It's really a lengthy extension of Portal 1. I can't tell if you're just that impressed with 2 (which is deserved, Portal 2 is fantastic) or are knocking 1, which was pretty amazing for what it was at the time. A wonderfully crafted puzzler sidedish in the Orange Box that ended up getting more attention than the rest of the contents.
Portal 1 was phenomenal, I couldn't imagine them expanding the game the way they did. When I got to the part with Wheatly and Glados I thought the game was mostly over since that's about as long as Portal 1 was. I was so so wrong. I was so so impressed with the entire Cave Johnson areas, when I was nearing the end of that, I figured, -It can't be much longer now- then it blew me away again. Simply amazing.
Oh I did, the entire Caroline story and the hidden test chambers were amazing. Seriously, the game was breath taking. I have no reason why it passed me by but I am so glad I got into it. The Gels were a genius way of doing testing in -older times-
Yeah, Capra is a big roadblock. What you need to do is run past him and the dogs, climb the stairs, and then try the separate the dogs from him. If he comes for you up the stairs too fast, jump down and run to the other side of the area. Once the dogs are dead, if you climb the stairs, it's possible to get Capra to glitch his pathing so he won't follow you up. When this happens, use firebombs (or pyromancery if you started with it). You can buy firebombs (if you need them) from the old woman in the water tunnel that leads back to Firelink. The black pin resin (which adds fire damage to normal weapons for a time) can help too.
Capra never gets easier, even in later playthroughs. It's because of how small his area is.
Necronic
Staff member
I've read the playthroughs and honestly he shouldn't be that tough for me since I have the Black Knight Sword which just owns bosses. Problem is that he just blaps me as soon as I load the screen. I'm going to adjust my equipment and see if I can get down another weight class so I can get the faster run. I think with the Black Leather and Sorcerer boots I can inch my weight down just enough for that, although it removes the BKS (I also have the Balder Sword up to +5).
I'm thinking of trying the Titanite Demon by the Blacksmith next.
I'm thinking of trying the Titanite Demon by the Blacksmith next.
The tititanite demons really aren't worth it unless you HAVE to use a Gravelord Sword. I always just run past them.
What kind of build are you going for? Str? Dex? Quality (mix of both)? Or a caster build with Faith or Int?
What kind of build are you going for? Str? Dex? Quality (mix of both)? Or a caster build with Faith or Int?
Necronic
Staff member
I booshed up my Str/Dex to use the Dark Knight Sword (20/18). Past that I've been putting my stats into Endurance/Vitality until I can figure out exactly what I want to do. I will probably go for whatever works best with the Baldur Sword, I think that one is end-game viable (although I can't remember)
Balder Side Sword would be dex. If your going straight dex, your going to want to hit around 45 Dex and to be sure to get that sword up to +15 to get the best scaling out of it. After that, you might want to put some points into Int to get the Magic/Greater Magic/Crystal Magic Weapon series of spells to make your sword even better, but that's just my opinion. Your definitely going to want to get up enough endurance to use some heavy armor though.
Still working my way through New Vegas, did two of the DLCs, Old World Blues and Dead Money.
It was a bit of a surprise when Elijah and Christine, two characters I read about in passing in Old World Blues, showed up in Dead Money. I realize Dead Money was released first, so all they had to do was add references to them in Old World Blues later, but doing them in the order I did them made it feel like Obsidian had been planning for them to show up later on. Pretty awesome.
The two DLCs had pretty different atmospheres though. Old World Blues was probably most analogous to Mothership Zeta, a tribute to the !SCIENCE! themes that show up every now and then in the game. It also gives a ridiculous amount of resources to the player, and throws EXP at you like it's going out of fashion. I think I gained two or three levels just from talking to the scientist bots.
Dead Money was the complete opposite. It's like something out of survival horror. Targeting limbs instead of heads reminded me of Dead Space. Also, is it my imagination or am I basically never going to need to craft Weapon Repair Kits ever again?
The two DLCs had pretty different atmospheres though. Old World Blues was probably most analogous to Mothership Zeta, a tribute to the !SCIENCE! themes that show up every now and then in the game. It also gives a ridiculous amount of resources to the player, and throws EXP at you like it's going out of fashion. I think I gained two or three levels just from talking to the scientist bots.
