juv3nal

I'm dc_juv3nal. I only really play fat princess online (because I can do it without swapping discs). But I could be talked into (msg me or something) coop objective Uncharted 2. I would do the other modes but I've concluded I'm awful at them. Be warned, I have no voice capability tho. Also, please do mention that you're from idleforums if you add me.

I think you could definitely cobble together enough gameplay out of the non-combat stuff to sustain interest. No fighting still leaves exploration, parkour/freeclimbing/jumping, stealth, photography, driving, puzzles, and meaningful-choice dialogue adventure-y stuff. Some more games beyond the one's you've mentioned that I'd look to for inspiration as far as removing combat would be: Beyond Good & Evil, Mirror's Edge, Thief series, Yakuza series (for city-with-all-sorts-of-hidden-bits-of-random-interactivity feel), Dreamfall (does anyone who liked that game actually like the combat in it?). Totally doable, I think (and without resorting to the kind of quicktime-event-fest that Heavy Rain looks like it's going to be). edit: Facade always struck me as a neat conceptual approach, but the implementation leaves something to be desired.

I've just started getting into torchlight after my 2nd go at dragon age fizzled (partly my fault for picking the same class because I wanted to do a "perfected" run through...may put it down for a while and try a different race/class combo later) and it's as addictive as I expected it to be. I've restarted with every class though and still not sure which I prefer. I don't like managing summons, I know that much. Leaning towards destroyer for the little shockwave crowd clearing move. How are you guys spending your stat points? A sort of balanced approach, or just piling everything into your primary stat?

I was *this* close to giving them a runner up, but edit: also NEEDS MOAR COOP OBJECTIVE SCENARIOS/MAPS

Dragon Age Nothing else this year has held my attention for as long. I can't remember the last time I finished a game and jumped right back in to go again.

The dialogue is a large part of the gameplay. Not knowing which parts you've seen of the writing, it's impossible to say whether that's representative of the whole or not, but IMO the writing in DA:O, while not the best ever, is certainly pretty decent. But then I also think the writing in Uncharted 2 is pretty good (which you also mentioned you thought was poor). I think DA:O is not really worth it if you just want to skip the dialogue/story and kill stuff, level up a character and collect loot. Torchlight or Borderlands are both stronger in that regard (and Torchlight is a lot cheaper to boot). Uncharted 2 is still worthwhile if you skip the dialogue/story. But again, I like the story in DA:O and have spent more time with it than the time I've spent with Torchlight and Borderlands combined. Your mileage may vary.

So I beat it. Clocked at 55 hours. I think I did a lot of stuff in a non-optimal way and the completionist in me wants to wait for walkthroughs to show up before going at it again.

With exciting (read:hyped) new IP, I'm like that, but for AC, I have memories of not finishing the first one which is enough for me to hold off on this.

massive deep roads spoilers non deep roads spoilery question re: black vials

I've played a bit of all of them except 10-2 and 11 but I don't know that you could call me a fan given how few of them I've finished (2NA/4, 7, & 8). They're all very slick and polished examples of jrpg for-their-time, but presentation-wise they really tend not to hold up. The stories aren't anything to write home about either, except maybe in comparison with other jrpgs. As a kid growing up and not having a lot of money to spend on vidgames, they were great because you knew they'd take a long time to beat, but nowadays with an actual job (less free time, but sufficient money to just pick up the next shiny game to come along), I don't really want my games (even rpgs/jrpgs) padded out with much grinding. A little is okay, but jrpgs in general tend to go overboard on it for my taste.

I think the point of Uncharted 2 is much less about the writing than Dragon Age is so it's not so much a matter of relative quality, but that you're going to have to deal with a lot more of it in Dragon Age. People are always going on about how graphics don't matter but Uncharted 2 looks a hell of a lot better than Dragon Age. I don't know if that matters to you at all. Having said that, I've alreay spent twice the time on Dragon Age as I did with Uncharted 2 and I'm not really that close to being done.

Oh yeah, forgot about Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. That one's totally awesome if you like legos.

The retry thing was eventually added to Paradise, but it's totally buried like 4 steps deep in this little menu thingy. Total pain to use.

Absolutely Mass Effect & Shadow Complex. Castle crashers is good times if you can get a bunch of people & controllers in the same room. Not so much fun to go through it single player though.

re the spoilery fight I was talking about:

A neat look at EA's track record with breaking into non-core markets by Greg Costikyan over at Play This Thing: http://playthisthing.com/ea-bends-over-wall-street

omgwtf! I'm playing on casual. Why am I getting continually wiped by *plot-significant-character-name* ? I'm about level 12 across the board, don't have DLC Golem guy or the Dwarf but I think I have everyone else. Kind of specced badly I think, I dunno. I still feel it should be doable on the wussy difficulty level, but I'm not even getting close. Like 70% life is about the best I can do. That's 70% life remaining, not I'm able to do 70% damage.

re: the elf forest Man that place (ruins included) is *big*. How the heck am I supposed to carry all that loot? Backtracking through empty areas to go sell stuff = no fun.

goddamn autosave. doesn't trigger when you go to another world map area. lost 1 and a half hours agh.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my disappointment with Kotor 2 was largely because of unfulfilled potential. It certain could have been as good as the first one, but general bugginess and the rushed/not properly finished ending ruin it for me. Which is too bad becaus Kreia reminded me a lot of Ravel from Planescape:Torment, which, depending on my mood when you ask me, may be my favorite game of all time.

I've been playing on console and doing this. It is easy, but for the life of me I can't figure out how, as a mage, fireball is ever useful if you step it up to one of the difficulties where friendly fire is on. I don't think I've dropped a single fireball where someone on my team didn't get caught in the blast.

I picked this up for ps3 last night (like I could be expected to do otherwise). I went with a human mage and I'm liking it a lot so far. The graphics are...unimpressive. I was up until 4:30 playing it (and in at work @ 9:30 today) so I clearly don't care about the graphics all that much, but to my eyes it looks worse than mass effect. Random pet peeve: I hate how they strip my hood/hat/helmet for every cutscene. My character's bald. His head gets cold. Have some sympathy.

I dunno, I wouldn't mind them going back to the well for: http://www.mobygames.com/game/grand-theft-auto-mission-pack-1-london-1969

Gah! stupid demo. Why do you have to be so good?

I will not will not will not buy this. I still have ages to go in Borderlands goddammit. The last thing I need is two diablo-likes when dragon age is about to come out.