Badfinger
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Posts posted by Badfinger
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I played a text-based MUD way back in the dark ages of AOL pay-per-hour called Dragonrealms. It was never a huge game community-wise, but absolutely one of the deepest and most interesting in terms of things you could learn and do outside of killing things (also one of the broadest range of killing fantasy internet things). I played that game for a long, long time. It migrated off AOL and onto the Internet at large, and many people migrated with it. The people who posted on its forums were the most avid and fervent players. Every once in a while, I get the urge to drop in and play it again even though a lot of the mechanics and systems (AND TIME NEEDED) have been passed by in the last decade and a half. The game was close knit enough and the forum community close enough that there is a subforum just for people saying goodbye both in and out of character.
I went back last week on a whim to see if the damn thing still exists. It does! They're about to introduce entirely new experience systems! Just like 10 years ago! And the first dozen posts I read are from the same people that were always there, commenting on the things they always comment on. It was strange, and comforting, and kind of scary all at the same time.
I also almost reactivated my account, too. Terrifying.
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I want to play this right now, holy crap.
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Apparently Jeff Gerstmann said of the Far Cry 3 protagonist and his friends, "They deserve to be sold into slavery or killed." I'm still looking up the actual direct quote but the sentiment is enough for me to say that is fucking disgusting of him.
I get that "bro" characters are usually dumb, but that's ridiculous and tasteless.
It was ridiculous and tasteless. And purposefully hyperbolic, which made it over the top and funny.
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The discussion of whether Halo 4 is a good/fun game reminds me of some of the comments made by Lead Designer Walt Williams on Spec Ops on one of the spoiler casts done for that game. He said something along the lines of "The opposite of fun in video games isn't UNFUN, the opposite of fun is BROKEN. The game stops being fun when it doesn't work." He was talking about thinking about is the game "engaging" rather than is it "fun". So if the game is competently made but you feel unfavorably about your time with it then it didn't engage you. I don't think about that all the time, I do like having rad explosion fun often, but I do reflect on it from time to time listening to people talk about, and talking about, games.
Totally agree with Chris and Jake about being frustrated with overwrought stories in games, especially as part of the larger trend of trying to turn everything into a franchise and stapling the hero's journey over everything. Sometimes it comes from an outright patronizing view of the audience, but sometimes it's also just a lack of confidence in focusing on what they're good at.
And on a side-note, canon/lore is the worst thing to happen to popular entertainment in the last half-century—and I say this as someone who owned the Star Trek Encyclopedia as a teenager. It's become completely disgusting and is even starting to turn me off back-stories in general in media. Like, I reflexively flinch.
p.s. game boat is real and the real product listing is amazing.
The Bombcast this week came to the realization that Halo, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect are all exactly the same game with different presentations. It's frightening. And like them, I don't know if I can do better but I know someone out there who is good at writing could do a better job. Not everything is a hero's journey.
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I downloaded Barkley 1 last night and played up until the first proper JRPG Battle. Um, I'm glad this makes some people happy for some reason.
What should I do if I don't want to give money to these guys or Peter Molyneux?
Give and/or don't give money to people you do want to have it, including other game studios, friends and family in the form of either cash or goods and services that were exchanged for cash, or perhaps a worthy cause such as the Red Cross or the Food Bank.
If you are chilly I hear that paper money is excellent tinder.
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I guess I was confused by this
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Which seems to imply that you outright hate the very idea. I still think it implies that, but if you're saying that's not what you meant then, hurray!
As for the rest, I have no qualms with hating the implementation. I can certainly understand that. I only take issue with dismissal of the basic idea. But it is flawed. I'm more in love with the idea than I am with the way it was done here. (And I'm... not even really in love with it, per se, I just think it's neat.) SO I GUESS THAT'S THAT.
I guess that IS that! Basically, my point is that if you like a dude that pulls strings for no reason whatsoever that's totally fine and has its place in games, but the way it was implemented in THIS game was pretty terrible. Which means I think we agree? Just not about the Outsider in Dishonored specifically.
ANYWAY, the reason I have resurrected this thread from the dead is because word just came out that Dishonored sold a face-butt load of copies and they're making a sequel. Let the weird speculation recommence!
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/28/dishonored-sold-an-awful-lot-of-copies-franchise-born/
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According to steam I only played 104 minutes of Far Cry 2 before I quit, maybe I should give it a second chance, and then potentially try this game.
According to Steam I've only played 99 minutes of Far Cry 2, when I know I have over 30 hours of playtime. I was dangerously close to collecting all whatever the little hidden nuggets were. Diamond caches?
Steam is hiding something from us.
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I feel like I answered your questions, but to be succinct: not everything has to be important, which I agreed with. However, if you present something as a major subplot and it ends as a zero-sum endeavor where its inclusion means nothing and changes nothing, then it wasn't really a major subplot was it?
