juv3nal

Yikes! Easy there with the torches and pitchforks. In the last couple of months I've gotten more games for pc (xcom, torchlight 2, guild wars 2, ftl) than console (sleeping dogs, borderlands 2). I just know the limitations of my laptop's vidcard is all.

This looks pretty cool and I liked the old games (including freelancer), but by all accounts this is going to be pc only and will require a heftier video card than my laptop has (or for that matter any newer laptop I'd upgrade to is likely to have). Barring something like the mythical Valve steam box, I don't see myself getting another desktop pc ever. I suppose if enough awesome things come out that require it, I might change my mind eventually, but one title is not enough to get me to do it.

oh also, what the hell is up with the camera flipping all over the place when you're trying to place a grenade?

Man the tutorial is LOOONG. I fired it up before going to be last night (mistake, I know) and an hour and 20 minutes later I'm still seeing "this thingy is locked during the tutorial" Also, I apparently screwed up by placing my first additional satellite way out of reach of my interceptors? Do I need to replay the tutorial to fix that? Or does all that stuff get reset once the tutorial ends?

Less than 5 if we're not including things I've only spent 10min to 2 hours with. But if you count those I'm probably up to the 50% or higher mark. I generally try anything for a few minutes. In other news, apparently I own Runespell: Overture? WTF is that? edit: nevermind. I actually have played that and for more than 2 hrs even. Generic fantasy name is generic.

Guild Wars 2 does this. Your stats get levelled down, but you can still gain xp (although reduced, but never zero). GW2 nicked the "fight for your life" mechanic from BL incidentally. Seems like turnabout would be fair play for a BL3.

Just got my Gaige up to where her class skill unlocks. Using robo pal will take some getting used to. Unlike turret or deception for some reason he is not very good as a panic button for drawing aggro away from you when you are already in deep trouble, much better to toss him in to draw aggro before you attack. (Although it can make sniping headshots on bullymongs tough as they turn to face him). I feel like I should be playing xcom or torchlight 2 (already own those) or getting a copy of dishonored but after a day of work I just want to shoot things in their cartoony faces.

I've got zero at 22 or so and an axton and maya somewhere between 9 and 11. but I'm on ps3...I don't suppose anyone else is on ps3?

eh, y'all are a bunch of cynics. I'm in for the minimum bid that gets a digital copy due to the Ian Bogost pullquote if nothing else:

I don't know that this is all false perception or whatever. A lot of those earlier games took their cues from their arcade roots where they made their money by killing you so you had to pump more quarters in. Personally, I'm not really down with higher difficulties because I don't have as much time to game as I used to and I'm not as apt to hurl myself into the same brick wall 30+ times if that's what it takes for me to figure out a way past a particular obstacle. Close checkpointing/not having to replay a lot of stuff/quickly resetting from a death can mitigate that though.

I have read both of those and like them ok, but confess I'm more a fan of the stuff he was doing with Smarter Feller

Randy Pitchford has been intermittently tweeting shift (under 'extras' on the main menu) codes for golden keys (to open the fancy chest in sanctuary). He's @DuvalMagic You have to sign up but you get a key just for signing up even without entering a code. The chest usually contains 2 purples.

I played on ps3, but I didn't really have a problem except when trying to maneuver a bike in a small space (I kept trying to do a kind of donut->peelout thing that seemed to work pretty well in a car but it never seemed to work out the way I wanted it to on a bike). I think GTA is probably more realistic, but SD gives a better sensation of going fast while still being somewhat in control. The drifting bothered me a bit in the beginning, but I guess I got used to it?

no specific examples, but in the days before internet accessible walkthroughs, I've gotten terminally stuck in various point & click adventure games. ("terminally" as in stuck for long enough that I'd end up not finishing the game & moving on to something else). brings to mind a vague memory of a quote about game puzzle difficulty design, (hazily paraphrasing...) Feel like it may have been Ron Gilbert, but not sure at all: "If you design a puzzle to be super easy so that 99% of people will be able to solve it without looking up the solution and you have n such puzzles to get to the end of the game, you can't assume that the 1% who wouldn't get past the first puzzle are the same as wouldn't get through the nth, so in the worst case even though you designed your puzzles to be super easy, if say 100,000 people play your game, x number of people still won't get to the end of the game without a walkthrough." (where n is a totally reasonable number of puzzles to have in a game and x is what struck me as a depressingly high number)

I'm juv3nal on the runic thingy but not on much (mostly playing borderlands at the moment)

I've got em both and it's a totally different thing for me. Torchlight is a thing on my computer that I can play solo while watching tv (although I'm sure I'll give coop a shot at some point). Borderlands, I'll play on the console instead of watching tv. And based on the respective amount of time I put into the first of each series, apparently I prefer multitasking by a lot (er...or maybe it's just that I take the laptop with me when I go traveling, I dunno).

I'm in for $20. As for why support them? Sure they've released some buggy messes in their time, but they're also some of the people behind some of my absolute favourite gaming experiences. Fallout 2 and Planescape Torment are both in my top 3 favourite crpgs.

The timing is more finicky on those. Also sometimes they'll do a move where the counter button is different (er on console anyways) than the button you use for every other type of dude.

If you do the "date" missions all the collectibles are revealed on the map. 3 girls unlock map indicators and one unlocks additional races.

Brainygamer chats with Nels Anderson and Chris Dahlen (includes idlethumbs reference as police siren goes by )

I'll back you up on Ghostwritten. I thought it was "lighter" fare than Cloud Atlas, but by that same token more pulpy and fun.

Also related although I am loathe to recommend it seeing as I've learned I have a liking/appreciation/tolerance for gimmickry well beyond most audiences' is JSF's cut-up of The Street of Crocodiles, Tree of Codes.

Yeah this. I'll have another look when this is sorted, but it's completely stupid the way it is now. You click into an entry to read more about it, then hit "back" and the contents of the page are different. Paging only makes sense if returning to the same page number means you see more or less same stuff.

beat it over the weekend. Somehow didn't snag enough triad points to get the last triad unlock. The cop unlocks are easy even if you go through missions running over pedestrians and such because the drug busts add to your cop score, but the side stuff you do that you'd hope would give triad points (stealing cars, collecting debts) give face points instead of triad. I've no interest in re-playing missions to boost my triad score, so hopefully there will be some missions-based dlc down the road for me to make up the last bit I'm missing (instead of silly cheats and costumes, which, hey, I don't begrudge 'em for doing if it makes them money, but they aren't going to get my money that way).

I've read some of the written content at Polygon and it's ok. Not great, but inoffensive anyways and they do better presentation than the vast majority of sites. For some, that's going to not matter at all, but I dig what they're trying to do in that regard. The first episode of their podcast is goddawful though (haven't checked out if they got any better) and that documentary thing (which I didn't know about until I saw it mentioned here) seems likewise.