I was thinking of getting Outer Wilds and playing through it in the interim since it's on sale right now.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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I grabbed Across the Obelisk. I wanted something I could play to rest my mouse hand and so far its working well. It puts me in mind of more different slay the spire. The graphics and gameplay are good, but sound/music and animation are kinda crap. But, I'm having fun with it and each character has special events and even when they share a card catalog (like warriors all have access to warrior cards) the cards and items they start with change how you want to build them.
Oh yeah, totally got that. I think I tried that once as male elf and wondered "What happens if I play it as a female?"
I'm honestly kinda sad there's no "I will cut off your dick and stuff it down your throat" response to the rich rape fucker but I got to knife him to death so I'll let it pass.
Just played Arizona Sunshine Dead Man DLC. This is such f'n fun. Played on the Oculus (Now Meta?). PS2 level graphics but they do as they are supposed to do on this format. $300 for an Oculus is very affordable for a cheap gamer. More expensive options available too. Hope y'all are getting to try VR and the fun it offers.
I popped in Crash 4 after taking a break from last year. Forgot how hard this game can be. I just made it to ice world. I am not bothering with any collectibles, and just going to focus on completing the stages. Which is a shame, because lots of skins are tied to diamonds collected.
XCOM 2 is kind of BS, I restarted a couple of times because I was falling behind and then never ended up getting that far because I had a game breaking bug. For tips that I can remember:
-Don't let your soldiers get injured. The injury system is all kinds of messed up and a single point of damage can mean 7-20 days injured, and armor doesn't negate injury anymore. You pretty much need to be able to take out every enemy pod on the turn you trigger it.
-Stun grenades are your friends, as are the stealth rangers (have 2 on your team).
-One of the DLC adds bosses that get a turn every time you do anything that can randomly show up in other missions, either don't enable the DLC, or don't start the initial mission until you are pretty well established and ready for the BS.
I finally set up my psvr last night after it sitting in the garage for like 2 years. Just too busy with other stuff. My nephew's have been playing it hardcore for last few months and were telling me all about "creed", some new boxing game for it. I only played beat sabre and robot rescue last night, but Arizona Sunshine is $5 on psn atm so Im gonna pick that up.
After Arizona Sunshine, that I paid some $30 for, DLC, Dead Man and Damned came out. The "After the Fall" which, even on the Meta, has improved graphics. It is basically Left for Dead 2 on VR and is fantastic. Even so, we keep switching back to Arizona Sunshine as it really is terrific. My nephew turned off the voice of the protagonist as he finds it distracting but I find it to be Bruce Campbell terrific. I hope you pick it up. It is really that good.
EDIT: PSVR will likely have much better graphics than Meta, which is the cheapest option out there. I'd love to get one of those myself some day.
So, close to 90hrs of playtime, I've completed Xenoblade Chronicles 2. No, I didn't 100% the game, nor have I played Torna yet, but hey, credits rolled and all that, so shadup, it counts.
Anyway, having beaten the tenth and final chapter of the game, Iz gotz opinonz, so:
-So we get a flashback to the destruction of Earth that differs in significant ways to how Alvis describes it in XC1. If you're so inclined, you could call it a retcon, but I don't think that's really the case. In XC1, we were seeing things from Alvis's POV, whereas here, we're seeing things from omnipotent-type POV...arguably. Alternatively, it could be Klaus remembering the events, and painting himself in a better light, but given how full of regret he is, I don't think that's the case.
-Also, poor Klaus.
I doubt that this was intended, but given the chapter title, and that the flashback indicates a possibly more tender relationship with Galea (oh hey, she's actually named this time), I'd wager that there was a "thing" between them. Not necessarily romantic, but something thereabouts. Make of that what you will.
-So, yeah, Elysium...yeah. It's a plot twist I knew was coming, but I can imagine it made quite the impact for players discovering that Elysium is now a wasteland. Not sure how it became a wasteland, exactly, since the Beanstalk clearly has climate controls elsewhere - maybe, because of its glass ceiling, a greenhouse effect kicked in? Energy from the sun and all that, as climate controls failed? Whatever the case, just wandering across it...yeah.
