Starker on 2/9/2018 at 02:36
Quote Posted by Renzatic
I still think Henke's missing his true calling.
Referencing old 60s songs?
Judith on 2/9/2018 at 09:39
Hah, that might be interesting (twins + new character), since they're planning to change the timeline. I really hope they do, as there isn't much to do with the old Blazko.
froghawk on 2/9/2018 at 13:17
Yeah, while i find it a bit odd that they are skipping the part where america is liberated altogether, the super stylized 80s europe setting and new characters seem like they may inject new life into the series. Wolf3 with bj sounds like it will take place in the same setting.
SubJeff on 2/9/2018 at 14:28
Gosh this Batman Arkham City is fun. It's blooming addictive. I'll have to be careful or my wife will claim neglect.
Thirith on 3/9/2018 at 07:06
I played Destiny 2 on PS4 for an hour or two, thanks to it being free for PS+ subscribers. I'd spent a couple of hours playing the free trial on PC with Malf and Jeshibu (Sulphur was also around, but the actual missions only allow for three-player coop), which was okay, but I have to admit that I prefer playing this game on a big TV while sitting on the sofa, added to which it plays really well with a controller. It's also not the kind of game that for me improves all that much when playing with friends, because it feels less like cooperation and more like you're voice chatting with mates but you might be playing with anyone, really.
As a fairly casual, drop-in, drop-out couch experience, though, I like this a lot. I vastly prefer the *feel* of the traversal and gunplay to, say, The Division, even though the systems aren't all that different.; moving around feels good, shooting is fun. And the graphics of this game are drop-dead gorgeous. In fact, all the production values are great: the game looks and sounds fantastic. It's shallow, yes, and the story is generic, but I don't need every game to be Arma or Planescape Torment. This is the gaming equivalent of popcorn cinema and it does that very specific thing tremendously well IMO.
Sulphur on 3/9/2018 at 08:38
I thought Divinity: Original Sin 2 was going to be all po-faced and serious, and while that's kind of there, it's also got an INEFFABLE CRAB, guard dogs I can distract with squeaky balls, my poncey lizard protagonist wrapping up a quest by flirting with and proposing to a fire slug, and a set of skulls on sticks having trouble with their plosives while entreating me to not o'en a trapped chest before getting so riled at the series of head-related puns Lohse comes up with that they end the conversation by playing dead.
I opened the chest and blew them all up. They deserved it anyway.
Thirith on 3/9/2018 at 08:56
I have to admit that one of the reasons I haven't yet played DOS2 is that I disliked the first game's humour quite a bit. It felt like the writers were trying hard to go for a Pratchett-like tone but failed. I'm hoping that the second game does a better job, not least since Chris Avellone was involved, but the quips in the various trailers haven't really helped.
On a different note, while trying to contact the Legion in Fallout New Vegas I've come to realise that dozens of other RPGs have trained me to expect that games will accommodate me. Since one of my companions hates the Legion with a vengeance, we've been killing all the patrols we ran into, meaning that my standing with the Legion was abysmal. Obviously they'd shoot on sight, but I still expected that if there's a mission that requires me to go to their territory and talk to Caesar the game would have them shout Latin obscenities at me but I'd still be able to go to their camp, have a nice chat with Caesar and complete the mission. Nope... Even after I'd sent Boone back to base to make sure that he wouldn't headshot any legionnaire we'd encounter, the Legion still welcomes me with machetes, spears and a hail of bullets. I can still do the mission in question, but I will have to dismiss all my companions and get myself a Legion uniform as a disguise. It seems obvious, but games of the last 10 years have generally defaulted to letting players do whatever they want whenever they want; it's pretty rare these days to play a game that tells you, "Well, you made your bed, you lie in it. Choices and consequences, motherfucker."
Sulphur on 3/9/2018 at 09:04
Yeah, that's the kind of mission design that I've been missing since, well, Troika. Obsidian's the only player in the RPG sphere that can get away with doing it, and doing it well.
As for D:OS 2, in my runtime, it doesn't come across as grating as the original, partly because the VOs come across less as stage actors drawing out everything for effect (though that's still there to varying degrees). But it's still pretty daft when it wants to be, and if you're not a fan of the first game's humour (and/or racism - the cocks were French, mais oui; the mice were Welsh, for some reason? And the cats were insufferable, as they should be), I think you'll find it hasn't grown an additional layer of subtlety. It's definitely more likable, but that's a subjective metric if there ever was one. At least I haven't found any talking wells yet.
Thirith on 3/9/2018 at 09:15
As long as I don't come away with the impression that the writers think their writing is funnier than it is, I should be okay. That's a highly subjective assessment, obviously, but the best way to kill a joke for me is for the jokester to laugh at it themselves. (There are exceptions, obviously; I think it can be very funny and quite sweet if someone makes a joke that surprises them so much that they can't help but laugh.) The first DOS's humour very much struck me as being altogether too pleased with itself, added to which it often came across as imperfectly translated, as if the writers weren't native speakers and didn't always grasp the subtleties of meaning. (I don't actually know how many of Larian's writers were ENS at the time.)
Anyway: I take it you're not much of a cat person? I guess I have to plan in more adversarial missions for our future Arma sessions. Don't tell me you actually like dogs!