I'm acrophobic (fear of heights) so both Mirrors Edge(s) are just pure NOPE for me.
(Sometimes, I've actually used "does this set me off?" as a test of how immersive/realistic a game is. I tell ya, I'm NOT a fan of the trend, starting some years back, to put parkour/jumping puzzles in everything.)
Currently starting out Tales of Berseria. This is looking like a pretty neat game, overall. Well setup too - I've been in here for an hour and I already hate the villain's guts, good job on efficient characterization there.
The characters and their banter is always the highlight of Tales games. Even when the actual plot is less-than-great, I'm always drawn to keep going just to see how they all react to it.
Yeah, and Berseria has especially strong characters with some great chemistry.
A shame about the plot and the fucking weapon system. Christ. Whoever let those get past even the concept stage needs to be smacked upside the head with a trout repeatedly, or more likely, already has been. And then there's all "search for the next cutscene, which we've hidden on the opposite side of the town" bullshit. My bile is gurgling just thinking about it.
I never had an issue with the equipment system. Equip gear until its bonus is acquired, replace with new gear to learn their bonuses, repeat. That's the entire thing. It ain't Zestiria trying to match up enough symbols across your loadout to trigger specific bonuses levels of obtuse.
Not that part. The part where you need to be enhancing things just to dismantle them so you can enhance them to dismantle them so you can enhance them so you can dismantle them so you can enhance the thing that you actually want to enhance.
Yeah, that wasn't complicated either. You enhance a piece of gear to increase the amount of materials you get from dismantling it, but that's only really useful in the end game tiers of gear. Talking post game NG+ special dungeon level of gear. Otherwise you can just dismantle as you like and still keep a good stash of crafting materials.
I didn't say it was complicated. It's unnecessary and pointless busy work. The "farm materials -> enhance weapons" paradigm doesn't need to have multiple additional steps added to the middle of it. Finding a new weapon was a relief because you could just ignore that bullshit for a while as you mastered the new skill. And made worse by weapon stats being all over the place. Velvet's level 8ish weapon was stronger than around the next 5 even before you started taking enhancing into account, which made it effectively the best thing stat-wise for half the game.
Up to where I am I'm mostly just stomping without bothering with much of the complicated system. Game's being pretty easy anyway.
Currently starting out Tales of Berseria. This is looking like a pretty neat game, overall. Well setup too - I've been in here for an hour and I already hate the villain's guts, good job on efficient characterization there.
The characters and their banter is always the highlight of Tales games. Even when the actual plot is less-than-great, I'm always drawn to keep going just to see how they all react to it.
Yeah, and Berseria has especially strong characters with some great chemistry.
A shame about the plot and the fucking weapon system. Christ. Whoever let those get past even the concept stage needs to be smacked upside the head with a trout repeatedly, or more likely, already has been. And then there's all "search for the next cutscene, which we've hidden on the opposite side of the town" bullshit. My bile is gurgling just thinking about it.
I never had an issue with the equipment system. Equip gear until its bonus is acquired, replace with new gear to learn their bonuses, repeat. That's the entire thing. It ain't Zestiria trying to match up enough symbols across your loadout to trigger specific bonuses levels of obtuse.
Not that part. The part where you need to be enhancing things just to dismantle them so you can enhance them to dismantle them so you can enhance them so you can dismantle them so you can enhance the thing that you actually want to enhance.
Yeah, that wasn't complicated either. You enhance a piece of gear to increase the amount of materials you get from dismantling it, but that's only really useful in the end game tiers of gear. Talking post game NG+ special dungeon level of gear. Otherwise you can just dismantle as you like and still keep a good stash of crafting materials.
I didn't say it was complicated. It's unnecessary and pointless busy work. The "farm materials -> enhance weapons" paradigm doesn't need to have multiple additional steps added to the middle of it. Finding a new weapon was a relief because you could just ignore that bullshit for a while as you mastered the new skill. And made worse by weapon stats being all over the place. Velvet's level 8ish weapon was stronger than around the next 5 even before you started taking enhancing into account, which made it effectively the best thing stat-wise for half the game.
Up to where I am I'm mostly just stomping without bothering with much of the complicated system. Game's being pretty easy anyway.
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
The Shek kingdom is decently close, but a pack of Beak things almost make us lunch. With my two melee fighters out of commission, running is the only answer. We see a fallen tower and despite the danger, Evma goes to investigate and breaks open the door. Unfortunately he can't get in to see if there is anything of worth so we head out. Once in the Shek capital, we find a giant Shek lady that'll join us for 7.5k. Usually I'd balk at the price but we're flush from all the ancient tech we just sold so I say sure. We give her a good name, @DaringDirk . She has some fantastic combat stats but her Toughness is surprisingly low. Well, nothing some beatings won't fix, and boy we get plenty of those. So we head on home with loads of books, money and food.