Dead Money was the complete opposite. It's like something out of survival horror. Targeting limbs instead of heads reminded me of Dead Space. Also, is it my imagination or am I basically never going to need to craft Weapon Repair Kits ever again?
No, you will never need to craft Weapon Repair kits ever again, as long as you ether get Christine to teach you how to make chips from scrap and fission batteries or win a significant number of chips at the Sierra Nevada, as that will trigger chip vouchers being sent to Elijah's bunker in the Mojave Wasteland.
If you didn't do ether of those things, your going to be limited to how many clothes, smokes, and other junk you can recycle.
Also, if you didn't find all the upgrades for your weapons, you can't go back for them. They really make the Auto Rifle and Holorifle much better, if you use those a lot.
If you didn't do ether of those things, your going to be limited to how many clothes, smokes, and other junk you can recycle.
Also, if you didn't find all the upgrades for your weapons, you can't go back for them. They really make the Auto Rifle and Holorifle much better, if you use those a lot.
I would probably do Honest Hearts next, as it's pretty brief and nets some good rewards if you like light armor and/or guns.
Yeah I got both the chip recipe from Christine and the free chip vouchers. But even without them, I still have over ten thousand chips, which translates to 500 Weapon Repair Kits, since I don't think any of the other stuff being sold is all that useful to me. I won't be using the Holorifle or the Automatic Rifle outside of the Sierra Madre since I already have my preferred weapon loadout. (A fully upgraded Hunting Rifle is beastly. I call mine Charlene.)
Also, at the end of Dead Money, in the Vault, I was all like, "Oh hey, gold bars, I wonder how much they're worth... HOLY CRAP TEN THOUSAND CAPS EACH?!? I'm going to drag all of them out of the vault with me, I don't care if I have to crawl to the exit!"
And then it turns out I have to sprint to the exit before I blow up. So I'm forced to drop the gold and leave it all behind, apart from one symbolic gold bar which I'll never sell unless I desperately need the cash. Damn you, game, for making me feel attached to fake gold.
Also, at the end of Dead Money, in the Vault, I was all like, "Oh hey, gold bars, I wonder how much they're worth... HOLY CRAP TEN THOUSAND CAPS EACH?!? I'm going to drag all of them out of the vault with me, I don't care if I have to crawl to the exit!"
And then it turns out I have to sprint to the exit before I blow up. So I'm forced to drop the gold and leave it all behind, apart from one symbolic gold bar which I'll never sell unless I desperately need the cash. Damn you, game, for making me feel attached to fake gold.
TF2, but I think I'm giving up. Not because I don't like the game, but I can't seem to find a regular server that I like. Unfortunately, because I want to play a certain way, that doesn't seem possible:
-No instant respawn (to make kills mean a damn)
-Rotating maps (so I don't get tired of 2fort all the time)
-No cross team chat (so you can actually talk strategy without the other team knowing)
But it seems like the vast majority of servers are either 24/7 map servers, instant respawn, achievement or idle servers, etc.
-No instant respawn (to make kills mean a damn)
-Rotating maps (so I don't get tired of 2fort all the time)
-No cross team chat (so you can actually talk strategy without the other team knowing)
But it seems like the vast majority of servers are either 24/7 map servers, instant respawn, achievement or idle servers, etc.
ThatNickGuy - SourceOP.com for TF2 servers.
They have about 6 different ones, and the two main ones are usually well populated, have rotating maps, no cross team chat, and not instant respawn. (They have servers for 24/7 and Instant Spawn but there are two main servers that rotate without instant spawn).
My sister and I played on their servers exclusively. The only problem is there are very high tier players that play there, so you'll learn alot, the hard way.
(Just go to server search in TF2 and type sourceop)
They have about 6 different ones, and the two main ones are usually well populated, have rotating maps, no cross team chat, and not instant respawn. (They have servers for 24/7 and Instant Spawn but there are two main servers that rotate without instant spawn).
My sister and I played on their servers exclusively. The only problem is there are very high tier players that play there, so you'll learn alot, the hard way.
