What are you playing?

Or even without a story element to strip them, start the game in present-day Metropolis but have the main chunk of the game be a sort of flashback leading up to the last couple hours or so. Start with a teenage Clark adjusting to his powers and not knowing what they all are, dealing with disasters in and around Smallville, moving to other spots around the world as he learns more of his ability, Fortress of Solitude as a sort of main hub, etc.

Eh, I don't know. I'd prefer everything to stay set in Metropolis.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
It's definitely a balance problem. Without it, planning an assault can be infuriating and result in many do-overs. With it, you can make a foolproof plan and tackle any obstacle. So there's never a reason to not use it.

So they should have made a reason to not use and adjusted the difficulty of the situations when using it would be a problem.
Arkham City did a better job of making it imperfect. Not only were there more situations where you couldn't use it, even when you could it didn't allow you to see as far away as regular vision and it automatically switched back to normal view the moment you got hit, etc.
 
So after another few nights with Rogue Legacy, I'm starting to notice how insanely overpowered some classes are over others now that I've opened/upgraded them all. The final hidden class is beastly, along with Barbarian King, Hokage and Assassin once you've built up some physical damage and hp in the Manor. Archmage and Spelunker are fairly useless comparatively, and Paladin/Lich King is just okay at best. The issue with Spelunker is the bonus gold they get is pretty minimal when you look at overall survival time thanks to their super weak stats. In the long run a Barbarian King will easily triple a Spelunker's dungeon time and earn way more treasure, perhaps even killing a boss or three.
 
So after another few nights with Rogue Legacy, I'm starting to notice how insanely overpowered some classes are over others now that I've opened/upgraded them all. The final hidden class is beastly, along with Barbarian King, Hokage and Assassin once you've built up some physical damage and hp in the Manor. Archmage and Spelunker are fairly useless comparatively, and Paladin/Lich King is just okay at best. The issue with Spelunker is the bonus gold they get is pretty minimal when you look at overall survival time thanks to their super weak stats. In the long run a Barbarian King will easily triple a Spelunker's dungeon time and earn way more treasure, perhaps even killing a boss or three.
I find the spellsword to be incredibly powerful, but I use all balance runes so that I have near limitless mana with him.
 
I haven't gotten many of them, unfortunately. When I do it's great, but all in all I feel like Barbarians are really strong compared to others right now thanks to their ridiculous hp/defense.
 
Once you get a point in the invul extension at the top of the manor, push up.[DOUBLEPOST=1372799744][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, when playing the Paladin hold down and then hit guard. It's fantastic.
 

fade

Staff member
Finally got Skyrim. I'm waiting for the awesome to kick in. I was afraid of this. After all this build-up, I was expecting to have my socks blown off. Not really. Feels like par-for-the-course Bethesda. That is in no way a bad thing, but the way people were talking, I thought this was a god amongst games.
 
Finally got Skyrim. I'm waiting for the awesome to kick in. I was afraid of this. After all this build-up, I was expecting to have my socks blown off. Not really. Feels like par-for-the-course Bethesda. That is in no way a bad thing, but the way people were talking, I thought this was a god amongst games.
It is.
 
Finally got Skyrim. I'm waiting for the awesome to kick in. I was afraid of this. After all this build-up, I was expecting to have my socks blown off. Not really. Feels like par-for-the-course Bethesda. That is in no way a bad thing, but the way people were talking, I thought this was a god amongst games.
It's certainly the Bethesda game I've played most. It's fun but mostly for the emergent gameplay rather than the game-as-presented.
 
Finally got Skyrim. I'm waiting for the awesome to kick in. I was afraid of this. After all this build-up, I was expecting to have my socks blown off. Not really. Feels like par-for-the-course Bethesda. That is in no way a bad thing, but the way people were talking, I thought this was a god amongst games.

Hey guys, fade doesn't like it!
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Finally got Skyrim. I'm waiting for the awesome to kick in. I was afraid of this. After all this build-up, I was expecting to have my socks blown off. Not really. Feels like par-for-the-course Bethesda. That is in no way a bad thing, but the way people were talking, I thought this was a god amongst games.
It's immersiveness and awesomeness, for me at least, didn't really kick in until 20 or so levels in. It's so.. sandboxy (I guess that's what the suits call "emergent" gaming). Of course, those who have played every elder scrolls game as it came out probably shrug their shoulders, but for a lot of people Skyrim was the first ES title they played because it was the first to not look like an inscrutable nerds-only club. Oblivion came close, but it was still really a niche title in a very specific subgenre, whereas Skyrim slammed into the gaming mainstream in a big way, in no small part to excellent advertising both professional and viral/memetic.
 
To me, Skyrim suffers the same issue most Bethesda games do, in what GB mentioned. It's so sandbox that once you're out of the starting area it's a little overwhelming. Skyrim's better than most Bethesda titles in that it gives you much more clear (and map-based) quest directions, but even then I only put about 6 hours in. Fallout 3 had me until about 4 hours and Morrowind for maybe an hour, so I figure by ES 15 or so I'll actually complete a Bethesda game without getting bored of it.
 

fade

Staff member
Fallout 1-3 hooked me right away. Oblivion and Morrowind took me some time. Fallout, especially 3, had such an engaging and fresh story. The characters and even the "races" were new and interesting, and the graphics were perfect and creepy. ES has to work harder, I think, to be something more than just another fantasy RPG, and Skyrim didn't suck me in immediately.
 
