Vegas

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Everything posted by Vegas

  1. I just finished the book and loved it. Margaret Atwood is such a genius writer. None of her characters feel flat or token. I'll listen to this episode and probably have more to say
  2. Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

    I quit the new Deus Ex game (Mankind Divided) a few months ago. I wanted to beat it before Dishonored 2 came out, but every time I approached it I just couldn't bring myself to care. It's just more of the first, and after having played so much Dishonored, I wanted better design decisions. Once Dishonored 2 came out, it was over. I could never look back.
  3. I have not read any of this thread yet, but I just wanted to pop in here and say my mom got me this book for Christmas and I'm about a quarter of the way through now. Finding it very readable and enjoyable, though the protag is definitely a, what, 'Gary Stu'? But I accepted that from the beginning (it's basically advertised on the sleeve), so I'm able to enjoy it.
  4. Half-Life 3

    Come on guys, maybe today will be the day
  5. DOOM

    I played a bunch of this (with a controller) yesterday at a friend's house. It's really good. I wanna get it, but I'm not sure if I want to drop the $60 on it. From what I've heard, they really banked on the multiplayer, and with Overwatch coming out that stuff just doesn't matter to me at all. Will probably keep this in my wish list until it goes on sale. In the meanwhile, re-downloading Wolfenstein again because I never beat it.
  6. Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

    I was playing a good bit of MGS V before Fallout 4 came out, but I'm not feeling a particular need to go back and finish that game. I might pick at it once in a while, but at this point I feel like I "get it." Anybody else feel this way?
  7. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    No totally. After the first few times clicking the sarcastic option as a male, I decided never to touch it again. He really does just sound like an annoying douche. As for the female voice, I'm actually using the "show me the whole dialogue line" mod so I'm not sure if what I'm choosing is always the sarcastic option, but she never sounds annoying or douchey. For my second playthrough I'm doing nearly everything different - playing as a woman, building up my skills differently, skipping going back home/concord and NO FAST TRAVEL. The no fast travel is totally changing my experience of the game, in a really good way. Did y'all know that in the kind of northeast part of the city, all the skyscrapers are connected by catwalks and elevators and stuff? They even connect with the overpass. It makes for some reaaallly interesting vertical exploration. You can even "drop into" Goodneighbor, but of course once it realizes you're about to enter it it loads the actual "interior" and you're magically and safely on the floor at the entrance. Edit: in case anybody was wondering, my first playthrough was ~85 hours. The fact that I could fit in 85 hours in the two weeks since it came out is, uh, kind of shameful, but whatever who needs the real world.
  8. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    That was essentially my problem with it. It let me role play until it didn't. However, I will say that the end really fucked with me emotionally. No spoilers, but I will say that the writing and choices in the game are good enough that they caused me to engage in some genuine introspection about my actions. It's not like a movie where it's all pathos and stuff at the end and you feel sympathetic for the characters... that shit was me, and I have to live with my decisions. It was weird, and honestly no other game has made me feel that before. So I guess I liked it.
  9. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    Does anybody else think the settlers are a bit too sensitive? I was just walking around the castle in my power armor and jumped down to the floor next to a brahmin. There's a stun effect or something when you ground-pound like that, the brahmin got startled and the settlers got upset and immediately started shooting at me. Earlier, there was a similar but different encounter: I got a notification that raiders were attacking the castle. I got there, and saw that they were approaching in a pretty big group. I threw an artillery smoke grenade at them, and they opened fire. All of my settlers came out to fight them, and the raiders were dispatched pretty quick. But then the artillery finally moved into place and started bombarding the settlers that went out to fight. My settlers got mad at me and started shooting at my companions and I. We had to execute them all, which did more damage to the base than the raider party... I ended up reloading that save. Also, a note on selling stuff: dealing with the inventory can be a real pain for sure, having to decide what to upgrade, what to scrap, and what to sell. I built like 5 containers next to my workshop in the castle and use those to organize my stuff. One is a crate full of guns that I'm going to sell eventually, one is a set of alternate weapons, another contains all my armor, etc. Every few missions I'll put all of my equipped stuff into one of the crates, grab everything I'm going to sell, and hit up a few different stores to sell all the stuff I don't need.
  10. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    Story time: In Sanctuary, I was just hanging around, building stuff. I noticed that a Brahmin was stuck in a room in a house. I was confused by this. I decided to punch it to see if I could dislodge it somehow. The other NPCs in Sanctuary took this as me having a problem with the Brahmin, and Sturges starts shooting at it from the street. But then Nick Valentine HATES that I punched the cow, and leaves my party. Then he climbs into a suit of power-armor and starts trying to kill me, or an NPC, or I don't even know. But before I know it all my settlers are trying to stop Nick Valentine, who has turned into the terminator. Dude's running around angry in a suit full of power armor and it's actually pretty terrifying because you can't kill him.
  11. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    I love it. I really wanted Skyrim to have more of that aspect. I felt so disconnected from the characters in that game. The base building stuff kind of puts them under your care. It provides an ultimate context to all of your actions in the game, making them more meaningful. Although, I'm waiting to see if it ends up being more of a tower defense game or "the sims."
  12. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    Yeah that's definitely how I take it. The continuity stuff kind of got to me in the beginning of this game though. Like when . Though it got me thinking about it.
  13. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    So that implies the culture after WW2 would have been extremely conservative. That DOES jive with the whole nuclear war thing... I'm definitely not up on my fallout lore, I'm sure the nature of the post-war, pre-fallout government and society must have been covered somewhere
  14. Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

