Gaming Confessions & Blasphemy

I think it doesn't help that there's a lot of text, a dated UI for reading it, and it's all really small because I'm running it at a high resolution. I'm doing a lot of squinting at it.

I dunno, maybe I should just boot up Shadowrun Returns and pick up Wasteland 2 when it releases to scratch the classic RPG itch with the rough edges taken off.

Or I could just suck it up and deal.

I'd try it without the high resolution mod. Looking at screenshots, it makes the whole thing really squinty and a bit overwhelming visually.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'd try it without the high resolution mod. Looking at screenshots, it makes the whole thing really squinty and a bit overwhelming visually.

Seconded.. low res is definitely the way to go with these games. For what it's worth, the game play is not really the draw for me in these games either. Exploit the heck out of the game, read some FAQs, and get overpowered quickly. Then you can revel in the atmosphere.

I'll probably give that a shot tonight.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Bethesda didn't make the original Fallout games.

Gah, good point. I'm used to people automatically meaning 3.

The comment about a high-res mod makes a lot more sense now.

I love Fallout. It's gotta be in my top three games of all time. Part of what I love about it is that it has a complex enough system to be really broken. Without much difficulty I can make an effective sneak thief, melee combatant, or gunslinger by about level 3/4. It's one of the early games that fostered my "How do I ascend to godhood?" mindset.

Mind you, some builds are harder than others. I'd have to replay it to get back in the groove of things, but I seem to recall having a special love of the super sledge, and a gun you can only get from a quest in the Hub. It's a pistol that shoots rifle ammo. Super neat.

The game is only kind of about the game. It's mostly about going around and finding the little bits of story lying everywhere. If you don't mind being a dirty cheat and the story grabs you, go find a copy of Flache. It's a save file editor that you can use to boost your stats to... whatever. Then you can just wander the wastes and not worry about being level one (which, I agree, sucks).

And if you hate it, you hate it. I feel similarly about Planescapes: Torment, which by all rights I should love. Sometimes stuff just doesn't grab you. Maybe catch the important stuff on YouTube and read the Fallout Bible to get caught up.

See, I finished Planescape back in college, and loved the hell out of it. I'd just be sad to find out that getting ten years older has also made me lose my patience for that kind of game. I'm hoping I was just in a bad mood last night. It's definitely possible, the dog was seriously pissing me off.

Chaz wrote:

See, I finished Planescape back in college, and loved the hell out of it. I'd just be sad to find out that getting ten years older has also made me lose my patience for that kind of game. I'm hoping I was just in a bad mood last night. It's definitely possible, the dog was seriously pissing me off.

I played most of Planescape in college. Up through the encounter with Ravel. Then I replayed it a couple of years ago, and realized why I stopped where I did. The end of that game is bad, and feels... rushed, I guess. The very, very end has some interesting story bits, but the several hours between Ravel, and the very end are filled with a bunch of combat and not much else. Plus in the lead up to the final encounter, they take away your party and put you in an area with a bunch of the hardest enemies in the game. Good luck if you are a mage.

It's really good and worth playing, but honestly, I think you can stop after Ravel. If you do continue after that, get a trainer and boost your stats to 25 and just push through the very end.

I've mostly been playing first party Wii U stuff for awhile now. I started up Uncharted 3 and was surprised by how dated it looked, comparatively. I'm not sure how much of that is art style and how much of that is technology, but Uncharted looked pretty dated alongside Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Pikmin 3, although maybe I'm just not far enough along yet.

Garden Ninja wrote:

It's really good and worth playing, but honestly, I think you can stop after Ravel. If you do continue after that, get a trainer and boost your stats to 25 and just push through the very end.

But you miss some interesting bits in Curst, plus the Pillar of Skulls. Though when I did as a mage I was fairly overpowered before Ravel. And even so, I just ran past every single combat in Baator.

Just thought I'd share this with you ;
Ubisoft sent me a code on Friday (25th) to try their beta version of The Crew
Unbeknownst to myself and thousands of other users, the beta ran from the 21st - 26th, and it took a day to download.
Great work Ubi !

pinkdino99 wrote:

Just thought I'd share this with you ;
Ubisoft sent me a code on Friday (25th) to try their beta version of The Crew
Unbeknownst to myself and thousands of other users, the beta ran from the 21st - 26th, and it took a day to download.
Great work Ubi !

Ubisoft, let me count the ways...I despise you.

Chaz wrote:

See, I finished Planescape back in college, and loved the hell out of it. I'd just be sad to find out that getting ten years older has also made me lose my patience for that kind of game. I'm hoping I was just in a bad mood last night. It's definitely possible, the dog was seriously pissing me off.