-People have despised the "apparition sequence" with Rex, and from a gameplay standpoint, I understand why. If you don't have the right Blades equipped, you're kind of boned, and even though I got lucky (had Percival, Geoffrey, and Roc), I can understand people loathing this. Still, from a character/narrative standpoint, I think it's well done. Arguably a bit cliched, but still well done, especially when Rex finally breaks down in the Pyra/Mythra sequence.
-So we finally meet the Architect/Klaus and, wait, what? He's not an enemy? Guys, this is a JRPG, the protagonists are meant to kill God!
-So, more exposition, and while I already knew the revelations, they're still well done regardless. I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the Architect literally seems to be Klaus's "better half," while his "worse half" ended up being Zanza. There's also the 'deity duality' I mentioned earlier, with Klaus/the Architect being an impotent god, long since given into despair, while Zanza is an active, malignant force in the setting of XC2. And yes, it did get me in "the feels" when Klaus gives his final farewell to the group via "the answer."
-So, Malos is destroying Alrest via the Sirens, which are conspicuously designed like angels, because the people of the late 21st century had weird design tastes I get. Subtlty, thy name is Xenoblade.
-So now we face Malos, and...look, I'll say it again, I don't think Malos is that sympathetic of a character, nor does he really feel like a good final boss. Yes, there's sympathetic elements to him, such as his actions being in large part due to Amalthus, and his understated grief over the deaths of Jin and the rest of Torna, but even so...thing is, I honestly think Amalthus would have made a final boss. They both want to destroy Alrest, Malos is the way he is due to Amalthus, and I honestly find Amalthus more interesting and indeed, sympathetic. And furthermore, comparing things to XC1, Zanza is still a better antagonist. Yes, Zanza is a sociopath with a literal god complex, and not sympathetic at all, but while sympathetic villains absolutely have a place in fiction, sometimes, it's effective to have a pure monster as your adversary.
-Furthermore, the fight against Malos/Aion is a joke. This is meant to be the most powerful Artifice ever created, it was three levels above my party (which at this point was Rex, Zeke, and Morag, with Nia as Rex's Blade...sorry Tora), and I beat it with hardly a sweat. Jin gave me heaps of trouble both times, but this wanker was nothing.
-So, cue ending sequence. Let's see...
1: Poppi is still a precious little cinnamon bun - has damn good voice acting too, the way her voice cracks.
2: Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow. Pneuma's deception, Rex's grief, etc. All well done.
3: The entire escape sequence did get me in "the feels." Of course, later events will do their best to undermine that (more on that shitshow later), but everything up to the characters escaping Radamalthus is perfect, whether it be Pneuma's epitaph, or the interactions of the characters as they make it out. That being said, I'm not sure why Pneuma had to stay behind to detonate Aion, since she can clearly use a countdown timer, so why not set the timer and come after them? Or does she need to stay in the mech itself?
4: Cue imagery of the deactivated Sirens falling to Alrest/Earth. Gee, angels falling, Elysium (Heaven) destroyed...it's almost as if this is symbolic of something...
5: What may be less intentional is the imagery once the group are back on Alrest. There's a dichotomy between the Architect's account of things (the core crystals falling to Earth, coloured blue), and the imagery of orbital debris burning up on re-entry, appearing as red. While it may be simple colour dichotomy, what entered my mind is that it's perhaps symbolic of the birth of a new world. We have an idea of what the primoridal Earth looked like (constant bolide impacts), so with the world being reborn (so to speak), in the literal shadow of bolide impacts...yeah. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but if it's intentional, nice touch.
6: So, Elysium was here all along. Or...was it in the friends we made along the way? Actually, in fairness, it does have me wondering whether the island that's visible now the Cloud Sea has parted was indeed there all along, or whether it was part of the old Earth that Klaus reconstructed, in which case, do other landmasses exist now, or is it just this one thing?
7: So the titans are joining with the landmass. Except Indhol. You guys...are...going to check on Indhol, right? RIGHT?!