I also agreed with you that the concept is not flawed. Its presentation and execution is flawed in large ways. It's fine that you were entertained by a man who was amused by the insects in his world, but there's no player agency in it. I think if you had moved the Outsider's introduction to when you were still in prison (before your entire story was completely locked in place) that would eliminate most of my qualms with it. The acting and animation would still be cruddy though.
I guess contrast The Outsider, a man who likes to prod people randomly to see what happens, with the Daedric Princes' quests from Skyrim, a group who like to prod people randomly to see what happens. They do mischief right.
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Reviews have started to come out for the game, and holy smokes I'm excited again.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/21/wot-i-think-far-cry-3-single-player/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-21-far-cry-3-review
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GOTY
in Video Gaming
Dishonored, FTL, XCOM, Borderlands, and Day Z are all incredible games I've played this year.
Spec Ops is quite interesting, but I'm currently being dragged down by the generic shooterness while playing through a section where my squad mates keep dying. I like Torchlight but the time crunch has gotten to me and I've not put barely any time in it. I haven't started The Walking Dead yet because it's something I'd like to experiment playing through with someone else with me (girlfriend) making decisions at the same time. Why can't I make myself play through The Witcher?
I will continue my tradition of not paying more than like $15 for Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed, so those might end up in my 2013-14 2012 game of the year pile.
I can't stop playing League of Legends.
Far Cry looks absolutely awesome, but is not out yet. The same goes for Hawken, Planetside 2 just released, and holy smokes I completely forgot Baldur's Gate: Fancied Up Edition is still scheduled to release this year.
I don't even touch my consoles anymore, and this is a HELL of a year for video games. I haven't even mentioned Dark Souls (which would NOT be on my GOTY list, but would be for others).
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Because if he doesn't matter, why does he matter? One of the tenants of design is that your decisions should add something, that's why. I don't need every choice and line of dialogue workshopped to hell and back. If you make every choice "meaningful" then they're all equally meaningless. Sometimes a man is just man. But the Outsider is presented as a major subplot, and the main thrust of the game would have been the same if you replaced him with a magic Assassin school or an Alex Mack-style puddle of goo, or just a whale charm Corvo had been sleeping next to for 6 months in the wall of prison. What I'm saying is that the Outsider's inclusion in the game literally does not effect it at all. And it seems like you're agreeing with me, but from the opposite direction. Which is fine, you can want that, but it's awful design and storytelling.
I collected every rune except one, because making my way there people would have died and I was trying to avoid it. Now that you mention it I guess he showed up maybe 4 times total. It made a big impression on me I guess.
It is awfully weird that I'm arguing against a game that's absolutely one of my favorite's this year. This is by far its weakest point, though.
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But where does that add ANYTHING to the story? It's a completely out of left field twist that doesn't do anything to the plot. It would be completely different if the Outsider was The Story. If the entire plot for the game was "The Outsider finds someone minding his own business and throws him into the blender of someone else's machine just to see what happens" that's pretty interesting and I would like to know more. But the Outsider is a weird subplot that has no impact whatsoever. He's not competing for your attention, he's not running in parallel to the conspirators' goals, he's not attempting to be at odds to them. He just shows up after 100% of the wheels have begun to turn on their own anyway, and then again at the end to let you know he was paying attention.
The evidence of the other assassins with similar skills allude to the fact that the Outsider doesn't need to choose you personally to be able to use the runic powers, it's crazy whale-power anyway. Without a fully cohesive explanation, the Outsider doesn't actually have a reason to exist in the framework of Dishonored.
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They own mines that are run with slave labor, and they are complicit conspirators in an ongoing plot to assassinate the Empress and kidnap and hide her daughter indefinitely while usurping her power, using their extra influence to continue to live in luxury as an entire country crumbles to dust and disease. They don't have to be raving maniacs in person to be definitely evil. The very petty nature of their actual personalities seems right to me.
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He is a good idea horribly, horribly implemented. Ugh, just the, delivery of almost every single bit of the story was cringe worthy. They can do the world building again, that was alright. But for the actual implementation they desperately need a new, professional, experienced writer full time. Not just "Oh hey Corvo, here's some cool powers, use them however, k bye lol!"
I wanted it to be... eerie. Atmospheric, wondering where I am. I wanted to be drawn into the story. I wasn't at all.
I agree with this, essentially. I have no problem with The Outsiders as a plot point or device, but the actual implementation was atrocious. In a world where so many little tangible and intangible things are fleshed out so wonderfully, a guy who shows up in your sleep and now THE MAGICK happens and he only shows up basically one more time to say "heh, that was neat huh" is so, so bad.
It really felt like the Outsider should have either been much more integrated into the story, or removed and only intimated through other people's actions or suppositions.
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Of COURSE it's a Phaedrus.
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If you really, REALLY wanted to keep Corvo, just make a prequel about his ~crazy~ adventures as Lord Protector to visit other countries and try to stir up aid and support for the island. Retcon out the Outsider and the powers, because other people can do them and everyone thinks that unrealized plot point is dumb as wax anyway.