Kenshi Part 5: We Wear Many Hats (No, Not Flesh Hats)
Okay, second attempt. We had bought some maps and apparently there is a large settlement out in the Swamps, so off we go again. Evma makes a bit of levity but man, this watery hell makes the river in Vain look like child's play. We hit the Swamp Villages as we go who have a unique regional pairing. Dodging hordes of blood spiders and encountering a group of bandits named the Red Sabres we finally end up in the "settlement" of Shark. It's a glorified gang hangout with at least some decent defenses. Still it's not a total waste, we find a Hiver who says he's a great shot and we just have to pay his tab of 2.3k. Seems like a deal so now we have a Hiver named Green. We'll plastic surgery that to @LD50 when we get back to the Hub.
A picture of the team. We just need a Scorchlander and a Skeleman and we have the whole set. LD50 has low limb stats but very slowly loses hunger and can eat stuff no one else will. So we're up to 3 melee, 3 crossbowers.
There are some strange structures out west that I figure we can investigate before going home. On the way we find a hideout. Ends up this is where the leader of the Red Sabres resides--with about 30 minions. Ho boy, we run as fast as we can. Thankfully LD50 isn't that encumbered or he'd be in need of rescuing.
We hit the border of the swamp at dawn and reach a weird location called The Grid. There doesn't seem to be any enemies and then we come across some ruined workshops that are almost completely stripped bare except for some locked metal boxes. Problem is no one is skilled enough to even try opening them--except Evma. At first it doesn't seem like much is in there, until he opens one and our eyes grow wide. Unfortunately, we've run out of tech that can just be learned by standard NERD books and need something on a larger scale and here on a lark we've found it, unguarded. We load up as much as we can, including a fancy prosthetic arm and begin to head back towards Shek lands via a detour.
Detours are always a mistake. This one was full of Beak Things. It was unpleasant, and no pictures were taken.
Stopping at Shek towns, we sell and restock, but decide to head back to a Hive village to see if there is anything worth picking up for LD50. LD50 isn't too keen about visiting his old homeland. Sure enough, the usually friendly shopkeeper recognizes LD50 and proclaims him "HIVELESS" and threatens us if we don't get out. The nearby soldiers and the swarms I know are outside aren't worth pissing off.
We're starting some advanced tech and can do some decent crafting but not yet able to produce much in raw materials than what we scavenge or buy. Still, let's try making some armor--we can make the same gear for our melee warrior but at a higher grade, the tooltip says so! Well, our knowledge might be there but our skill is lacking as Talus manages to make even worse armor. Ends up we really need to grind out these crafting skills as well to make decent gear. The junk doesn't even sell that well so forget making a profit this way for now...
Tonight was productive! Well, after we spent a bit of time wrapping up Rubycat's personal mission. You might remember, Rubycat had the prepper aunt with the jeep and the weapons stashes and so on. Well, tonight Rubycat decided he wanted to take her old rifle out for a spin. Which first meant I had to go through everybody's inventory to see who was using it. Turned out it was in a box under a pile of empty pizza boxes (no, we don't know where Karoz is finding pizzas). Anyway, Rubycat went out and plinked a bunch of zeds and decided it was a cool rifle, but he went back to his semi-auto shotgun immediately after. More punch, y'know? Along the way, he rescued a stray survivor and took her back to her enclave, only to find them dead (this is a pattern). Unfortunately, we didn't get the option to recruit her so I'm not sure if we've hit the hard limit of survivors we're allowed or if there's some other factor involved.
After Rubycat returned, Itchy-Fingers Karoz decided it was time to go Plague Heart hunting. So she grabbed Rubycat, some C-4, lots of ammo, a pile of molotovs, some fuel cans, a pile of pain pills, several piles of snacks, and off they went down the road. This apparently pleases Dirk.
Turns out that C-4 is stupidly effective on Plague Hearts and they destroy 2 of them in a matter of minutes. They're headed for a 3rd when they get a radio call from a random survivor in a nearby barn wanting help. Turns out that he watched a juggernaut overturn a cargo van and kill the occupants and he wants help looting the van (translation: dealing with the juggernaut). Well, hell, Karoz isn't going to turn down a fight like that. And of course, Karoz gets the kill.