8: So, all things aside, the ending is pretty solid up to the moment when Pyra and Mythra are reconstituted because...um...okay, enough pretense, I really dislike this ending. Not hate, that's too strong a word, but I think the return of the two undermines the ending to such an extent that I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the writer(s) thought this was a good idea. The whole schtick of Rex being forced to leave Pneuma behind is tied in with his character - this isn't even that subtle, the whole theme of growing up, being forced to accept loss, etc. But I guess hey, Rex DOESN'T need to do any of that now that his two waifus have been reconstituted. It's debatable whether the two retain their memories (they almost certainly do, IMO), or whether they're literally Pneuma reborn (bleh), or simply duplicates of the original Pyra/Mythra which are functionally the same person (which is still bleh, but not as much), but we're splitting at hairs here. The TL, DR version is that I think the two being reborn undercuts a lot of the ending, even if the game ends with the line "and thus, boy met girl."
Thing is, I could even see the line working still, if I changed the ending to how I'd write it - leave Pneuma/Pyra/Mythra dead, have Rex embrace Nia (it doesn't even need to be that romantic, just holding hands, a glance, etc.), and end with the same phrase. You might be saying "but Hawki, you're just letting shipping get in the way of writing," to which I say, "shut up, Jimmy." I'll point out that regardless of any subjective feelings, Rex met Nia before Pyra/Mythra, Nia has outright stated that she loves Rex, and when Rex faces appirition!Nia, it's telling that among her grief (reflecting Rex's guilt) is her accustation that Rex has ignored her this entire time. It keeps the dignity of Pneuma's sacrifice, and it prevents Rex from forming a haram by XC3.
So that's XC2, and now that I've written this, I think the ending is a microcosm on my feelings on the game as a whole, at least when it comes to story. There's moments of absolute brilliance scattered throughout the game - moments that I doubt I'll ever forget - but before I can get too invested into things, there's just as many moments of absolute bullshit that I have to deal with. Poppi is an adorable character, but her first appearance is maid bullshit. Pyra and Mythra are great characters, but the sexualization is assinine. Pneuma's sacrifice is tear-inducing, but in less than an hour, it's undone. Amalthus is a great character, but his motivations make no sense. Malos has a great voice actor, but he just isn't that interesting a character (nor is Jin). XC1 is somewhere in my top 10 RPGs of all time, and if I was confining it to one game per IP, potentially in my top ten games of all time. XC2, on the other hand, doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of making either of those lists. Oh sure, there's certainly things that XC2 does better than XC1 (OST, combat, worldbuilding), but for the most part, XC1 is simply the better game.
So, yeah. 90 hours of game time, that simultaniously make me glad it's over, while also wanting to play Torna: The Golden Country immediately. Unlikely to happen though.
Oh, and one last thing:
Pneuma: "I'm the most advanced AI ever built by humans. Blue is my primary colour. I sacrificed myself on a space station orbiting Earth, destroying it to save the planet, and saying goodbye to the man I love before sending him away, despite his protestations."
Cortana: "First time?"
Anyway, having beaten the tenth and final chapter of the game, Iz gotz opinonz, so:
-So we get a flashback to the destruction of Earth that differs in significant ways to how Alvis describes it in XC1. If you're so inclined, you could call it a retcon, but I don't think that's really the case. In XC1, we were seeing things from Alvis's POV, whereas here, we're seeing things from omnipotent-type POV...arguably. Alternatively, it could be Klaus remembering the events, and painting himself in a better light, but given how full of regret he is, I don't think that's the case.
-Also, poor Klaus.
I doubt that this was intended, but given the chapter title, and that the flashback indicates a possibly more tender relationship with Galea (oh hey, she's actually named this time), I'd wager that there was a "thing" between them. Not necessarily romantic, but something thereabouts. Make of that what you will.-So, yeah, Elysium...yeah. It's a plot twist I knew was coming, but I can imagine it made quite the impact for players discovering that Elysium is now a wasteland. Not sure how it became a wasteland, exactly, since the Beanstalk clearly has climate controls elsewhere - maybe, because of its glass ceiling, a greenhouse effect kicked in? Energy from the sun and all that, as climate controls failed? Whatever the case, just wandering across it...yeah.
-People have despised the "apparition sequence" with Rex, and from a gameplay standpoint, I understand why. If you don't have the right Blades equipped, you're kind of boned, and even though I got lucky (had Percival, Geoffrey, and Roc), I can understand people loathing this. Still, from a character/narrative standpoint, I think it's well done. Arguably a bit cliched, but still well done, especially when Rex finally breaks down in the Pyra/Mythra sequence.
