Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I traded Lydia for Aela the Huntress for... aesthetic reasons. She still lives in my house, though. I may need to move Aela and my wife to a new city to escape her.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Soooo confused there for a second. Letter order is important. Carry on.I traded Lydia for Aela the Huntress for... aesthetic reasons.
Se paciente y duro; algún día este dolor te será útil.
- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Kill her and sell her armor. If you don't want to worry about a bounty or jail time, take her out to the tundra and aggro a half dozen mammoths and then cast an invisibility spell on yourself once she starts fighting them.I traded Lydia for Aela the Huntress for... aesthetic reasons. She still lives in my house, though. I may need to move Aela and my wife to a new city to escape her.
The enemy's fly is down.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/dr_mobius/Emote/cactus.gif)
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- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Ha, that is terrible!
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Yes, that's taking things a bit far.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
The Dark Brotherhood: Making cold-blooded murder look like an unfortunate accident since 2E 358.
The enemy's fly is down.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/dr_mobius/Emote/cactus.gif)
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I haven't played games in way too long. I may have to bring Paper Mario home with me over Christmas so I can beat it. Or maybe I will attempt Kingdom Hearts instead. The debates I have within myself...
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
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- Mich
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Whew, just beat Skyward Sword. Here are my (unspoilery, unless you like vague statements) thoughts, in bullet-list:
(Edit because I screwed up an italics, and also for some correction.)
- Loved the overall art style. Love how things far off will blur in an unusual way to look like a painting, the colors, the cel-shading.
- Don't love the overall character designs. Link was fine, Zelda grew on me, and there are maybe one or two other characters that I really like, but for the rest it's generally 50/50 if I liked their look or found them creepy and/or unpleasant to look at.
- The "giant open world" thing that was described in one piece I read a year ago or so (and I tried to stay away from anything about it because I love completely unspoiled experienced) said that they were going for a much more open temple layout, how it they wouldn't definitely be separate areas. It doesn't look like that happened, or maybe I misinterpreted it, because there were definitely still temples. They did try to mix it up a few times, even making me go back into one once, which I found pretty funny, and there was even one temple that I was pretty amazed at how cool it was, but otherwise they were all straightforward, I thought. (EDIT: apparently this was about how they made the world around the temples a lot more puzzly and temple-y, which I agree with, and it was rather refreshing.)
- Bosses were all pretty simple, although there was one or two that I found kind of challenging. This has happened as I've gotten older, though, so I attribute it to just me "knowing how Zelda plays," if you will.
- The story... didn't blow me away. I didn't feel super-involved in it. Maybe that was just me, though. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for a Zelda, ready to be caught up in it. I didn't really have a reason to dislike the villain apart from the fact that he obviously had different goals than I, and those goals weren't revealed until a long time in, and they were pretty unsurprising and flat. There was one major twist/reveal that I found pretttttty neato, and it had me grinning and wanting to tell everyone, but by then the game was over after another boss fight.
- I was not disappointed by the ending and the final boss, although I was all gearing up for it. Despite my lack of involvement in the story, it was pretty cool and I appreciated it, but it was rather simple once I figured out the trick.
- Finally, I didn't feel involved with the side characters. They're really my favorite parts of the Zeldas, and all of the 3D ones have totally hooked me. Ocarina of Time's four races, Majora's Mask's everything, Wind Waker's pirate crew and family, Twilight Princess's Faron Village. All of them had characters that I really fell in love with. Skyward Sword had two characters that I really liked and cared about, maybe three. The rest were faceless or not involved in the story at all or not given many moments besides "okay good work now go do that."
- Finally finally, loved the amount of sidequests. That was something TP really lacked in, and they more than made up for it, I felt.
(Edit because I screwed up an italics, and also for some correction.)
Last edited by Mich on Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.
Row--row.
Row--row.
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
When this thesis is done, it's going to be all Mass Effect all the time.
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
It's a good thing the third Mass Effect doesn't come out until March. I'm having a hard enough time trying to play Skyrim, BF3 and Minecraft all at once. It's a good thing I don't have a social life.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Oh, Boyfriend is a huge BF3 addict.