Anyway, we find the cargo van. Sort of. It's kind of invisible unless you look at it from just the right angle. Yay, game bugs! It has some neat loot but nothing to write about, so Karoz and Rubycat move on to the next Plague Heart.
... which is quickly destroyed as well.
By this time, however, Karoz is getting tired, we're out of C-4, low on ammo and fuel, and it's almost night again. So back to base they go. While they restock and rest (and Karoz makes dinner), Jazz and Madican head out on a local supply search. They do well, kill some shit, get some stuff. By the way, Jazz is wielding a bastard sword. It's not the best weapon. But rule of cool wins. Jazz also learned the Utilities skill, so she's gonna be responsible for hooking us up with some consistent power and water soon, instead of the intermittent shit we get running a generator and collecting rain water.
And that's all we have time for tonight. I kind of expect Karoz will take out the last 3 plague hearts in another session or two. Oh, and we also got Mal's buggy quest to pop up again, so we'll have to deal with that...
---
Kill Count:
Karoz 935
Pixie 728
Mal 532
Rubycat 304
Madican 165
Iolo 128
Jazz 29
Dirk 2
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
I need to know exactly how "locked behind difficulty" this is, because I generally find the practice abhorrent in any game, especially when it comes to "entire sections of the game". Are there literally things you can only get if the game difficulty is turned up to Hard? Because that's very very close to an instant no sale, off my wishlist thing for me.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
I need to know exactly how "locked behind difficulty" this is, because I generally find the practice abhorrent in any game, especially when it comes to "entire sections of the game". Are there literally things you can only get if the game difficulty is turned up to Hard? Because that's very very close to an instant no sale, off my wishlist thing for me.
Um, completely locked? You can raise or lower the difficulty whenever you want (some of the upper ones need to be unlocked), but a ton of the potentites in the game (passive permanent bonuses given by the story and essentially every boss) are strictly difficulty dependent.
eg
You obtain a Perserver's Glacite by killing a completely optional miniboss (every area has one). Once you have it, that unlocks Damage Reduction as a skill that can randomly appear on equipment, but only when playing at Hard or higher. If you're not playing on at least Hard, you will never see the Damage Reduction skill.
Note that the potentites themselves aren't blocked by difficulty, but many just won't do anything until/unless you bump the difficulty up. The only except are the Dire Foe bosses, which are random mini-bosses specific to each continent. They each drop a potentite, but they only spawn on Normal or above.
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
I need to know exactly how "locked behind difficulty" this is, because I generally find the practice abhorrent in any game, especially when it comes to "entire sections of the game". Are there literally things you can only get if the game difficulty is turned up to Hard? Because that's very very close to an instant no sale, off my wishlist thing for me.
Um, completely locked? You can raise or lower the difficulty whenever you want (some of the upper ones need to be unlocked), but a ton of the potentites in the game (passive permanent bonuses given by the story and essentially every boss) are strictly difficulty dependent.
eg
You obtain a Perserver's Glacite by killing a completely optional miniboss (every area has one). Once you have it, that unlocks Damage Reduction as a skill that can randomly appear on equipment, but only when playing at Hard or higher. If you're not playing on at least Hard, you will never see the Damage Reduction skill.
Note that the potentites themselves aren't blocked by difficulty, but many just won't do anything until/unless you bump the difficulty up. The only except are the Dire Foe bosses, which are random mini-bosses specific to each continent. They each drop a potentite, but they only spawn on Normal or above.
Do you really need those skills at lower difficulty levels? I mean, when I ask about things locked behind difficulty, I'm thinking special weapons, actual endings, etc. If it's just passive/active abilities that are there to help because the difficulty is harder, then that I can deal with by . . . not needing those things.
And I say locked because I will never, never, ever, ever, ever play a game on hard. I'm not looking to prove something or challenge myself to the uberlevel. Hell, I only play most games on Easy or Very Easy, because I'm not interested in struggling with the game, and the only exceptions to that are Dark Souls-style games in which I figure out exploits and cheese strategies instead to make the games easier. So in that sense, anything behind Hard (and very likely behind Normal) difficulty in a game is something I'm not going to experience, and any large chunk of a game (items, story, dungeons, etc) that are hidden away inside "you must be this git gud to enjoy the full game" have my utter and everlasting ire, and aren't worth my time as a game.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
Required? Nah. Nothing story based is locked behind a difficulty. But for example, if you play on Simple (lowest difficulty) only 11/54 possible skills will spawn, even if you have literally everything unlocked, and only one skill at a time will ever spawn on a weapon. If you play on Hard, 50/54 will, including all but one of the super duper straight up broken ones, and up to three will spawn. Also, Simple is kind of a joke difficulty that removes stuff like elemental strengths/weaknesses.
