next »

[RiskySafe]

Just finished "Dust: an elysian tail" and am currently switching between:

Fez
Critter crunch
Knights of pen and paper +1
Bioschok infinite

[s0]

age of wonders 3 is what heroes of might & magic 6 should have been. very gud gam.

it also has one of the nicest map generators ive ever seen in a 4x.

[juan]

Bioschok infinite

Infinitely overrated. heh.

[Nillo]

I find it interesting how polarizing Bioshock Infinite is. Either you think it's the best thing since sliced bread or you hate it and everything it stands for. Personally I consider it an intensely enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to anyone.

On-topic, I just bought Reaper of Souls after being on the fence about it for a while. It helps scratch my RPG itch while I wait for Dark Souls 2 to be released on a viable platform. When I'm done with it, I'm considering playing through Darkstone again for the nostalgia factor.

[Alevice]

As a general tip on RoS after you beat the campaign, if you want your alts to get in shape fast, farm many Marquise gems with your main(s) and place them on any socketed item over the alts, in particular rubies over weapons. Everything will die in seconds and you will clear through acts quickly. Whenever you want to place your game on a higher leveled item, just salvage the now obsolete item to recover the gem and place it under the new item. I did that with my crusader and got her in adventure mode in two sessions, and my Monk is close. Focus on speedrunning tho, the more you level, the less useful the marquise gems will be; you will then have adventure mode and torment levels to reach 70 on them.

[Nillo]

Yeah, I was surprised by how the Marquise gems just start dropping out of chests once you reach level 61. They were very hard to come by without the expansion. It basically obsoletes my entire gem collection pre-RoS, but I'm fine with that because sticking +160 damage gems on low-level weapons is hilarious.

Also, it seems like they forgot to flip the switch on angel wings. They should be a pre-order bonus, but I got them despite buying the expansion more than a week after release date.

[s0]

I find it interesting how polarizing Bioshock Infinite is. Either you think it's the best thing since sliced bread or you hate it and everything it stands for. Personally I consider it an intensely enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to anyone.

isnt the consensus, even among ppl who like it, that it was kinda overhyped? i mean as a decent shooter with good art direction it's enjoyable (i didnt hate it) but as "the greatest work of art of the 21st century" or w/e it's honestly pretty weak. i think a lot of the hate was the AAA hype machine backfiring.

[Nillo]

isnt the consensus, even among ppl who like it, that it was kinda overhyped? i mean as a decent shooter with good art direction it's enjoyable (i didnt hate it) but as "the greatest work of art of the 21st century" or w/e it's honestly pretty weak. i think a lot of the hate was the AAA hype machine backfiring.

I think what it does better than most other games (actually, any other game I can think of) is not the art design or the combat, but how the ending resolves multiple plot threads that appeared to have no connection to each other up to that moment. Things like the Luteces showing up at random during the game, the repeated requests to "bring us the girl", etc. all fit together and immediately make sense. It's masterfully done, and it made me see the game in a completely different light after completing it.

I think of it as an "experience" more than a game, honestly. It's kinda like how you play Spec Ops: The Line for the experience and not for the game mechanics - in fact many people argue that Spec Ops is "supposed to be boring", though I'm not sure if I agree with that point.

[juan]

My favorite thing about Infinite was how they removed all the things that made Bioshock unique. Sure the story was okay and the game looked gorgeous, but apart from that it's just a really good looking corridor shooter with samey guns and samey plasmids. But, everyone has different tastes so w/e.


Just don't tell me Infinite was some sort of artsy mature break through in video game story telling with a super important anti-racism message.

[s0]

system shock 2 is still the best

also ya the racism stuff and "social commentary" in binf was not handled very well (it wasnt handled well in bioshock 1 either)

[Impmaster]

Uhhh, I'm a bit young and I played Bioshock a couple years later than the internet stopped caring about it. What was supposed to be particularly special about it?

Loved it, just want to know what it was famous for.

[SirNiko]

I got the impression that Bioshock's "Social Commentary" was always just background decoration and the real story was about the characters: Bioshock 1 was a story about Andrew Ryan and his failure to protect his beloved utopia, not commentary on Objectivism. Bioshock 2 was about Eleanor and how your actions shaped the person she would become. Infinite was about Elizabeth, and how her romanticized view of the world changed when she saw the cruel realities of revolution. The social themes were just the backdrop for the story and not the crux of the story, in the way that a desert level in Super Mario Bros doesn't suggest you're about to get commentary on arid biomes.