I'm playing through Mass Effect and ME2 before ME3 comes out. In between my fumbling attempts at Starcraft and my stalled progress in Torchlight.
I want Skyrim, but I feel I can't be trusted with it...
I'm playing through Mass Effect and ME2 before ME3 comes out. In between my fumbling attempts at Starcraft and my stalled progress in Torchlight.
I want Skyrim, but I feel I can't be trusted with it...
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
The Majestic 12 bot gives me the itch to start a new round of Deus Ex every time I see it lurking in the logged in users pane.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Skyrim for Christmas from the brother. Thank goodness I finished grad school, because I have decided I will play that forever and not stop.
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I used to play Skyrim for hours on end, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
By that I mean my GPU started overheating whenever I played it.![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
By that I mean my GPU started overheating whenever I played it.
![Mad :x](./images/smilies/icon_mad.gif)
- Satya
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Started playing "Beat Hazard", $2.99 on Steam. Pretty fun Asteroids-esque shooter set to your music folders.
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- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Haha, yes... That game is quite addictive. I am sooo pissed at myself right now... Yesterday I had a quest glitch on me, and found out that the only way to fix it would be to go back in time and do a couple of things differently. I had a savegame from 10 days ago which would be well before I had started the first quest of that series. I decided after a few minutes to just screw it and go back to my current level, I didn't want to re-do all the stuff I'd done. However, by that point I had saved. On top of my most recent savegame... So now I have no choice. I've lose something like six or seven levels and as many days of gameplay (I didn't play the few days I was at my parents for Christmas)... Blah. Oh well. Teach me to be more careful what I save over!Skyrim for Christmas from the brother. Thank goodness I finished grad school, because I have decided I will play that forever and not stop.
(Sadly, I haven't got a PC worthy of Skyrim so I play on the PS3 so I have no console commands with which I could fix said glitchy quest.)
This isn't much of a spoiler, but it does mention one item used in a particular quest so if you are really annoyed by learning such things... But it is a warning about a very annoying, though avoidable, glitch in a side questline:
BTW, If you play on the PS3 don't keep briarhearts in your inventory after you start the first quest concerning the White Phial until it becomes an actual goal to have one. In fact, I've seen it said that you shouldn't pick up more than one while the quest is in progress. Just a warning if you play on a console since consoles ironically don't have console commands which could be used to fix this bug! :D
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I've only played for about an hour so far. Boyfriend was in town and he was annoying me by "helping." He's been a gamer his whole life, while I only really played Starcraft as a kid and not much else. So my coordination and general skill is pretty low.
Now that I've shipped him back off to Canada, though, I plan on playing a lot more. I'm playing on PC, so I don't think I need to worry too much about the glitchiness. I built a PC that could hold up to things like SC and Skyrim when I decided to try and get into gaming more.
Now that I've shipped him back off to Canada, though, I plan on playing a lot more. I'm playing on PC, so I don't think I need to worry too much about the glitchiness. I built a PC that could hold up to things like SC and Skyrim when I decided to try and get into gaming more.
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
BioWare? Frostbite 2?! For this, I will build a new computer:
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Yeah, my desktop was built as a gaming rig--in 1998. The last complete upgrade I did was in 2002, since then the video card has been replaced with a cheap one (after one died) and I've added hard drive space. For a while I was using it as a media server but the IDE drives were too slow for even that.I've only played for about an hour so far. Boyfriend was in town and he was annoying me by "helping." He's been a gamer his whole life, while I only really played Starcraft as a kid and not much else. So my coordination and general skill is pretty low.
Now that I've shipped him back off to Canada, though, I plan on playing a lot more. I'm playing on PC, so I don't think I need to worry too much about the glitchiness. I built a PC that could hold up to things like SC and Skyrim when I decided to try and get into gaming more.
My laptop is my newest PC, but it is now 5 years old and a midrange laptop so not a gaming rig. It will overheat and shut down if you aren't careful with the vent placement while playing games, and the video card is woefully underpowered and unsupported.