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What you specifically mentioned would be basically impossible to make without reconning heavily. All of those futures are pretty well mapped out based on how you completed the game. In fact they wrapped up basically all of the loose ends for the specific characters, which I find pretty darn admirable.
They'd need to go to a new setting or new characters for more Dishonoring.
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Dishonored is another FPS (First person stabber) where all the shooting you do is with your left hand.
I had a lot of thoughts on internet communities I might write later. That discussion evoked some really powerful memories for me.
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It's embarrassing (despite the fact I'm playing in a room on my own) how often I stick a sniper up in an elevated position, giddy with all of the hit and damage bonuses that will entail, only for the enemy to just look up and take him/her out. I really need to at least get a flying SHIV up there as cover.
On second playthrough on Normal (after my failure the first time around), there's a long way to go but I've already lost Canada, China and Mexico and France, Germany, the UK, the US and Japan aren't far behind. I'm getting decent money in but I have no idea how I'm going to keep going. But I will!
I lost a multiplayer match that I had completely in the bag that way. Had my completely tricked out sniper with a skeleton suit on top of a church, grappled from one side of it to the other, saw the remaining wounded members of his team that I had suicided my last shotgun assault in to cripple. My opponent had revived the sniper I'd put down, and killed me from full to dead in one hit even though I had Damn Good Ground. I was thinking I'd be able to get a shot off, but I wasn't.
Remember kids: the high ground doesn't make you invincible.
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Who is grilling all this rat?
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On the subject of email greetings, I have not had anything which inspired me to write an email as opposed to writing about it on this here forum lately, but my opening would have been
"Oh hi Thumbs,"
For separate but equal LoMa chat, League of Legends actually has 4 gametypes. They have traditional-style 5v5 LoMa, a 5v5 point capture gametype called Dominion (imagine Arathi Basin from WoW with equally spaced control points around a map, which having the majority of drains the other team's tickets), a 3v3 LoMa on its own special map, and then ARAM. ARAM is All Random All Mid, where once you are ready to go it automatically locks you into a randomly chosen lord. ARAM is generally played on Riot's tutorial map, which is very small and one lane only. You have increased EXP gain and increased mana gain. BUT, once you leave the fountain area you can't buy items until you die, and returning to the fountain doesn't heal you. It's fun as hell. Unfortunately, the standard 5v5 is the only one most people consider "real" LoL because the others are totally unique and interesting in their own way.
So basically, branching out into other game modes besides traditional LoMing in Dota 2 is extremely awesome and I hope it succeeds for them. There need to be fun/casual/easy ways to play around in these games without it being the super serious impossible game its presented to be.
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Whale oil is common between this world and that of Dishonored. It is not a mythical substance in this world and at one point was commonly used as a material for candles and other stuff. To my knowledge it cannot be turned into electricity with almost no effort. Like I said, I have no problem with trinkets and pieces of equipment having alien properties in, for example, Lord of the Rings simply because it is not suggested that these properties originate from Tungsten or something. Mithril does not exist in our world so it is easy, for me at least, to accept that it gives the armor magical powers. I guess I just have to deal with the fact that whales in Dishonored are magical magical mammals, and their oil* has qualities completely unlike the whale oil of this world. This sort of weirdness just alienates me from the setting a bit.
That's part of the crux of the fiction. In Dishonoredland, it CAN be turned into relatively easy fuel for electricity. That's like saying Spice in Dune can't possibly be the most precious commodity in the galaxy because paprika is so cheap here. I'll let you in on a secret: Piero is a fucked up dude and thinks he can get the same energetic properties as whale oil in much larger quantities if you coax it out of people the right way.
Corvo can bend space and time and if he runs out of the stamina to do so he can drink magic juice.
Whale oil isn't mostly used to power light walls, that's just how the player interacts with it most. There are cars, and boats, and even the crappy parts of town have electric lighting. You know what's really weird? Attuning your body signature before going on shift so you can walk through a wall of light and not evaporate.
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FTFY.
My most sincere apologies. Some Lords are just easier to last hit with. Some Ladies as well.
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I'm totally with Sean from the other side of the fence (dirty newbie League of Legends) on the LoMa fit and finish wars. It is awesome that there are multiple successful games, which means that to be the best game you must constantly improve. That's good for everyone. And the curve of how much those animation touches matters to you is cool, too. For the casual or newbie player, quality of life changes don't mean anything at all, but the little tweaks to animation looping and hitching or smoothing out the auto attacks or how the spells react like you think they should totally salve over little frustrations playing you didn't even know you had. Some champions are just easier to last hit with, which means maybe they're more fun.
Yager's Spec Ops: The Line
in Video Gaming
Posted
It's somewhat ironic that the game had to be mechanically mediocre enough that I died often enough to see all the interesting loading screens towards the end.
By the way, and this is not a spoiler, there are multiple endings based on your decisions. If you got to the end of the game and didn't know that, the last autosave should be at a place where you can make the choices you need to see them. I highly recommend it.