What are you playing?

Unfortunately there is no "Blow Up Megaton" mission and it seems the DLCs are destined to make me a goody goody. I'll let you know as I get further in the main quest (only beat it once and don't really recall what I did) as I'm not familiar with the DLC packs yet. So far though, not alot of "right and wrong" decisions to be had.
Well, I can confirm there are ways to drop it in Dead Money (one of the characters actually encourages this once you get into the Casino), and in Honest Hearts you can just decide to kill one of the Sorrows or White Horses, which starts the "Chaos in Zion" quest (note that doing so will prevent you from being able to get some of the special items). However, Old World Blues doesn't have a big negative Karma option, only a few small ones. This is mainly because it's exploration based and there are only 7 NPCs you can really interact with.

However, even doing the negative Karma options for all three of the DLCs won't make up for cleaning out Vault 13's Fiends or even just going into it to sell drugs. There doesn't seem to be an upper or lower limit on Karma, so killing all of them raised me up a lot. I think I might still have a few options (Killing Ghouls at REPCONN and using Archimedes to kill people), but it's going to be tough.
 
Your Honest Hearts reason is a perfect example: Doing evil will prevent you from getting some special items.

Instead of: Doing evil will present a different character path that leads to different special items.

*sigh* They dropped the ball on that aspect of New Vegas for sure.
 
Your Honest Hearts reason is a perfect example: Doing evil will prevent you from getting some special items.

Instead of: Doing evil will present a different character path that leads to different special items.

*sigh* They dropped the ball on that aspect of New Vegas for sure.
At least there are logical reasons why you won't get some of the items. For instance, you won't see the .45 ammo, weapons, and mods at the Gun Runners because you failed to make a trade route between the Mormons (to whom the .45 has religious and cultural significance) and the Caravan. You can't buy the War Club or it's mods ether, mainly for the same reasons.

However, the only reason you won't get the special power fist and helmet is because you don't run into Salt-Upon-Wounds unless you finish the story. I've tried going into Three Marys to perhaps ally with the White Legs and drive the others from Zion but it's not even an option. They really dropped the ball there in retrospect.

There ARE items in New Vegas you can only get by going the evil way. For instance, you can't use Euclid's C-Finder without first powering up Archimedes II, which requires you to deprive half of New Vegas of power. You also can't get the Figaro without killing the non-hostile King's member who owns it, nor can you get Maria without offing Benny yourself. You also can't get the special Praetorian move from Caesar's Praetorian Guard without having high fame with the Legion, which necessitates doing some Evil. So they do have it go both ways.
 
Mostly good points except the Gun Runner/Canaanites thing isn't about making a "good/evil" choice, it's about whether they should go or stand up for themselves.

Offing Benny isn't really "evil" as "justice". So that really leaves the Caesar item and the King's member item (which is just killing someone and grabbing a weapon).
 
Mostly good points except the Gun Runner/Canaanites thing isn't about making a "good/evil" choice, it's about whether they should go or stand up for themselves.
Actually, both of those choices cause the weapons to start showing up in the inventory of the Gun Runners. The only thing that can make it not happen is to kill both Joshua Graham and Daniel, then leave Zion. If you do that, the Canaanites do not know about the Caravan, thus don't know to meet with them to trade.
 
Actually, both of those choices cause the weapons to start showing up in the inventory of the Gun Runners. The only thing that can make it not happen is to kill both Joshua Graham and Daniel, then leave Zion. If you do that, the Canaanites do not know about the Caravan, thus don't know to meet with them to trade.
Again, it seems the only way to be "evil" in New Vegas is to be "stupid". *sigh*
 
Weird how? I was thinking of pre ordering it.
Well if you pre-order it you get access to the beta, although there's only like a week left of it.

They changed a lot of stuff, like creature growth is now one over all your towns etc, and you can hire all the available units from any town,the skill system is now fixed and includes the spells and a lot of other stuff... here's a summary of the major ones: http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11311&start=0

But if you really want to see there was a little leak of the private beta a while back...
 