Last year I was considering doing a major build and doing a media PC/gaming rig, but I decided to get a PS3 instead since I wanted so badly to play Red Dead Redemption. When I learned that the PS3 can play streamed media and added to that the fact that it has Netflix, I decided to put off the PC until I have a real job and can do it right. I don't regret that decision one bit. Maybe in a year or so I'll be able to build a new gaming rig, and will pick up a used copy of Skyrim for the PC so I can enjoy all the mods that will be out by then.
Also, I'll need to have something to play C&C Generals 2 on since that preview just about made me wet myself. I've been playing C&C games since the original.
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
So it looks like PAX East(er) sold out of three-day badges today... is anyone going?
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I'll be there. I had my passes, train and hotel booked a month ago.So it looks like PAX East(er) sold out of three-day badges today... is anyone going?
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I popped my Pax cherry last year at PAX East. No way am I missing it this year.
- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I didn't even realize they were doing East and West versions of Pax now. But Boston is far too far for me to travel and I couldn't afford to go even if it wasn't, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure that I can't use my convention budget at the church to go to PAX. :D
- Mich
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
We're going to PAX Prime for the first time this year and are very excited about it. Comicon and E3 are still up in the air, but PAX is a fo-sho.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.
Row--row.
Row--row.
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
![Thumbs Up :thumbs:](./images/smilies/thumbsup.gif)
Boyfriend and I don't miss PAX, ever. Does anyone do Atlus Parker's pub crawl the night before?
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Need. PAX. Midwest.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
They are going to make another PAX location, but they've yet to announce where. So we'll keep our fingers crossed for you! Maybe a PAX Chicago. That would be baller.
"I seem to remember that when I was younger, overly sugared brats were sent down into the basement to fend for themselves, like Lord of the Flies."
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I purchased and played Arkham Horror for the first time last night. I feel I probably should have put enough space between those two events to fully comprehend the rules. I'm sure what we played was but a mere mockery of the game's full potential.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
- Wind Swept
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I played a solitaire round just now to better familiarize myself with the game. I think I've got most of the rules down now, though I consistently forget about horror checks at the start of pretty much every battle.
"Roland was staring at Tiffany, so nonplussed he was nearly minused."
*Philoticweb.net = Phoebe (Discord)
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- Janus%TheDoorman
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Played mostly three games the last few months. Skyrim, Forza 4, and Saints Row the Third.
Skyrim is obviously great, and nothing I'm about to say should make you think I'd give it less than 9/10 if I were reviewing it objectively, but frankly, I don't really love it. Not the way I love Oblivion. Haven't played the earlier games, but allow me to try and convince you it's not just the nostalgia of my first Elder Scrolls game that's clouding my judgment about Skyrim.
The biggest difference, thematically, between Skyrim and Oblivion is the degree of pseudo-realism. I say pseudo because Skyrim is after all still firmly a fantasy game, but the assumptions it wants you to make about its characters' motivations and philosophies try to be much closer to what you'd assume of real people than Oblivion did, which tracked much closer with high fantasy ideals. In Oblivion, the baddie, Mehrunes Dagon, is sort of ambiguously determined to just be an evil jerk. His sort of herald, Mankar Camoran, is more complex, but is for the short time you know him, a basic megalomanical-delusions-of-grandeur sort of guy. And, perhaps more to the point, you really only know these guys for a short time. Your enemy in Oblivion is, for most of the game, just sort of nebulous evil, not really given much of a face. Compare Skyrim, where you've not only got Alduin, his various named lieutenants, and Paarthurnax, but the Thalmor, Imperials, Stormcloaks, and depending on how you approach it, the Dark Brotherhood as potential baddies. And all of these are given complex, real-world believable motivations.
