Video Games

[Ravengm]

I downloaded a copy of D&D: Daggerdale the other day. And, holy crap, I want my money back. Like, seriously. And I don't normally think that ever. This game is inexcusable for a company with any clout to release.

I started my journey, as I have in many games, by choosing to make a new character. I am then greeted by four choices: Wizard, Cleric, Rogue, and Fighter. Yeah, pretty standard, but whatever. Then I notice: the character models aren't suggestions or representations, they are the character you'll make, race included. So all Clerics are apparently dwarves. Whatever, 4th ed was pretty restricting with races since you wanted particular bonuses anyway. I resisted the urge to make a dwarven Cleric named Carlos and instead chose to go with the Halfling Wizard. With that, I was prompted to enter a name, so I took Cock McSquat, the Halfling Wizard and headed off to the rest of chargen.

The first thing I noticed was that basically nothing was explained. Which is just fine for me, since I'm familiar with the system, but if I had no idea what D&D 4th Edition was all about, I'd be totally mystified by most of this. Fortunately for the ignorant masses, though, there is nearly zero interaction for character generation. Yes, this is a D&D game that wanted to show off the "rich and deep" system of 4th edition. No, you don't get to choose where your attribute points go. No, skills don't exist. No, none of the feats are worth taking (though that's no different than usual). No, you don't get to choose what powers you get.

Speaking of powers, they don't work like they do in PnP. I'm not really surprised, but they're different enough to where it bears mentioning. At 1st level, you have 2 possible powers and 2 points to spend on them. Each power you can put points into has 3 different levels, and is unlocked/improved by spending 1, 1, or 2 points per level, respectively. So literally every 1st level wizard will have the choice of putting points into Fireball or Magic Missile. And honestly, you'll probably put one point in each because they're on cooldown timers and you can use them twice as often if you alternate between them.

After looking at the attribute points screen and seeing I literally could not choose to not transfer the (more than 2) points in Strength, Wisdom and Charisma into Dexterity (by the way, I was forced into the Staff of Defense class feature, which is the last I would have picked), I skipped that part entirely. Then I moved on to feats.

Now, I know that the feat selection in 4th Edition isn't prime because most feats are worthless or close enough to it. But there are at least some things that you could take to not feel bad about yourself. Those... don't really exist here. My choices were every proficiency feat imaginable to mankind, those feats that change the attribute you use for basic attacks, Implement Expertise, a feat that makes the Second Chance power (more on this later) give enemies a -2 to attacks when it triggers, one that heals me for 2hp when I kill something with a spell, and like one other that was so bland I don't even remember what it did. That's it. I scrolled down through literally 15 or so worthless feats because I didn't care about weapon or armor proficiencies, and anyone who takes those feats that change your basic attack attribute should be pitied. Knowing that attack-boosting abilities are useful-if-boring in 4e, I picked up Implement Expertise and started up.

Now, all of what I've said so far is about character creation. Yet by this point I was annoyed beyond belief that the game essentially said "Oh hai, here's your character." I felt like I was playing that demo that released with the original books in 4e, pregen characters and all. I understand that it's important to make the system smooth for people unfamiliar with it, but come on. At least have the option of an "Advanced Character Generation" system. Or even just explain what the hell was going on for the new people. There's no manual since the game is DLC, unless I missed something. There's just a buttonmap for the controller and a couple brightness, etc. options. Ugh.

So, gameplay. It's... not actually that terrible. You run around and use powers to kill things. It's woefully uninspired and I just feel like I'm playing Diablo, but whatever. The problem I have with nearly everything is that I can't go 2 minutes without running into either a bug or an annoying "feature" that won't go away. For instance, the "targeting system" (and I use that term very loosely) for powers is abysmal. It would be awesome if it actually worked, but it doesn't. 3/4 of the time when I use the Ice Storm power (or whatever it's called), I can't change the area, or the area indicator turns on its side so that it's half-sticking-out-of-the-ground, which means I have to just cast the damn thing and hope it hits something, which it rarely does. The Lightning Serpent power just doesn't bother hitting things unless they're close enough to kill with your cock, even though it's supposed to have longer range. I cast it and... nothing happens. The bolt goes out, it gets to the enemy I was targeting, but it doesn't do anything. I have to wait until they're closer before it even works! There's literally no way someone could go through playtesting this and be like "Yeah, that's awesome, I don't see anything wrong. Ship it!".

Everything about this game (even aside from the bugs everywhere, both graphical and gameplay-wise) feels rushed. There are no actual cutscenes, just illustrations with voiceovers in the background, and they sort of are animated sometimes. There's no voice acting while you're actually playing the game, just text and a sound clip of the person you're talking to going "Huh?" or "Wha?". It's almost always a confused sound, and I'm not sure why.