I recently tried playing Planescape and didn't have the patience for it, but I think I'll force myself to give it another shot.

kyrieee wrote:
Chaz wrote:

See, I finished Planescape back in college, and loved the hell out of it. I'd just be sad to find out that getting ten years older has also made me lose my patience for that kind of game. I'm hoping I was just in a bad mood last night. It's definitely possible, the dog was seriously pissing me off.

I recently tried playing Planescape and didn't have the patience for it, but I think I'll force myself to give it another shot.

I've been plugging away at Fallout, and I think I'm back in the groove. Probably helped that I used a character building guide, got my small guns jacked up to 100% by level 2 or 3, and have steamrolled most quests. It's also really nice to have a game that I can boot and quit out of in a minute. That plus good old save anywhere means I can feel okay about picking it up for 20 minutes here and there.

Finally getting somewhere in Dragon Age 2. There are moments where I kind of love how inclusive and smart it is about things like relationships, others where I feel like it's almost over the top in that direction, and a few others that are just painfully awkward.

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

trueheart78 wrote:

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

I thought it was OK, but certainly not deserving of all the "omg best rpg evar!" praise. It was more interactive novel than video game.

cheeba wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

I thought it was OK, but certainly not deserving of all the "omg best rpg evar!" praise. It was more interactive novel than video game.

It has terrible, terrible combat, but one of the best implementations of that style of player choice. So I basically agree with you.

trueheart78 wrote:

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

I had never even heard of it until the Watch Out for Fireballs! episode about it. Maybe I had heard the name and maybe seen an advert, but I knew nothing about the game at all. Just wasn't a PC gamer back then.

Spoiler:

Still ain't one either unless it is a game ending in "craft" that isn't an MMO.

IMAGE(http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu53/mesrmuz/manwich.jpg)

I'm well aware that my negative reactions to both Mass Effect and Portal 2 are likely outsized simply because I expected them to be so much better than they are.

trueheart78 wrote:

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

I should play that.

wordsmythe wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

I never liked Planescape: Torment.

I should play that.

You should, it's the Dark Souls of RP...wait...

... If/when I get a tattoo, the Torment symbol is probably going to be it

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm well aware that my negative reactions to both Mass Effect and Portal 2 are likely outsized simply because I expected them to be so much better than they are.

This is my biggest problem with the big titles. As a late adopter of most games, I've found that the better reception a game gets, the less I like it. It's not really the game's fault, it's just that nothing could live up to the kind of hype that, say, Dragon Age gets unless you're part of that initial wave of oohs and aahs.

It's kind of like chicken wings. Really good chicken wings can be the best thing you've ever eaten, but give week old wings to a friend after you've spent all week raving about these awesome wings is only going to end in disappointment.

This is one of the reasons I've gone for playing games that are either deep niche, impossibly indie or really old. Why? Because those kinds of games tend to be, if anything, underhyped and under appreciated or really cheap.

I've found that some measure of both of those features correlates highly with my enjoyment of a given game.

Tanglebones wrote:

... If/when I get a tattoo, the Torment symbol is probably going to be it

This... Deserves it's own thread.

Tanglebones wrote:

... If/when I get a tattoo, the Torment symbol is probably going to be it

I remember wanting a tattoo back in the mid-80's. Going over it in my head, I thought Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie was exactly what I wanted.

Then in a rare moment of teen lucidity, I realized that I just may not want to be walking around with Eddie tattooed on my arm in my 40's and beyond. I passed on the whole idea.

Lesson learned: There really are angels out there looking over us.

Accidental post. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Aaron D. wrote:

Then in a rare moment of teen lucidity, I realized that I just may not want to be walking around with Eddie tattooed on my arm in my 40's and beyond. I passed on the whole idea.

Lesson learned: There really are angels out there looking over us.

As I put it to my kids, there is very good chance the person you are going to be in 20 years is going to think the person you are today is a complete idiot. You owe it to your future self to not saddle them with things they're going to hate you for.

Aaron D. wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

... If/when I get a tattoo, the Torment symbol is probably going to be it

I remember wanting a tattoo back in the mid-80's. Going over it in my head, I thought Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie was exactly what I wanted.

Then in a rare moment of teen lucidity, I realized that I just may not want to be walking around with Eddie tattooed on my arm in my 40's and beyond. I passed on the whole idea.

Lesson learned: There really are angels out there looking over us.

To be fair, I've been kicking this idea around since '99..