Henroid

Holy shit that looks cool. This game is the devil. My right hand is still in a cast so I have to play left-handed, and whenever I used the computer for too long my left arm starts to hurt. But this game? I feel compelled to ignore it, and I do. THE DEVIL. I haven't beaten it yet, I'm still trying to figure out as many skills as I can to see what's useful and not. The Fire Pillars skill on the embermage is frustrating because it starts out with the four pillars going out in an x-shape. But every tier you get one more pillar added so I have a feeling it's one of those great maxed out skills, but having only four pillars makes it a bitch to use. Edit - BY THE WAY. Who would win in a fight: Treasure Goblin, or Treasure Crab?

Seismic Stomp + Coup de Grace is a pleasing, simple combo.

Every map display this game has to offer is annoying. The right-side / left-side display almost nails it, but the map bleeds over the center eventually and then sometimes you mouse over icons. Bleh. Not to say that's a deal breaker. Building up my Berserker to be crit happy, lots of passives. The base skill you start out with seems plenty for taking out groups of enemies, though you kinda gotta wait for them to be around you.

Isn't there something in the options to turn off gear changing how you look? If not, I'm sure there will be mods that give you a fixed look. Engineers are the one class I was expecting to have a "meh" attitude toward but when I played one first hand I was proven wrong. Actually, a lot of my assumptions about this game were defeated.

I lost my entire morning to this game. I was expecting it to be good from everything I investigated, but I enjoyed myself way too much. Video games are time travel like that, sometimes. I got my copy via Steam gifting, and I feel massively indebted to the friend who did so. And I'm pretty sure enchanting is still in the game. First of all, there's an achievement. But there's no NPC in the first act hub that does it. I did come across a goblin or something in a dungeon that offered the service though.

Well this is worrisome. Playtesting of Dishonored discovered that people were unable to comprehend some of the content / navigate the game. Link. Maybe there's a reason why the industry leans toward linear content.

To quote a friend, "Bullshit." To quote a teacher, "Not-speaking is a skill." I dunno why they feel they have to justify the lack of price drop. Just refuse to comment because any elaboration is going to be silly. Oof, this is why too Sony focused so far.

It really goes to show how different the experiences are for people over the same game. Jake was talking about how great the machine in the test chamber is, and all the care behind recreating that was obviously something valued by the remake's developers. But for me personally the machine itself wasn't all that special. It was the moments following it (the resonance cascade) that stood out to me more. So I think everyone is going to have some experiences of things being recreated that they noticed and loved, and then some things being cut or just not given the same care. The BMS team put forward their treasured moments of the game, and yours might not line up the same.

I really wish I had an answer. I only have guesses. I've encountered few people who own a PSP or Vita and dislike it, so the system itself isn't bad. The only guess I can take is that Sony is doing a bad job of getting people on board. The Vita definitely had a tough fight ahead of it because of the overall "meh" reaction around the PSP. I remember the PSP's early marketing being built around it being more than "just a gaming device," and it also didn't help that they tried to make that line in the sand of how it was for grownup, badass games. And all the additional features it was promoting basically got smashed to pieces by Apple and its mobile devices. Not to mention UMD film didn't take off. Marketing and library. Those are the keys. Just as anecdotal, I held off on a PSP for the longest time because no games really jumped at me as must-have. And the ones that did were remakes or ports (which gained additional features, like Disgaea).

Do you guys think those Machinima guys will do another Freeman's Mind for Black Mesa Source? It'll give them another 10 years worth of YouTube videos.

JP LeBreton made me spittake, literally. "Testicle Rhino or Brain Fetus Baby." Also I've spent the last week doing what Chris was for a moment there. "They're waiting for you Gordonnnnnn. Innnnnnnnnnn the tesssssst chamberrrrrrrrrrr." Edit - Oh I'm glad you guys enjoyed Machine-Arm Warjack like I did. More Edit - By the way I do not recommend Dungeon Fighter at all. It's a pretty frustrating game because the way it plays is very fun (it's like an arcade beat 'em up), and a lot of the differences between characters to play as are very well made, but the devs just bog you down with grinding and repeating stages over and over again. Hence the "goddamn MMOs." And not every stage is as crazy 90's false-video-game-advertising as the one I wrote about.

Well again, on the business side, he was probably more important than of us could figure. Reggie commented on the 3DS this week actually and its price cut, saying it was counter-culture to how Nintendo operates. He cited the Wii's pricetag sticking for years before finally getting a drop for consumers, and mentioned how they absolutely did not like the idea of price-cutting the 3DS so soon. If I remember right the Nintendo execs, Iwata included, took personal pay cuts when they dropped the 3DS price. But yeah, it's all worked out for Nintendo. As for the Vita, I'm not sure the pricing is its problem.

I'm currently thrown in for a loop over these pies that only activate for a brief time when a switch is pushed. I don't want to look into videos to see how it's done just yet, not before trying it all out myself, but if it comes down to me having to look at how something is done every stage I may as well not bother playing. I really hope it doesn't come to that because the presentation of the game is incredible.

So a couple years ago as part of a Secret Santa, I received The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom as a part of my gift package. Me being horrible, I didn't install it ASAP, and forgot about it sorta. But I just did so today. And while I haven't quit the game, my short time with it just now made me realize it may very well end up coming to that. I'm so bad at puzzle platformers and this one kinda ramps it up against my ability to be smart in a hurry.

It'll make patching a hell of a lot easier. I have a feeling that, given some feedback about things (like the Blast Pit monster's behavior) they'll be doing some of that.

