[Tiste Simeon]

God of War!!

[Malankazooie]

Khellendros, on 17 December 2018 - 03:32 PM, said:

I got God of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead 2 for my birthday. Which to start first?

*pops in Destiny 2, hates himself*

What? No Assassin's Creed Odyssey? You are not loved.

[Mentalist]

Busy week. Played a bit of Rage Saturday night. The pop-in. It is terrible.

beyond that, I like driving the ATV. The shooty is okay (I started on Hard; the bandits whose hideout I cleared out died in 2 good hits, but the starting pistol does feel crap).

The little I've seen of the world isn't terribly inspiring. I can't see myself wanting to stick around long enough to 100% this, but I'm open to being turned around.

[Aptorian]

I loved the gunplay in Rage but not much else. The shotgun + boomerang combo was awesome though.

Don't know how much info you've got on Rage but I'll just say you should prepare for the game ending sort of abruptly with no real closure.

Played a ton of AC Odyssey. I'm sort of luke warm on the game.

It's pretty amazing travelling around Greece and visiting placed I studied in History - the Parthenon is a lot smaller than I pictured. The historical characters are fun, Socrates especially. And the addition of the RPG conversations add flavor but the writing is still terrible. The AI scripting and animations constantly bug out. I've had characters just drop dead after a conversation. Sometimes NPCs just walk into torches and run around on flames!

I think they've made a lot of cool adjustments from Origins which I both appreciate but they also sort of ruin my favorite part of Origins. You can't just snipe every enemy in a camp with a predator bow any longer, which I loved in Origins. Now you have special bow abilities that use adrenaline, so you have to actually use every trick in the book to take out a camp. This is a bit frustrating, because the games enemies auto-level to fit your own level. This means that a lot of the time you can't even kill vanilla guards with a normal headshot or assassination. This is rather frustrating in my opinion.

On the other hand this of course makes stealth and combat a proper challenge. You actually have to use a ton of abilities to win any given fight.

I'm also having issues with the faction system. Basically the world is split up into areas controlled by Athens or Sparta, with individual camps and ruins controlled by bandits and weird cults. The problem is that, as a mercenary, you don't pick sides, you just pick contracts. Which means even if you're working for Athens, for example, you can still attack and kill Athenian NPCs and soldiers. Which has lead to me accidentally murdering quest givers. It's very annoying.

All in all, it's not a bad game, but it has a lot of issues. I think they're on to a promising formula though. Eventually they might make a great game out this formula.

[Khellendros]

Malankazooie, on 17 December 2018 - 06:58 PM, said:

Khellendros, on 17 December 2018 - 03:32 PM, said:

I got God of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead 2 for my birthday. Which to start first?

*pops in Destiny 2, hates himself*

What? No Assassin's Creed Odyssey? You are not loved.

It didn't feel right when I got Origins last Christmas and am still to take it out of its wrapping.

[Silencer]

I will never understand the point of having a game where you create an RPG system, a level system, in which your character becomes more powerful, only to then apply level scaling to your opponents.
It is the type of blatant Skinner box bullshit that developers are slapping on games these days to make them "last longer", when that could have easily been achieved by any other, less insultingly banal approach could have been taken to achieve the same effect (new game +, actually designing your game to have a challenge curve, great writing/worldbuilding, having a consistent level of challenge that is satisfying but not frustrating...you know, proper game design, basically).

It's basically the same as the tower-climbing, mini-quest-filled "open world" approach that Ubisoft slaps on everything, except it's actually lazier and more pointless.

[Maark Abbott]

Rage was fun. I never bothered with the racing minigames but the overall gunplay was enjoyable.

[Aptorian]

Silencer, on 18 December 2018 - 01:18 PM, said:

I will never understand the point of having a game where you create an RPG system, a level system, in which your character becomes more powerful, only to then apply level scaling to your opponents.
It is the type of blatant Skinner box bullshit that developers are slapping on games these days to make them "last longer", when that could have easily been achieved by any other, less insultingly banal approach could have been taken to achieve the same effect (new game +, actually designing your game to have a challenge curve, great writing/worldbuilding, having a consistent level of challenge that is satisfying but not frustrating...you know, proper game design, basically).