Currently starting out Tales of Berseria. This is looking like a pretty neat game, overall. Well setup too - I've been in here for an hour and I already hate the villain's guts, good job on efficient characterization there.
The characters and their banter is always the highlight of Tales games. Even when the actual plot is less-than-great, I'm always drawn to keep going just to see how they all react to it.
Yeah, and Berseria has especially strong characters with some great chemistry.
A shame about the plot and the fucking weapon system. Christ. Whoever let those get past even the concept stage needs to be smacked upside the head with a trout repeatedly, or more likely, already has been. And then there's all "search for the next cutscene, which we've hidden on the opposite side of the town" bullshit. My bile is gurgling just thinking about it.
I never had an issue with the equipment system. Equip gear until its bonus is acquired, replace with new gear to learn their bonuses, repeat. That's the entire thing. It ain't Zestiria trying to match up enough symbols across your loadout to trigger specific bonuses levels of obtuse.
Not that part. The part where you need to be enhancing things just to dismantle them so you can enhance them to dismantle them so you can enhance them so you can dismantle them so you can enhance the thing that you actually want to enhance.
Yeah, that wasn't complicated either. You enhance a piece of gear to increase the amount of materials you get from dismantling it, but that's only really useful in the end game tiers of gear. Talking post game NG+ special dungeon level of gear. Otherwise you can just dismantle as you like and still keep a good stash of crafting materials.
I didn't say it was complicated. It's unnecessary and pointless busy work. The "farm materials -> enhance weapons" paradigm doesn't need to have multiple additional steps added to the middle of it. Finding a new weapon was a relief because you could just ignore that bullshit for a while as you mastered the new skill. And made worse by weapon stats being all over the place. Velvet's level 8ish weapon was stronger than around the next 5 even before you started taking enhancing into account, which made it effectively the best thing stat-wise for half the game.
Up to where I am I'm mostly just stomping without bothering with much of the complicated system. Game's being pretty easy anyway.
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
I mean, do I care? I'm just playing in the standard difficulty setting. Tales games are, if memory serves, rarely such extreme affairs that you need to eke out every possible advantage.
EDIT: If anything, less beancounty skills to work around would probably be considered a plus where I'm concerned!
Tonight was productive! Well, after we spent a bit of time wrapping up Rubycat's personal mission. You might remember, Rubycat had the prepper aunt with the jeep and the weapons stashes and so on. Well, tonight Rubycat decided he wanted to take her old rifle out for a spin. Which first meant I had to go through everybody's inventory to see who was using it. Turned out it was in a box under a pile of empty pizza boxes (no, we don't know where Karoz is finding pizzas). Anyway, Rubycat went out and plinked a bunch of zeds and decided it was a cool rifle, but he went back to his semi-auto shotgun immediately after. More punch, y'know? Along the way, he rescued a stray survivor and took her back to her enclave, only to find them dead (this is a pattern). Unfortunately, we didn't get the option to recruit her so I'm not sure if we've hit the hard limit of survivors we're allowed or if there's some other factor involved.
After Rubycat returned, Itchy-Fingers Karoz decided it was time to go Plague Heart hunting. So she grabbed Rubycat, some C-4, lots of ammo, a pile of molotovs, some fuel cans, a pile of pain pills, several piles of snacks, and off they went down the road. This apparently pleases Dirk.
Turns out that C-4 is stupidly effective on Plague Hearts and they destroy 2 of them in a matter of minutes. They're headed for a 3rd when they get a radio call from a random survivor in a nearby barn wanting help. Turns out that he watched a juggernaut overturn a cargo van and kill the occupants and he wants help looting the van (translation: dealing with the juggernaut). Well, hell, Karoz isn't going to turn down a fight like that. And of course, Karoz gets the kill.
Anyway, we find the cargo van. Sort of. It's kind of invisible unless you look at it from just the right angle. Yay, game bugs! It has some neat loot but nothing to write about, so Karoz and Rubycat move on to the next Plague Heart.
... which is quickly destroyed as well.
By this time, however, Karoz is getting tired, we're out of C-4, low on ammo and fuel, and it's almost night again. So back to base they go. While they restock and rest (and Karoz makes dinner), Jazz and Madican head out on a local supply search. They do well, kill some shit, get some stuff. By the way, Jazz is wielding a bastard sword. It's not the best weapon. But rule of cool wins. Jazz also learned the Utilities skill, so she's gonna be responsible for hooking us up with some consistent power and water soon, instead of the intermittent shit we get running a generator and collecting rain water.