So, actual mechanics. It's (very) loosely based on 4e, which shouldn't come as a surprise, but to the point where some options are just obsolete. Attack rolls apparently just don't matter. I have never seen any one of my powers or attacks miss (aside from the Lightning Serpent thing, but that's pretty obviously a bug). Maybe you do half damage on a miss all the time or something. I actually don't know, since the whole thing is so obscured. But I firmly believe that they just don't matter. So Implement Expertise was a waste. Also, halflings get the Second Chance racial power, which forces a reroll on every successful hit an enemy makes on you. Sounds awesome, but not when you always get hit anyway. So Implement Expertise was a waste. As is Staff of Defense, even though I couldn't choose anything else.

It's also really repetitive. You get into a groove of using your powers, and you just cycle through them while the others recharge. Once you get four or five of them, it becomes routine to just activate them in an accustomed order, since it kills everything dead anyway after just a few powers, and since mine are ranged I usually don't even get hit.

The repetitiveness just gets worse with the enemies. You literally have two things to fight against for 3/4 of the game: goblins and skeletons. And some crazed dwarves, but they look and act enough like the goblins that they're basically the same thing. Skeletons don't even show up that much. So most of the time it's just going to look for the next group of goblins to kill. Later on, they add some weird assassin dudes to the color palette, and then tieflings (barely) and dragonborn (also barely). It's just so boring and uninspired to fight mobs, since they look and act the same the majority of the time.

I don't even want to get into how bad the plotline or multiplayer is, since I've already written over 1300 words and I don't care anymore.

I've played bad games before, a lot, and not wanted to march into an office and demand my purchase price back. But this one makes me want to do that because it feels like I'm playing the beta for a game, not a final product.

Fuck.

EDIT: I'll write something about the multiplayer later, when I've had time to test and see if it actually works. It hasn't yet.

[Maxus]

I started Bioshock 2 the other day.

It initially irritated me. For some reason, the Big Daddy feels even more fragile than Jack the Human. And how it'll throw five gun-wielding splicers at you? Yeah, great way to make me panic-fire.

Big Sister is, if nothing else, cool to watch. The telekinesis-augmented acrobatics is extremely nifty.

But, dammit, I'm playing as a Big Daddy. If the game requires me to fight Big Sister, it should feel like Clash of the Titans.

I did that just now, by the way. The first slug-out fight. I didn't die. I mean, I had to burn her several times, hide behind corners, and kept plugging her with the armor-piercing rivets, but I did it.

I am noticing how Rapture went from Objectivist Utopia (and its inevitable conclusion) to...Collectivism? And seems to be showing its conclusion.

I have to wonder what Bioshock 3...pardon me, Bioshock Infinite will lampoon. Mega-nationalism, if the trailer is any judge.

[Ganbare Gincun]

Seriously. Setting up a singularity-warp combo was ridiculously difficult, because while waiting on warp to come back my teammates would just shoot the guy to death. And even when I did, it barely hurt anybody else around. Killing people down to health is not hard. Stripping armor and defenses is hard. And if the only thing you're good at is an adept is killing people who are already defenseless, you're worthless.

If you have bought up Nemesis and you're wearing armor that boosts your Biotic Damage, chances are good that you'll be able to wipe out an enemy's Armor or Barrier with one use of Heavy Warp at higher levels. And if you're going up against an enemy with shields, you can either use Overload or Energy Drain to drop them just as easily. But even if you don't have Overload/Energy Drain, you can drop a Singularity on the enemy and open fire with your SMG (preferably the Locust with Disruptor Ammo), and your target's shields won't last very long at all.

And then once a target's defenses are negated, either 1) follow up with a Singularity or a Level 2 Pull and then follow up with Unstable Warp to cause a Warp Explosion that will kill the target, cause lots of damage to other enemies, and possibly do extra damage by throwing them against walls/off of ledges or 2) use Heavy Throw and arc it so it sends the target off of a ledge or as high into the air as possible. Shockwave is also an great ability to have on certain levels (Jack usually handles Shockwave duty whenever I play a Biotic).

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but once you get the hang of Biotic combos, you can kill things fairly quickly. And you don't have to worry about running out of ammo - you'll typically have plenty of ammo laying around once you finish a skirmish.

An all-Biotic team is *fantastic* for the Suicide Mission - they clean up against the Collectors and don't take away too much from your Hold The Line Score. Jack is an especially good choice for the final part of the Suicide Mission and the Final Boss. She is excellent for setting up Warp Combos and sending people flying off of ledges with Shockwave. Just make sure she doesn't "walk in the fire" or get shot up too badly. And always, always equip her pistol.

