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It helps that full friendship with Pam (I think...?) gives access to the fishing channel that tells you every detail for each (non-unique) fish. I know most players finish the community center before that stage but it's a nice failsafe!Quote:
Originally Posted by Batcathat
Yeah, I know there are ways to do it, but considering finishing the fishing bundles is pretty laborious even looking them up on the wiki, having to figure all of them out too feels like a lot (though to be honest, I haven't even tried doing that).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ionathus
In other news, I wasn't sure what to play next until watching the Fallout series put me in the mood for some old school Fallout, so now I'm replaying Fallout 2 (I considered starting with the first game and I might replay that later, but I've always felt like Fallout 2 is better in almost every way, except maybe the main plot). Maybe it's just my nostalgia speaking, but I feel like it holds up.
Oof, yeah, 5 hours of extra gameplay for $30 does not sound like a good deal. Though the story already has its conclusion? The ending's pretty conclusive as-is, Leviathan's just a side-thing, right? :smallconfused:Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanBruce
While that Vanquish Souls thing does sound intriguing, I probably won't end up doing that. Looking at it, it's a free-to-play, multiplayer version of the game, and it's safe to say I'm not interested in that anymore. Getting me to even try another free-to-play game at this point is going to be a tall order. I mean, I know I'll try 2XKO (yes, that's the actual name...) when it comes out, because MvC style fighting game, but even for that I'm not expecting my love of that kind of game to overcome my dislike for free-to-play elements.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rynjin
It is like...ACTUALLY free-to-play. The game is so generous with materials that buying anything is actively a bad deal. As long as you play about one game every 3 days to complete your dailies (they stack up to 9, and you'll complete like 5 of them in one match a lot of the time) you'll get enough stuff to build whatever the newest deck that comes out is. And that's after you've exhausted the huge number of things a free player gets.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevox
I'm genuinely unsure how the game makes money.
Selling cards to Yugioh content creators when their viewers force them to go buy random terrible deck archetypes for the content >.>Quote:
Originally Posted by Rynjin
The simple fact that you mentioned "dailies" is already all I need to know. That sort of thing is part of the free-to-play elements I no longer want anything to do with. I don't want games trying to incentivize me to play them every day to not "fall behind" anymore, I've been very done with that since I dropped Hearthstone. And I honestly don't think I'd much want to play Yu-gi-oh with actual people anymore regardless. Which is why the one I'm playing now works, plenty of single-player AIs for me to beat up on with premade decks and without caring how optimal my one custom deck is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rynjin
This is what soured me on the new game from the makers of Ori. No Rest for the Wicked has some good gameplay in there, but after the prologue area, you're introduced to the TOWN! Featuring daily and weekly quests, plus building orders that complete in real-time. Instant bad taste in my mouth. A single-player or co-op game doesn't need these types of "engagement boosters" in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevox
Trust me, I get it. But these aren't dailies like "I gotta grind this **** like it's my job" or even Hearthstone's ones like "Summon 50 Murlocs" or whatever that take 10 matches and a specially built deck to get done.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevox
My list consisted of when I got on:
Ritual/Synchro/XYZ summon a monster 3 times (this is a "do one of these 3 things", not 3 of each)
Special Summon a Monster 5 times
Destroy a card 5 times
Activate a Trap card 2 times
Fusion/Pendulum/Link summon a monster 3 times
Activate a Spell card 3 times
Duel in Solo Mode 3 times.
That's 3 days worth of dailies because I didn't feel like playing yesterday or the day before.
I played one match.
The only ones left in the list are the Trap card one and the Solo mode one.
Now if you want to play the game even less frequently than that, eh, you probably don't like the game much. Although even then it's actually a viable strat to just start a brand new account any time you want to play a deck and build it just from the starter gems. Of course none of that fixes the "I don't wanna play against players" aspect I guess.