And that's all we have time for tonight. I kind of expect Karoz will take out the last 3 plague hearts in another session or two. Oh, and we also got Mal's buggy quest to pop up again, so we'll have to deal with that...
---
Kill Count:
Karoz 935
Pixie 728
Mal 532
Rubycat 304
Madican 165
Iolo 128
Jazz 29
Dirk 2
I'm narrowing my eyes at some of the prices for EA stuff.
So not factoring in sales. Dragon age inquisition is 40 dollars for what I think is just everything. game and DLC.
Dragon age 2, for the game and all the DLC...is 45 dollars. Thats....numbers???
Inquisition has been on sale for as low as $10, on xbox anyway, so you could prob wait for a way better deal.
DA2 was tremendously rushed with a 'fuck your choices' ending.
Yeah, if any game needed a new ending, da2 definitely needed it a lot more than me3
It felt appropriate to the plot though. You get this buildup of Hawke being a big badass that did something monumental, only to discover that while they were indeed a badass, the actual event(s) the inquisitor was so interested about were almost entirely beyond Hawke's control and simply a case of wrong place, wrong time.
Granted, it's the kind of plot twist that plays off better in a movie or novel, rather than a RPG where you expect to have agency and influence on the narrative.
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a very fun game to play compared to Mass Effect 3/Andromeda, is the thing.
The only Dragon Age game that I actually enjoyed for the gameplay and not just the story was Dragon Age II.
I got Andromeda in the last sale and it just isn't doing it for me. Storywise it's meh, so only the gameplay is left to hold it together and it feels like nothing new.
( < . . .
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
Required? Nah. Nothing story based is locked behind a difficulty. But for example, if you play on Simple (lowest difficulty) only 11/54 possible skills will spawn, even if you have literally everything unlocked, and only one skill at a time will ever spawn on a weapon. If you play on Hard, 50/54 will, including all but one of the super duper straight up broken ones, and up to three will spawn. Also, Simple is kind of a joke difficulty that removes stuff like elemental strengths/weaknesses.
I mean, it also seems weird to me for any JRPG to have difficulty levels, but . . . *shrug*
It only vaguely makes more sense in Baldur's Gate/Oblivion style games, and really only because that type of setting has been around for a while, but then I've never actually played a Tales game ever. I own one, Zestria, I just haven't gotten to it yet.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a very fun game to play compared to Mass Effect 3/Andromeda, is the thing.
The only Dragon Age game that I actually enjoyed for the gameplay and not just the story was Dragon Age II.
DAO had multiple, varied endings. The Warden could end up just about anywhere with the right choices. There was only ever going to be one ending, but how you got there definitely mattered.
Mass Effect series had multiple, varied choices and about the only things that made any real difference by the third game was who you romanced. You still only had two or three choices at the end that might have been slightly different based mostly on what you did in the final game.
I wasn't expecting CYoA, but I was kind of wanting something more satisfying.
Enjoying it so far but might have to dock it some points for being a game in the franchise without an opening scene where a POV mech gets blown up.
My biggest problem with Battletech is that I can't run it worth a shit. And getting a new computer has now met some financial delays.
No small part of me is a tiny bit frustrated that a strategy game doesn't run as well on my machine as Prey does but at the same time my machine is old and slow and old.
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a very fun game to play compared to Mass Effect 3/Andromeda, is the thing.
The only Dragon Age game that I actually enjoyed for the gameplay and not just the story was Dragon Age II.
But da2 also had the worst combat in the whole series! Between having to use fucking Anders if you wanted any healing (or dealing with the asinine global potion cool down) and there waves, oh good the waves, combat was an exercise in frustration. Not to mention the fucking "awesome button" which just made to have to keep tapping for a basic attack instead of just setting an auto attack target.
The only thing that might, MIGHT be an improvement instead of a regression from dao was the combos. Which were pointless sauce mages were still better than anything else anyway
To some extent I feel like the expectation with DA and ME games was that there'd be as many varied endings as a Choose Your Own Adventure book and I don't really get that or think it's realistic.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a very fun game to play compared to Mass Effect 3/Andromeda, is the thing.
The only Dragon Age game that I actually enjoyed for the gameplay and not just the story was Dragon Age II.
But da2 also had the worst combat in the whole series! Between having to use fucking Anders if you wanted any healing (or dealing with the asinine global potion cool down) and there waves, oh good the waves, combat was an exercise in frustration. Not to mention the fucking "awesome button" which just made to have to keep tapping for a basic attack instead of just setting an auto attack target.
