[Cause]

Avatar, on 01 April 2017 - 07:40 AM, said:

Quote

I finished mass effect. Left 2 out of 5 planets essentially unexplored. Did 2 out 0f 5 loyalty missions. I said enough is enough and I just forced through the main story so I could finish and move on.

This game is just so much empty space! So much time wasting! One of the final story missions requires me to leave one galaxy, visit three others to launch probes and then return to the original galaxy just to get permission to proceed! For the love Of God why!

Another random side mission tasked me with finding a crashed ship. Die to interference I could only narrow down its location to 5 possible locations across the entire planets map. So i just had to drive to to each of them one after the other. Added nothing to the story of the mission. Just dragged it out by ten to 15 min for nothing.

The plot holes! You drive a. Blackhole through them!


Yeah, the first game was seriously guilty of sacrificing gameplay for storytelling. A lot of it succeeds if you're the type that likes digging into every side mission and exploring every spot on every map to find every last artifact. If you don't though, it comes across as a 3/5 at best.

If you enjoyed the first game enough to at least give it a 3/5, keep going. The second game has some of the best gameplay to storytelling ratio that I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

Cause was talking about MEA right?

Yes I was birthing about Andromeda. I like 1. LOVED 2. Enjoyed 3.

[JPK]

Cause, on 01 April 2017 - 09:37 AM, said:

Avatar, on 01 April 2017 - 07:40 AM, said:

Quote

I finished mass effect. Left 2 out of 5 planets essentially unexplored. Did 2 out 0f 5 loyalty missions. I said enough is enough and I just forced through the main story so I could finish and move on.

This game is just so much empty space! So much time wasting! One of the final story missions requires me to leave one galaxy, visit three others to launch probes and then return to the original galaxy just to get permission to proceed! For the love Of God why!

Another random side mission tasked me with finding a crashed ship. Die to interference I could only narrow down its location to 5 possible locations across the entire planets map. So i just had to drive to to each of them one after the other. Added nothing to the story of the mission. Just dragged it out by ten to 15 min for nothing.

The plot holes! You drive a. Blackhole through them!


Yeah, the first game was seriously guilty of sacrificing gameplay for storytelling. A lot of it succeeds if you're the type that likes digging into every side mission and exploring every spot on every map to find every last artifact. If you don't though, it comes across as a 3/5 at best.

If you enjoyed the first game enough to at least give it a 3/5, keep going. The second game has some of the best gameplay to storytelling ratio that I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

Cause was talking about MEA right?

Yes I was birthing about Andromeda. I like 1. LOVED 2. Enjoyed 3.

Oh! I thought you were talking 1 for some reason. Ignore that last post then. It never happened. I mean, I'm leaving it there as a testament to my mistake, but you can't prove it, lol.

[Aptorian]

Not sure if it's a april fools one off, but the guy behind the "Freeman's Mind" playthrough of Half-life, just started a playthrough of Half-life 2. If you've never heard of Freeman's Mind, it's basically a veeery long running narrated plauthrough of Half-life, as viewed through the thoughts of Gordon Freeman, if Freeman was an ignorant, confused and pissed of Scientist guy.

[Avatar]

Quote

I finished mass effect. Left 2 out of 5 planets essentially unexplored. Did 2 out 0f 5 loyalty missions. I said enough is enough and I just forced through the main story so I could finish and move on.This game is just so much empty space! So much time wasting! One of the final story missions requires me to leave one galaxy, visit three others to launch probes and then return to the original galaxy just to get permission to proceed! For the love Of God why! Another random side mission tasked me with finding a crashed ship. Die to interference I could only narrow down its location to 5 possible locations across the entire planets map. So i just had to drive to to each of them one after the other. Added nothing to the story of the mission. Just dragged it out by ten to 15 min for nothing.The plot holes! You drive a. Blackhole through them!

Cause, would you, as whole, that the game was not worth your time? Still wondering if I want to play it someday.

This post has been edited by Avatar: 03 April 2017 - 04:13 PM

[Cause]

Avatar, on 03 April 2017 - 09:32 AM, said:

Quote

I finished mass effect. Left 2 out of 5 planets essentially unexplored. Did 2 out 0f 5 loyalty missions. I said enough is enough and I just forced through the main story so I could finish and move on. <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);">This game is just so much empty space! So much time wasting! One of the final story missions requires me to leave one galaxy, visit three others to launch probes and then return to the original galaxy just to get permission to proceed! For the love Of God why! <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);">Another random side mission tasked me with finding a crashed ship. Die to interference I could only narrow down its location to 5 possible locations across the entire planets map. So i just had to drive to to each of them one after the other. Added nothing to the story of the mission. Just dragged it out by ten to 15 min for nothing. <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);">The plot holes! You drive a. Blackhole through them!

Cause, would you, as whole, that the game was not worth your time? Still wondering if I want to play it someday.

