Video Games

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 2:16 am

So I bought Diablo 3, because my girlfriend wanted me to play it with her, and also I had a gift card for the local game store and there wasn't anything else there that I really really wanted.

I'm enjoying the way you gain abilities and runes. That's a massive improvement. In general it's better than D2, shame about the always-online thing and the whole "What? You purchased a game and wanted to play it during our 6-hour downtime? FUCK YOU!" thing.

Now if there were only a way to shed Liberal White Guilt so as to play as the Witchdoctor without constantly thinking "This is a bit racist".

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Oct 29, 2014 2:54 am

I played a witch doctor. I specialized in having lots of dudes on the field. It was pretty cool. Then I got bored and decided to wait to see if there's another expansion.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:01 am

Apparently there is one that's coming soon-ish, and the six-hour downtime was to lay groundwork for that.

I really dig throwing pots of spiders at people. Then again, Demon Hunters get to throw grenades. THE FLASKED AVENGER RIDES AGAIN!

I'll probably get the expansion and ALL THOSE PAULDRONS once I beat the main campaign, so as to open up chapter five and adventure mode.

shau · Post by **shau** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:42 am

I actually preordered Diablo 3, so I got to live through the "what? all you guys actually want to play the game now?" server crash clusterfuck. I picked it up again recently, but I am thinking about putting it back down because the end game is lame as all get out.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:07 am

I don't doubt that, but I'll have fun playing alongside Kassy for a bit anyway. Also, no Auction House any more. That's nice.

Also, it's refreshing to see the easiest setting (Normal) being really actually easy. Indeed, once I got the hang of everything I switched to... the setting above Hard. And will probably go harder when I unlock that.

Buying the game was weird: instead of a Steam purchase, it comes in a fold-out cardboard box, and in the box is a bunch of thick cards, made of proper cardboard, and a shiny circle! You put the circle in your computer (there's a slot for it, it's that thing that works like a drink-holder) and it installs from there!

And one of those big cards is a voucher for "Play WoW free until level 20. You can't join a guild, use the auction house or /whisper". I'm tempted to do that, dicking around to level 20 and then uninstalling rather than subscribing like they think will happen. Which classes are good Solo classes in those first 20 levels?

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:22 am

See, the game being piss easy is what made me super sad about D3. I like my experiences curated nicely enough that I don't have to beat the game first or fuck around with multiplayer settings just to make the game more interesting than cookie clicker.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:34 am

Koumei wrote: Which classes are good Solo classes in those first 20 levels?

WoW has been made a lot easier these days, so you can pretty much solo anyone to 20. That being said, hunter and warlock are the easiest because there are two of you.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:32 pm

I haven't played in years, so maybe things have changed but Hunter has indeed been the traditional solo answer since times immemorial. A glance at the abilities pages tells me that you should still stay the fuck away from warriors and rogues--the amount of fun you have with them at low levels is directly proportional to how well your sugar daddy is hooking you up with gear. I'd even play a priest over those two,* since you can at least do a shitty warlock impression once you get the hang of kiting with them.

*This is notable mostly because Priests have a bad rep that's been trailing them since before-times. They were actually surprisingly good at killing stuff in tremendous safety even back in the day, but they did it super, duper slow, and to pull it off you needed to understand the 5 second rule in order to manage your mana properly, which players often didn't know about without checking out a wiki. The mana recovery mechanics are different now, and while it's not all advantageous it does mean that standing around with a thumb up your ass while slowly wanding things to death is no longer best practices.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:50 am

When I saw that the download is close to 40Gb, I decided I'd rather not bother, for something I have already identified as being "dicking around for a bit".

Anyway, I agree that D3 should just let you pick any difficulty right off the bat. Many players don't need or want the first half hour to be "you could die... of boredom", and plenty want the whole main actual game to be a challenge. Letting people select "Torment" at the start isn't going to ruin all the fun of those other people who can choose not to select Torment until after beating the game and all that. They could even stick "Recommended for _____" on them the way most games do.