The Leviathan DLC is not required to finish the game, true. However, for those wondering what happened to Leviathan and why he isn’t in the base game, it serves as a conclusion of sorts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevox
There is no game that I want to play daily, or even every few days. There's too many different games I enjoy for that. That's, again, part of what makes me no longer want to touch free-to-play games: they're all trying to get you to do that. Some more aggressively than others, sure, but keeping you playing as often as they can is ultimately part of the goal of the design for all of them. And I'm no longer okay with that. Even games I enjoy coming back to regularly, like my favorite fighting games, I'll go months at a time (minimum, since when I do come back to them it's not always the same one) without playing when my interest is drawn more by various other games instead. And free-to-play games do not tend to get designed in such a way that that's totally okay.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rynjin
Also, yeah, the not wanting to play with other players part is kind of a big deal in this specific case as well.
Probably just a difference in taste then. I like always having a "default game" to play for a while. For a long time it was Rainbow Six: Siege, even longer before that it was Team Fortress 2, now it's mostly Master Duel since the shooter market kinda sucks ATM.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zevox
Don't worry, that feeling that Stalker is busted will go away as soon as you have to rescue someone, and escort them out of the mission past all those enemies that you were able to skip fighting on the way in...Quote:
Originally Posted by Beelzebub1111
Mastermind is still my favorite archetype. Army of minions, face my army of much better minions while I stand back here debuffing the life out of you and laughing maniacally!
So the last Age of Wonders 4 DLC added the option to play as wolf people. And as mentioned in my previous game, you can worship a giant wolf spirit. You can see where this is going.
But there's one more layer to Wolfception. See, you can customize your race's mount of choice*. So I now have wolf riding wolf worshipping wolves. Who summon wolves. And who get buffs for being near wolves. Technically any animal, but it's probably a wolf. And I enchanted them to be wolfier wolves.
There remains the matter of what major race transformation to go for. Dragon wolves have some potential, as do really big wolves. I could also go for being part snake, but that seems silly. How can a snake-wolf ride a wolf-wolf? And messing with the perfection that is the wolf form might anger the wolf god, or Wolf-wolf-wolf. Maybe angelic wolves?
*slightly confusingly there's two ways to do this. You can just change the aesthetic of your mount, or you can edit your race's traits to get a specific mount with particular special abilities. Needless to say I did he second, because project Turbo-Wolf demands nothing but maximal wolf.
In conclusion, wolf. Wolf wolf wolf wolf-wolf Wolf!
Playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, and what's really striking me is how some of the flags trip... but don't stay tripped.
Just this morning, I come to a Remnant place on Eos that the kett were tracking. I get there, SAM informs me that it's the place the kett were tracking, and I tell him to watch out for kett. I come out of the place, and that conversation repeats. I leave the area, and that conversation repeats. Exact same conversation, three times, relevant only once.
Snake-wolf would remove the ability to rides wolf-wolves.Quote:
Originally Posted by warty goblin
I advise Supergrowth and the hero perk from the last Materium book, if you've got the affinities to pick it up. Makes your heroes about the same size as giants, and nothing is more Turbo than being a three story behemoth version of a thing.
I've just finished Atomic Heart and what can I say: it was an amazing experience.
The game deserves more then being constantly either ignored or badmouthed.
Now, to be fair there are elements of the game that are rather mediocre, others are just good but not great. The first section of the game in particular is where it is the most unimpressive. It reminded me of other games, mostly Half-Life and Prey, that did the "destroyed science complex" simply better than Atomic Heart does.
Driving sucks.
Most of the props in the game-world are static - no cheese-wheels rolling down the mountains here.
The design of the optional underground areas is very "game-y" and formulaic.
And, because this is something most reviews are very keen on pointing out: technical issues. I encountered... *drum-roll* ... a whole 2 (in words: two!) of them:
* one very minor graphic glitch on the game's save-the-game stations
* the game has some difficulties with actors clipping through doors and walls - including their hitboxes.
The game is something of a slow burner. It takes a while for it to stand on its own legs - both thematically and gameplaywise - but it is important to note that it does.
My appreciation of the main characters also grew over time. The relationships between the characters are constantly and sometimes subtlety evolving. Seeing and experiencing that growth was great on its own.
