[Satan]

While I've finished both Witcher games, I can't really say I see the great appeal for them. I suppose the atmosphere is good and the story's alright, but if it didn't catch you from the getgo you'd do just as well to pass that one by.

I've just finished Dishonoured for the second time, this time doing a thorough chaos round. Not even little Emily survived in the end. The plot and story was OK (but no more than that). The outsider annoyed the hell out of me. And it was very, very easy and it didnt get harder the further you got. But other than that I thought this was a very good game. The fact that it was so short was in my book a plus, especially since it had multiple endings and you could (to a very slight degree) affect the world by your actions. That gave me the opportunity to play through it twice and see the different outcomes. The level design was its greatest strength, though. They really put their heart into creating multiple paths, encouraging the player to explore every crook and cranny.

PS! I see now that you can turn off a lot of the interface aids they give you. Silly of me not to check, at least before I started the second play through. Turning off the objective marker would have made it a lot more challenging.

[Defiance]

Went back to Fallout 3 for the first time in several years. Really been enjoying myself. I just have the Broken Steel and Mothership Zeta DLC to complete before I start up New Vegas, which I've never played. Gotta love Steam summer sale, 5 bucks is a steal.

Borderlands 2 has stolen quite a bit of my time lately. This game is addicting as hell. I never played the first, so it was a pleasant surprise. Most of the humor is good and I love the quest design and its intentional inversion of typical quests in online games. Anyone know if the DLC for it is any good? How are the other two classes you can purchase? Right now I just plan on getting the Tiny Tina one at some point, as I found her character to be hilarious.

[tiam]

I 'accidentally' started playing medieval 2 again. Despite the shite AI and diplomacy i still love it.

[Gothos]

DRAGONBORN!
Just finished off the main quest. Not all that much left to do but I'm intent on making a full set of stalhrim armor. Or several... For something, surely.
Also,

Spoiler

The ability to reset perks with dragon souls from the main black book? Holy shit.

[Jakovasaurus]

I just downloaded Assassin's Creed II for free on Xbox (one of the perks of being an XBL Gold member ;-)). It's quite a sizable download at 5.19GB.

My first foray into the AC series was with Assassin's Creed III, which I enjoyed immensely. The series never really appealed to me until AC III. AC III's setting really struck a chord with me (Colonial America during the American Revolution).

Anyway, I'm about to jump in and start playing AC II. What expectations should I have? Have I ruined anything by not playing AC II (or AC I for that matter) prior to completing AC III? I read some of the game play mechanics were tweaked in AC III so there is probably some adjustment there, but what else should I be aware of?

# # # # # # #
On a separate note, this free game (AC II) is all part of Microsoft's "two free games a month until Xbox One launch" promotion. According to the Xbox Live dashboard, free games will be available on the 1st and 16th of each month. I missed the first free game of July, does anyone know what game that was? Hopefully not Halo 3. Also, does anyone know what other games Microsoft will be giving away during this promotional?

[tiam]

Jakovasaurus, on 20 July 2013 - 06:37 PM, said:

I just downloaded Assassin's Creed II for free on Xbox (one of the perks of being an XBL Gold member ;-)). It's quite a sizable download at 5.19GB.

My first foray into the AC series was with Assassin's Creed III, which I enjoyed immensely. The series never really appealed to me until AC III. AC III's setting really struck a chord with me (Colonial America during the American Revolution).

Anyway, I'm about to jump in and start playing AC II. What expectations should I have? Have I ruined anything by not playing AC II (or AC I for that matter) prior to completing AC III? I read some of the game play mechanics were tweaked in AC III so there is probably some adjustment there, but what else should I be aware of?

# # # # # # #
On a separate note, this free game (AC II) is all part of Microsoft's "two free games a month until Xbox One launch" promotion. According to the Xbox Live dashboard, free games will be available on the 1st and 16th of each month. I missed the first free game of July, does anyone know what game that was? Hopefully not Halo 3. Also, does anyone know what other games Microsoft will be giving away during this promotional?

This arcade game for 800 points for free called Defense Grid:Awakening. Havnt played it but it was free so I got it.

[Jakovasaurus]

Thx JVCT. I haven't heard of that game, so I guess I am in the clear. Unless it is a badass indie title that flew under the radar. If that is the case, I will be bummed I didn't grab it while it was available. #SadFace

[tiam]

Have a look it might still be free. I think its a protect a base style game but with bigger graphics. Like I said I havnt played it.

[Tapper]

Havng played the Steam version: it is a Tower Defense game with decent graphics, decent difficulty but not that much novelty in tower-types.

[Ukjent]

Just done with NW2: Mask of the betrayer and I miss it.. So now its Stardrive occupying my time while I considering buying Dragonborn or not.

[Gothos]

Do buy Dragonborn.
And if you're done with MotB, do try Storm of Zehir. It's fucking brilliant.

[Ukjent]

Oh, I heard that SoZ is something that you are supposed to play multiplayer. But if its brilliant alone I'm on it.

[Gothos]

No it's purely single player, but you get to create your whole 4-person party from scratch and it's rather open-ended. Different style completely, but so awesome.

[Ukjent]

That's definitive not what I needed right now. I'm going to wast so many hours just thinking out the perfect party, oh this is good.

