Video Game Thread 2.0

[Art Vandelay]

That does sound rather handy. I've only got three people so far, but I can tell that the weapon and ammo upgrades are going to get super tedious in the not too distant future.

[SCarpelan]

I would have preferred making the inventory system better organized and leaving a chance to be more creative with the crew's loadout. Instead of tedious the inventory management becomes linear as does character development. The RPG elements as a whole become less interesting and for me less entertaining shooter elements get refined. "Refined" also means a less open world making missions pretty much corridor shooters. The story keeps being interesting and the NPC followers are well designed. Unfortunately the interactions with the followers feel superficial and formulaic which makes the hyped up character interaction and romance elements of the game disappointing.

So, yeah. It's a decent series but it was wise to wait until the hype has died. I bought the first two used and the third one on a heavy discount and feel I got my money's worth. If I had bought them full price I would have been annoyed since it is way overrated. Despite its obvious flaws the first one was the most fun game as a whole in my opinion since the developers took a wrong direction in fixing its flaws and streamlined the character development needlessly.

[Zygarde]

Do try to keep Wrex alive when you meet him, cause it goes a long, long way to helping you in Mass Effect 3.

[Askold]

Do try to keep Wrex alive when you meet him, cause it goes a long, long way to helping you in Mass Effect 3.

Also because he is among the funnier and interesting characters in the game.


...But this does bring up the point that the choices you make in the game affect things and making a mistake early on can prevent you from achieving things two games later. (Although the amount of variation isn't as high as hype made some people believe which lead to a backlash they do allow for several choices that have impact later on.)

[IanC]

Dragon Age > Mass Effect. Shame it went all crap come Dragon Age 2 (lets make it more like Elder Scrolls WHY???).

[Askold]

I have completely missed Dragon age series, what's it like? I mean, I know that it exists but that's about it.

[Art Vandelay]

Origins is quite good. Pretty standard Bioware RPG, but quite well done nonetheless. I don't know anything about the sequels, though.

[Sleepy]

Dragon Age is quite worth a look, even if you only play the first one. The story and characters are well-designed, and it led me to be rather invested in the fictional world as a whole. With the second, people tend to love it or hate it. I personally think it did some things better, some things worse. I haven't played the third yet, but people seem to rave about it.

[Zygarde]

I tried to get into Dragon Age, but the combat is just so...clunky to me. Then again that's the problem I've had with other old BioWare RPG's like Knights of the Old Republic the combat is too slow paced for me (that and I hate running through the first half of KOTOR since it takes too long to get a lightsaber in that game.)

[Art Vandelay]

Apparently, a new piece of DLC has been released for Crusader Kings 2. At this point, it looks like they're going to have to just keep making add ons until the engine shits itself, because any sequel is going to feel woefully incomplete for at least a couple of years.

[Søren]

They should learn the difference between adding content and adding mechanics.

Adding mechanics aint cool

[RavynousHunter]

Getting back into Project Zomboid, and I'm lasting longer than usual.  Holed up in a farm, got a little bit of a wall going, got tonnes of shotgun ammo, almost totally raided the nearby warehouse, got some seeds I might start planting, soon...all is going furly well, if I do say so, myself.

[Art Vandelay]

Well, I have to admit, I can certainly understand why so many people thought Mass Effect was the bee's knees. Almost finished the first game (just started on act 3) and yeah, it's damn good. I was actually quite invested in a certain choice that had to be made on Virmire.

(click to show/hide)

While Kaiden is the more useful character, I am trying my hardest to get into Ashley's virtual panties. So yeah, needless to say, Kaiden got ringside seats to one hell of a fireworks display.

While I know to lower expectations for the final ending, I'm confident that I'll enjoy most of what the series has to offer until then.

[Zygarde]

Did you manage to keep Wrex alive?

[Art Vandelay]

Sure did. I have to say, it was rather easy. I didn't even have to pass a charm check or anything.