    The main quest in Fallout 3 didn't take forever either, if that was the only thing you wanted to play. But I don't think you're supposed to go into these games with a "have to beat it" mindset necessarily. Voice acting is great, but also the writing is a huge step up. I felt the NPCs in Skyrim were 2- or 1-dimensional characters, basically just quest-givers. Aside from the added functionality of having companions live in your settlements, they're also fully-formed characters. The RPS review mentioned that this game brings them closer to a Bioware methodology, and I think that's true in regards to a lot of the people you encounter. You want them around, you want to know about them. That kind of stuff goes a loooooong way for me by making the moment-to-moment gameplay more meaningful. It's a role-playing game, right? I need people, agents to bounce my identity and motives off of. In Skyrim I constantly felt I lacked that. Also, this is kind of tangential: is anybody else ever weirded out that in Fallout World, culture didn't evolve at all in the century after World War 2? If the whole idea is that nuclear power brought on immediate and sudden change to society, wouldn't culture change in a big way as well? Cell phones, the internet, even just TV each changed culture dramatically. Hell, they even have TVs, but you don't ever watch old TV programs in this game. The whole "freeze culture in the 50s" thing trips me out especially after watching Mad Men, because the progression of that show is essentially everything that DIDN'T happen in the Fallout universe
  15. BioShock Infinite

    Another dude with another gun. Sigh. Too bad there aren't any leading female roles in this ga-
  16. Half-Life 3

    I feel like that train has sailed
  17. GTA V

    I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
  18. GOTY

    Did you feel like it paid off in a meaningful way?
  19. GOTY

    Journey impressed me like Thirty Flights of Loving did. They held your hand through their stories in a way that wasn't obnoxious. Walking Dead was good too, never before have I seen those various gameplay elements so cleanly separated yet cohesively put together: point&click/conversations/cutscenes/quicktime&action. It definitely feels more than the sum of its parts, and the characters are well-written enough to guide you through. Honestly the game thrives on its character interactions. Most of why I didn't like 4 as much was because there was less character development, more exposition, and more interacting with the shallow game mechanics. The whole Hotline Miami easily had the strongest aesthetic, and the best implementation of that aesthetic through game design. The exploration of that aesthetic was simultaneously awesome and also kind of a shame because they undercut it with an obscure, confusing plot. The best part of that game is worn on its sleeve. Dishonored is the coolest game to come out this year, hands down. It's a power fantasy like no other presented in a world like no other. The level of player expression in that game is insane. I agree now with most people in that it isn't hard enough, or doesn't provide enough of a challenge. I think what people want in this game is simply conflict. There isn't enough of a sense that the bad guys know what they're doing, know what they're after, and are powerful enough to stop you on their way from getting it. Despite the shallow characterization, the presentation and conviction of the characters that are there is impressive. Natural Selection 2 is the best team-based FPS this year. No question. Best atmosphere, interesting dynamic between the teams, deep mechanics, just most fun all around. FTL is a lot of fun too.
  20. Thirty Flights of Loving

    Yeah I thought this game was better at nailing down a vibe than an actual plot. Maybe I wasn't paying attention? I played it a couple times, once with the commentary, and all I got from it was "some shit goes down, isn't this cool." Still neat, but idunno. I hate it when plots are puzzles.
  21. Halo 4

  22. Halo 4

    I agree about the metroid comparison to an extent. The inside of the helmet and some of the enemies and environments especially. Metroid Prime 2 space pirate- Halo 4 Promethian Knight -
  23. Halo 4

    This is another halo game. There's not really any other way to say it. Five levels in and they're up to the old tricks: little exposition, casually broached plot points, similar templates for weapons for different races, lots of shooting. If you liked the last two this one's a good bet as well. I like it, I think it's fun. It's Halo! Not eh, but yeh!
  24. Natural Selection 2

    I remember in the mod days they specifically said they wanted the balance to favor the aliens a bit more. It made them scarier for the marines and more people wanted to play them (even today it's always easier to get on the alien side)