SuperBiasedMan

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Posts posted by SuperBiasedMan

  2. Posted

    I beat Watch Dogs! I hit a rut in the middle when I had captured all the towers, completed acts 1, 2 & 3 to hit a story lull, and completed all of my favorite side-activity (gang hideouts) where I stopped playing for nearly a week. But I did get back in the saddle and finished the storyline, which I actually ended up enjoying. It's certainly not one of the better written stories in games and it's told somewhat inconsistently in terms of tone, but I ended up liking where it left Aiden in terms of sequel potential. I thought I heard rumblings of people dissatisfied with the ending, but I felt it had just enough loose ends to get me back in for more in another game.

     

    I think Watch Dogs might have been better served by not being on such a wildly out of control hype train. While that E3 trailer got us all excited, Ubisoft shouldn't have set expectations so high. Though I guess ultimately it may not make a difference, as Assassin's Creed had a relatively poor first showing that got a lot of people's attention and went on to capitalize on that early, somewhat undeserved momentum. Given where both of these franchises are, what I really want is them to just intersect at some point with some weird AC flashback/assassinate dudes + Watch Dogs modern day hacking/traversing game.

     

     

    Hacking the animus.

  3. Posted

    I like how most of the suggestions being offered involve abilities I haven't got yet or a system I can't use til later (I'm pretty sure passives haven't been brought in anyway). But really I know I'm being a bit of a baby, I'll just experiment around with abilities like I'm supposed to and figure out alternative strategies. In general I heavily favour maneuverability in games so even a quicker paced mouse control character would annoy me a little for the indirect control of it, so when it's tactically relevant it's more problematic for me.

  4. Posted

    The Giantbomb thing is mildly disappointing, but it feels like too many people are giving this situation more weight than it deserves. Not hiring a woman doesn't mean that games will never become better and if they had actually hired a woman, it wouldn't have magically fixed all those problems either. I wish we could stop pretending that meaningful social change is going to come from sources like Giantbomb, who will always be shackled to the demands of their community.

     

    Social change isn't magical, but it is gradual and this is one gradual slight change that would've been a help. I dunno about blaming GB unless something specific that seems more shitty comes out, but at this point, realistically you should think about specifically hiring to diversify such a narrow range of employees. If your workplace is 100% male, surely you have to stop and think that maybe there's something to be changed. Perhaps it's worth specifically choosing the best female for the job in order to counteract a clear male bias (whether the bias is yours, the industry or the candidates themselves is irrelevant, it's worth working against). Hell, there were two positions, it's not like they couldn't have still hired one guy anyway.

  6. Posted

    Just started this last night after getting it in the end days of the sale. So far it's mooostly hit my expectations with the world, the storytelling narrator and the art.

     

    Gameplay does work better than I expected, though it's also harder. I lost 2 abilities on my boss fight, and I just don't get how I'm supposed to effectively maneuver when I lose Jaunt? My character is so slow, but the actual process are moving at what I'd consider a 'normal' pace. I'm not sure if it's just me fumbling as I learn or what but for now jaunt is kinda necessary.

     

    As for the story, (spoilers for me speculating mostly, I've only gotten an hour-ish in)

    I like the obscurity of it, Bastion was kinda straight up and if this did the same I might find it less engaging to be honest. The narrator trick can hardly work the exact same way twice. I'm not sure if this was everyone's experience but to me it already seems like the process is an evil company's (maybe not actually a company but the evil company archetype fits for this) attempt to control people while placating them with modern digital advances. That's presumably why they need Red's voice, the media is a good way for a villain to 'talk' to the people and give them something to appease them at the same time.

     

    I do not have a clue what or who the Transistor is, so that I'm looking forward to learning more about. Though I do wonder why they wanted to stick Red in the Transistor... unless it was entirely to get rid of her since she'd lost her voice and his voice seems to be all the dude in the Transistor has. I kinda wonder at this point whether the criticisms of being vague and confusing are supposed to apply to this point of the game, or later when the game adds more information without hinting enough at real answers.

  8. Posted

    Well, it is definitely a minor distinction but letting you actually choose dialogue makes the experience more interactive than a cutscene really. I'd say that the dialogue choices are a key gameplay feature of those games that is different to just reading/listening to dialogue that you have no bearing on.

    I certainly didn't play Mass Effect for the shooting anyway.

  9. Posted

    The majority of my actual usernames in places is SecretAsianManz because it was the first variation that wasn't taken on Xbox Live and Steam and at this point I default to using it everywhere because I assume that normal version will be taken.  What really bugs me about Steam is that you can change your name without changing your actual ID.  In practice I like that because it means I don't have to jump through a million hoops if I want to be called something else, but it also means the other guy has my name and isn't even USING it.