The only thing that might, MIGHT be an improvement instead of a regression from dao was the combos. Which were pointless sauce mages were still better than anything else anyway
Mechanically, yes.
I'm sure there is a game design word for this that I just don't know, but combat in DA2 felt good. When you slashed someone with a sword, it was visually pleasing and it felt like I was doing it. DAO (and I would argue the KOTOR series suffered from this as well) combat feels very divorced from the player.
Posts
So not factoring in sales. Dragon age inquisition is 40 dollars for what I think is just everything. game and DLC.
Dragon age 2, for the game and all the DLC...is 45 dollars. Thats....numbers???
Or you drop $30 on a year of origin access basic and can play both.
Steam ID: Good Life
(Sometimes, I've actually used "does this set me off?" as a test of how immersive/realistic a game is. I tell ya, I'm NOT a fan of the trend, starting some years back, to put parkour/jumping puzzles in everything.)
Up to where I am I'm mostly just stomping without bothering with much of the complicated system. Game's being pretty easy anyway.
Inquisition has been on sale for as low as $10, on xbox anyway, so you could prob wait for a way better deal.
DA2 was tremendously rushed with a 'fuck your choices' ending.
Yeah, if any game needed a new ending, da2 definitely needed it a lot more than me3
You should bump the difficulty as high as you're comfortable with. It'll still be super mashy, but a number of important drops are locked behind each region's Dire Foe random encounters at certain difficulty levels (playing at Hard will get you all but one), not to mention it increases the drop rate for the za-billion drops you'll need/want.
Kenshi Part 4: Take Me To the River
After his shooting spreed, we send Evma over to the local Shinobis to use their facilities to train lockpicking. Since he's our own Male Greenlander, if we ever need to get into Holy Nation lands and steal stuff, he's our guy. @Mugsley has been hard at work increasing our tech levels and we need another building to store our new facilities.
We decide to take a trip through Western Hiver lands of Vain. It has rivers of acid, but for some reason the rain isn't that bad. Stopping along the river we find several Hiver villages, but nothing of too much import to sell, though they do help us fend off the local wildlife. At the end of the river lies a prize a large abandoned settlement, brimming with loot. Unfortunately, the acid raid hides the current denizens: Blood spiders. These little jerks can go down fast but hit like a truck for their size. Well we'll take this steathily and...oh, the local wildlife is helping clear the spiders out. Problem is, the animals keep coming, and they're hostile. We grab everything we can, there is a still a structure we can't get into right now but we can come back. Sadly, Pixie and Talus are crippled so Evma and Mugsley will have to carry them home.
The Shek kingdom is decently close, but a pack of Beak things almost make us lunch. With my two melee fighters out of commission, running is the only answer. We see a fallen tower and despite the danger, Evma goes to investigate and breaks open the door. Unfortunately he can't get in to see if there is anything of worth so we head out. Once in the Shek capital, we find a giant Shek lady that'll join us for 7.5k. Usually I'd balk at the price but we're flush from all the ancient tech we just sold so I say sure. We give her a good name, @DaringDirk . She has some fantastic combat stats but her Toughness is surprisingly low. Well, nothing some beatings won't fix, and boy we get plenty of those. So we head on home with loads of books, money and food.
Kenshi Part 5: We Wear Many Hats (No, Not Flesh Hats)
Okay, second attempt. We had bought some maps and apparently there is a large settlement out in the Swamps, so off we go again. Evma makes a bit of levity but man, this watery hell makes the river in Vain look like child's play. We hit the Swamp Villages as we go who have a unique regional pairing. Dodging hordes of blood spiders and encountering a group of bandits named the Red Sabres we finally end up in the "settlement" of Shark. It's a glorified gang hangout with at least some decent defenses. Still it's not a total waste, we find a Hiver who says he's a great shot and we just have to pay his tab of 2.3k. Seems like a deal so now we have a Hiver named Green. We'll plastic surgery that to @LD50 when we get back to the Hub.
A picture of the team. We just need a Scorchlander and a Skeleman and we have the whole set. LD50 has low limb stats but very slowly loses hunger and can eat stuff no one else will. So we're up to 3 melee, 3 crossbowers.
There are some strange structures out west that I figure we can investigate before going home. On the way we find a hideout. Ends up this is where the leader of the Red Sabres resides--with about 30 minions. Ho boy, we run as fast as we can. Thankfully LD50 isn't that encumbered or he'd be in need of rescuing.