fade

Staff member
Dragon Age: Origins. I know I'm late. The story is nice, but the game drags on in way that seems designed only to pad the length, so that they can say "oh look this game is 11 billion hours of play". Contrast this with Fallout 3, which I loved, where the game was long, but was set up as many story moving modules rather than long, monolithic grinding quests. There are some good non-standard spells, like Mana Clash. Oh, which brings up a point. I tried playing as a rogue first, and but the lack of interaction got boring. I found an Arcane Warrior specialized wizard to be the best of all worlds. You get the pleasure of thinking out your spell sequence, and when your mana drops, you tank. In combo with Alistair, Morrigan (or Wynne--I waffle), and Leliana, it's dynamite. The best parts of the game are the dialogue moments--especially the spontaneous ones during idle times, and the enemy AI. They actually seem to plan out strategies to trap and herd you. The drops are interesting, too. The game clearly monitors your potion use and replenishes it with a similar set of drops. I've tested this several ways. The combat tactics are nice, too. I like that you can command your team without commanding them. I know Bioware has included something similar in many of their titles, but this seems to be the most sophisticated. It probably shares some algorithmic roots with the aforementioned enemy AI. On the negative side, the graphics look a little dated compared to the other stuff out there now. The difficulty seems to range all over the place. Some orange names are really easy (Brood Mother), and some are really hard (revenants). The game drags, as mentioned. The game gives you a huge party, but then restricts the times you can change the members. That's especially annoying when you are forced to choose a party member for story purposes. Like carrying a newly acquired and poorly outfitted Oghren through the deep roads. Or my least favorite, being forced to take Zevran to Arl Howe's estate because of a fight with some assassins that happens on the way there. No lockpicking or trap skills like Leliana, and you're entering a heavily trapped area. Maybe there were ways around this, but I found it annoying. Maybe it's because I rarely used Zevran, and wasn't used to him.

All in all, it's pretty good. Just a little long. I realize I'm opposed to most on that, but with two small kids, you game when you can.
 
All in all, it's pretty good. Just a little long. I realize I'm opposed to most on that, but with two small kids, you game when you can.
A few sections of the game definitely dragged on a bit. The Deep Roads, as you mentioned already, and the Fade are two examples that spring to mind immediately.

On the whole though, it's one of my all time favorite games.
 
The difficulty seems to range all over the place. Some orange names are really easy (Brood Mother), and some are really hard (revenants).
While the 1st Revenant in the courtyard of Redcliff was murder (which i later found out was because i was supposed to open the castle gate and get help, and i was low level), the Brood Mother wiped me out more times then the blood vial revenants...

So that might just be because of your level... or maybe me freezing them had more of an impact then i thought...
 
I absolutely destroyed the Revenants in Dragon Age Origins... and the Brood Mother kicked my ass so hard it took several attempts to get by. It depends heavily on your class, your team mates, your gear and your playstyle... which is another reason Dragon Age Orgins is totally awesome (contrast this to why Dragon Age 2 sucks balls).
 
I'm playing Dance Central on my new Xbox with Kinect.

I'll say that again for emphasis: my new Xbox 360 with fucking Kinect!

Sorry. I've been a generation behind on gaming systems for five or six years now. So, did I miss any good games while I was gone? :awesome:
 
Jay, that graph makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Also, I've been playing the demo to SPAZ (Space Pirates and Zombies) and it's been pretty fun so far. I'll probably buy the full game when it's released.
 
I've been debating installing Oblivion and modding the shit out of it and playing it but.... knowing myself.... will I get burnt out and not get immersed in Skyrim if I played Oblivion? Ahhhh, it's been 2 years and I cheated... I looked at some mods.... I drooled.
 
C

Chibibar

I've been debating installing Oblivion and modding the shit out of it and playing it but.... knowing myself.... will I get burnt out and not get immersed in Skyrim if I played Oblivion? Ahhhh, it's been 2 years and I cheated... I looked at some mods.... I drooled.
I haven't finish Oblivion or Fallout 3 because of the mods. There are some SERIOUSLY talented folks making mods.
 
I was one of the people who said such the may sayers, and had da2 preordered, even took off work to play it.

Playing was similar to the stages of grief. First came denial, it can't be this bad, it has to get better. Then anger, I cant believe what they did to this! Bargaining, maybe if I try this class, do these quests....

Finally, I simply sealed away the disc, and accepted that it's shit.
 
I wouldn't call it shit. It's better than many games out there (the real shitty shit).

I also wouldn't call it good. It's a God damn mess.
 
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Picked this up in the Steam sale, and I'm quite liking it. It really does make me feel like I'm Batman.
 
C

Chibibar

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Picked this up in the Steam sale, and I'm quite liking it. It really does make me feel like I'm Batman.
My wife was watching me play and loving it. It is pretty cool that a lot of the stage you really have to sneak around and fight instead of going head on (which you "could" but VERY hard to do especially when the bad guys use guns)
 
Yeah, it's fun to ambush and take out the guards one by one, and watch their companions gradually panic as they discover the unconscious bodies. Batman's meant to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, and this game allows me to do exactly that.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Which makes me reiterate ad nauseum:

ARKHAM CITY NEEDS TO HURRY THE FUCK UP AND BE RELEASED!!!!!:mad:
No, it needs to take it's time, so it can be as polished as the first game. Remember, B:AA was delayed so that it could be the masterpiece that it is.
 
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