The thing people need to keep in mind is that voicework in video games being bad isn't a matter of choice. It's a matter of being stuck with few options, and many of those options being poor. Having good voice directors (who actually know how to direct) is probably the big gap missing in everything. A great director can instruct the most mediorcre of talent into giving out good reads. So there's no "homage" to be paid at all, and that it was attempted was something done out of ignorance. If Valve could've hired better people for the voice work, the voices in the original Half-Life would have been way, way different. But it was far from a choice of, "Yeah, let's have campy dumb shit!"

Video Games happened.

My signature on another forum is a quote of a community member which reads, "Ultima Online Pre-Trammel is the perfect example of why libertarians are full of shit." After hearing you guys talk about Day Z (which is the most I've "investigated" the game) I'm pretty sure it's a better example for that quote to use.

I thought the release date was December 8th? I think Nintendo came out fine from this. The console's hardware is more powerful than most people were assuming (not drastically so, but still), so they've bumped up the bar or shortened the distance for what MS and Sony might produce. The launch line-up isn't smashing, but it's more substantial than we'd think. Yeah it's current gen ports, but whatever, they can pull it off. I'm not a guy who gets into a console manufacturer's corner inquestioningly, so this whole thing excited me from the angle that it ups the ante for the next console gen entirely. Also, how weird is that Bayonetta 2 news? Hot damn.

Well, yeah, podcasts and blogs and other such mediums are the sort of word of mouth marketing that indie developers need since they likely have zero marketing officially. And your point about Steam making a profit off them in that regard is legit. But there's another angle about Steam making indie games / developers bigger - it's the barrier of entry to have content hosted and sold. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have these super bizarre conditions and certification processes.

I quit Half-Life at Zen as well, many years ago. And then a couple years ago when playing the game again I had like no problem whatsoever getting through it. I guess whatever tricky bullshit that existed in the stage designs I learned as routine from other games in that long break period.

Oh no! Well, crap, I'm not the type to badger someone over something like this. I can understand not enjoying those moments. I mean, I'm not sure I enjoy them per se but I also didn't feel burdened in finishing those parts up. Anyway, before I get to the next game I want to relate my story about, I need to make an additional note about Sonic Colors that I forget to explicitly state: Basically, I was expecting a platformer, which the game sorta is, but the pacing is screwy as all hell compared to what I was used to. And having to manage all these bar + powerup shits wasn't helping the experience. That said, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced I adore the first Tactics game, like nobody would believe. The remake on the PSP is one of the few reasons I've felt compelled to own a PSP. So what is essentially a sequel was a colossal letdown. Thematically, the game changed way too much. Suddenly there were lizardmen and bunny people and it was far removed from the more serious setting of the first game. It kinda felt like they were trying to make the Ivalice setting more lively or give it more character, when it already had plenty of character to begin with. And despite being a GBA title, its presentation from an art standpoint was also off-putting. It was made more cartoony. But let's step by those presentation layers and talk gameplay. Classes being tied to the races was a bad move. I could understand playing to strengths or compensating for weaknesses, that can be very compelling as far as choice making goes - especially in a tactical game like this. But it wasn't left open-ended. The obvious grievance is the law system. I don't mind curveballs being thrown at me in a game, but it was entirely arbitrary, and I mean that from the stripped-down "just playing a game" perspective as well as the presentation layer of it. "JUDGES MAKE LAWS FOR NO REASON TO FUCK WITH YOU." It felt like something was being added to curveball the original game design, and the attempt was... well, I already said arbitrary. They really didn't value having the same gameplay system with balancing tweaks. WHen you're putting out a sequel, either directly or in spirit, to something and it's not an annual release, people aren't going to begrudge the concept of games playing the same way. There were years separating FFT and FFTA, they didn't need to dress it up as poorly as they did. All I wanted was more FFT, and I got something else entirely.

Oh man, this is my kind of thread. But I'm only going to talk about games I made a conscious decision to quit, not ones I just trailed off of. Because the latter doesn't have anything discussion worthy, it's just happenstance a lot of the time. I'll start with the most recent let-down (this doesn't happen a lot), Sonic Colors for the Nintendo DS This was the first Sonic the Hedgehog game I've played, hands on, since the Sega Genesis games. No exaggeration whatsoever. I had access to playing a Dreamcast game or two, but never took up the opportunity. This is an important factor, because in the Genesis days the game was far more platform heavy. While I've seen videos of just about every Sonic game since, and plenty of them start to finish, I never understood how the games felt to control (obviously). I still haven't played any of the 3D titles. Colors I jumped on because I've had good luck with DS games being likable, and it was a 2D themed gameplay I felt comfortable with from a first-impression look. And then the game decided to show me how wrong the series has become in design. All of a sudden it's about twitch reaction and not being able to tell what's happening. You're sped along a level and expected to know when to jump to avoid an enemy or pit before seeing it appear on screen. It brought me back to this horrible moment in Mega Man 5 where you're in a segment of screens where you drop from one platform, the screen scrolls to the next, and you have to move left or right to land safely. Well, in one particular drop, you fall off the safe platform, and the screen scrolls... and there's immediately spikes at his feet. There's no warning that you were going to drop off the wrong side, it was just a 50 / 50 shot of choosing poorly, and the only way you can know is by fucking up or succeeding the first time. And that's what Colors felt like; if you don't magically predict something, you fuck up. And at 27 years old, I don't have time for that shit. So I gave up on the game one or two stages after the first boss.

That's too bad. I was hoping for him to have been more involved in the cast than he was, too. Then again that Bethesda party might have been the shit. I've been lazy about using Twitter lately so I may have missed out any notes from Nick about it.

"One of you here will betray me." It's Nick.