-So we finally meet the Architect/Klaus and, wait, what? He's not an enemy? Guys, this is a JRPG, the protagonists are meant to kill God!
-So, more exposition, and while I already knew the revelations, they're still well done regardless. I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the Architect literally seems to be Klaus's "better half," while his "worse half" ended up being Zanza. There's also the 'deity duality' I mentioned earlier, with Klaus/the Architect being an impotent god, long since given into despair, while Zanza is an active, malignant force in the setting of XC2. And yes, it did get me in "the feels" when Klaus gives his final farewell to the group via "the answer."
-So, Malos is destroying Alrest via the Sirens, which are conspicuously designed like angels, because the people of the late 21st century had weird design tastes I get. Subtlty, thy name is Xenoblade.
-So now we face Malos, and...look, I'll say it again, I don't think Malos is that sympathetic of a character, nor does he really feel like a good final boss. Yes, there's sympathetic elements to him, such as his actions being in large part due to Amalthus, and his understated grief over the deaths of Jin and the rest of Torna, but even so...thing is, I honestly think Amalthus would have made a final boss. They both want to destroy Alrest, Malos is the way he is due to Amalthus, and I honestly find Amalthus more interesting and indeed, sympathetic. And furthermore, comparing things to XC1, Zanza is still a better antagonist. Yes, Zanza is a sociopath with a literal god complex, and not sympathetic at all, but while sympathetic villains absolutely have a place in fiction, sometimes, it's effective to have a pure monster as your adversary.
-Furthermore, the fight against Malos/Aion is a joke. This is meant to be the most powerful Artifice ever created, it was three levels above my party (which at this point was Rex, Zeke, and Morag, with Nia as Rex's Blade...sorry Tora), and I beat it with hardly a sweat. Jin gave me heaps of trouble both times, but this wanker was nothing.
-So, cue ending sequence. Let's see...
1: Poppi is still a precious little cinnamon bun - has damn good voice acting too, the way her voice cracks.
2: Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow. Pneuma's deception, Rex's grief, etc. All well done.
3: The entire escape sequence did get me in "the feels." Of course, later events will do their best to undermine that (more on that shitshow later), but everything up to the characters escaping Radamalthus is perfect, whether it be Pneuma's epitaph, or the interactions of the characters as they make it out. That being said, I'm not sure why Pneuma had to stay behind to detonate Aion, since she can clearly use a countdown timer, so why not set the timer and come after them? Or does she need to stay in the mech itself?
4: Cue imagery of the deactivated Sirens falling to Alrest/Earth. Gee, angels falling, Elysium (Heaven) destroyed...it's almost as if this is symbolic of something...
5: What may be less intentional is the imagery once the group are back on Alrest. There's a dichotomy between the Architect's account of things (the core crystals falling to Earth, coloured blue), and the imagery of orbital debris burning up on re-entry, appearing as red. While it may be simple colour dichotomy, what entered my mind is that it's perhaps symbolic of the birth of a new world. We have an idea of what the primoridal Earth looked like (constant bolide impacts), so with the world being reborn (so to speak), in the literal shadow of bolide impacts...yeah. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but if it's intentional, nice touch.
6: So, Elysium was here all along. Or...was it in the friends we made along the way? Actually, in fairness, it does have me wondering whether the island that's visible now the Cloud Sea has parted was indeed there all along, or whether it was part of the old Earth that Klaus reconstructed, in which case, do other landmasses exist now, or is it just this one thing?
7: So the titans are joining with the landmass. Except Indhol. You guys...are...going to check on Indhol, right? RIGHT?!
8: So, all things aside, the ending is pretty solid up to the moment when Pyra and Mythra are reconstituted because...um...okay, enough pretense, I really dislike this ending. Not hate, that's too strong a word, but I think the return of the two undermines the ending to such an extent that I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the writer(s) thought this was a good idea. The whole schtick of Rex being forced to leave Pneuma behind is tied in with his character - this isn't even that subtle, the whole theme of growing up, being forced to accept loss, etc. But I guess hey, Rex DOESN'T need to do any of that now that his two waifus have been reconstituted. It's debatable whether the two retain their memories (they almost certainly do, IMO), or whether they're literally Pneuma reborn (bleh), or simply duplicates of the original Pyra/Mythra which are functionally the same person (which is still bleh, but not as much), but we're splitting at hairs here. The TL, DR version is that I think the two being reborn undercuts a lot of the ending, even if the game ends with the line "and thus, boy met girl."