The game's story is one trust and control, of the clash between grand ideas and the people having those ideas, and above all a story about humanity. If the game makes any point at all, it is that humanity, that is all our pesky emotions, fears and desires, is just to stubborn to vanish and that it takes no coordinated effort to preserve - people being people is enough. And I like the tone here: the game avoids sliding into cynicism, but is also neither preachy nor optimistic.
But Atomic Heart's strongest aspect is its design. The visual design is impeccable, but I also want to highlight the audio design. Especially the game's use of music is impressive. One thing that Atomic Heart relies heavily on is what I call the "crafted scene": where gameplay, scenery and (music) score creates one cohesive whole.
So, the TL;DR is: if you like "Warren Spector" games, especially in the style of Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey), if you value artistry in game, if you enjoy the amalgamation of gameplay and music in games, give Atomic Heart a try.
The game has AAA pricing but to me that is definitely worth it.
The game is just the customizer's heaven at this point. Not really my cup of tea, but still.Quote:
Originally Posted by warty goblin
Dropped coin on Sentinels of Earth-Prime to help scratch my superhero itch (and the fact that it can play with Sentinels of the Multiverse cards is a bonus).
It's either an optimizer's dream, or a particular sort of fantasy RP nerd's dream. I'm not much into the former - I find build crafting to be like homework on a deliberately irrelevant skill - but I very much dig the later.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cespenar
Specifically you have to really like a sort of late 90s/early 2000s kitchen sink kinda fantasy world. It doesn't take itself 100% seriously, but it isn't farce or self parody either, it's just there to be fun. What AoW4 does is let you generate worlds like that, populate them with appropriately fun stuff, build cool fantasy stuff then have big honking epic fantasy wars there.
Basically I use it as an ad libs generator for the videogame equivalent of fantasytrilogiescycles with names like The Dragon Element Saga Book 3: Tears of the Flame. I get depressingly into this too, I have little headcanon things about where my leader comes from, and try to make reasonably in character decisions throughout a run. Last night I got to recruit a leader from a previous game and it was awesome because of course the human barbarian queen would help out the wolf people, it totally fits with her character.
Nobody writes this exact brand of fantasy nonsense anymore. Maybe they never did. But I love it forever.
I kinda find that the Magic the Gathering universe is exactly this kind of thing. It takes itself seriously, but the conceit of having its characters be multiverse hopping sorcerers means that they're free to shove any idea they want as long as it vaguely reads as "fantasy." So you end up with your traditional wizard towers and castles, goblins and elves, knights and dragons stuff. But it also has worlds dominated by political faction wars, borg-like assimilating metal monsters, Victorian angels and lycanthropes, eastern Asian mafia turf wars, and more.Quote:
Originally Posted by warty goblin
It's the main reason I've come to dislike how much they push crossover cards these days. I understand that they draw attention and therefore money, but the Magic writers can cook some compelling original bits when they want to and it's much less interesting to get old familiar properties mashed into the game instead.
I like AoW, and I know some people love the camp, kitchen-sink approach, but I don't know. I think titles like Dragon Age and similar stuff really poisoned the well in the sense that they made people think that serious worldbuilding is kinda boring. It doesn't have to be. Disco or Tyranny are surefire examples of that, though I'm aware that going into RPGs might be a bit unfair towards AoW, for which my actual gripes are something else entirely.
Magic is a good parallel. Back in the day when I setQuote:
Originally Posted by ArmyOfOptimists
fire to moneybought Magic cards recall really enjoying the deft touch with which MtG would suggest a world through art and flavor text. They felt both like places and wide open for your imagination. Mirroden is still super cool, and wow did I just date myself.
Yeah, I really don't care about mashing thing 1 into thing 2 for more brand integration memberberries.Quote:
It's the main reason I've come to dislike how much they push crossover cards these days. I understand that they draw attention and therefore money, but the Magic writers can cook some compelling original bits when they want to and it's much less interesting to get old familiar properties mashed into the game instead.