We hit the border of the swamp at dawn and reach a weird location called The Grid. There doesn't seem to be any enemies and then we come across some ruined workshops that are almost completely stripped bare except for some locked metal boxes. Problem is no one is skilled enough to even try opening them--except Evma. At first it doesn't seem like much is in there, until he opens one and our eyes grow wide. Unfortunately, we've run out of tech that can just be learned by standard NERD books and need something on a larger scale and here on a lark we've found it, unguarded. We load up as much as we can, including a fancy prosthetic arm and begin to head back towards Shek lands via a detour.
Detours are always a mistake. This one was full of Beak Things. It was unpleasant, and no pictures were taken.
Stopping at Shek towns, we sell and restock, but decide to head back to a Hive village to see if there is anything worth picking up for LD50. LD50 isn't too keen about visiting his old homeland. Sure enough, the usually friendly shopkeeper recognizes LD50 and proclaims him "HIVELESS" and threatens us if we don't get out. The nearby soldiers and the swarms I know are outside aren't worth pissing off.
So we finally head home to the Hub and get LD50 properly outfitted and start some training.
We're starting some advanced tech and can do some decent crafting but not yet able to produce much in raw materials than what we scavenge or buy. Still, let's try making some armor--we can make the same gear for our melee warrior but at a higher grade, the tooltip says so! Well, our knowledge might be there but our skill is lacking as Talus manages to make even worse armor. Ends up we really need to grind out these crafting skills as well to make decent gear. The junk doesn't even sell that well so forget making a profit this way for now...
Kenshi, why you so Kenshi?
I'm more narrowing my eyes at the 9 year old game being more expensive for all the content than the 6 year old one.
lollolea
Publishers gonna publish. Er...
Wait.
Steam | XBL
Feet are...not a thing Hivers have.
Seriously, there boots slot is red and nothing can be placed there. You also you need unique shirts. Yer a bunch of weirdos. Adorable weirdos.
Ah, haha, yeah gotcha
Tonight was productive! Well, after we spent a bit of time wrapping up Rubycat's personal mission. You might remember, Rubycat had the prepper aunt with the jeep and the weapons stashes and so on. Well, tonight Rubycat decided he wanted to take her old rifle out for a spin. Which first meant I had to go through everybody's inventory to see who was using it. Turned out it was in a box under a pile of empty pizza boxes (no, we don't know where Karoz is finding pizzas). Anyway, Rubycat went out and plinked a bunch of zeds and decided it was a cool rifle, but he went back to his semi-auto shotgun immediately after. More punch, y'know? Along the way, he rescued a stray survivor and took her back to her enclave, only to find them dead (this is a pattern). Unfortunately, we didn't get the option to recruit her so I'm not sure if we've hit the hard limit of survivors we're allowed or if there's some other factor involved.
After Rubycat returned, Itchy-Fingers Karoz decided it was time to go Plague Heart hunting. So she grabbed Rubycat, some C-4, lots of ammo, a pile of molotovs, some fuel cans, a pile of pain pills, several piles of snacks, and off they went down the road. This apparently pleases Dirk.
Turns out that C-4 is stupidly effective on Plague Hearts and they destroy 2 of them in a matter of minutes. They're headed for a 3rd when they get a radio call from a random survivor in a nearby barn wanting help. Turns out that he watched a juggernaut overturn a cargo van and kill the occupants and he wants help looting the van (translation: dealing with the juggernaut). Well, hell, Karoz isn't going to turn down a fight like that. And of course, Karoz gets the kill.
But does she really have to be so cocky about it?
Anyway, we find the cargo van. Sort of. It's kind of invisible unless you look at it from just the right angle. Yay, game bugs! It has some neat loot but nothing to write about, so Karoz and Rubycat move on to the next Plague Heart.
... which is quickly destroyed as well.
By this time, however, Karoz is getting tired, we're out of C-4, low on ammo and fuel, and it's almost night again. So back to base they go. While they restock and rest (and Karoz makes dinner), Jazz and Madican head out on a local supply search. They do well, kill some shit, get some stuff. By the way, Jazz is wielding a bastard sword. It's not the best weapon. But rule of cool wins. Jazz also learned the Utilities skill, so she's gonna be responsible for hooking us up with some consistent power and water soon, instead of the intermittent shit we get running a generator and collecting rain water.
And that's all we have time for tonight. I kind of expect Karoz will take out the last 3 plague hearts in another session or two. Oh, and we also got Mal's buggy quest to pop up again, so we'll have to deal with that...
---
Kill Count:
Karoz 935
Pixie 728
Mal 532
Rubycat 304
Madican 165
Iolo 128
Jazz 29
Dirk 2
Plague Hearts destroyed: 9/12
Don't open this game. You'll start, and then it will be days later, and you won't know why.