It's basically the same as the tower-climbing, mini-quest-filled "open world" approach that Ubisoft slaps on everything, except it's actually lazier and more pointless.

I understand the philosophy behind wanting the world to consistently challenge the player, but like you say, I've yet to play a game where it feels satisfying.

It makes no god damn sense that I can fire an arrow at a normal guard and it only takes half his health, despite me speccing Hunter class, upgrading all my Hunter abilities and wielding an epic bow.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 19 December 2018 - 09:02 AM

[Khellendros]

Alternative Goose, on 19 December 2018 - 09:01 AM, said:

Silencer, on 18 December 2018 - 01:18 PM, said:

I will never understand the point of having a game where you create an RPG system, a level system, in which your character becomes more powerful, only to then apply level scaling to your opponents.
It is the type of blatant Skinner box bullshit that developers are slapping on games these days to make them "last longer", when that could have easily been achieved by any other, less insultingly banal approach could have been taken to achieve the same effect (new game +, actually designing your game to have a challenge curve, great writing/worldbuilding, having a consistent level of challenge that is satisfying but not frustrating...you know, proper game design, basically).

It's basically the same as the tower-climbing, mini-quest-filled "open world" approach that Ubisoft slaps on everything, except it's actually lazier and more pointless.

I understand the philosophy behind wanting the world to consistently challenge the player, but like you say, I've yet to play a game where it feels satisfying.

It makes no god damn sense that I can fire an arrow at a normal guard and it only takes half his health, despite me speccing Hunter class, upgrading all my Hunter abilities and wielding an epic bow.

Did you ever consider not making your arrows out of Play-Doh?

[Silencer]

Alternative Goose, on 19 December 2018 - 09:01 AM, said:

Silencer, on 18 December 2018 - 01:18 PM, said:

I will never understand the point of having a game where you create an RPG system, a level system, in which your character becomes more powerful, only to then apply level scaling to your opponents.
It is the type of blatant Skinner box bullshit that developers are slapping on games these days to make them "last longer", when that could have easily been achieved by any other, less insultingly banal approach could have been taken to achieve the same effect (new game +, actually designing your game to have a challenge curve, great writing/worldbuilding, having a consistent level of challenge that is satisfying but not frustrating...you know, proper game design, basically).

It's basically the same as the tower-climbing, mini-quest-filled "open world" approach that Ubisoft slaps on everything, except it's actually lazier and more pointless.

I understand the philosophy behind wanting the world to consistently challenge the player, but like you say, I've yet to play a game where it feels satisfying.

It makes no god damn sense that I can fire an arrow at a normal guard and it only takes half his health, despite me speccing Hunter class, upgrading all my Hunter abilities and wielding an epic bow.

That's the thing though. You can have constant challenge. You just can't have that and a leveling system that is meaningful.

At the very least you need to have the types of enemies you fight change, instead of the same enemies arbitrarily getting stronger to keep pace with you. That's what makes the system bullshit.

[Mentalist]

Got a bit further into Rage. Made it to town, I have a buggy (with guns!), a shotgun, an assault rifle, a sniper and a crossbow now.

I haven't figured out where to buy ammo yet, so that made the second "story" mission a bit of a slog. Nothing super-bad, but a bit tedious. Driving and shooting is fun, though the way the buggy handles in a race is underwhelming. Guessing that might improve as I upgrade the way it's supposed to handle.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 20 December 2018 - 12:03 AM, said:

Got a bit further into Rage. Made it to town, I have a buggy (with guns!), a shotgun, an assault rifle, a sniper and a crossbow now.

I haven't figured out where to buy ammo yet, so that made the second "story" mission a bit of a slog. Nothing super-bad, but a bit tedious. Driving and shooting is fun, though the way the buggy handles in a race is underwhelming. Guessing that might improve as I upgrade the way it's supposed to handle.