I mean I've been saying worldbuilding is overrated as an end even of itself for years, so I very much appreciate a lighter touch at it, particularly in RPGs. Ultimately go stab the bad guy is not a plot that requires a huge amount of background to execute, arguably it's counterproductive because the more grounded and detailed a world is, the less plausible it often seems that you have a single bad guy who's stabbing will particularly fix anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cespenar
But one of the things I really like about AoW4, and what made me like it more than BG3, is the freedom of perspective and lack of protagonist centrality that comes from being a strategy game instead of an RPG. I really like the sense of being a completely expected part of the world - while the player avatar is unusually powerful they aren't uniquely so, or of any particular cosmic importance. You can lose a game, and that's a sensible outcome in the universe, you don't have to load a save and try again.
Something that I think undermines the worldbuilding in Dragon Age or Pillars of Eternity is the pressures of making a setting that is marketable as offbrand D&D. I think that might be the big factor making those settings feel boring, they're very worldbuilding heavy but the worldbuilding is very derivative.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cespenar
Well, Stellar Blade's out tomorrow, so my time with Yu-gi-oh!: Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is about done - for now, at least, I might actually come back to it. There's a lot of single-player duels in this, it turns out. I've so far only completed two series' story campaigns, the original and 5D's, and done a couple of the first duels for a couple of others just to unlock some of their card packs. Between the regular version and the reverse duel of each there's a lot to those alone, but going through them also unlocks "Duelist Challenges" for each series - matches where you select the character you want to fight and face them using a better deck than they probably used in the story, with one of your own rather than a premade deck. Usually they have one in keeping with their deck's theme in the story, though not always - Mai still uses a Harpy deck, but Pegasus ditched his Toon deck for a "Madolche" deck in that mode, for a examples from the original series. Which is still kind of fitting with all the cards being cutesy characters, but not exactly what you'd expect of him. I've done all of these for the original series, and most from 5D's.
As far as the story modes go, I found playing 5D's interesting. I did try to follow the story at first, but the game does so much summarizing to fit things into a short space before and after each duel that I eventually got lost and just started skipping it, so unfortunately it's clearly not great at communicating the story if you don't already know it. The duels themselves though remained fun. 5D's('s?) made heavy use of "synchro summoning," one of the several mechanics that didn't exist when I last played the actual card game, and I found it fun. Kind of like they were trying to make a version of fusion that didn't suck, while also trying to justify why you would use monsters below level 4 aside from when they have extremely potent stand-alone abilities, and it feels like they mostly succeeded - although decks that focused too much on just synchro-summoning did feel very, very bad when you didn't get the right combination of cards to do it. Weirdly this got worse the deeper I got into the story mode, as the main character's deck especially eventually wound up so full of niche tuner cards that were weak on their own that I was struggling to draw any non-tuner cards to synchro them with. Which made for an odd juxtaposition to the original series story mode, where the decks generally started awful (aside from Yugi's Exodia deck in the first duel) and got better over time. I'd say my favorite duel from 5D's story was Sayer vs Carly Carmine. It was just fun to play from both sides: Sayer's psychic deck and Carly's Fortune Lady deck both felt pretty good to use, and about evenly matched, so it was a particularly fun one.
Despite the random nature of getting cards from booster packs, this game's also extremely easy to build your collection in. Just from playing those I not only completely assembled my old deck (or as close to it as I'm going to get from memory), I've acquired most of the cards from the packs associated with the original series' characters, a couple of characters each from 5D's and GX, and a decent chunk of cards from several others. The game's just really generous with "Victory Points," its in-game currency you buy the packs with. Even a loss will generally get you the points to buy 2 packs (even just starting a duel and immediately conceding will get you that, I noticed after backing out of one I entered by mistake once), and a win is often 4-5 packs worth of points. So I've also built variants of my old deck enhanced with newer cards that didn't exist when I last played, which is fun to screw around with and beat the AI up with. The game also doesn't enforce banned/restricted list rules when you're playing the AI, which makes it kind of tempting to put together a blatantly OP deck full of such cards, but I'm at least forcing myself to follow the old list as I remember it from when I last played. (The current one, at least current according to this game, surprises me in a lot of ways - Cannon Soldier is banned entirely, but Mirror Force, Swords of Revealing Light, Dark Hole, Magic Cylinder, and Ring of Destruction all aren't even restricted anymore? Would not have called that, to say the least.)