I need to know exactly how "locked behind difficulty" this is, because I generally find the practice abhorrent in any game, especially when it comes to "entire sections of the game". Are there literally things you can only get if the game difficulty is turned up to Hard? Because that's very very close to an instant no sale, off my wishlist thing for me.
Um, completely locked? You can raise or lower the difficulty whenever you want (some of the upper ones need to be unlocked), but a ton of the potentites in the game (passive permanent bonuses given by the story and essentially every boss) are strictly difficulty dependent.
eg
You obtain a Perserver's Glacite by killing a completely optional miniboss (every area has one). Once you have it, that unlocks Damage Reduction as a skill that can randomly appear on equipment, but only when playing at Hard or higher. If you're not playing on at least Hard, you will never see the Damage Reduction skill.
Note that the potentites themselves aren't blocked by difficulty, but many just won't do anything until/unless you bump the difficulty up. The only except are the Dire Foe bosses, which are random mini-bosses specific to each continent. They each drop a potentite, but they only spawn on Normal or above.
Do you really need those skills at lower difficulty levels? I mean, when I ask about things locked behind difficulty, I'm thinking special weapons, actual endings, etc. If it's just passive/active abilities that are there to help because the difficulty is harder, then that I can deal with by . . . not needing those things.
And I say locked because I will never, never, ever, ever, ever play a game on hard. I'm not looking to prove something or challenge myself to the uberlevel. Hell, I only play most games on Easy or Very Easy, because I'm not interested in struggling with the game, and the only exceptions to that are Dark Souls-style games in which I figure out exploits and cheese strategies instead to make the games easier. So in that sense, anything behind Hard (and very likely behind Normal) difficulty in a game is something I'm not going to experience, and any large chunk of a game (items, story, dungeons, etc) that are hidden away inside "you must be this git gud to enjoy the full game" have my utter and everlasting ire, and aren't worth my time as a game.
I mean, do I care? I'm just playing in the standard difficulty setting. Tales games are, if memory serves, rarely such extreme affairs that you need to eke out every possible advantage.
EDIT: If anything, less beancounty skills to work around would probably be considered a plus where I'm concerned!
I'm cool and useful! Woohoo! :biggrin:
Steam | XBL
I was gifted by @Dirtyboy sometime in the night. Zombies, survival, *and* character customization? I'm in.
Thanks!
It felt appropriate to the plot though. You get this buildup of Hawke being a big badass that did something monumental, only to discover that while they were indeed a badass, the actual event(s) the inquisitor was so interested about were almost entirely beyond Hawke's control and simply a case of wrong place, wrong time.
Granted, it's the kind of plot twist that plays off better in a movie or novel, rather than a RPG where you expect to have agency and influence on the narrative.
Unless there's a game out there that accomplishes that.
I don't know. Dragon Age has already done a muuuuuuch better job than Mass Effect.
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a very fun game to play compared to Mass Effect 3/Andromeda, is the thing.
The only Dragon Age game that I actually enjoyed for the gameplay and not just the story was Dragon Age II.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I mean, it also seems weird to me for any JRPG to have difficulty levels, but . . . *shrug*
It only vaguely makes more sense in Baldur's Gate/Oblivion style games, and really only because that type of setting has been around for a while, but then I've never actually played a Tales game ever. I own one, Zestria, I just haven't gotten to it yet.
Enjoying it so far but might have to dock it some points for being a game in the franchise without an opening scene where a POV mech gets blown up.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
DAO had multiple, varied endings. The Warden could end up just about anywhere with the right choices. There was only ever going to be one ending, but how you got there definitely mattered.
Mass Effect series had multiple, varied choices and about the only things that made any real difference by the third game was who you romanced. You still only had two or three choices at the end that might have been slightly different based mostly on what you did in the final game.
I wasn't expecting CYoA, but I was kind of wanting something more satisfying.
My biggest problem with Battletech is that I can't run it worth a shit. And getting a new computer has now met some financial delays.
No small part of me is a tiny bit frustrated that a strategy game doesn't run as well on my machine as Prey does but at the same time my machine is old and slow and old.
The only thing that might, MIGHT be an improvement instead of a regression from dao was the combos. Which were pointless sauce mages were still better than anything else anyway
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Those MechWarrior intro FMVs were so iconic in their time.
Steam | XBL
Mechanically, yes.
I'm sure there is a game design word for this that I just don't know, but combat in DA2 felt good. When you slashed someone with a sword, it was visually pleasing and it felt like I was doing it. DAO (and I would argue the KOTOR series suffered from this as well) combat feels very divorced from the player.