I put 30 hours into it. So it's not complete garbage. There is a game in there somewhere. That said with the gift of hindsight I'd skip it. If mass effect remained the original trilogy for me, mass effect would be better for it. This game tarnished it's legacy.

In his own right it's a game that while playable is utterly forgettable. It wouldn't stand on its own two feat. It's badly written, unpolished, glitchy and like an single player mmo in the worst way. So many side missions are literally just a time wasting grind. I normally get lost in rpgs. This game makes you beg for some focus so you can feel like your doing something worthwhile.

I have a backlog of great games as long as my arm and this game was a poor distraction from that.

[Avatar]

Quote

I put 30 hours into it. So it's not complete garbage. There is a game in there somewhere. That said with the gift of hindsight I'd skip it. If mass effect remained the original trilogy for me, mass effect would be better for it. This game tarnished it's legacy. <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);">In his own right it's a game that while playable is utterly forgettable. It wouldn't stand on its own two feat. It's badly written, unpolished, glitchy and like an single player mmo in the worst way. So many side missions are literally just a time wasting grind. I normally get lost in rpgs. This game makes you beg for some focus so you can feel like your doing something worthwhile. <br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252);">I have a backlog of great games as long as my arm and this game was a poor distraction from that.

Clear answer, thanks!

[WinterPhoenix]

Still have to finish the dlc for DS3 before I get into ME:A properly. Should have already done the dlc, it isn't really that long - maybe about 6 hours if you're a slow methodical souls player and you don't take too many tries on the boss fights - but I wanted the beat the main game plus Ashes of Ariandel again first for my favoured ending then one fight in the dlc took me forever, and I just haven't had much time to play since I finally beat that bastard! lol

I do plan to get into ME:A next though, I'm not expecting much from all the criticism about the quests, but the combat was solid enough from what I did play plus I generally enjoy sidequests and exploration and stuff, so we'll see. The animations are distractingly bad though, coming to it straight from Horizon: Zero Dawn really shows it up and is genuinely embarrassing. If the story and squadmates are engaging then I'll be able to ignore some of it, but I do hope the dialogue at least improves from the opening neverending prologue mission :/

[Cause]

Everyone says the combat is at least good. I don't know why. It's the same 4 enemy types for the entire game. Chosen, annointed, destined and a boss type that reappears again and again. There is no longer a difference between barriers and shields. The environments combat takes place in are just large open (procedurally generated?) fields which makes tactics non existent. You can no longer command your squad so you can't use their powers tactically to help you. Combat is more simple and less refined than in me2 or me3 in every way!

[WinterPhoenix]

Genuinely not sure how great I would have said the combat was in any of the original trilogy either to be completely honest. It was never the reason I played any of the games, solid is pretty much as good a descriptor as I ever would have used - if clarification is needed, for me, solid just means not bad but not great either. That being said as I mentioned above I only played this game for the time it took me to get out of what seemed like an infinite prologue mission - in reality it was only about an hour or 2 I was actually playing for. So my actual experience of the combat is limited, I would go with solid from what I saw, but you are right when you say it limits tactical options, my opinion might be revised after I've played further/longer, especially if it is indeed the same 4 enemies over and over.

EDIT: To explain further, I just meant that it seems as though - as in the previous titles - the combat does it's job. It's neither frustratingly difficult because of factors outside of skill - i.e. poor mechanics and stuff - nor is it mind-numbingly easy - though I did already notice a somewhat dumbing down of the tactical portion of it all. At the same time it didn't seem inescapably boring either, though obviously these are all things that become clearer over time, and only time will tell if my opinion on that falls in line with yours I suppose. I could find myself disagreeing with everything I just said there after a few more hours playtime.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 03 April 2017 - 06:27 PM

[Aptorian]

I would seriously temper my expectations for what that patch is able to achieve. If they were 2 weeks away from releasing something that fixed the faces, MEA would probably have been delayed.

[Morgoth]

First major expansion for Stellaris is coming out tomorrow

[Aptorian]

Heard Austin Walker talking about the Stellaris expansion on Waypoint Radio. Sounds really good. I can't personally get into the Paradox games but it sounds like they've improved on the base game quite a bit.

[Slow Ben]

Briar King, on 05 April 2017 - 04:20 AM, said:

Says it's focusing mainly on the eyes of human and assari and doing some lip to voice smooth ups. I ll look forward to seeing the before/after pics on YouTube.

Or maybe fixing the fact that my brothers character has a scar on the outside of his beard.

[WinterPhoenix]

Whatever it does fix is probably going to be more noticeable on freshly created characters I would've thought, but there is no way in hell I'm creating another character just to go through the endless prologue and running all over the Nexus portions again anytime soon. We'll see what it manages to 'fix', but like Apt says if they were that close to some major animation improvements then the game would have been delayed.

