Video Game Thread 2.0

[chitoryu12]

I beat the first two Saints Row games a while back, around when they first came out.

Saints Row was basically just a GTA clone. It got popular not for being different, but because it was competently made and fun. Saints Row 2 intentionally tried to provide an alternative to GTA IV's switch to darkness and realism by making the first game bigger, sticking with the crude humor and sex puns, and making everything colorful and over-the-top. It was still competently made and attracted people who were turned off by Grand Theft Auto going in a more realistic direction.

Saints Row 3 has the thinking of "Making it over-the-top and random got us money, so let's go even farther!" Hence the random gimp rickshaw chase that literally lasts not even 2 minutes, a homie that's a black pimp dude and BDSM enthusiast that constantly speaks through Autotune, immediate access to rocket launchers and attack helicopters with unlimited rockets and cannon ammo from the beginning of the game, etc. It has no real focus beyond "MAKE IT CRAZY"

Saints Row 4 is just going straight to aliens and superpowers.

[Sour Grapes]

You've got to admit it's fun as heck, though.

[chitoryu12]

You've got to admit it's fun as heck, though.

Not as much as it could be. It plays well and it's polished, but it feels....empty. It doesn't feel like there's any kind of decent reward system for what you do, since you start out with stuff that most games would spend half the campaign giving to you. It's like if you started New Vegas with combat armor, the All-American, more drugs and food than you knew what to do with, tons of ammo, all map markers revealed, and level 10.

[Itachirumon]

It's probably more like 10 but y'know. It feels like 20. With 100+ hours each time. Wow. I need to get laid.

It's okay, I know that feeling.

I may or may not have started another playthru... This time I'm gonna do a roleplay. Shane is Pro-Cerberus this time. Let's see what happens since the game doesn't really let you be as such.

I just spent the last month playing through all 3 games, logging about 40 for the first one, 30 for the second, and 28 for the third. But I think I've ruined myself for games now because I'm trying to play Dead Space and Alan Wake and I just can't get into it. After spending 3 hours on each to make them work right (key-remapping for DS and fixing b/w glitch for AW) I honestly....can't get immersed. Alan Wake I keep feeling like I'm missing huge swaths of the game (and I'm annoyed by the driver ((downgrade?)) I had to do to make it work)..and honestly, for Dead Space, after 3 games of awesome characters, I....I just don't care whether the main cast lives or dies. So they're on some Japanese space station with alien-zombie-demons. MMkay, but the protagonist is silent, the black guy is passable, and the chick is loud and bitchy and obnoxious. Maybe it gets better after chapter 3...but right now I'd rather see he bitchy chick get sword-arm-violated by the space-pirate-alien-zombie-demon-reptilian-humanoid-eldritch-abominations.

I got a bit more immersion in Saints Row 3 but I'm still having trouble beyond stealing a jet and flying into the skybox so I can sky-dive. So..now I'm trying Psychonauts which I know I'll enjoy...trouble is it's pacing is feeling slow.

So yeah...tl;dr, "How Mass Effect ruined video games for me.....at least until Watch Dogs comes out"

I'd love to know how you only put in 28 hours in mass effect 3. Seems like someone isn't exploring and doing all the side quests. Dunno how you can get a full experience if you just rush thru the campaign.

I had all the War Assets I could find, although I still sob because I missed one of the Eden Prime datapads and

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Yeoman Kelly's convo

. I'd imported from ME2 and went into the final battle at around lvl 56. I wanted to make sure I did EVERYTHING I could before I went into it.... the game 'did' feel absurdly short in comparison to 1 and 2. I couldn't figure out what I'd missed. I didn't rush haha, I took as much time as I could, I was actually pissed cause you're so rushed on

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Thessia and the city's effing beautiful.

Much Later Edit: Excuse me, 44 hours on game one, 59 on ME2 and I'm not 100% sure on ME3 cause it's on Origin and I can't figure out how to carry over my playtime alert, but I don't think it was much past 28-35. If it helps I had the Plasma/Particle Rifle for most of the game and it's kinda a gamebreaker. I think in spite of being an Adept I barely ever used any of my biotics unless I was fighting Banshees and then it was to help whittle the fucking things down.

Second Obligatory Joke Required Edit: I actually have 4 screenshots of the Presidium just because the graphics made me squee so hard. Especially from the window of Huerta Memorial. I took one look at them and I was like: THERE IS A GAWWWD!!! All hail Prothy the Prothean! PRAISE HIM! Wait, what? Oh...um.... All hail Reapy the Reaper?