Thing is, I could even see the line working still, if I changed the ending to how I'd write it - leave Pneuma/Pyra/Mythra dead, have Rex embrace Nia (it doesn't even need to be that romantic, just holding hands, a glance, etc.), and end with the same phrase. You might be saying "but Hawki, you're just letting shipping get in the way of writing," to which I say, "shut up, Jimmy." I'll point out that regardless of any subjective feelings, Rex met Nia before Pyra/Mythra, Nia has outright stated that she loves Rex, and when Rex faces appirition!Nia, it's telling that among her grief (reflecting Rex's guilt) is her accustation that Rex has ignored her this entire time. It keeps the dignity of Pneuma's sacrifice, and it prevents Rex from forming a haram by XC3.
So that's XC2, and now that I've written this, I think the ending is a microcosm on my feelings on the game as a whole, at least when it comes to story. There's moments of absolute brilliance scattered throughout the game - moments that I doubt I'll ever forget - but before I can get too invested into things, there's just as many moments of absolute bullshit that I have to deal with. Poppi is an adorable character, but her first appearance is maid bullshit. Pyra and Mythra are great characters, but the sexualization is assinine. Pneuma's sacrifice is tear-inducing, but in less than an hour, it's undone. Amalthus is a great character, but his motivations make no sense. Malos has a great voice actor, but he just isn't that interesting a character (nor is Jin). XC1 is somewhere in my top 10 RPGs of all time, and if I was confining it to one game per IP, potentially in my top ten games of all time. XC2, on the other hand, doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of making either of those lists. Oh sure, there's certainly things that XC2 does better than XC1 (OST, combat, worldbuilding), but for the most part, XC1 is simply the better game.
So, yeah. 90 hours of game time, that simultaniously make me glad it's over, while also wanting to play Torna: The Golden Country immediately. Unlikely to happen though.
Oh, and one last thing:
Pneuma: "I'm the most advanced AI ever built by humans. Blue is my primary colour. I sacrificed myself on a space station orbiting Earth, destroying it to save the planet, and saying goodbye to the man I love before sending him away, despite his protestations."
Cortana: "First time?"
Made it to Lothering in Dragon Age: Origins, after finishing Ostagar and the tower there. Man, It must have been a while since I played this because I totally don't remember wandering through the Wilds through the battle collecting Darkspawn blud, though I do remember that specific quest. I remember the joining sequence but not that there's actual sidequests prior to it, so I spent a bit of time exploring the wilds trying to find stuff and gain XP and do side quests with Alister and the two red shirts. And man, knowing they're doomed at least means I don't have to worry about messing around with them. Of course, during the tower sequence I get another couple of red shirts who I know are also doomed because those two don't even have names, just "Circle Mage" and "Tower Guard".
I gotta admit, I am impressed how the Darkspawn, after massacring the tower guards, apparently had time to go around putting heads on pikes and putting up darkspawn decoration. I somehow thought the tower had just been overrun as the battle started but seeing all the creepy barbarian shit inside makes me think otherwise. I didn't have as much trouble with the Ogre as I did before( I remember him being a nightmare on earlier playthroughs and he's the first fucking boss) but this time I wiped once. Probably because Alister kept forgetting how to tank and the mage decided to try to melee because reasons. Also, the real time with a pause is kind of annoying to deal with and I'm slowly getting used to the idea I have more then one character to manage. I guess I need to mess with the tactical feature where you can get them to react according to certain situations.