Another thing with Skyrim is that you can't just sit and play it for 40 minutes. That's why I've been taking a break--I don't feel like sitting for 3 hours at a time right now and wandering.

Just reading the Skyrim and Skyrim stories threads shows the diversity of shit people got into.
 
What the fuck!? It's been there the whole time?



HA! That's awesome.
Interesting note on the statue, if you get hit while in that form a monster takes your normal swing damage and it costs you a little mana. It's pretty brutal to use that on high-mobility named monsters.
 
I'm still playing Marvel Heroes. I've finished the main campaign with Cable and am working on leveling Cyclops. End game is as grindy as expected for a game of that type.
 
Master quest SUUUUUUUUUUCKS

To expand by way of example, one of the switches to solve one of the dungeons is behind a tile and you can only see the very edge of it through the eye of a face tile.
 
Still haven't played Skyrim (I own it, but still don't own a pc that can run it :p). I'm pretty sure I'll feel exactly the same as Fade,though.
Just like Morrowind and Oblivion, it's been called so many things by so many people that it almost can't fail to be a bit of a letdown. I assume it's just another step up from Oblivion, but if it is, that'll be a disappointment, because of the expectation build-up.
I played (literally) thousands of hours of Daggerfall, several hundred of Morrowind, maybe some 70-80 hours of Oblivion, and FO3 didn't hold my intrest for more than an hour or so. Maybe I'll jsut uninstall right after installation? I dunno.
Anyway, for some reason theseg ames get hyped up so much...And I don't understand. I like them, I do. But I don't see what's so mindbendingly awesome - they're what a game's supposed to be.
 
So I broke my Rogue Legacy habit just in time for my brother to buy Fire Emblem for his 3DS. Needless to say...

...he hasn't gotten to play it much.
 
Picked up The Last of Us today.


On the note of the Arkham Detective Mode and the Dark Vision from Dishonored, I think Joel's super-hearing is a good balance, since you have to hold the button to use it and it slows you down, so you can't just keep it going.
 
I want to like it, but when the world you play in increases at the same rate, it really seems like a zero net benefit to me.
Oh, Oblivion and Skyrim are absolutely not what I was talking about. Morrowind, however, is a different story.
 

fade

Staff member
Oh, Oblivion and Skyrim are absolutely not what I was talking about. Morrowind, however, is a different story.
Yeah, but it's in almost every RPG I've played, whether it be the entire world set like Bethesda, or whether it be that the next level or dungeon or town only contains monsters that equal your newly begotten level.
 
Yeah, but it's in almost every RPG I've played, whether it be the entire world set like Bethesda, or whether it be that the next level or dungeon or town only contains monsters that equal your newly begotten level.
What would the point of any game be without any escalated challenge. It would be awful boring to just be able to mac truck your way through everything. For example, that's the reasont that modern final fantasy games are so goddamn boring.
 
Yeah, but it's in almost every RPG I've played, whether it be the entire world set like Bethesda, or whether it be that the next level or dungeon or town only contains monsters that equal your newly begotten level.
In Skyrim, the fun of leveling up isn't that it gives you increased stats to be better than monsters of lower level (since as you said, they level up to) but rather you level up to have more tools and toys to slay them with glee.
 

fade

Staff member
What would the point of any game be without any escalated challenge. It would be awful boring to just be able to mac truck your way through everything. For example, that's the reasont that modern final fantasy games are so goddamn boring.
Well of course it would be. But my point is that it basically makes your new gifts different shiny lights or whirly movements that end up doing essentially the same thing the old shiny lights did on a lot of games. I shouldn't say they're all like that. There are exceptions.
 
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Got this for Christmas from my wife and played through it once (did not get a satisfying ending). Then it went into my wife's possession for several months because she wanted to give it a shot, but plays games slowly. Finally got it back, decided to go for the good ending. Firstly, things get ... really weird. In a good way, but in my previous playthrough, where I chose an entirely different set of doors, little of what happened was touched upon until later. I did grasp what was going on and it is very clever, some of it even picking apart things a la Bioshock. Also points for creative use of the dual screen not for gameplay, but for telling the story. Second ...

I was totally right in who I guessed was Zero, but nowhere near close in how that worked or why.

Not sure how a sequel to this was possible all things considered, but I'd like to play it at some point.
 
WWE '13

Last night, I went to a friend's place to help him install his new air conditioner. Afterwards, we played WWE '13 on his Xbox...

...and goddammit, it got me hooked enough to go buy it for my PS3 today.

My favourite thing to do in these games is create my own wrestlers. My all-time favourite, created back in WWE '10, has already been made. The Mexican Manbeast, Toro, has already been unleashed!
 
I got my hands on Pokemon Black 2.

I've only got as far as Floccesy Ranch, but more than half my team's established already.
Oshawott, to eventually become Samurott: Mixed attacker.
Mareep, to eventually become Ampharos: Bulky special attacker.
Riolu, to eventually become Lucario: Physical sweeper.
Sewaddle, to eventually become Leavanny: Physical sweeper.

Now all I need is to pick up a flying type and a ground type, and I'll have everything covered. Might possibly need a ghost too, we'll see.
 
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