Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Iecerint]

I didn't play ME3 because I couldn't go more than 5 minutes without getting motion sick :-/

You might be able to change the motion blur settings in options. Not sure.

[zoraster]

you can on pc. you can't on xbox

[Iecerint]

Rly sry babe.

I think ME3 is maybe the best one to be honest, though I am perhaps biased by access to (v important story spoilers)

buttsex

.

[Zachrulez]

One of the big problems I have with the companions in Awakening is that you mostly gain approval from them by giving them gifts- if you don't find every gift, or get confused and give one to the wrong person (and it's much less intuitive as to which gift is intending for whom), you can miss out on the bonus. This is especially bad for Oghren, since his approval resets for Awakening, but his gift counter doesn't, so any gifts you gave him in Origins will make gifting less effective in Awakening.

Also infuriating is that most of the companion dialogues are triggered not by talking to them, but finding the right interaction spot in the world somewhere. So if you don't take every companion to every location with you, you'll miss out on chances for approval.

Yeah. I like the fact that all the gifts are more unique as opposed to slight variants on the same type of item. But it makes it

much

harder to figure out who wants what. Unless you have the conversations with them about the arbitrary items before you find the items. I still really like awakening's story more than Origins, but Origins is cleaner and more polished, and Party Camp is the best.

When I started a play through recently I found a whole ton of gifts I can just give to my party members. I don't remember coming upon them in my first play through so maybe that was meant to be the shortcut if you didn't want to spend multiple playthroughs getting the interactions right?

[Iecerint]

you can on pc. you can't on xbox

I got kinda sick during the opening Earth scene, but it bothered me less as the game went on. This was on PS3. FWIW.

[Sudo_Nym]

I haven't played Awakening in a while, but I don't remember there being a ton of gifts to just give- there's a bunch of gifts in the game, but they're all companion-specific. And most approval in Awakening is from gifts anyway.

[Iecerint]

Poor Velanna. Maybe she'll get mentioned in DLC somewhere.

[Sudo_Nym]

I liked Velanna, but she was basically a worse Morrigan. I suppose it says a lot about how much I like the Morrigan archetype that I even like the bad examples of it.

Frankly, I would be really surprised if the Awakening companions had any future role in the games. Anders and Justice already had their bit, Oghren is played out, Velanna and Nathaniel are too bland. Sigrun is the only one I can see having enough personality to make a comeback,

and she dies in most endings.

[Iecerint]

I like Nate a lot!

Velanna is pretty bland, but I liked her in the playthrough where I used her. I think most players used Anders because he's likeable and a healer and you get him earlier.

[hasdgfas]

Sigrun was easily my favorite, which is why I was very angry that I couldn't do her companion quest due to bugs, and therefore couldn't bring her into Drake's Fall, because I was intended to

ally with The Architect

.

I also preferred Velanna to Anders, and Justice is awesome. Oghren is more Oghren, Nathaniel I like a lot as well, but I can understand describing him as bland.

[Iecerint]

Nate had lots of story stuff due to the stuff in the basement of Vigil's Keep IIRC. I think he also had lots of unique Human Noble communication options, and I was a Human Noble Queen in one playthrough.

Sigrun and Justice I usually got last, so I used them less. I lovelove Justice, though.

[hasdgfas]

Yeah, I think the fact that I was Human Noble Queen in this playthrough helped with my opinion of Nathaniel. I felt he was pretty bland in my prior playthrough(s), but none of them were Human Noble backgrounds.

[Sudo_Nym]

One of the things that I did think was good about Velanna was that you get points for calling her on her bullshit. Morrigan would hate you more if you disagreed with her, but Velanna will often like you more for arguing with her.

[hasdgfas]

That was a nice change. The fact that disagreement always meant disapproval really frustrated me, because there's such a thing as friendly disagreement and discussion.

[Sudo_Nym]

Sten did that, too, in DA:O, but most of Origins was kissing ass for approval. The change to the Friend/Rival system in DA2 was probably an attempt to get around that problem.

I'm curious what the plan is for the future, though, if the computer needs some way to know your relationship with various characters but approval systems are getting taken out.

[dramonic]

Didnt know where to post this so lets post it here.
Streaming some FTL!
Feel free to join me on skype or something and we can chat
twitch.tv/dramonic

[Zachrulez]

So Duck Tales remastered hit PS Plus this month and I've found myself quite annoyed at the changes they made to the original levels and the bosses. The final level is the one that gets me really annoyed, as the changes they made to it make it frustratingly difficult... at least for me. This is a game that I more or less casually marched through on the NES and I can't get past the last level on the remake... urgh.

[dramonic]

Didnt know where to post this so lets post it here.
Streaming some FTL!
Feel free to join me on skype or something and we can chat
twitch.tv/dramonic

pulling an FTL all nighter, join me

[Oman]

You lying fuck.

I'm there, you're offline.

[dramonic]

I played for hours and then Mathieu woke up and wanted to play SMITE.
Also serve you right for not coming to mtl

[hasdgfas]

I had a pretty productive last week videogame-wise.

Finished Dragon Age Origins: Awakening as well as Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt. Definitely enjoyed it again, definitely happy with most of the choices I made, looking forward to seeing the minor ways that later games take those choices into account! Cynicism aside, I've started Dragon Age 2, and am enjoying it the second time through again. I still think it got way too much hate.

Also finished The Banner Saga. I found this to be a very fun turn-based strategy game with some interesting overworld mechanics similar to Oregon Trail. Fascinating world, wonderful art style, I enjoyed this a lot, although the pacing could have been a bit better, I felt. I had a bit less connection to the characters than I hoped, but the really interesting world and good battle mechanics definitely kept me playing. If you like the gameplay of Fire Emblem, definitely give this a try.

Last night I finally got around to checking whether Psychonauts has Steam Cloud saves, dreading having to restart it again. However, it does! I was able to start right in Black Velvetopia and power through to finish it. I had heard such terrible things about the Meat Circus and figured it couldn't be as bad as all that. It wasn't, although I can definitely understand the dislike. It's clearly not as well polished as the rest of the game, and the vertical escort mission that you have to completely restart if you fail one part of it (or fall to the ground) was very frustrating, but I don't actually think it was that difficult, just overly punishing in that one section. I had more trouble with Lungfishopolis's infinite tanks. Definitely worth a playthrough as a really good 3D platformers.

Time to work on a couple more things. I think Shadowrun Returns and Borderlands: The PreSequel for sure, along with Dragon Age 2 obviously.

[Chevre]

The only truly hard part about the Meat Circus is

the part where there are those cylindrical grate pieces that you have to jump to.

On 2005's Psychonauts it was fiendishly tricky, but I'm not even sure a current 3d platformer could make that sort of spatial reasoning any easier to think out and execute.

[hasdgfas]

That...was not that difficult. That was significantly easier than the

time your jumps correctly as weird things throw daggers at you and a spinning wheel so that you can grab the daggers and then jump to a platform

part.

[Chevre]

That was difficult but I think I was fairly impressed at the cleverness of that situation.

[hasdgfas]

I wouldn't have minded it if you weren't also

on a time limit, due to having to save Lil Oly