So now that a number of the characters have finally been introduced, time to talk about them. King Cailen comes across as a Romantic Idiot and I totally get why Loghain kept rolling his eyes at his brilliant "We gonna kill the darkspawn in one big battle. Weeeee!" plan. Not that you get to see much of the plan in action but rushing at the much larger horde and the king being in the middle of the melee is normally considered a really bad idea, tactically speaking. And the King found out pretty fast. So yeah, Loghain pulling out was a dick move but it looks like the pooch was pretty well screwed by that point(the fact the beacon wasn't lit on time probably also contributed to this). OTOH, blaming the Grey Wardens for killing the King was also a dick move on Loghain's part because the Wardens weren't the one who came up the brilliant "Rush the Darkspawn" plan and there was no need to blame them for anything. It feels really counterproductive since as far as Loghain knows, all the grey wardens in the country died in the battle and he probably needs them to help him take down the blight since that's still a problem, just saying.
Speaking of the Grey Wardens, Alister being the de facto head of the Wardens is interesting since he clearly has no confidence in his own ability to lead anything, and as morrigan points out, lets the new guy/girl make the big decisions. I realize Alistor isn't particularly senior himself, but with Duncan and the rest dead, well, he's now in charge by seniority. And I feel for the guy, but his continual dithering on making any kind of decision feels kind of annoying. And then there's Morrigan, who I feel like is like a remixed Kreia from KOTOR 2. While she's arguably far less experienced then Kreia, she has that same "Fuck everyone else" attitude. I mean, I do understand her saying "We've got big problems, our job isn't to do everyone else's chores" and that she has very little in the way of interpersonal social skills but OTOH at times it feels really mean spirited like doing anything remotely good for anyone else for any reason starts her bitching about it. So the Warden is stuck with feckless boy Alister and jerkass girl Morrigan. But I have the pupper now too and he's a good boi, such a good boy.
And While I'm getting used to how the game looks, the weirdness of everyone but the warden talking still sticks out to me. The dialogue is generally pretty good and I'm glad you can snark and tell people off(Dealing with the bandits at Lothering Bridge and getting them to pay you off instead of killing them is beautiful). Also, I've noticed how many conversations end with "I Should go" and every time I hear it in Mark Meer's voice when I'm not hearing in in Jennifer Hale's voice. Interestingly, Dragon age came out AFTER Mass Effect, it seems. Which makes it wierd since again, Shepard talks but the Warden doesn't but "I should go" is just the standard goodbye for both. What I really want now is "I'm the Grey Warden and this is my favorite Tavern in Ferelden"
I gotta admit, I am impressed how the Darkspawn, after massacring the tower guards, apparently had time to go around putting heads on pikes and putting up darkspawn decoration. I somehow thought the tower had just been overrun as the battle started but seeing all the creepy barbarian shit inside makes me think otherwise. I didn't have as much trouble with the Ogre as I did before( I remember him being a nightmare on earlier playthroughs and he's the first fucking boss) but this time I wiped once. Probably because Alister kept forgetting how to tank and the mage decided to try to melee because reasons. Also, the real time with a pause is kind of annoying to deal with and I'm slowly getting used to the idea I have more then one character to manage. I guess I need to mess with the tactical feature where you can get them to react according to certain situations.
So now that a number of the characters have finally been introduced, time to talk about them. King Cailen comes across as a Romantic Idiot and I totally get why Loghain kept rolling his eyes at his brilliant "We gonna kill the darkspawn in one big battle. Weeeee!" plan. Not that you get to see much of the plan in action but rushing at the much larger horde and the king being in the middle of the melee is normally considered a really bad idea, tactically speaking. And the King found out pretty fast. So yeah, Loghain pulling out was a dick move but it looks like the pooch was pretty well screwed by that point(the fact the beacon wasn't lit on time probably also contributed to this). OTOH, blaming the Grey Wardens for killing the King was also a dick move on Loghain's part because the Wardens weren't the one who came up the brilliant "Rush the Darkspawn" plan and there was no need to blame them for anything. It feels really counterproductive since as far as Loghain knows, all the grey wardens in the country died in the battle and he probably needs them to help him take down the blight since that's still a problem, just saying.