When people rag on Bioshock stories I always feel like they're focusing on the wrong part of the story.

I also thought Bioshock 1 had an extremely excellent story with the exception of the kind of forced final battle. Infinite had an above average story - Elizabeth's character development was interesting and came across in a natural way, even if the sci-fi elements at the end came a little too much too fast. Bioshock 2 was just kind of okay all around.

Infinite had lovely and varied environments, even if it was far more linear than its predecessors. I thought the combat was great and energetic. The arena DLC really highlights that, since it gives you more opportunities to go crazy with the plasmids and see how they combine in interesting ways. It's definitely a disappointment if you preferred the slow paced exploration of the first two games, but it's fun to play on its own merits (and it still has plenty of poking around in the environments, especially after you kill the enemies and can search unmolested). I especially liked how you got to see Columbia both before and after it was ruined by the revolution, since that was a nice contrast to the first two games where you only saw the city in the 'after' state.

I picked up Dragon's Dogma for the PS3 since my friend wanted to trade pawns. That opening song in the original game (Into Free) really gets you into the mood to go on an adventure. It's funny how important first impressions are when you boot up a new game - Wonderful 101 did the same thing to me, and really got me in the right mindset right from the first level.

[juan]

system shock 2 is still the best

also ya the racism stuff and "social commentary" in binf was not handled very well (it wasnt handled well in bioshock 1 either)

System Shock 2 is the best, but fuck that game. (i love it)

Uhhh, I'm a bit young and I played Bioshock a couple years later than the internet stopped caring about it. What was supposed to be particularly special about it?

Loved it, just want to know what it was famous for.

It took a lot of gameplay ideas i.e: exploring a large level, managing supplies and whatever from System Shock 2 and made it more accessible for a modern audience while also being fun for fans of SS2.

I got the impression that Bioshock's "Social Commentary" was always just background decoration and the real story was about the characters: Bioshock 1 was a story about Andrew Ryan and his failure to protect his beloved utopia, not commentary on Objectivism. Bioshock 2 was about Eleanor and how your actions shaped the person she would become. Infinite was about Elizabeth, and how her romanticized view of the world changed when she saw the cruel realities of revolution. The social themes were just the backdrop for the story and not the crux of the story, in the way that a desert level in Super Mario Bros doesn't suggest you're about to get commentary on arid biomes.

Infinite's combat was energetic sure, but also kind of bland. Most of the guns were the same and you could only carry two which really limits how you want to play. The plasmids were all kinda samey, you had like four nice looking stun attacks and two pretty interesting ones. I do think the story about objectivism and the story about racism are backdrops to the rest of the plot in Bioshock games, but I see too many people claiming that Infinite is the holy messiah of video games and has finally pushed the medium into the land of mature story telling because it sorta talked about racism one or two times.

On a lighter note, how's Dragon's Dogma? I heard it's kinda like Dark Souls and I've been really enjoying that game.

[s0]

dragon's dogma is ok but it's not really like dark souls. combat is rather different (way less timing focused and faster paced, usually large group battles), you constantly have a party of npcs with you, and it's an "open world" game with random encounters, fixed dungeon crawls and quests. atmosphere and setting are way different from dark souls too, more or less cookie cutter high fantasy. it's still rather fun tho, think of it as a "hardcore" xenoblade with an action combat system.

[juan]

Oh, I was at least hoping for a more western meets eastern design aesthetic but it still sounds fun, probably pick it up if I see it for cheap.

[macrame]

I'm about to finally start Red Dead Redemption (I know, I know, the shame, it's too late) but I'm also really keen to try Broken Age.  Anyone played it?  Will I be disappointed?!  I think I love Grim Fandango quite a lot.

[juan]

Started replaying Red Dead: Redemption a little bit too. That game will forever hold a special place in my heart.

[SirNiko]

Only the first half of Broken Age is out - you'll end the game on a major cliffhanger if you play now.

Probably the biggest thing to keep in mind is that the game is very short, and the puzzles are very simple. Expect an episode of a Telltale Games point and click instead of a Grim Fandango or Day of the Tentacle and you'll be alright. Doublefine clearly put the bulk of their effort into the character design and the voice acting, so that's where you're going to see the emphasis.

At least the game ends on a really interesting cliffhanger. If you're nonplussed about getting a relatively short game for your money, it's got a really mysterious setting that'll have you wondering where the game is going while you explore the world.

[mono]

idk why but elder scrolls online

[s0]

how is it

(im actually sort of intersted because it looks a little different from normal MMOs)