Frankly, though, this is, IMO the game's biggest Achilles heel. The gameplay just isn't there to support interacting with that sort of world. Since Alduin's motivation basically boils down to just wanting to dominate humanity and he's pretty straightforward about it, but he can never do anything particularly menacing or devastating since having people die or locations be destroyed would ruin other parts of the game, he just seems like an annoyance, especially if you're not paying attention to the main quest. In Oblivion, without knowing who you were facing or what they were planning, but knowing they were moving and ready to strike things that actually mattered, like the Emperor and his sons, even when you're not paying attention to the main quest, you're at least aware that the Oblivion Crisis is going on. It helps that the Oblivion gates themselves were huge, daunting menaces from both a story and gameplay perspective, meaning seeing one was actually intimidating. In Skyrim, after a point, dragons aren't much more threatening than any other high level enemy (less than some) except that they often attack when you'd out running errands. The entire "end of the world" from a gameplay perspective basically boils down to some jerks occasionally picking a fight with you. If dragons were all about as tough as Alduin is at the end of the game, requiring you to pull out all the stops to defeat them, and actually posed a threat to something you cared about in game, then maybe I'd buy into the idea that I need to kill Alduin ASAP, but the game just doesn't deliver on that. There's a bit of moralizing when it comes time to deal with Paarthurnax, but you decision carries no real weight. I would hope that letting him live or die might have some effect on the dragons you encounter, or that the loyalty of the Blades meant more than some spiffy armor for followers, but nope.
Secondary to the main quest is the Civil War questline, which involves a complex question of politics and ideology in choosing sides, and then... that's it. No real way for you to say, engage in the politics and manipulate the loyalty of the Jarls, or play a double agent, or anything that might engage me more in the idea that I was caught up in realistic struggle. Just a straighforward series of combat missions. Compare, say, Fallout New Vegas and how it dealt with the war in that game. I mean, I don't think they shared much development staff between them, but c'mon. And once you do finish up this questline, it has almost no noticeable effect on Skyrim. Siding with the Stormcloaks doesn't say, see one of the Holds that was loyal to the Empire burned down, or vice versa. And you don't get any special privileges, etc. as a war hero. It makes the whole thing seem a pointless distraction.
The sidequests have this same problem, but about ten time worse. With the Dark Brotherhood, for instance, you can assassinate the Emperor. In the middle of a war. And no one blinks an eye. Or you can wipe the Dark Brotherhood out completely. Again, no real change to Skyrim. No increase in corrupt politicians they might have otherwise kept in check, or rival hitmen squads popping up in the vacuum that need to be dealt with. The Thieves Guild is better, going from a Robin Hood-esque group to basically the mafia is exactly what I'd expect from a more realistic world, and the fact that a major part of their operation is concerned with gaining influence with corrupt, influential people across Skyrim is even cooler, but then you don't do anything with that influence. You don't see shops closing up or people being put on the street as your graft harms the economies of the holds, despite Bethesda telling us there'd be dynamic economies throughout Skyrim. And the Companions... "Oh, I'm Harbinger now? Does that mean I'll get to command and coordinate our efforts, maybe have us work as mercenaries in the Civil War? Or maybe I'll work on recruiting, since half a dozen people isn't that impressive, and Assassin's Creed has already provided a model of how a system like that can work in a single player sandbox. Or maybe I'll have to deal with the implications of leading what's secretly a sect of werewolves? What's that? You want me to go back to roughing up people for money like I was at the beginning? ... Okay. I haven't played through all of the College of Winterhold, but I hear it's not much better. I really, really wanted Skyrim to build on New Vegas's influence system. Rising to the top of so many organizations in Oblivion and having a power vacuum be a central part of the storyline gave me all sorts of ideas about how I could have used the resources available to me as head of the various guilds of Cyrodil, and I was really hoping Skyrim would let me do that, and the presentation and premise of the game made that seem likely, and then it just... made the promise but came up so short.
In Oblivion, all this seemed okay, since Oblivion was basically a fairy tale fantasy story and so not having it occur to people that as head of the Fighter's Guild, Arcane University, Thieves' Guild, and Dark Brotherhood, not to mention being the Champion of Cyrodil, with no claimant to the throne, I was probably better suited than anyone to place myself on the throne. In Skyrim, with power and ambition such clear themes, not having the tools to let my character engage in a little... social climbing seems lacking.
Remember, though, I still said I'd give this game 9/10. It's incredibly fun to play, and the addition of things like Smithing, simplifying the leveling and magic systems makes it much easier to just pick up and play. I just worry that Bethesda's done that deliberately to appeal to the Call of Duty fanbase, and my hopes of playing an Elder Scrolls game where I could use my power and influence to actually do more than feel cool while I'm dungeon crawling will never be realized. It's late now, and this is much longer than I anticipated, so I'm gonna save the others for tomorrow.