Speaking of the Grey Wardens, Alister being the de facto head of the Wardens is interesting since he clearly has no confidence in his own ability to lead anything, and as morrigan points out, lets the new guy/girl make the big decisions. I realize Alistor isn't particularly senior himself, but with Duncan and the rest dead, well, he's now in charge by seniority. And I feel for the guy, but his continual dithering on making any kind of decision feels kind of annoying. And then there's Morrigan, who I feel like is like a remixed Kreia from KOTOR 2. While she's arguably far less experienced then Kreia, she has that same "Fuck everyone else" attitude. I mean, I do understand her saying "We've got big problems, our job isn't to do everyone else's chores" and that she has very little in the way of interpersonal social skills but OTOH at times it feels really mean spirited like doing anything remotely good for anyone else for any reason starts her bitching about it. So the Warden is stuck with feckless boy Alister and jerkass girl Morrigan. But I have the pupper now too and he's a good boi, such a good boy.
And While I'm getting used to how the game looks, the weirdness of everyone but the warden talking still sticks out to me. The dialogue is generally pretty good and I'm glad you can snark and tell people off(Dealing with the bandits at Lothering Bridge and getting them to pay you off instead of killing them is beautiful). Also, I've noticed how many conversations end with "I Should go" and every time I hear it in Mark Meer's voice when I'm not hearing in in Jennifer Hale's voice. Interestingly, Dragon age came out AFTER Mass Effect, it seems. Which makes it wierd since again, Shepard talks but the Warden doesn't but "I should go" is just the standard goodbye for both. What I really want now is "I'm the Grey Warden and this is my favorite Tavern in Ferelden"
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Dragon Age came out after Mass Effect, but development started 2 years before. And frankly, I've always hated the Mass Effect style dialogue wheel that gives you a general hint of what your character is going to say, but can often be vague and misleading.
Yeah, I agree with you there. If you're going to do dialogue wheels/trees, at least give us the courtesy of seeing WHAT the line is going to be, especially in situations where the wrong choice can end in combat or a failed quest.
Expeditions: Rome pulls that shit at one point. There's a side quest that involves answering a series of riddles, but most of the choices are "It's not X..." or "It can't be Y...." instead of the line telling you "It has to be Z". And it's frustrating because no other dialogue in the game works like this. The rest are dialogue trees where you see the exact words you're going to say and even if they intentionally start combat or are part of romancing a character.
I think the reason Bioware don't like doing that is because in that case you read the line, and then you listen to the VA read the line you just read, and it's kind of slow and awkward.
Yeah, that's arguably a problem with it. It's one of those issues where it feels like it's an issue no matter what. Don't have PC speech and it looks really wierd. Have PC speech by using Icons or a very brief summary and you run into problems with possibly doing something you didn't want to do and if you have speech with the exact line then you run into the problem you described above.
At least it's not as wierd as Link being in the middle of conversations where everyone talks but him or Mass Effect where you have "Good response" "Jerk Response" and sometimes "Golden response" which has it's own set of issues because while I appreciate what the paragon/renegade system are there for, you have to go full paragon/renegade to yield the best benefits from it and trying to roleplay per the situation can leave you with nothing like "What if I want to help the Krogan and punch the annoying reporter?"
I'm playing Spartan: Total Warrior and this game is not nearly as cool as I remember it being. Last time I played it was around 2006 or something and it totally blew me away. You can kill like 300 guys just in the first level! Like holy cow, this was mindblowing stuff for me at the time! Playing it today and it's basically just a God of War knockoff with mediocre combat. I never got very far back then, I remember getting to a bunch of guys with sticks that block way too many attacks (the barbarians) getting stuck and quitting, it was only a weekend rental.
Anyway, it's been ok. The levels are sometimes kind of annoying, but I haven't gotten very stuck for too long... until now. Now I'm on everyone's favorite mission, the escort quest. So you meet Archimedes
Who tells you that he is going to be assassinated by the Romans during his speech to rally the resistance(?). So you run around this little square fighting people as arrows are flying toward Archimedes, and how this doesn't scare off the audience, I don't know. This part in itself is pretty annoying because Archimedes doesn't have much health and there's a bunch of ramps and non-obvious ladders so I failed a number of times just trying to figure out how to reach the assassins. Also I learned that there is fall damage in this game if you fall more than 5 feet, so that's great. Once you protect him long enough you need to kill squads of Romans for a bit as they charge the square, this wasn't too bad since you have a little squad to help you, I did lose once because you fail if even one Roman reaches the square and they just beeline for it if you don't manage to engage them all. After that you need to kill the Roman spies that were secretly attending the speech in the public square. You can tell they are spies because they are bolting back to their safe houses, and also because they have red arrows over their head and are flanked by fully armored Roman soldiers. Yeah, sneaky. I swear, literally half the crowd were spies because you kill like 15 of them and there can't have been more than 30 in attendance.