I'm going back to soldier. GRUMBLE.

Guns are also pretty sweet. If you choose the right weapon for the right mission, you can chew through your opponents with a minimum of ammo usage. But what's often times most important is not what weapons *you* are carrying, but rather what your teammates are carrying.

1) The Incisor - If you have the M-29 Incisor, you can pretty much coast through Insanity. The Incisor is bugged as all hell, and your teammates will not only be unusually accurate with it, but they will ignore the damage reduction that the weapon is supposed to suffer from at higher difficulty levels. However, due to its ammo inefficiency, I wouldn't recommend that you carry it yourself - stick with either a Widow or a Viper. But if you have two Incisor-armed Snipers, you're good to go. It gets even worse if you have Legion equipped with a Widow!

But yeah, if you're running with the Incisor, then I'm not surprised that you're disappointed with the effectiveness of Warp Combos!

2) Assault Rifles - teammates clean up with the Vindicator Assault Rifle. It's bugged, so your squad will be unusually accurate with it and do extra damage with it (though not nearly to the same extent as the Incisor). They won't be able to lay down suppressive fire, but they'll be able to strip away armor and health very quickly. It's great for taking out Husks, Vorcha, and Krogan. For Geth and opponents with shields, have them take either the Avenger or the Collector's Assault Rifle to chew through their shields (even more effective with Disruptor Ammo).

3) SMGs - characters that rely on SMGs should upgrade to the Locust and then the Tempest as soon as they can get it; they won't suffer any recoil penalties to accuracy. Combine with Armor Piercing or Disruptor Ammo and they can lay waste to either armor or shields in short order.

Inspired by this thread, I'm doing a new ME2 playthrough on Hard as an infiltrator. So far, non-Krogan enemies just DIE when I shoot them in the head, or in the pinky while cloaked. It's incredibly satisfying until I abruptly realize that my clever plan of hiding in one place and gunning them down one by one leaves me out of ammo when fighting 11+ enemies or a few Krogan.

If you can get your hands on the M-5 Phalanx, that will help you out a great deal - it's basically like having a second, less powerful Sniper Rifle. Try and use your teammates to strip away shields and barriers with their special abilities and suppressive fire. Use your SMG and either Disruptor Ammo or Warp Ammo to chew up Shields and Barriers respectively as needed and then either switch to the Widow for a head shot or drop an Incinerate on your enemy and conserve some ammo. Keep in mind that you won't be able to use your Kuwashi Visor for any mission that requires a full helmet to be worn, so you'll face a 5% damage drop on some missions. Having Miranda around to passively boost your damage helps, plus she can chew through Barriers and Armor with Warp if you need her to.

[Maxus]

I stuck with the Locust once I got it. The damage may be less, but the shot grouping and lack of recoil suits my Infiltrator playstyle.

I.E. if I'm against something with shields, I cloak, switch to the Locust (with disruptor ammo), aim for the head, and empty the clip.

There's not much in the game a whole clip of Locust ammo won't put a noticeable hurting on.

[DSMatticus]

And then once a target's defenses are negated...

My experience has been that once their defenses are negated, I can SMG them to death faster than I can singularity/warp or pull/warp them to death. Health goes down ridiculously fast compared to barriers, shields, and armor. Hell, half the time my teammates finish the guy before my warp recharges.

So if all the hard work is killing people's armor and shields (as it seems to be), then having the specialty of destroying people's health really, really hard seems like a useless specialty.

[Ganbare Gincun]

I stuck with the Locust once I got it. The damage may be less, but the shot grouping and lack of recoil suits my Infiltrator playstyle.

I.E. if I'm against something with shields, I cloak, switch to the Locust (with disruptor ammo), aim for the head, and empty the clip.

There's not much in the game a whole clip of Locust ammo won't put a noticeable hurting on.

Sorry I wasn't clearer in my last post - teammates should use the Tempest, not Shepard. The recoil on that weapon is atrocious... but your teammates always compensate for it. The Locust is so awesome, I typically do Kasumi's loyalty mission first thing out of the gate when playing a Biotic Shepard. The Collector's Assault Rifle is basically the machine-gun version of the Locust - it's a very swanky weapon indeed!

[Ganbare Gincun]

My experience has been that once their defenses are negated, I can SMG them to death faster than I can singularity/warp or pull/warp them to death. Health goes down ridiculously fast compared to barriers, shields, and armor. Hell, half the time my teammates finish the guy before my warp recharges.