Skyrim is obviously great, and nothing I'm about to say should make you think I'd give it less than 9/10 if I were reviewing it objectively, but frankly, I don't really love it. Not the way I love Oblivion. Haven't played the earlier games, but allow me to try and convince you it's not just the nostalgia of my first Elder Scrolls game that's clouding my judgment about Skyrim.
The biggest difference, thematically, between Skyrim and Oblivion is the degree of pseudo-realism. I say pseudo because Skyrim is after all still firmly a fantasy game, but the assumptions it wants you to make about its characters' motivations and philosophies try to be much closer to what you'd assume of real people than Oblivion did, which tracked much closer with high fantasy ideals. In Oblivion, the baddie, Mehrunes Dagon, is sort of ambiguously determined to just be an evil jerk. His sort of herald, Mankar Camoran, is more complex, but is for the short time you know him, a basic megalomanical-delusions-of-grandeur sort of guy. And, perhaps more to the point, you really only know these guys for a short time. Your enemy in Oblivion is, for most of the game, just sort of nebulous evil, not really given much of a face. Compare Skyrim, where you've not only got Alduin, his various named lieutenants, and Paarthurnax, but the Thalmor, Imperials, Stormcloaks, and depending on how you approach it, the Dark Brotherhood as potential baddies. And all of these are given complex, real-world believable motivations.
Frankly, though, this is, IMO the game's biggest Achilles heel. The gameplay just isn't there to support interacting with that sort of world. Since Alduin's motivation basically boils down to just wanting to dominate humanity and he's pretty straightforward about it, but he can never do anything particularly menacing or devastating since having people die or locations be destroyed would ruin other parts of the game, he just seems like an annoyance, especially if you're not paying attention to the main quest. In Oblivion, without knowing who you were facing or what they were planning, but knowing they were moving and ready to strike things that actually mattered, like the Emperor and his sons, even when you're not paying attention to the main quest, you're at least aware that the Oblivion Crisis is going on. It helps that the Oblivion gates themselves were huge, daunting menaces from both a story and gameplay perspective, meaning seeing one was actually intimidating. In Skyrim, after a point, dragons aren't much more threatening than any other high level enemy (less than some) except that they often attack when you'd out running errands. The entire "end of the world" from a gameplay perspective basically boils down to some jerks occasionally picking a fight with you. If dragons were all about as tough as Alduin is at the end of the game, requiring you to pull out all the stops to defeat them, and actually posed a threat to something you cared about in game, then maybe I'd buy into the idea that I need to kill Alduin ASAP, but the game just doesn't deliver on that. There's a bit of moralizing when it comes time to deal with Paarthurnax, but you decision carries no real weight. I would hope that letting him live or die might have some effect on the dragons you encounter, or that the loyalty of the Blades meant more than some spiffy armor for followers, but nope.
Secondary to the main quest is the Civil War questline, which involves a complex question of politics and ideology in choosing sides, and then... that's it. No real way for you to say, engage in the politics and manipulate the loyalty of the Jarls, or play a double agent, or anything that might engage me more in the idea that I was caught up in realistic struggle. Just a straighforward series of combat missions. Compare, say, Fallout New Vegas and how it dealt with the war in that game. I mean, I don't think they shared much development staff between them, but c'mon. And once you do finish up this questline, it has almost no noticeable effect on Skyrim. Siding with the Stormcloaks doesn't say, see one of the Holds that was loyal to the Empire burned down, or vice versa. And you don't get any special privileges, etc. as a war hero. It makes the whole thing seem a pointless distraction.