(Just go to server search in TF2 and type sourceop)
Man, I remember the first time I played against competition-level players in TF2. Vanilla Dustbowl, 12 vs 12, us attacking and the competition-level guys defending. We didn't manage a single cap.
That's right, they held us off in that space between the spawn gates and the first cap. It was both humiliating and highly impressive.
There was one Demoman who was particularly scary. He was juggling and airshotting people with his grenade launcher seemingly effortlessly.
That's right, they held us off in that space between the spawn gates and the first cap. It was both humiliating and highly impressive.
There was one Demoman who was particularly scary. He was juggling and airshotting people with his grenade launcher seemingly effortlessly.
Picked up Eador: Masters of the Broken World off of Steam. Holy crap is this one broken, bug-ridden game. The premise is one that I really enjoy (it's basically Heroes of Might and Magic), but there are so many bugs, memory leaks, and balance issues that it's damn near unplayable... in fact, if you've accomplished a certain amount in the campaign, it does become unplayable, as there's something in the way the game writes save-files that causes the memory usage to shoot up to 3.5GB (or more, that's where mine capped just after the game crashed) on game-load, but which doesn't affect other player profiles or campaigns that haven't reached that point.
Euro Trucking Simulator 2.
Every now and then, I download a bunch of demos from Steam. They provide a few hours of play time, and don't cost me anything. My wife happened to be in the room when I was looking at stuff to try, and I said "Hey, look. Here's a game about driving a rig around all day picking up loads and dropping them off. And it was so popular that they made a second one." (sarcastically, of course). But I downloaded it and tried it anyway. Two hours later, I bought it.
I don't even know why this freaking game is fun at all. It really is just about picking up various goods around Europe and dropping them off somewhere else (with the added element of growing your trucking empire by hiring drivers to do the same thing). I looked around, and critics rave about this game. I must have spent easily 70 or 80 hours playing so far. Why the hell is this game even fun? It's maddening.
Every now and then, I download a bunch of demos from Steam. They provide a few hours of play time, and don't cost me anything. My wife happened to be in the room when I was looking at stuff to try, and I said "Hey, look. Here's a game about driving a rig around all day picking up loads and dropping them off. And it was so popular that they made a second one." (sarcastically, of course). But I downloaded it and tried it anyway. Two hours later, I bought it.
I don't even know why this freaking game is fun at all. It really is just about picking up various goods around Europe and dropping them off somewhere else (with the added element of growing your trucking empire by hiring drivers to do the same thing). I looked around, and critics rave about this game. I must have spent easily 70 or 80 hours playing so far. Why the hell is this game even fun? It's maddening.
Necronic
Staff member
After having the Capra Demon repeatedly murder me I decided to stop playing that soul crushing game for a bit. Then I noticed a midweek madness sale on DAO, which I have never actually played. I was never really been into games for their story until BioShock Infinite changed my mind, and I've heard good things about this one story wise, so I thought I would give it a try.
So far the storytelling is pretty meh, which shouldn't surprise me because I thought most Bioware games were overly verbose in their story telling, but the gameplay is great. Pretty seamless system. Really looking forward to jamming out on this tonight.[DOUBLEPOST=1366914157][/DOUBLEPOST]
So far the storytelling is pretty meh, which shouldn't surprise me because I thought most Bioware games were overly verbose in their story telling, but the gameplay is great. Pretty seamless system. Really looking forward to jamming out on this tonight.[DOUBLEPOST=1366914157][/DOUBLEPOST]
This is actually a test for Autism.
Necronic
Staff member
So on playing DAO for most of the night last night, I cant decide if I like it.
-The explorable areas seem too constricted/small. To many pathing problems/hidden walls.
-The tactics menu is almost awesome, but restricting the tactics slots to a skill point is really fucking stupid (I know there is a mod around this, but it's terrible design)
-I like the injuries system
-The story is prett boring/cliche so far, and the voice acting is mediocre. It's like no one ever told the writers that Less IS More. I find myself skipping 90% of the dialogue. Bioshock raised the bar a bit too high for me though, to be fair, but the effort put into the story is pretty minimal so far: My parents are killed in a betrayal. My king and mentor are killed when betrayed by a dude that looks like a human version of Scar from the lion king. I was so surprised he betrayed him. I NEVER saw that coming. The characters are prett cliched as well.
