Video Games

[Shrapnel]

Try running the setup file again. Most game setups recognize when an existing installation is there and give you the option to either repair, or remove it (IME, repair has very rarely done anything). Alternatively, check 'Add or Remove Programs' from the control panel. There should be a list of everything you've installed there (including oblivion).

You can turn on one at a time until you find the broken mod of interest.

Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 all were really irritating in that they never provided a proper crash log for debugging purposes.

I actually tried both of these. In the first case, when I went to the "Add or Remove Programs" thing, it said that Oblivion had already been removed and thus it wasn't on the list, which was quite baffling.

In the second case, I did try turning each mod off one at a time to check what the problem was, but the catch here was that literally have over one hundred and fifty mods, and due to the sheer number of them it would've probably taken me the better half of a day to go through them.

[GreatGreyShrike]

If it's just a single mod and not a conflict or interaction between mods, you could narrow it pretty fast with a divide and conquer approach to testing....

Turn on the first half of the mods, does it crash? If so, it's within that half, try half of those (1/4 of original), otherwise try half of the untried set, repeat until narrowed down to one mod.

If it's an interaction between two or more mods, there's probably some way to solve it but there's nothing super-obvious to my mind.

[Longes]

Walking Dead S02E04 is disappointing. The game has completely turned to a visual novel format, with QTEs. Choices made don't matter in the slightest, and the protagonist is still the only sane (wo)man surrounded by unstable psychos.

-No matter what you do Sartiah dies.
-No matter what you do Sarah dies. (hooray!)
-No matter what you do Jane leaves.
-No matter what you do Rebecca dies.
-No matter what you do Arvo blames you for robbery (even if you give him back his things)

[Maxus]

Bought, played, and beat Guacamelee. 11 hours playing time, three hours of which is probably me trying various insane platforming challenges.

Fun game. Platforming gets kinda brutal towards the end (especially the optional stuff) but it's a pretty good game.

If I have a complaint, it's that I wish they gave the Boss Squad more to do. Because seriously, I like Flame Face (he died, went to Hell, Satan encased his head in fire; the game's villain usurped Satan, Flame Face is palling around with him). X'tabay was also kinda fun. But you pretty much see everyone once or twice, then you fight them and don't see them again.

It really would be better with more interaction/content. Because it's just pretty fun.

It's a Metroidvania, so it has backtracking but it's actually not too bad; in the least there's tons of references to games, movies, and the Internet all over the backgrounds, so you can keep an eye out for new stuff as you cross Santa Luchita for the fifteenth time (hub town).

[Avoraciopoctules]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkWKA7nxB6U#t=387s

I hope the new smash bros ends up being this moddable somehow

[Koumei]

So I decided to play some more random free MMOs to waste time. Because typically the first 5-10 hours are enough fun as a time-waster, before it gets grind-heavy and all that. And I'm generally too impatient to get addicted to these games, so they won't get so much as a penny from me.

Darkblood Online* is pretty fun. There's little in the way of character customisation without paying money, but it plays more like a side-scroller beat 'em up, ala Streets of Rage. And that is awesome. In true BEU fashion, the grab, 8 hits, throw combo is broken. It's rather boobilicious, I must admit, and when I wanted to name my character Nakedboobs**, the name was already taken. Also, it's a bit racist in the early "beating up caricatures of tribal Africans" bit.

Scarlet Blade is complete and utter ass. I don't mean that in the sense of being a bad game (although it's not particularly good as a game either), I mean it's all about asses. You don't actually get to equip pants. Your robo-follower even asks "Have you ever thought about pants?" The vending machines have an upskirt picture on them. Also, the game has actual honest-to-goodness nipples in it. And the name Nakedboobs is already taken.

I'd love SB if it weren't another shitty grindfest MMO. As a one-player RPG (designed to be played at one, without all the "Kill 15 Morose Robots" quests and shit) or fighting game or something, it'd be cool.

That is all. Later I might report on Rift or something. If I get bored enough to download it. I did try DDO, and while I give it props for being closely linked to the actual D&D rules and being tied to 3E, it still feels unpolished compared to Neverwinter, and it's really slow to load things and just isn't that exciting. But from what I saw as a brief Cleric playthrough, Clerics are awesome. At really high level, you can just get Righteous Might as a permanent effect, for instance.

*I think that's the name. I'm at work.
**Yuyushiki reference.

[Koumei]

Already got bored with both games, so they haven't extracted money from me. Free entertainment, bitches.

Anyway, I decided to download all 16Gb of Rift, what the fuck is going on here, is that normal for games these days? It's not bad, actually. I think it has staying power and could be a good game from what I've seen so far:

• Three basic races that have a very small effect on your stats (an elemental resistance and a non-combat racial ability like "run fast for a bit" or "leap over there")
• There is a decent enough story, using magitech to travel into the past to prevent the end of the world
• There is a lot going on. When I signed off last night I had like seven side-quests queued up.
• The class and level system, which needs more than a dot point.