So if all the hard work is killing people's armor and shields (as it seems to be), then having the specialty of destroying people's health really, really hard seems like a useless specialty.

If you're playing on Insanity and you have a target afflicted with Singularity that has stripped defenses, you may very well be able to gun them down faster then if you used a biotic combo. But you can kill that target while doing severe damage to multiple targets with Warp Explosion, and you can angle your Warps and Throws around cover for low-recharge insta-kills on single targets. Shooting people in the face is a perfectly viable tactic, but I found that using all three of these tactics in appropriate situations allowed me to clear the game much easier and faster then when I was a Soldier or a Vanguard on the same difficulty level. Your experience may be different from mine, but that's what ended up being the easiest class for me to play through with.

[Maxus]

I stuck with the Locust once I got it. The damage may be less, but the shot grouping and lack of recoil suits my Infiltrator playstyle.

I.E. if I'm against something with shields, I cloak, switch to the Locust (with disruptor ammo), aim for the head, and empty the clip.

There's not much in the game a whole clip of Locust ammo won't put a noticeable hurting on.

Sorry I wasn't clearer in my last post - teammates should use the Tempest, not Shepard. The recoil on that weapon is atrocious... but your teammates always compensate for it. The Locust is so awesome, I typically do Kasumi's loyalty mission first thing out of the gate when playing a Biotic Shepard. The Collector's Assault Rifle is basically the machine-gun version of the Locust - it's a very swanky weapon indeed!

Unfortunately, I don't have the CAR.

I found out I can get the Geth Assault Rifle on Tali's recruitment mission, though. Hardcore Geth aren't that bad (I was out of practice and put it on Normal. Switched to Veteran and Hardcore as I went along).
And the Colossus can be slapped down with a shot from the Cain, so the final battle gets a little easier.

As for some guns with recoil, I put it to work for me. I aim about the level of the hips and just hold the trigger for a second.

It works with the automatics in L.A. Noire, too (especially the Chicago Piano. In a game where three bullets in the chest from any gun will kill someone, putting the aiming sight on someone's stomach and letting the muzzle climb does wonders).

[Kaelik]

I think Sentinel is easiest class. That Shield is retarded imba.

[Maxus]

I think Sentinel is easiest class. That Shield is retarded imba.

I'd heard it can take out a lot of Husks when/if it gets broken.

I've been meaning to try the Sentinel sometime.

[Ganbare Gincun]

I think Sentinel is easiest class. That Shield is retarded imba.

That's the one class that I haven't played yet *at all*. May do as soon as I get my gaming rig back up and running.

Have you guys seen the ME3 demos? Looking very nice. Much love to BioWare for giving us the Omni-Blade. And the word on the street is that you get to keep any weapons/armor you picked up in ME2 and bring them to ME3. Here's hoping that rumor is true!

[Parthenon]

So I'm trying to work out exactly what Microsoft was thinking about the Halo Anniversary game coming out soon. And I have no fucking clue.

Halo Anniversary is Halo 1. Not a remake of Halo 1, not a reimagining, or what Bungie originally wanted to do but ran out of time, but exactly the same level layout, physics engine, gameplay, AI, every-fucking-thing except the graphics, which with a press of a button swaps back to the original graphics anyway.

Why the fuck would you bring out exactly the same game 10 years later? No, really, why? I've read a good article about the original Halo where it discusses some of what they wanted to do such as in the sections where they go back over the same levels they actually wanted to do a before and after the flood, or some stuff about how the library was supposed to be part of a much larger underground area which you can see most of at any time instead of being locked off for frame rate.

The halo studio could work off that, changing the maps and layout of the levels, adding sections or reworking parts to make it better. Theres a whole lot you could do, and they decided to do a straight copy. Lazy fuckers.

[Psychic Robot]

honestly I think the new halo games are ass. the only good thing that came of halo 2 was the sword and that's pretty much it. I'd much rather play halo 1 with better graphics than halo 3.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I'd rather not play any of the Halo games if given a choice . I did try Halo 1 and Halo 3.

I was irritated that in 3 I would be rushing aliens with my machine gun blazing while my teammates would run right in front of me. For some reason I was chastised for that.

Another Question: Anyone have any experience playing Xbox games on their Xbox 360? I am interested in buying the first Fable game (next month will be pretty sweet and I'll be able to blow $10 on a game!), but I heard it has odd graphical glitches and can take a very long time to save in late-game. Anyone try it that can do a mini-review on the glitching?

[Maxus]

Halo has some righteous multiplayer.

But that's its only major virtue. You're not going to sell anyone on the story, for sure.