Two words and one thing you need asap: POP ROCKETS.

[Aptorian]

There's a town you can purchase stuff in after you do some missions for John Goodman. I also seem to remember you being able to craft ammo?

[Mentalist]

Maark Abbott, on 20 December 2018 - 08:17 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 20 December 2018 - 12:03 AM, said:

Got a bit further into Rage. Made it to town, I have a buggy (with guns!), a shotgun, an assault rifle, a sniper and a crossbow now.

I haven't figured out where to buy ammo yet, so that made the second "story" mission a bit of a slog. Nothing super-bad, but a bit tedious. Driving and shooting is fun, though the way the buggy handles in a race is underwhelming. Guessing that might improve as I upgrade the way it's supposed to handle.

Two words and one thing you need asap: POP ROCKETS.

Is that the shotgun RPG projectiles?

5 hours in now, I'm mostly spending time doing races and driving out to blow up bandit cars with miniguns. I did a bunch of job board jobs, but these are either fetches in bandit camps I already cleared once, or sniping challenges.

I'm supposed to go the the Dead City now, but I think I'd rather explore the sewers by the starter camps because I was told by some old guy that mutants there hoard cool stuff.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 December 2018 - 01:07 PM

[Malankazooie]

Be sure to maximize your boomerang thingy. From what I remember playing Rage so long ago, it can serve you better then most of the guns in a lot of situations (if upgraded and used to maximum effect).

[Mentalist]

Hmmm, how does one upgrade the wingstick? Haven't seen any of those upgrades yet.

I must admit, if Rage 2 puts big emphasis on driving, that'd be a good hook, because the concept of wasteland driving between these isolated spots is cool (though the map is terribly restricted).

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 December 2018 - 04:19 PM

[Aptorian]

Have you played Mad Max? It might be right up your alley.

[Malankazooie]

Mentalist, on 20 December 2018 - 04:17 PM, said:

Hmmm, how does one upgrade the wingstick? Haven't seen any of those upgrades yet.

I must admit, if Rage 2 puts big emphasis on driving, that'd be a good hook, because the concept of wasteland driving between these isolated spots is cool (though the map is terribly restricted).

http://rage.wikia.com/wiki/Wingstick
Only click if you want to spoil how, instead of discovering organically as you play through the game.

I thought the driving in Rage was pretty damn good for a game that old. At the time it came out it felt really good and nice.

[Mentalist]

Alternative Goose, on 20 December 2018 - 04:24 PM, said:

Have you played Mad Max? It might be right up your alley.

no, but I'll get to it eventually.

Edit: 8 hours played, reached the city and the boss fight with the really big mutant. All this shooting among crumbling buildings makes me want to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. again.

Looking for secrets in the wasteland is kinda cool, but it also exposes how last gen the textures are (and even more of the horrible pop-in). I did make a lot of money by clearing out the 3 sewers twice. Good loot there, too.

Edit: 14 hours in. I figured out I can use Mutant Bash to make easy money infinitely. So now I'm kinda just grinding to buy all the car upgrades and engineering plans.

I beat the dice and knife mini-games, and bought the card game deck. Not rushing to move the story along, b/c I get the feeling once I do this next mission I'll have to leave the area.

EDITagain: came home tipsy last night and played a few rounds of Mutant Bash... and I swear my accuracy was better drunk then sober.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 23 February 2019 - 07:44 AM

[Mentalist]

oh noes, there's apparently another DLC for RAGE that I don't have, that adds lot of extra missions.

I must rectify this, but I also did so much of the second area already (including ALL the races), that I'm loath to try to go back to the main Wasteland to play through it.

EDIT: turns out you can go back to Wellspring at your leisure. So I did and killed a bunch of Scorchers. 'twas fun.

After 40 hours of playing, I'm basically right before the last mission. Might mess around the world a bit more, but essentially, I'm one big shooting level away from credits.

This post has been edited by MakingAList: 26 December 2018 - 06:08 PM