-The warrior skill tree is appallingly bad. All of the categories are mutually exclusive choices, which means there is no real variety in the build. I can't speak for the other trees as I haven't explored it much yet, but this tree is simply sloppy assed design.
-Combat is pretty fun so far, I need to get a better handle on the tactics system.
-I REALLY like the assymetric fights. Not all enemies are equal and not all fights are fair.
-4 character limit and they give me 6 characters in the first hour. Not a big fan of that. The 4 character limit is too stifling for the variety of characters I have. It just seems like an artificial limit from he olden days of gaming. Shit even Jagged Alliance allowed more.
-WHY THE FUCK WAS EVERYONE SO CASUAL ABOUT RECRUILxTING STEN, A MONSTER THAT MASSACRED A FUCKING FAMILY. OH SO YOU WANT ME TO RELEASE THE SERIAL KILLING MONSTER? YEAH I DON'T SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS, NO ONE WILL MIND. IN FACT, WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO AND PISS ON THE GRAVES OF MY PARISIONERS THAT HE KILLED. This makes ZERO fucking sense. Awful writing.
-The explorable areas seem too constricted/small. To many pathing problems/hidden walls.
-The tactics menu is almost awesome, but restricting the tactics slots to a skill point is really fucking stupid (I know there is a mod around this, but it's terrible design)
-I like the injuries system
-The story is prett boring/cliche so far, and the voice acting is mediocre. It's like no one ever told the writers that Less IS More. I find myself skipping 90% of the dialogue. Bioshock raised the bar a bit too high for me though, to be fair, but the effort put into the story is pretty minimal so far: My parents are killed in a betrayal. My king and mentor are killed when betrayed by a dude that looks like a human version of Scar from the lion king. I was so surprised he betrayed him. I NEVER saw that coming. The characters are prett cliched as well.
-The warrior skill tree is appallingly bad. All of the categories are mutually exclusive choices, which means there is no real variety in the build. I can't speak for the other trees as I haven't explored it much yet, but this tree is simply sloppy assed design.
-Combat is pretty fun so far, I need to get a better handle on the tactics system.
-I REALLY like the assymetric fights. Not all enemies are equal and not all fights are fair.
-4 character limit and they give me 6 characters in the first hour. Not a big fan of that. The 4 character limit is too stifling for the variety of characters I have. It just seems like an artificial limit from he olden days of gaming. Shit even Jagged Alliance allowed more.
-WHY THE FUCK WAS EVERYONE SO CASUAL ABOUT RECRUILxTING STEN, A MONSTER THAT MASSACRED A FUCKING FAMILY. OH SO YOU WANT ME TO RELEASE THE SERIAL KILLING MONSTER? YEAH I DON'T SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS, NO ONE WILL MIND. IN FACT, WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO AND PISS ON THE GRAVES OF MY PARISIONERS THAT HE KILLED. This makes ZERO fucking sense. Awful writing.
Necronic
Staff member
I just realized that the story in Dragon Age Origin is a pretty close parallel of Mass Effect, at least so far. Obviously evil "hero of the empire" betrays the good guys and sides up with an ancient evil that no one really understands how bad it is. The entire weight of resolving the situation sits on your shoulders from the beginning.
How hard would it have been for them to make me LIKE these traitors before the treachery? I appreciate that is cliche in its own way, but I don think their choice is part of some grand and subtle plot development. I think they are jus shitty writers. The fact thAt this game gets praised for its writing makes me really wonder how stupid this generation is.
I mean...compare that to the scene with Comstock on his airship. My skin starts crawling and I can't stop thinking "wait what in the name of FUCK is going on here?". That's good writing.
Although....I dunno maybe the writing gets better later
How hard would it have been for them to make me LIKE these traitors before the treachery? I appreciate that is cliche in its own way, but I don think their choice is part of some grand and subtle plot development. I think they are jus shitty writers. The fact thAt this game gets praised for its writing makes me really wonder how stupid this generation is.
I mean...compare that to the scene with Comstock on his airship. My skin starts crawling and I can't stop thinking "wait what in the name of FUCK is going on here?". That's good writing.
Although....I dunno maybe the writing gets better later
My thoughts exactly Jay.