     

    Of course not, if he was using it then his identity wouldn't be so secret, would it?

  10. Posted

    I played quite a bit of Xenoblade, probably 20-40 hours(?). It's an out and out JRPG, with anime tropes, heavy lore as well as cutscenes and dialogue galore. Definitely not the worst offender for too much cut scenes but that's how the story is told rather than in gameplay. That said the gameplay is fun, the lore is interesting and the story's not overly generic and has some nice twists on the formula, but it's not a terribly unique plot.

     

    I... really don't know if it'll work for you? I put it down because I let myself get distracted by fetch quests and got tired of how long and slow that made the game feel, but also because I was playing on the Wii at my parents' house and I wasn't around enough to plough through an RPG epic.

     

    Also I think the reason RPGs telling cutscene heavy stories is a problem is because RPGs have the legacy of being the story genre of games because they had the capacity to have a lot of information in times when games were constricted. But these days they try to feel massive and epic in comparison to other massive AAA games and so they load in more and more information instead of trying to pare down to a well told story.

     

    Basically I wish RPGs were taking lessons more from Gone Home and the Stanley Parable to develop instead of just going 'bigger'.

  11. Posted

    I'm happily in control of my username on most sites, but I lost it on Youtube... to myself. When google took over Youtube they finnicked around some nonsense and weirdly merged accounts that meant I lost my old account and had to choose a new username.

     

    I will never forgive Google.

  13. Posted

    Ok, time for my long overdue response. I should probably note before I start that I haven't ever gone to the North so my recommendation for the Iron Throne is all I know about it. I grew up in Kilkenny and currently live in Dublin, so I'm quite South East biased (though we definitely have the best weather :P). And another caveat that I'm a cheapass and a vegan so I don't really bother eating out that often and won't bother trying to recommend any specifics about that to you. So here we go.

     

    My hometown of Kilkenny is worth a look, particularly as your stay overlaps with the local arts festival that may be of interest to you:

    http://www.kilkennyarts.ie/

    Buuut, if that's not of interest I'd specifically avoid that time as there's gonna be a lot more tourists around. Either way, the town has a very open castle for tourists to go through, 2 cathedrals and a bunch of other historical buildings you can see. I recommend going to St. Canice's Cathedral and going up to the top of the round tower, it costs you something like €5 each, but the view you get of the whole town around you is well worth it. Rothe House is also a good look for the historical stuff.

     

    If you have no interest at all in the history, I still recommend visiting and looking around. Just walking through the mix of old and new buildings is quite nice, and Kilkenny is tourist focused so you can still find a lot of nice places to eat and many B&Bs. It's quite a small town though, so you could realistically see it all in a day or two unless you're into a lot of the arts festival stuff.

     

    Nearby to there is a nice seaside town, which is basically where my family holidays usually went. It's called Tramore, in County Waterford, not far from the town of Waterford itself. Basically it's got a big huge beach, but as back ups it also has a constant... amusement park? Mini theme park? I'm not sure what name translates to Americans. But basically it has a small rollercoaster, bumper cars and a ghost train. That kind of stuff. And just next to that is also a street full of arcades. This might be more enticing to a bored irish child/nostalgic adult but if you want a beach day at all it's worth it, though there will be tourists. If you want an emptier beach experience, Curracloe in Wexford is good but has little in the town other than the beach. I recommend keeping on eye on the weather regularly. It's changeable as hell.

     

    Now, for Dublin. A great tourist spot to look around is Temple Bar, but don't eat or drink there. The main areas you'll walk around for shops and such are O'Connell Street (you'll see it easily because of the big metal spike in the middle of it, the Spire), Henry Street, Dame Street and Grafton Street. Your guidebook no doubt will point these out, but I'd mostly recommend taking a slight detour to a parallel street if you want to find a pub or a restaurant, it'll make a significant price difference cause it costs a lot to be on one of those main roads. Course that doesn't matter for Starbucks or Subways (of which you can find three along O'Connell street).

     

    For shopping, mostly you'll be on those streets as well as in the Jervis and Stephen's Green shopping centres (which are on those streets). But if you're interested in second hand or vintage clothing then there's a ton of places you can do that in the temple bar area too.

     

    As far hating americans, I think you'll be fine. There's a stereotype of bad tourist but being american has little to do with it, more the idea that a tourist is demanding or loud and obnoxious would be a problem. As long as you don't enter a room, declare you're from Texas and fire some rounds into the air I think you'll be fine.

     

    Ok, that's my spew done for. Hope it helped anyway, and have a good holiday!

  15. Posted

    I can respond to this soon, but right now I've just flown back to Ireland to start a new job and find an apartment to move in with my girlfriend who also started a new job today.