This could only ever work for a video game. Handy thing then, with this being a video game. You choose one of four classes, and that determines your basic stats, your proficiencies, and the skill trees available. You then choose one of about seven progressions, which basically says "okay, you have these three skill trees" and spends your level-up points for you. Many of these progressions have actually been designed by people who are bigtime players, so you basically get to have your build determined as "Like this guy who knows what he's doing".

But at any point you can decide to veer off that path, or even just change your selections up to this point, emptying points out and changing skill trees over. There are about 5 or 6, and you can have 3 trees "active" at a time. Yes, you can save your different load-outs and swap between them to go "I want to tank for a bit, wait, now it's time for a PVP event so DAMAGE MODE ACTIVATE!"

Each skill tree has three sections. First, you have the various "0/5 ranks, each rank adds 3% damage to X attack" type things. Putting more ranks in makes more of these available.

Secondly, each skill tree has various things that automatically increase based on the ranks put in - effectively granting each skill tree a BAB, Save Progression and all that. So those numbers will all still progress at all, no matter how you spend your points.

Finally, the meat of it: each skill tree has a progression of abilities you activate, generally two at "zero ranks, but this is one of your three trees", then another at 2, 4, 8, 12... you get heaps of them. And these don't require you to put ranks in, choosing between "new ability" and "better existing ability", nor choosing between "new ability" and "improve base stats". Because these just unlock as you spend points on the numerical upgrades.

It's really fancy and seems to work well. You get your choices for little upgrades, you are flat-out given cool new powers, and you can at any point change your mind and re-do stuff without buying a $5 premium skill-reset.

Not saying I'll play through to max level and get into the PVP and all that, but so far, this is a great game, and has cost nothing other than hard drive space.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Hyrule Warriors character trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 5jEVHRbJLk

This looks like the kind of bard I'd actually play in D&D

[Koumei]

Okay, I've dicked around a bit more in Rift, and I was wrong on a few points:
1. SIX basic races (elf, dwarf, four flavours of human), three for each faction.
2. The two factions have their own introduction movies, their own reasons for travelling back in time, their own special stuff happening for side quests.
3. You can't reset your skill points whenever you want, you have to go and pay the basic ingame currency to an NPC (located at every major camp/town). And you only get one build to start with, but later on you buy more (the first extra one costs ingame currency, after that it costs both ingame and real money). So if you don't want to hand them money, you can just have two, and swap between them more or less as you please.

And seriously, there are so many fucking sidequests, and if you're not careful about the order of completion, you can find yourself going "Oh shit, I need to travel four and a half kilometres to finish this one".

So I have a Cleric (of the magitech-using, "fuck the gods" faction) who has builds of "Summon fae allies, call thunderstorms and then charge in to smack the shit out of things with a big hammer, with multiple recoil effects active" and "Solo mofo, with ranged attacks, several DoT effects, temporary HP, self-healing and melee attacks". And a Wizard (of the god-chosen faction) who summons undead allies and throws energy bolts + multiple DoT sources + polymorphing enemies into squirrels.

This is all at the low levels, and I've basically described characters that can each do more than any D&D4E character ever could.

[Maxus]

Finished Wolf Among Us today.

I liked it. I wish it had more diverging story and decisions coming up, but it was pretty cool and nicely done.

I also have a new appreciation for the Big Bad Wolf.

[Avoraciopoctules]

[TAS] GC Super Smash Bros. Melee "Adventure Mode" by numerics in 08:42.75
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O20gqhHHMvM

[Avoraciopoctules]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtPtgP3YCvA

Trailer for Ganondorf in Hyrule Warriors, looks fun. A dual-wielder who actually feels heavy. I hear that playable villains might be a thing, hopefully that means Ghirahim is an option too.

[Archmage Joda]

According to the Nintendo Direct yesterday, Ghirahim and Zant are both gonna be options.

[Avoraciopoctules]

http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct ... eo-ndirect

Yes, looks like it. There's even a little footage of them as PCs. Thanks.

[Meikle641]

Dead Space was better than I thought it would be. I particularly liked the parts in microgravity; the perspective changes were novel.