Gameplay is adequate.

Graphics are pretty, but what game isn't these days?

Sound...eh, who plays a game other than Silent Hill 2 for its sound?

I suppose my biggest problem with Halo is the Halo fans.

I'm sure there's some folks who play Halo in groups and manage to be cool to other folks when they do it, even if I haven't seen any.

I just wish they'd have been in the game room at college, rather than the jackasses who hogged the TV playing multiplayer Halo, except for the few days after a new game came out. There was about two weeks there when I had a gap in my schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I spent an hour in there because it was comfortable and had something to watch.

To give you an idea of their attitude towards games, when Super Paper Mario came around, they were skipping the dialogue.

After that, they were dickheads to a guy who asked when they would be off that TV so he could try some multiplayer...forget what, exactly.

So I stopped chilling there. If the other patrons are obnoxious, I'd rather not chill in a place, thanks.

[Prak]

I'm thinking about buying Dark Watch with my next check. Played it once before, but kind of want to play it again. Checking on the price, I noticed it's on PS2 and Xbox. Anyone got an opinion on which is better, or are they pretty much equal? I played on PS2 before.

[Parthenon]

Another Question: Anyone have any experience playing Xbox games on their Xbox 360? I am interested in buying the first Fable game (next month will be pretty sweet and I'll be able to blow $10 on a game!), but I heard it has odd graphical glitches and can take a very long time to save in late-game. Anyone try it that can do a mini-review on the glitching?

EDIT: I severely misunderstood an announcement. Probably a second hand information thing. For some reason I thought they removed the xbox functionality for the 360 but the wiki article is talking as if it is still possible.

In the wiki article it says they've stopped adding any but that it still works. You may need to be online to get a patch for it.

Fable : Constantly lagging framerate. Menu to game demos not "'dummied'" and result in a fatal error. Textures can sometimes get mixed up, for example a stretched face on the characters chest.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I have an old model 360, so I may yet be able to get it to work. A friend tells me very day that it's going to get the RROD any day now, at which point I tell him to shut his face.

[Maxus]

I have an old model 360, so I may yet be able to get it to work. A friend tells me very day that it's going to get the RROD any day now, at which point I tell him to shut his face.

RROD is an overheating problem Be cool to your Xbox, and it shall be cool back to you.

What's odd is that some Xboxes still do play old games.

My cousin snagged Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the original Xbox, yet it somehow plays on his less-than-three-months-old 360.

[Prak]

Surround Xbox with cold compresses while playing?

[Stahlseele]

point a fan that would be blowing you otherwise at the x-bawks . .
you should take a shower to cool down, the x-bawks should not . .

[Orion]

I tried an insanity adept. It was working, but it was boring.

I like my Adept. Biotic Pull has one major advantage over guns as an enemy disposal system--it arcs over walls. Biotic Warp is fantastic against collectors and enemy Biotics. Only Adepts get both. And against Shielded enemies, Singularity still stuns them and drains their shields.

[Maxus]

point a fan that would be blowing you otherwise at the x-bawks . .
you should take a shower to cool down, the x-bawks should not . .

sort of.

I've heard of folks making a sling to get their Xbox about three inches off the surface to let the vent get full play, or putting their entertainment system in the path of a wall-AC vent.

But basically, keep it dusted and keep it near actual airflow, and it should be good.

[Ganbare Gincun]

I've heard of folks making a sling to get their Xbox about three inches off the surface to let the vent get full play, or putting their entertainment system in the path of a wall-AC vent.

But basically, keep it dusted and keep it near actual airflow, and it should be good.

I find that putting your XBox on one of these helps out immensely with airflow and cooling. You can also try one of these if you have the room for it.

[Lago PARANOIA]

You know what's weird?

I'm playing Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and even though from an objective standpoint it's better than its predecessor in all of the important ways it still leaves me feeling kind of cold. What's extra weird is that I didn't mind playing Final Fantasy IV DS all the way through (at least until I got to the tower of Bab-il and its grossly unbalanced random encounters).

I honestly think that the games' biggest weakness is the continuity porn. It respects the prequel it came from a bit too much. Yeah, going to all of the old towns is a thrill and all but I would much rather visit brand new locations, talk to brand new people, visit brand new dungeons. I actually really enjoyed going through some of the 'new' locations like the mountain outside of Mist and having to take the long way through Devil's Road but I think that the game would be better off if either the returning characters went through a lot more character growth or they just went 'fuck it' with the geography and put in random countries and cities everywhere.

Long story short, I want to like it and I can't find any reason to hate it but it just feels 'off' for some reason.