all points into dexterity and cunning, or what would be necessary numbers for the other stats? Currently level 6; str13 dex26 wis12 mag11cun 25 (+3) con 14. Lastly, is it useful to max stealing in the game, or does it boil down to a somewhat unnecessary additional source of income?

I think the only useful thing with stealing is there is a snobby person in Denerim from whom you can steal a gift item, and you can get that with no more than level 2 stealing. In fact unless you want to thieve from every non-party member possible (and during combat) then I would get 2 levels of stealing skill and be done with it. You can supplement your income by safely stealing off pretty low level people with 2 slots. Can't recall whether it's a special gift or a generic gift. The only (non-gift) gems worth keeping are garnets, because there's a side quest involving garnets. Other than that sell all the gems, and trinkets. All the important nik-naks will be placed on your plot items menu, and you can't get rid of thoses even if you want to. The only weapons worth keeping are the ones you can add runes to, and the only armour worth holding on to are sets that come with special bonuses. I held on to all the special gauntlets but almost never swapped them out.

If you're only considering dual wielding with daggers then I'd suggest maxing out your bow specialities and go with ranged. There's but one (double rune) dagger in the game I've found worth holding on to. I maxed out Leliana's dual wield abilities and had her using an axe in her main hand and longsword in her off hand. I think getting your bow specialisations adds quite a bit to your gameplay options once you get them all. Being able to stun multiple enemies in one shot is pretty damned useful, because it's damn frustrating when the enemy does it to you. My rogue is going to be maxed out on bow talents. Ranger specialisation gets you a summon creature talent and that wolf is bloody good for adding a bit of melee grunt to your party. Never got Leliana the bear or spider summoning talents but they would probably be even better.

I wouldn't ignore constitution for your rogue, it's important to up your HP through the game, but only spend a point every few levels. With Str it depends on whether you want a melee rogue or ranged rogue. If melee then you'll want enough str to be able to equip decent armour and do decent normal damage. If ranged then Str isn't such a big deal. If you go for the assassin specialisation then cunning gives you extra damage for backstabs. Obviously concentrate your stat points on dex and cunning, but not exclusively IMO.

@ Jon AS. I mostly just like to get at least one gold trophy (don't know what the equivalent achievement is, but for DAO the only gold is 1000 darkspawn killed) per game I like enough to finish the story mode. I'm having a bastard of a time getting a gold for Sports Champions, but so far that's the only game I've not managed to get one yet. I am a bit bummed that I won't get a gold from a single play through of DA:O but at least the 1000 darkspawn killed is across all playthroughs. And I always wanted to play through the game with at least 2 character classes. I want to get that 200 damage with one hit trophy, and I didn't set my mage up properly to achieve it. RE the extra talent thing, I was thinking more about the extra stat points you get from the mage only sub-quest as the reason Mage is sort of the best class to be, I wasn't thinking about extra talents. BTW I went with Arcane Warrior for a specialisation. That was fun.

[Stone-Made-Soft]

Just started playing Dead Rising 2. I played the first one and really enjoyed it up until the final boss battle, which was just too insanely difficult to beat.

Dead Rising 2 is a lot easier than Dead Rising 1 because the Survivors are smarter and stronger. You'll want to combine a pair of boxing gloves and a bowie Knife to create the Knife Gloves, which you'll use to make ever Psycho in DR2 your little bitch. Don't waste them on Zs. If your still having trouble blend up some Painkillers (Beer + Beer or Vodka + Vodka). I love DR2!

[Raskolnikov]

Portal 2 is now on pre-order. I got weak in the knees and peed my pants a little when I read that. Mmmm cake.

[arrowfan]

Been enjoying Dead Space 2 a lot. I'm in my 2nd playthrough at zealot difficulty level. Great stuff. Unfortunately the aliens spawn in the same places each time, but the ambiance is great. Also really good voice over work.