Then finally, it's time to escort Archimedes somewhere, as he constantly shrieks at you to protect him and to stay with him, even though you are standing right by his side. And this is truly the pits because, now you have no help so when those groups of 15 soldiers spawn in they all beeline for Archimedes and there is no way to avoid both of you taking a ton of damage without using your, limited, magic abilities. And as I said he has barely any health, and also no combat ability. This sucks because it's like 30 minutes into the mission and now I realize that I needed to save all the recharge shrines for this part or it's basically impossible. So now I need to restart and do the whole thing again. Great.
Anyway, it's been ok. The levels are sometimes kind of annoying, but I haven't gotten very stuck for too long... until now. Now I'm on everyone's favorite mission, the escort quest. So you meet Archimedes
Who tells you that he is going to be assassinated by the Romans during his speech to rally the resistance(?). So you run around this little square fighting people as arrows are flying toward Archimedes, and how this doesn't scare off the audience, I don't know. This part in itself is pretty annoying because Archimedes doesn't have much health and there's a bunch of ramps and non-obvious ladders so I failed a number of times just trying to figure out how to reach the assassins. Also I learned that there is fall damage in this game if you fall more than 5 feet, so that's great. Once you protect him long enough you need to kill squads of Romans for a bit as they charge the square, this wasn't too bad since you have a little squad to help you, I did lose once because you fail if even one Roman reaches the square and they just beeline for it if you don't manage to engage them all. After that you need to kill the Roman spies that were secretly attending the speech in the public square. You can tell they are spies because they are bolting back to their safe houses, and also because they have red arrows over their head and are flanked by fully armored Roman soldiers. Yeah, sneaky. I swear, literally half the crowd were spies because you kill like 15 of them and there can't have been more than 30 in attendance.
Then finally, it's time to escort Archimedes somewhere, as he constantly shrieks at you to protect him and to stay with him, even though you are standing right by his side. And this is truly the pits because, now you have no help so when those groups of 15 soldiers spawn in they all beeline for Archimedes and there is no way to avoid both of you taking a ton of damage without using your, limited, magic abilities. And as I said he has barely any health, and also no combat ability. This sucks because it's like 30 minutes into the mission and now I realize that I needed to save all the recharge shrines for this part or it's basically impossible. So now I need to restart and do the whole thing again. Great.
Almost done with the ice world in Crash 4. If you're going for 100%+ completion, this game is a nightmare. I'm just trying to complete the levels. While this game is better than the all of the post PS1 sequels, the game still has issues. The levels go on for too long, and the checkpoint gets sparser each time. Say what you will about the PS1 Crash games, but they know how to paste most of their checkpoints, and the levels don't drag on for too long.
I will praise the games art style, characters, dialogue, and updated look. The soundtrack is kind of meh & average. I feel like it has the same problems the first game's soundtrack had. Too many xylophones. I'll try to finish the game later this week.
I will praise the games art style, characters, dialogue, and updated look. The soundtrack is kind of meh & average. I feel like it has the same problems the first game's soundtrack had. Too many xylophones. I'll try to finish the game later this week.
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So the patch notes for Genshin Impact's 3.0 update have been released, along with the first two 5-star characters being sold in the gacha for the next three weeks, and one of them is Zhongli, a character I've really been hoping to get... and unfortunately I spent nearly everything I had getting Yoimiya from the current (by the time you're reading this, probably previous) banner. Not that I regret it, but now I'm really going to have to hope I get lucky with this one, or just accept that it's only going to give me pity progress towards somebody later in the 3.x cycle.
Besides, that's hardly my primary concern, with the main story moving into a new chapter with an entirely new country to go with it. Really looking forward to seeing what it has to offer, especially considering how far the game's come since its original release.
Besides, that's hardly my primary concern, with the main story moving into a new chapter with an entirely new country to go with it. Really looking forward to seeing what it has to offer, especially considering how far the game's come since its original release.
If you don't know, they'll be giving one of the new 4* for free in the an event soon.