The sidequests have this same problem, but about ten time worse. With the Dark Brotherhood, for instance, you can assassinate the Emperor. In the middle of a war. And no one blinks an eye. Or you can wipe the Dark Brotherhood out completely. Again, no real change to Skyrim. No increase in corrupt politicians they might have otherwise kept in check, or rival hitmen squads popping up in the vacuum that need to be dealt with. The Thieves Guild is better, going from a Robin Hood-esque group to basically the mafia is exactly what I'd expect from a more realistic world, and the fact that a major part of their operation is concerned with gaining influence with corrupt, influential people across Skyrim is even cooler, but then you don't do anything with that influence. You don't see shops closing up or people being put on the street as your graft harms the economies of the holds, despite Bethesda telling us there'd be dynamic economies throughout Skyrim. And the Companions... "Oh, I'm Harbinger now? Does that mean I'll get to command and coordinate our efforts, maybe have us work as mercenaries in the Civil War? Or maybe I'll work on recruiting, since half a dozen people isn't that impressive, and Assassin's Creed has already provided a model of how a system like that can work in a single player sandbox. Or maybe I'll have to deal with the implications of leading what's secretly a sect of werewolves? What's that? You want me to go back to roughing up people for money like I was at the beginning? ... Okay. I haven't played through all of the College of Winterhold, but I hear it's not much better. I really, really wanted Skyrim to build on New Vegas's influence system. Rising to the top of so many organizations in Oblivion and having a power vacuum be a central part of the storyline gave me all sorts of ideas about how I could have used the resources available to me as head of the various guilds of Cyrodil, and I was really hoping Skyrim would let me do that, and the presentation and premise of the game made that seem likely, and then it just... made the promise but came up so short.
In Oblivion, all this seemed okay, since Oblivion was basically a fairy tale fantasy story and so not having it occur to people that as head of the Fighter's Guild, Arcane University, Thieves' Guild, and Dark Brotherhood, not to mention being the Champion of Cyrodil, with no claimant to the throne, I was probably better suited than anyone to place myself on the throne. In Skyrim, with power and ambition such clear themes, not having the tools to let my character engage in a little... social climbing seems lacking.
Remember, though, I still said I'd give this game 9/10. It's incredibly fun to play, and the addition of things like Smithing, simplifying the leveling and magic systems makes it much easier to just pick up and play. I just worry that Bethesda's done that deliberately to appeal to the Call of Duty fanbase, and my hopes of playing an Elder Scrolls game where I could use my power and influence to actually do more than feel cool while I'm dungeon crawling will never be realized. It's late now, and this is much longer than I anticipated, so I'm gonna save the others for tomorrow.
"But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is."
-Alan Watts
-Alan Watts
- Platypi007
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Great review of Skyrim's lackings! I've been playing it steadily since it came out, much less now than I did in the beginning, but I can still sit down and spend hours in the world without realizing it. But still, I do wish it had an economy, a power system I could get involved in, choices that would change the whole of Skyrim more than just a few plot points.
I've done a bit of the main quest, I've completed the Thieves' Guild questlines, and I've done a lot of minor questing. I can spend hours hunting deer, though, or running all over Skyrim selling the things I've pulled from dungeons, and still be quite happy.
I've done a bit of the main quest, I've completed the Thieves' Guild questlines, and I've done a lot of minor questing. I can spend hours hunting deer, though, or running all over Skyrim selling the things I've pulled from dungeons, and still be quite happy.
- Mich
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
I forgot to mention that I bought Sonic Generations this past weekend because I've been too busy playing Sonic Generations. If that doesn't tell you that, yes, they've finally made a 3D Sonic game that's worth playing, one that's primarily based on speed and has a lot of extra things to do (no Chao garden, sadly: the only good thing about the Adventure games), as well as a lot of throwbacks to the best levels of the older games, you'd be right.
I probably should have mentioned this while it was still $15 on Steam, if anyone here is the kind of person waiting for "one more good review".
I probably should have mentioned this while it was still $15 on Steam, if anyone here is the kind of person waiting for "one more good review".
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.
Row--row.
Row--row.
- Janus%TheDoorman
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Re: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
SR3rd has similar problems to Skyrim, but sort of in the opposite direction, and much, much worse. I can't count how many times I said "... That's it?" For a game that prided itself on ridiculously over the top action, too often it just feels like they dreamed up huge, expansive missions and storylines, only for someone higher up the food chain to say "Nah... that's not gonna happen, we need to ship this in time to make this fiscal year profitable."
There's way too much I have to spoil to talk about the game, so be aware that SPOILERS abound throughout this post.