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 3:12 am

For reference, in case people haven't played D3 for a while: There are ten difficulties. You can choose among the first four immediately, from your very first character. The last six get permanently unlocked once you get a character to level 60.

It definitely was a problem that in vanilla Diablo 3 you unlocked each difficulty by beating the game on the previous one and that the first difficulty was really, really easy.

It would be cool if they let you pick Torment immediately, but put a "Recommended for 60+" tag on it so you have some idea what to expect.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:10 am

Actually, even Master difficulty (the fourth one) requires you beat Act IV. No level limit, so if you can do some kind of stupid speedrun and beat it as a level 10 character or whatever, then good for you.

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:18 am

Oh, sorry, didn't know about that. Thanks.

Count Arioch the 28th · Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:22 am

Also, I'm about 85% sure that once you get one character to 60 you can play Torment with any character you have. I intended on checking this, but Diablo 3 refuses to play unless I patch it, and the patch refuses to load so I don't know what is expected of me...

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:44 pm

So, my computer gaming woes continue.

Now that Oblivion has safely stopped functioning, the fates of gaming then decided to screw around with my Steam stuff. Now, whenever I launch the Steam program, that little window that says it's connecting to the internet pops up, which is normal, but then after a few seconds, it says that the connection failed because I am not connected to the internet, which of course I am. Which is not normal, or at the very least it is not conducive to a happy and healthy emotional state. (Oddly enough, I can still play Fallout 3 fine enough, but then again, I don't need to launch Steam to play that.) Now, this is aggravating on many levels, not the least of which is that since I can't launch Steam, I can't download games from it.

Also, another Steam related problem is that every time I log on to Steam, a pop up pop's up saying that I haven't logged on from this brower before and that I need to enter a special code that has been emailed to me. The code thing isn't what bothers me though. What bothers me is that I have logged on from the same browser many times before, and even more annoying is that it will still pop up with that stupid code thing even if it's been just two fucking minutes since I last logged on.

Seriously, what of the fuck?

Oh, and my left shift key has gone missing from my keyboard, because I clearly do not have enough issues as is. I know that isn't game related, but still...

Sigil · Post by **Sigil** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:10 pm

Shrapnel, that "enter a code" thing is, I think, a cookie issue. I know I get it every time I log in while in incognito mode in chrome, or if I've cleared my history/cookies, I get it.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:09 am

I discovered the accursed realm.

I saw what I first thought to be a treasure goblin but no, it shimmered with colours from no normal goblin. I slew it regardless, but then the chromatic portal appeared, with its spectrum of light. Like a fool, I stepped past the threshold.

The things I saw in that land will forever haunt my mind. The rumours and legends are true. I died thrice there to lag, but I fear that in the conflict, I have lost something far more.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:20 am

I am still looking forward to Dragon Age 3, but there is something that's tweaking me. One of the choices for starting race is Qunari. That's great, I like more choices, except they are ignoring a huge plot point in Dragon Age 2, and a point an NPC made in Awakenings: Qunari isn't a race, it's a religion. Tallis is a Qunari who is also an elf. The Inquisitor is technically Vashoth, not Qunari.

Deciding to work my way through Dragon Age 2 as well. I can think of the very first mod I'm going to download:

http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage2/mods/2315/?

I'm sorry, I am obsessed with women's asses to an unhealthy degree and even I think that Isabella's outfit is way too much.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 9:24 am

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:I am still looking forward to Dragon Age 3, but there is something that's tweaking me. One of the choices for starting race is Qunari. That's great, I like more choices, except they are ignoring a huge plot point in Dragon Age 2, and a point an NPC made in Awakenings: Qunari isn't a race, it's a religion. Tallis is a Qunari who is also an elf. The Inquisitor is technically Vashoth, not Qunari.