I think warrior is the worst class in DA:O, at least it was for me, I could just never get it to work out the way I wanted. I preferred Mage or rogue, though Mage was so OP. Also I had to make sure to never let my other mages use AE offensive spells on their own, because the AI loved to kill me with it if I wasn't careful.
My main character was a two handed sword wielding warrior. He wrecked things. I fail to see the problem.
Necronic
Staff member
I'm sorry but I don't get why people love it. It's not a particularly interesting story. If someone were to turn this Ito a book it wouldn't even make a grocery store paperback. The implementations of varied origins is technically impressive, but the overall story is derivative and boring. I havent been surprised by anything yet, other than my group casually accepting of a FUCKING BABY KILLER into the fold.
Combat is fun for now but everything I've read makes it seem like balance is a joke and Mages can basically solo the game because there's really nothing limiting your potion consumption and spell usage. I'm sorry but that is terrible design if it's true. The worst part is that the lore actually accounts for both ofthese problems: potions are dangerous and addictive and over usage of spells can allow you to be possessed by demons from the Warp. They took the time and effor to include that in the lore but they didn't include it in the gameplay?
Oh yeah and did I say Warp? Whoops, I totally didn't mean to imply that "The Fade" is an direct ripoff of warhammer.
Anyways, I'm still holding out hope for the gameplay.
Ed: I am starting to realize that maybe its just me, maybe I don't like biowares style. The last time I enjoyed one of their games was the time I thought they made Bioshock.[DOUBLEPOST=1367005990][/DOUBLEPOST]
The problem is that the skill tree is retarded for warriors. Did you put points into dual wield? Shield? Archery? Of course not. So that left you with a single really boring path to go down.
I mean, for a game people suck off for being a champion of Choice, how much choice is there in character development?
Combat is fun for now but everything I've read makes it seem like balance is a joke and Mages can basically solo the game because there's really nothing limiting your potion consumption and spell usage. I'm sorry but that is terrible design if it's true. The worst part is that the lore actually accounts for both ofthese problems: potions are dangerous and addictive and over usage of spells can allow you to be possessed by demons from the Warp. They took the time and effor to include that in the lore but they didn't include it in the gameplay?
Oh yeah and did I say Warp? Whoops, I totally didn't mean to imply that "The Fade" is an direct ripoff of warhammer.
Anyways, I'm still holding out hope for the gameplay.
Ed: I am starting to realize that maybe its just me, maybe I don't like biowares style. The last time I enjoyed one of their games was the time I thought they made Bioshock.[DOUBLEPOST=1367005990][/DOUBLEPOST]
The problem is that the skill tree is retarded for warriors. Did you put points into dual wield? Shield? Archery? Of course not. So that left you with a single really boring path to go down.
I mean, for a game people suck off for being a champion of Choice, how much choice is there in character development?
Correct. The reason people are disagreeing with you is because you're calling it a -not particularly interesting story- instead of a -Not particularly interesting to my taste story- many would disagree with you on it's standard. It's usually when the majority of opinion is nearly overwhelming that it'll border on fact vs opinion.
GasBandit
Staff member
It's not just you, Necronic. I didn't like DAO either. I found the premise moderately interesting but the rigamarole of getting through the plot was tiresome to me. Especially the relationship dynamics.
I also think you're confusing why bioware is famous - it's not for plot, it's for dialogue.
It's been a long time since I truly enjoyed a bioware game... I think NWN1 was the last one.
I also think you're confusing why bioware is famous - it's not for plot, it's for dialogue.
It's been a long time since I truly enjoyed a bioware game... I think NWN1 was the last one.
Necronic
Staff member
But what is interesting? Ed: aimed and gilg and others
The world is an unimaginatve hodgepodge of shit stolen of LOtR, D&D, and Warhammer
The treachery and plot twists have, so far, been highly telegraphed.
Ed: thank you gas bandit for showing me I'm not alone in this. I thought I was going crazy.
The world is an unimaginatve hodgepodge of shit stolen of LOtR, D&D, and Warhammer
The treachery and plot twists have, so far, been highly telegraphed.
Ed: thank you gas bandit for showing me I'm not alone in this. I thought I was going crazy.