You know what bugs me the most? Just a month or two ago I read an interview with one of the higher up's in Bioware, when asked about the likelihood of 'goty' style remasters for the original trilogy (question included DA as well as ME) on next gen consoles, he all but shut it down. Claiming instead that at Bioware they are focused on bringing new content to deserving fans. Now don't get me wrong, to some extent this is an admirable attitude to have in a day and age where it's all too possible to simply rehash old content and make a quick buck. However, tell me I'm wrong if I am but I reckon the vast majority of ME fans would absolutely love to see those kinds of remasters, if only to have all the dlc in an easily accessible form! The worst part is though, if you are going to focus on creating new content for fans, at least do so to such a level that you don't leave me pining for the original trilogy even more. :/

I should point out that after my 10 or so hours playtime so far it isn't a bad or terrible game not by any stretch. It simply isn't all that great either, I'm not sure how well it would stand up on it's own without the ME affiliation.

EDIT: I loved DA:I, not as good as Origins, but I still thought it was great. ME:A, however, does seem to have taken the worst parts of that game and put them in space. I don't think the openworld style of DA:I is something they should've tried to emulate in an ME setting.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 06 April 2017 - 05:07 PM

[Mentalist]

So.... Bayonetta is now out on steam. Is it any good?

[Aptorian]

Depends upon how much you like fighting games and Japanese anime culture. Personally I had fun playing through it but I thought the combat was frustrating at times and the story and characters were confusing and annoying.

I think my problems with that game also might stem from the way Bayonetta is designed, something you spend 100% of the time looking at. Not because of her overt sexual nature, that's fine, but because her look is a mess. Face of a naughty secretary, body proportions of an eldritch horror, moves of an angry stripper.

Still, this is a game where you get to shoot and kick and punch your way through the extended heavenly pantheon of crazy angels. Which was awesome. You remember how old religious writing describes Angels as looking as bizarre combinations of animal parts and nightmares combined in some strange geometry? Yeah, Bayonetta nails this.

This post has been edited by Apt: 12 April 2017 - 03:27 AM

[Mentalist]

Hmm, Ok, I liked Darksiders, so it feels like I should wishlist it.

[Traveller]

I was never sold on Bioware games much, but they seem to be getting progressively worse. I get the ME love from the first 2 games, which I enjoyed story wise but were far from perfect playwise. I'm steering well clear of ME:A, it sounds like a mess.

Currently getting into Stardew Valley. It's pretty absorbing, although like Apt says, the time aspect is a bit restricting - catch 3 fish and suddenly the morning has gone; go mining and midnight comes really quick. The days could be longer I guess. The game has a chilled out feel that the time restrictions infringe on - even Animal Crossing lets you stay out all night or as long as you like without passing out and getting interferred with by strangers!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 12 April 2017 - 05:42 AM

[Aptorian]

Traveller, on 12 April 2017 - 05:42 AM, said:

I was never sold on Bioware games much, but they seem to be getting progressively worse. I get the ME love from the first 2 games, which I enjoyed story wise but were far from perfect playwise. I'm steering well clear of ME:A, it sounds like a mess.

Currently getting into Stardew Valley. It's pretty absorbing, although like Apt says, the time aspect is a bit restricting - catch 3 fish and suddenly the morning has gone; go mining and midnight comes really quick. The days could be longer I guess. The game has a chilled out feel that the time restrictions infringe on - even Animal Crossing lets you stay out all night or as long as you like without passing out and getting interferred with by strangers!

Those "fell asleep from exhaustion" letters are fun. One time I fell asleep and JoJo marts medical people "took care of me" and sent me a bill for 1000gs. That sucked. Another time I fell asleep while fishing for squid at night and the hobo carried me home. Said he saved me from some people that were searching me, but he didn't know if they took anything. I am pretty sure the hobo made that up stole some of my food!

Stardew Valley is a dangerous game when you're unemployed. I'm halfway into winter now and I'm seeing all kinds of progress. I made it down to around level 90 in the mine and am now getting tons of gold and weird gems. I've constructed 4 big sprinkler and 8 smaller ones. I've upgraded my backpack to 36 slots, my pickaxe and my wood axe are both steel now, watering can and hoe are copper. That means I can remove all those big boulders and large tree stumps from my grounds. I've filled out a bunch of stuff in the community center. Managed to finish the bridge repair one and now a part of the center is all shiny and new. Bought all kinds of machines for the farm and expanded my orchard. When spring comes around I am going to be kicking ass.

I've started to ignore the social aspect of the game though. I just can't be bothered to run to town, check the calendar, figure out who needs what, who's birthday is it, look up on the wiki what they like, etc. It's too much work. I carry around some flowers I give to random people when I pass buy them but otherwise I am focusing on getting shit done.

[Traveller]

I just used 300 wood to fix a bridge to open up a second beach - I assume the Community Centre reward is a different bridge?

I really need to build a furnace and get some proper tools. At the moment I'm just using the money I get to buy more seeds, and selling foraged produce. I need to boost my productivity. Is there any way of getting seeds from the grown fruit and veg like in Dragonquest Builders, or do you just have to buy?