SR2, though it's remembered as being ridiculously over the top for its time, was actually fairly straightforward in 90% of its execution. You start off as low-level gang bangers, and progressively fight your way to control of Stilwater, with each victory your influence and power grows, and there are real, rewarding signs of this as you progress. Your safehouses start out as dingy disued subway terminals and crappy low rent apartments, but as you take control of territories, and money from those territories starts rolling in, you slowly see your own station improve. That gradual growth, getting first small, then larger, and larger, and larger rewards makes each new endeavor seem worth it. Add to that villains that somehow manage to be less sympathetic than a sociopathic player character bent on domination and his mass murdering best friend, and a varied and interesting city that you genuinely want to control, and SR2 is damn near perfect from a game design perspective. What made it memorable, and a smash hit, was that how you went about that progress was laughably insane. Yakuza moving in on gambling and cybercrime operations? Better have a few samurai swordfight showdowns. African warlords moving in on the drug trade? First take out the witch doctor who can control you with voodoo, then hijack an attack helicopter to burn their grow operations, and then chase down the warlord himself in his humvee. Monster truck enthusiasts attacking your gang? Better kidnap the leader's girlfriend and trick him into crushing her with his own truck, then face off against him and half a dozen of his friends in their trucks while you're on foot in an enclosed space.
SR2 was great because it let you deal with realistic characters in a realistic setting in a completely unrealistic way. If fact, probably the worst part of SR2 was the relatively mundane combat missions and activity sidequests, because frankly the controls got a little wonky at times, and it was somewhat tedious dealing with them.
When I sat down to play SR3rd, I was ecstatic because the controls were flawless and the combat was fun and involving. I still maintain that SR3rd is the most technically perfect GTA-style game to date. The problem is, they did away with everything else that made the games great. Gat is apparently killed off in the first ten minutes of the game, but does so in exactly the blaze of glory style that made me certain he'd com riding back to save the day later on in the game. It never happens. The most interesting, fun to play with character in the game is just ... gone. We have our first "... That's it?" moment. His sort of replacement is an eight-foot strongman genius genetic experiment who spends his first mission with you charging around naked through an office building. At the end of that mission, the game's apparent big bad mastermind is killed without a fight, in a cutscene. Your reward for the mission is a penthouse that puts anything you got in SR2 to shame. This is the end of the first act. This was when I began to get the feeling that something was very, very, wrong.
The game proceeds to introduce the rest of its cartoon character cast, the ever more ridiculous but useless safehouses, and lead on a series of missions that feel more like Alice in Wonderland than The Godfather, or Scarface. And because the game obeys no rules of genre or convention, it can never break those rules to give you an amazing, unexpected moment. When the game gives you a laser and multi-launch missile system equipped VTOL jetfighter that infinitely respawns at any safehouse less than halfway through the game, but then makes half of its combat missions against foot-soldiers out in the open, it just feels disappointing. The final mission, depending on your choices, ends in killing the last gang boss with a quicktime sequence, and then single-handedly flying to a floating aircraft carrier, planting a few bombs and then killing one last jet fighter. It requires no new abilities that you've picked up since the start of the game, or resources you had to acquire through steady progression. Everything the game has to offer is there from the start. The whole thing just blurs into one long neon-light and bullet fueled haze. Nothing is memorable or engaging.
It's not impossible to do such an over the top approach but still make things engaging. One of your cribs for instance, is a converted nuclear power station. Why are there not, say, a whole class of stores and activities that aren't accessible until you've got that up and running the way you want? Why does getting access to aircraft for lead to massive StarFox-esque air battles? Why doesn't taking over the luchadores and their gambling operations give you access to a range of betting minigames to take part in. Imagine betting on horse races, except instead of horses, it's guys on motorcycles with flamethrowers trying to race around the city. I would want to do that straightaway, but not having the ability to do so from the start would give me good reason to play through the luchadore storyline. SR3rd never rewards you in an expanded gameplay sense. All it ever offers for your efforts are more powerful versions of weapons you already have from the start, and since the game just progressively scales up, the gameplay never really changes. It's fun for a few hours, but after that all I could think is, "...That's it?"
There's way too much I have to spoil to talk about the game, so be aware that SPOILERS abound throughout this post.