[Gothos]

Graablick, on 21 July 2013 - 11:49 AM, said:

That's definitive not what I needed right now. I'm going to wast so many hours just thinking out the perfect party, oh this is good.

Yeah it usually takes me about an hour to cook up and decide on four builds that support each other and also are meant for prestige classes. D&D 3.5 outclasses AD&D imo.

Mind you, any word on a cRPG that uses D&D 4.0?

[Aptorian]

Played some Aliens: Colonial Marines this evening. I knew it had a really bad reception at launch, which actually just made me more interested in the game.

I've played a couple of hours now (had to restart and switch to easy instead of normal). My impression?

YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY PLAY THIS GAME TO KNOW TRULY HOW POOR THIS TITLE IS!

Sound bites cut out or don't play properly.
Cinematics are missing.
Animations don't line up.
Animations are missing.
Cut scenes don't make sense with what is going on in game.
There is an old school replenishing armor system but there isn't enough armor around.
The is an old school health bar system but there isn't any armor to protect your health.
The aliens come from out of nowhere and insta kill you.
Or blow up, destroying ALL your armor.
Then the next blows up and destroys all your health.
Things are disproportionate compared to the surroundings, like weapons and face huggers.
The allied AI gets caught in the environment or freezes in passageways.
The enemy AI runs back and forth between cover like it's a benny hill movie.
Aliens jump out of nowhere and pass through solid obstacles like walls.
Collision detection with friendlies and enemies only seem to function half the time.
There is some kind of poorly implemented call of duty level system that doesn't make sense.

It just goes on and on.

I think that what really sets it all in perspective is that the games tutorial consists of pop-up screens that pause the game play and tell you how to play the game. This, right there, in an AAA game is a sign of corners being cut in order to save money and the general design of the game being less than polished.

Fans often complain that video games aren't taken serious as an art form. This game right here is the exact reason why AAA games should not be called art. This is a shoddily made commercial product released for the sole purpose of milking the Alien fan base and trying to recoup years of failed investments.

One thing is that Gearbox was responsible for something this shitty, I can sort of understand that they released it because they were contractually obligated to SEGA. What I don't understand is why SEGA went ahead and published the game in this state. This game damages the credibility of both the developer and the publisher. Next time I buy a Gearbox or SEGA game I have to ask myself whether or not I trust these two to actually live up to the promise of quality you expect from a 60 dollar AAA title.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 21 July 2013 - 08:40 PM

[Silencer]

So if it's that poorly put together, is admitted to be a rushed-out-the-door incomplete product by the developer, etc, etc, what makes it a AAA title? >.>

[Lucifer's Heaven]

Gothos, on 21 July 2013 - 01:59 PM, said:

Mind you, any word on a cRPG that uses D&D 4.0?

D&D Daggerdale - Utter shit, don't even bother.
Neverwinter (the MMO) - It's alright, has some cool and interesting stuff. But it entirely gets rid of the "balanced, but asymmetrical" nature of D&D. For instance, different skills don't actually really do anything different. Dungeons have what are basically "loot nodes" throughout. Stuff like a bunch of herbs, a shrine, a rock with a map on it, a backpack sitting on the ground and all you need is the relevant skill (survival, religion, dungeoneering, theivery) and you can loot it. None of the skills really do anything else. No conversation options, no opening locked doors, nothing interesting. And those nodes can be found in every type of dungeon/mission area, there weren't more survival ones in the wild or anything. It might as well be loot nodes a, b, c, use skill a, b, c. You only get one skill and it's determined by your class, you don't get to choose. So it could just be; be class a, b, c instead.
There are some cool points about it (it has player created content in an MMO), but that sort of whitewashing felt like it had been used over much of the game.

Those are the only two I know of.

[Obdigore]

Lucifer, on 22 July 2013 - 03:06 AM, said:

Gothos, on 21 July 2013 - 01:59 PM, said:

Mind you, any word on a cRPG that uses D&D 4.0?

D&D Daggerdale - Utter shit, don't even bother.
Neverwinter (the MMO) - It's alright, has some cool and interesting stuff. But it entirely gets rid of the "balanced, but asymmetrical" nature of D&D. For instance, different skills don't actually really do anything different. Dungeons have what are basically "loot nodes" throughout. Stuff like a bunch of herbs, a shrine, a rock with a map on it, a backpack sitting on the ground and all you need is the relevant skill (survival, religion, dungeoneering, theivery) and you can loot it. None of the skills really do anything else. No conversation options, no opening locked doors, nothing interesting. And those nodes can be found in every type of dungeon/mission area, there weren't more survival ones in the wild or anything. It might as well be loot nodes a, b, c, use skill a, b, c. You only get one skill and it's determined by your class, you don't get to choose. So it could just be; be class a, b, c instead.
There are some cool points about it (it has player created content in an MMO), but that sort of whitewashing felt like it had been used over much of the game.

Those are the only two I know of.

In Neverwinter you can also carry 'kits' of a, b, c, so that you can loot whatever the matching nodes are so you don't even need the skills. I agree, the best thing about Neverwinter is the player created content, although some of the zones from the devs are pretty awesome.

[Gothos]

Hm. I might check it out just for to check out the D&D 4.0 ruleset. Not like it's going to be very complex in its rendition, but it's better than nothing. thanks, folks.