Deciding to work my way through Dragon Age 2 as well. I can think of the very first mod I'm going to download:

http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage2/mods/2315/?

I'm sorry, I am obsessed with women's asses to an unhealthy degree and even I think that Isabella's outfit is way too much.

I just left Isabella in the tavern after her first mission, and never took her anywhere. Varrick + Merril FTW!

Den poll! Carver or Bethany?
I initially disliked Carver, but he grew on me. Bethany on the other hand I just found annoying.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 9:25 am

doublepost

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:00 pm

Count wrote:I am still looking forward to Dragon Age 3, but there is something that's tweaking me. One of the choices for starting race is Qunari. That's great, I like more choices, except they are ignoring a huge plot point in Dragon Age 2, and a point an NPC made in Awakenings: Qunari isn't a race, it's a religion. Tallis is a Qunari who is also an elf. The Inquisitor is technically Vashoth, not Qunari.

Actually, the promotional materials have specifically mentioned that it is technically a non-Qunari Vashoth. People in and out of setting just usually call them all Qunari.

Count wrote: I'm sorry, I am obsessed with women's asses to an unhealthy degree and even I think that Isabella's outfit is way too much.

Yeah, that was definitely pretty absurd.

Longes wrote:Den poll! Carver or Bethany?
I initially disliked Carver, but he grew on me. Bethany on the other hand I just found annoying.

Bethany. Call me shallow, but I generally like characters who are nice and friendly with the player character and dislike ones who are hostile unless they otherwise impress me. I actually liked Sten and Fenris.

Carver was just a big ball of hostility towards Mage!Hawke, and it wore thin pretty quickly. Sure, his siblings and father were mages and he wasn't, and he's also got to deal with all the trouble of hiding an apostate from the Templars, but that just didn't suffice to sell me on him. I understand why he's an asshole, but that doesn't make him not an asshole.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:43 pm

name_here wrote:Carver was just a big ball of hostility towards Mage!Hawke, and it wore thin pretty quickly. Sure, his siblings and father were mages and he wasn't, and he's also got to deal with all the trouble of hiding an apostate from the Templars, but that just didn't suffice to sell me on him. I understand why he's an asshole, but that doesn't make him not an asshole.

Carver actually gets better over the course of the game. He becomes a reasonable adult, and even defends you before the other templars.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Nov 01, 2014 3:59 pm

I think I just realized I never finished DA2 using Mage Hawke. A check of my achievements verifies that.

I have no strong opinions about Bethany, I just think she's kind of "there"... she doesn't stick out except for her oversized breasts in the introductory sequence (the one where Varrick is telling the ridiculous story that Cassandra calls bullshit on).

EDIT: Here's an observation: DA:O is 3E, DA2 is 4E. In DA:O, there is no real balance, even the longest combat only lasts until someone tags the other side with their rocket launcher, mages are better at everything than anyone else at everything except trapspringing, but it leads to interesting stories (like why Mages are watched like hawks, because one mage can do a lot of freaking damage if let loose). In DA2, everything is more balanced but nearly all abilities are "1d6 + your best modifier damage plus minor effect", everything has way too many HP and combat feels slappy and ineffective. Also, I don't see the reason in DA2 other than fluff why mages are locked in circles (I played DA2 first, then went back and played DA:O and the first time I wiped out an enemy party with Walking Bomb without 50 of their buddies jumping out of nowhere while I was on cooldown I saw why Mages were feared in a mechanical sense)

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:21 am

I didn't even know Carver could live past the intro...

Count Arioch the 28th · Sun Nov 02, 2014 7:30 am

Maxus wrote:I didn't even know Carver could live past the intro...

If you're a mage, Carver lives and Bethany gets killed. Otherwise, Carver dies and Bethany is alive.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:41 pm

Huh. Mass Effect came out in 2007. For 7 years now I have Bioware save files on my PC. Through two harddrive changes and a transition to a laptop those files stay with me.