    Though I am a terribly untouristy person who hates to eat out (because I'm cheap) I will offer what I can, but mine will mostly be about things in Dublin, Kilrenny having castles and cathedrals and a couple nice beach towns if the Irish weather gods favour you with a day of sun.

  16. Posted

    I suppose realistically, the existence of the sale itself with 75% discounts is what draws more money out of people's pockets.

    It's just that the event is so much more work for Valve to put in explicitly to make people's impulse buying more frenzied. It's that fact that makes it feel more weird to me, like valve is the sleazy car salesman stereotype saying "You know, if you buy this car today, we have a raffle going and you might win that overcoat for free..."

  17. Posted

    In Spelunky, whenever you find a level that has a brothel and a sacrificial alter. When I go to buy the damsel instead of just buying kisses, the shopkeeper says "Aw, you must be in love!".

    Given the fact that I have only ever purchased a damsel like this when I specifically want to sacrifice her life to Kali for a reward, the shopkeere's line is pretty sinister.
    I can't tell if it was intentionally written that way or unintended horror, and the thought plagues me.

  18. Posted

    That's a bit of a red herring, it's really more like "or are a child that somehow has access to money that's not yours" or more to the point "or are a child with irresponsible parents". If I was a child, this would be a great program for me because as long as you vote every day and participate in a minor way, you get access to highly demanded fake items that you can sell and buy cheap games with. And guess what? Those cheap games are readily available in the sale, so if I was a kid with parents like those I had that gave me a minimal allowance I'd be super stoked about these sales and contests for perfectly responsible reasons.

     

    Well I'm not even talking about extreme cases, take the example of a kid who has a birthday during the sale, and says they want to buy a bunch of games. The parents think "Well no, we wont let them buy a ton, but let's give them $50 to choose games with.", and what if the kid then just buys stuff they otherwise wouldn't have been as interested in. It's not brainwashing but it's a pretty dodgy way to push people closer to clicking the purchase button, it's a less bad version of well tuned free to play games that encourage you to just drop a couple dollars for the game to make it a bit easier.

     

    I think it's unreasonable to ask Valve to create situations that protect people who make irrational decisions.

     

    People make irrational decisions all the time, in my opinion a shop has a responsibility to not encourage irresponsible behaviour for their own benefit (this is the point of some government regulations).

  19. Posted

    I think that like with most things, this sale isn't ridiculously insidious unless you're an idiot and/or you have no self control.

     

    I think if you add "or are a child" to that list then it can be pretty insidious. Children can be foolish enough to basically buy into this and get games that they otherwise wouldn't have put in the effort to convince their parents to buy them, and it's not like their parents will expect this kind of storewide 'game' to be going on.

  20. Posted

    I haven't played Ether One but I've heard from people (Hot Scoops?) that the world building is really great, when you walk through the town there are notes and things left everywhere with which you can piece together backstory, so that sounds pretty good.

     

    If it's got real detail that sounds good anyway. I may or may not actually read all the things but I prefer a story to have a foundation even if all I see directly is the surface. It's properly on my radar for the sales now.

     

    I love it, a thread of " Convince me to play game [x]". It's going to be like:

    - "Actually, it's not very good."

    - "Well... I appreciate your opinion, but I'm going to buy it anyway."

    I look forward to the sequel to all these conversations where it's the same, except there'll be another person saying

     

    "No, X was right and they told me before, don't buy it."

  21. Posted

    I got it in the recent humble bundle thing they did, I've played around more with the free trials of much earlier versions though and it's largely a pretty hassle free way to make a game. And you can actually do quite a lot with the quasi-programming in it. I once made a different version of Final Fantasy VII's materia system in an older version... it really wasn't worth my time, but it was possible!

    Though you need to either ditch combat largely, put a lot of work in or accept that it'll be mediocre at best.

     

    I have ideas of stuff I'd like to make, I just need to initiate it as a habit somehow so I start working bits and pieces.

  23. Posted

    I'm kind of fascinated on how quickly the general attitude towards the WiiU has shifted around here.  Even I'm getting interested in one, and I haven't wanted a piece of Nintendo hardware in a couple of decades. 

     

    Not to sound overly cliché hipsterish, but I never did get why the Wii U was so outright trashed. It's always had genuine exclusives, even with a couple non Nintendo games if admittedly the vast majority is Nintendo. Obviously it's still got problems that people have talked a lot about, but nothing about the PS4 or XBONE suggests that they're realistically doing any better.

  24. Posted

    It is less that games have massive discounts and more that games are almost guaranteed to be discounted. Then some games on flash sales are super duper cheap, like 75+% off where people get extra excited.

    For the moment I'm waiting for Darksouls 1 to drop to ridiculous depth (it's currently 66% off as the standard discount) so I can buy it with my farmed trading card money.

    I am a savvy consumer.