So yeah, it's been fun, and I might well come back to it to play the rest of the single-player stuff after I go through Stellar Blade. $10 well-spent I'd say.
In my periodical quest for a good Diablo-style game, I've found myself gravitating back to Diablo 3, of all things. Specifically the console version. I find that if you just switch off the dialogue so you don't need to engage with the story in any way, it's actually very good fun to play.
First of all, there's no silly always online-requirement on the console version, which means 0 lag. Since it's an older title it also runs flawlessly on my PS4 and loading times are refreshingly swift. There's very little that keeps you from actually playing the game. Secondly, while the ability to swap out all skills at will was something that kind of turned me off back in the day, I find myself appreciating it more now that I'm a parent with a full-time job and two young children. It mercifully means I don't need to take 10 different Demon Hunters through the game to try out all the builds, I can just switch things around as I go. Also makes Legendary items much more fun to find, as I never have to sigh and go "oh well, for another character/build, this *would* have been great".
Speaking of which, I absolutely love D3's design philosophy of making Legendary items ridiculously overpowered. In the 10 hours or so I spent on Diablo 4 before boredom set in, I found exactly one Legendary item. Do you know what its legendary ability was? It made the Incinerate skill deal 21% more damage. Yes, I almost fell asleep just typing that out. Yes, I was playing a Lightning build so I couldn't even make use of it.
Meanwhile, my Demon Hunter in D3 found a belt that gives my grenades a chance to bounce and explode several times, while giving an 800% damage boost to the final explosion. So I've equipped all of the grenade spawning skills + the Grenadier passive, and I am having an absolute blast (pun intended) blowing everything to bits. I also cannot wait until I get the rune that makes Strafe shoot grenades instead of arrows, it's going to become even more deliciously absurd.
D3 on consoles also makes the whole inventory-management bit quite breezy. There are just big, friendly icons when you pick something up so you can see at a glance what it improves, and then it's just pressing a button to equip. And then you occasionally pop into town and click 'salvage all' to dust the rest. There are so many other Diablo-style games where inventory management feels like a day job in itself.
Somehow I'd forgotten that Ace Attorney was on Steam.
...
Yeah, I'm not playing anything else until I've finished at least the first three.
Sure, I'm still playing the hell out of Gigantic: Rampage Edition, but something else has grabbed me, and everyone needs to be reminded about it if they've forgotten:
The new RPG from the creator of Suikoden, Eiyuden Chronicle, released this week. I spent about 6 hours playing on launch day. I don't want to spend much time typing up an in-depth analysis of what I've seen so far, since that would take up valuable time I could be using to play it.
Let me just remind everyone that Yo****aka Murayama only worked on Suikoden 1 and 2, which is why those games were so much better than the rest of the series. Eiyuden Chronicle is what the guy who made those games created after 20 more years of experience and tech advancements.
Picked up all 3 Call of Juarez games off gog for under 10 bucks, so, yeah, those are what I will be playing next. Currently on sale and you save a ton buying all 3 of them separately rather then getting the bundle.
This is a messy, messy, game. If it were any more messy, it would be on the Argentina national team.Quote:
Originally Posted by LibraryOgre
Just... people talking over themselves. Running around Eos's site 2 in mid-game (after Kadara), and Liam is commenting on dead settlers that we had picked up on our first trip to Eos. Just... all these dialog flags that feel like they would have been closed up if there hadn't been a deadline.
One thing I noticed in Andromeda myself is that quite a few characters seem strangely fixated on this little arm computer they have. When you'd talk to them, they would keep just tapping away on that thing during the conversation. Like some kind of in universe smartphone addiction. Not a big deal, but it did come across as a little odd.