[Longes]

Holy shit, this is such a complicated joke! Danganronpa spoilers inside:

Monokuma's punishment for Mondo Owada is thus: Owada and Monokuma are sitting on a bike, which drives into the spherical cage, while tigers are spewing fire around it, and drives inside so fast that Owada turns into butter, which Monokuma eats with pancakes. This all seems weird and nonsensical. I present you this:

The Story of Little Black Sambo
"Sambo is a South Indian boy who lives with his father and mother, named Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo, respectively. Sambo encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colourful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers are vain and each thinks he is better dressed than the others. They chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of melted butter. Sambo then recovers his clothes and his mother, Black Mumbo, makes pancakes out of the butter"

[Avoraciopoctules]

Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrun in 18:10 by Cosmo [WR] [commentated]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6pGJbd6Iw

[icyshadowlord]

Anyone here who's played Shovel Knight?

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I've played it for a bit. Haven't beaten it yet (been sidetracked by a busy month or so at work).

[Maxus]

Anyone here who's played Shovel Knight?

Beaten it.

What about it?

Edit: Well, hell, general review. Gameplay sorta reminds me of Mega Man, except instead of powers from bosses you have different artifacts/items. Likewise, you just have a few different strikes and they're basically limited to melee.

There's some fairly stiff platforming happening. It's a fun game, pretty self-aware. The Order of No Quarter is generally cool. I'm looking forward to the playable episodes for King Knight, Plague Knight, and Spectre Knight.

[Koumei]

Steam recently had Dawn of War + all expansions for $10, so I bit. I hadn't actually played DoW other than one or two skirmish matches, and people generally speak well of it, so what the hell.

It's not bad, actually. The first campaign has a good difficulty curve, and I pretty much powered through over a few days. Winter Assault has much more interesting missions, with different objectives and team-switching and stuff. But it's really hard - or more likely, flat-out assumes you're doing something that I didn't think to do.

The other two are pretty awesome. I like the open map style of campaign.

Nice to see they went with the general idea of 40k units, capturing strategic points and all that, so that it feels like a 40k thing (and encourages exploring and pressing forward while building your base, not just one or the other). And the game plays well as a result of not sticking to 40k. Ditching those rules was a good start.

[radthemad4]

Transistor was pretty awesome. The story is pretty good, and (at least initially) seems somewhat similar to Bastion (that was post apocalyptic and this is more peri than post). The game and world has a bunch of references to programming which I found kinda cool (e.g. your abilities are called 'functions', each of them have '()' at the end and you 'call' them). The protagonist loses her voice before the game starts, and her talking sword narrates. You can find terminals here and there that display random news stories and stuff which have a comment option and Red (the protagonist) sometimes uses these to talk to the sword for a bit before actually leaving her comment.

The game has an isometric view and plays as a combination of beat em up and turn based strategy with rpg elements. You can press a button to initiate a 'turn' where everything freezes and you can queue up actions, after which you end the turn and execute all the actions in superspeed. However, this temporarily disables all your abilities functions (more on that in a moment) forcing you to run around helplessly (unless you picked a particular support function in which case you can use one particular function while 'recovering' from turn usage). I also found it pretty cool that the last boss could do this as well and could use the same functions you can.

Functions are abilities you unlock as you progress. Each function can be placed in a certain slot (active, support or passive) and works differently based on that. e.g. Mask() when placed in the active slot and used called, gives you invisibility that goes away when you use an attack, but amplifies that attack. As a support enhances backstab damage of another function (I liked putting it on the Dog function to give it higher backstab damage). As a passive function it grants you temporary invisibility every time you kill something.

I really like how many function combinations in the game synergize well. Not every combination is 'teh awesomz', but there's surprisingly many potent combinations which are situationally useful. There were some abilities I hated on their own but which could enhance others pretty well (ping (rapid fire with pathetic damage) is kinda weak as an active, but if you support the dog with it, the dog gets more actions in a turn). I find it hard to recommend builds, as you can optimize for turn based combat, out of turn combat, hordes of enemies, single battles, some strong enemies, some particular enemies immune to turn attacks, etc. but if you don't like your current build you can just load up a save point and respec. If you enjoy chargen/op, you'll probably enjoy Transistor.

You can level up faster if you enable limiters which make the game harder in specific ways, but give you more experience. I'd recommend not picking Responsibility (Reducing Memory (Build Points)? WTF, tinkering with your build was one of my favorite parts of this game, and you'll reward me for using less blocks? FUCK YOU RESPONSIBILITY!). I'd say the others are worth it.

The only time I got frustrated was one of the training exercises where you're attacked by both Cheerleaders (the force field generating things) and Dogs (high speed and attack power). After many attempts, I finally beat it using Bounce with Purge and Switch as support for it.

[CapnTthePirateG]

The 3-shot charm is hilarious and can be used to escape many situations.

[radthemad4]

The problem with charm on its own is that if you charm all enemies on the map, they don't attack other charmed enemies. Combine it with purge (the poison one), and they'll stand around taking damage once they've killed all the non charmed enemies.

[Shatner]

HoMM VII has been announced. Should you care, the intro trailer is available on that site.