SR2, though it's remembered as being ridiculously over the top for its time, was actually fairly straightforward in 90% of its execution. You start off as low-level gang bangers, and progressively fight your way to control of Stilwater, with each victory your influence and power grows, and there are real, rewarding signs of this as you progress. Your safehouses start out as dingy disued subway terminals and crappy low rent apartments, but as you take control of territories, and money from those territories starts rolling in, you slowly see your own station improve. That gradual growth, getting first small, then larger, and larger, and larger rewards makes each new endeavor seem worth it. Add to that villains that somehow manage to be less sympathetic than a sociopathic player character bent on domination and his mass murdering best friend, and a varied and interesting city that you genuinely want to control, and SR2 is damn near perfect from a game design perspective. What made it memorable, and a smash hit, was that how you went about that progress was laughably insane. Yakuza moving in on gambling and cybercrime operations? Better have a few samurai swordfight showdowns. African warlords moving in on the drug trade? First take out the witch doctor who can control you with voodoo, then hijack an attack helicopter to burn their grow operations, and then chase down the warlord himself in his humvee. Monster truck enthusiasts attacking your gang? Better kidnap the leader's girlfriend and trick him into crushing her with his own truck, then face off against him and half a dozen of his friends in their trucks while you're on foot in an enclosed space.
SR2 was great because it let you deal with realistic characters in a realistic setting in a completely unrealistic way. If fact, probably the worst part of SR2 was the relatively mundane combat missions and activity sidequests, because frankly the controls got a little wonky at times, and it was somewhat tedious dealing with them.
When I sat down to play SR3rd, I was ecstatic because the controls were flawless and the combat was fun and involving. I still maintain that SR3rd is the most technically perfect GTA-style game to date. The problem is, they did away with everything else that made the games great. Gat is apparently killed off in the first ten minutes of the game, but does so in exactly the blaze of glory style that made me certain he'd com riding back to save the day later on in the game. It never happens. The most interesting, fun to play with character in the game is just ... gone. We have our first "... That's it?" moment. His sort of replacement is an eight-foot strongman genius genetic experiment who spends his first mission with you charging around naked through an office building. At the end of that mission, the game's apparent big bad mastermind is killed without a fight, in a cutscene. Your reward for the mission is a penthouse that puts anything you got in SR2 to shame. This is the end of the first act. This was when I began to get the feeling that something was very, very, wrong.
The game proceeds to introduce the rest of its cartoon character cast, the ever more ridiculous but useless safehouses, and lead on a series of missions that feel more like Alice in Wonderland than The Godfather, or Scarface. And because the game obeys no rules of genre or convention, it can never break those rules to give you an amazing, unexpected moment. When the game gives you a laser and multi-launch missile system equipped VTOL jetfighter that infinitely respawns at any safehouse less than halfway through the game, but then makes half of its combat missions against foot-soldiers out in the open, it just feels disappointing. The final mission, depending on your choices, ends in killing the last gang boss with a quicktime sequence, and then single-handedly flying to a floating aircraft carrier, planting a few bombs and then killing one last jet fighter. It requires no new abilities that you've picked up since the start of the game, or resources you had to acquire through steady progression. Everything the game has to offer is there from the start. The whole thing just blurs into one long neon-light and bullet fueled haze. Nothing is memorable or engaging.
It's not impossible to do such an over the top approach but still make things engaging. One of your cribs for instance, is a converted nuclear power station. Why are there not, say, a whole class of stores and activities that aren't accessible until you've got that up and running the way you want? Why does getting access to aircraft for lead to massive StarFox-esque air battles? Why doesn't taking over the luchadores and their gambling operations give you access to a range of betting minigames to take part in. Imagine betting on horse races, except instead of horses, it's guys on motorcycles with flamethrowers trying to race around the city. I would want to do that straightaway, but not having the ability to do so from the start would give me good reason to play through the luchadore storyline. SR3rd never rewards you in an expanded gameplay sense. All it ever offers for your efforts are more powerful versions of weapons you already have from the start, and since the game just progressively scales up, the gameplay never really changes. It's fun for a few hours, but after that all I could think is, "...That's it?"
"But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is."
-Alan Watts
-Alan Watts
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