[chitoryu12]

Only now have I realized that my Boss on Saints Row is voiced by Troy Baker.

[Ghoti]

Only now have I realized that my Boss on Saints Row is voiced by Troy Baker.

Only now have I realized that that same person (Kimberly Brooks) voices both Ashley Williams (from ME) and Oracle (from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City).
Which is dumb, because they obviously have the EXACT SAME VOICE.

[chitoryu12]

Troy Baker and Nolan North are rapidly becoming like J. LaRose is to me personally: someone I can't avoid, no matter what I do.

J. LaRose is a Hollywood actor from Orlando who does a lot of local work as well. Not only do I see him in a bunch of movies, but I've worked with him twice and he's even shown up on the set of a TV show I was doing that he wasn't even involved in.

[PosthumanHeresy]

Only now have I realized that my Boss on Saints Row is voiced by Troy Baker.

Only now have I realized that that same person (Kimberly Brooks) voices both Ashley Williams (from ME) and Oracle (from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City).
Which is dumb, because they obviously have the EXACT SAME VOICE.

Holy crap. Also, Ashley "Ash" Williams is quite obviously named by the most badass character ever, Bruce Campbell's Ashley "Ash" Williams from Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness.

[Shane for Wax]

What astounding discoveries you all have made... /original 2007 Mass Effect player snob

I also have no idea how many hours I've put into the trilogy but I've spent what feels like half my life on it. Certainly has been the three games I've dumped so many hours into, easily beating out the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. I think Borderlands 2 comes up second.

My pro Cerberus run is doing well. Except for the headache my Shepard keeps giving me for putting her in the Cerberus armor to begin with. Alas... I'm already about 26 hours into it. The save file says 40 but I also had it on pause and it still counts paused time as playtime. I keep forgetting to back out into the main menu. I haven't yet cured the genophage so make of that what you will.

I also started Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

You've got to admit it's fun as heck, though.

I actually enjoyed 3 more than 2.

[Ghoti]

Only now have I realized that my Boss on Saints Row is voiced by Troy Baker.

Only now have I realized that that same person (Kimberly Brooks) voices both Ashley Williams (from ME) and Oracle (from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City).
Which is dumb, because they obviously have the EXACT SAME VOICE.

Holy crap. Also, Ashley "Ash" Williams is quite obviously named by the most badass character ever, Bruce Campbell's Ashley "Ash" Williams from Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness.

THAT I knew, even before her "boomstick" line. I'm not that dumb. I like Ashley, but I've yet to do a playthrough in which she doesn't die. The one time she won the coin toss, I had to take her out in ME3 (because people die when you don't talk to them - yay video game logic).

[Shane for Wax]

More actual logic. You have to convince someone you're the good guy, right? way before you have a showdown or else there isn't any trust there that you aren't trying to trick them. Especially true if you killed the council and the councilor was killed by Leng. Cause you can fabricate evidence with an omni-tool.

Ash spent over 2 years and 6 months mourning someone she thought first was dead and then a traitor. I think she's allowed to distrust you when you arrive at the same time Cerberus did.

With that said, this is why you don't rush. It's an RPG, talk to people. Check your private terminal. Check on the people between missions. Otherwise, take the consequences.

I have also learned Kingdom Hearts still manages to make me feel dumb when trying to acclimate to a new fighting system.

[Sour Grapes]

You've got to admit it's fun as heck, though.

I actually enjoyed 3 more than 2.

That's mainly the one I've played.  Only just got SR2 as a gift, and with my DSL it's going to take a week or two to download.  The Russian woman's voice is amusing as hell, what with her being massively horny for Pierce.

Also busting up gang ops is so much easier with a tank.  Just wish the shark-o-matic held more ammo.

[chitoryu12]

I mean, it's fun. But it's a shallow, empty kind of fun. It's like turning on Skyrim for no reason other than to use the console to cheat in a bunch of god-tier items, crank your stats up to max, and Fus Ro Dah everything you see. It's cathartic and sometimes funny, but there's nothing beyond quick and cheap satisfaction. You get bored with it after a short time and move on to something more engaging.

That said, I'm sorta excited for Saints Row IV. Mainly because it looks like the alien invasion plotline has given it some well-needed coherence and focus.

[PosthumanHeresy]

I'm loving this "Games with Gold" program, where XBL Gold users get free games. It's even better, because my Gold is glitched. I'm on the second year of it being free for some reason.