JCC Gaming Förceboat Parté - JC G4m3z thr34d (Gaming General Discussion)

so, theoretically, instead of paying $60 for Mass Effect: Andromeda, I could buy Borderlands 2 for $19 and play that all weekend instead.

 

I paid $45 (yay Amazon Prime discount)

I'm not regretting the decision so far.

 

Uh clearly the answer here is drop $24 on Hearts of Iron IV while it's on sale, and then conquer the world as fascist Peru.

 

Is Borderlands the kind of game you can enjoy solo or is it better (or even necessary) to play it coop? And is the population still enough to go coop without much issue?

 

IMO borderlands is better co-op.

 

I've only ever played Borderlands solo and enjoyed every minute.

 

Yeah, I've been thinking of giving it a try and become frustrated with another sorta-kinda rpg with RNG loot drops. And if the loot isn't nerfed to sate the needs of a pvp community, all the better!

 

I didn't find it very fun to play coop with strangers, as they either horde all the loot or, if it's loot you happen to not need, they spend 5 minutes mulling over whether to pick up every single thing they encounter. Sometimes they don't even cooperate all that much and run off doing their own thing, and I'm like why are you even in my game?

It can't compare to playing with a friend, which I also did for a while. Otherwise, I preferred playing alone.

 

I'm not one just to flatter people, so you know I mean what I'm about to say. And here it is (the thing I'm about to say), which is this:

You guys really know your stuff

 

I hear you. Sometimes dealing with random players can be a pain. I dunno if Borderlands has anything akin to raids where communication and coordination are necessary to killing the boss and securing the loot. But when you're stuck with mindless players that can't get their **** together...yeah, that can be real "fun".

So loot drops in Borderlands can be stolen by other players in the world if you don't get to them first?

 

i don't know where else to brag about this, but I beat Tyranny earlier this week in the "Trial of Iron" mode (one save file, you die, save file deletes itself)

 

There's really not much strategy to proceedings, just fire away. I don't know if there's anything resembling raids, I haven't played any game that has them to know what it entails. But all missions can be played alone if you want to, so there's nothing in the campaign that expressly requires cooperation. Loot drops, or loot hidden away in closets or trunks and the like are free for all. There's one of each and finders keepers. Sometimes, I would play in other people's games, and I would give the host the courtesy of having the first look at any new drops. But it's not a given that people in your game will do that, and then it's your loss.

 

Yeesh. When you put it like that, it almost makes something like Destiny 's loot drop system seem "fair", and that's saying a lot.

 

On a possibly slightly related note, I don't know how many of you, or how many of anyone, have ever played the 1980 board game based on the 1968 movie "The Green Slime" but it's really a lot of fun.

https://www.amazon.com/Awful-Green-Things-Space-Revised/dp/B004QGY0L4

 

That's interesting, because I actually got into Tyranny more than Pillars. I think it's cause Tyranny's combat is more dynamic than PoE's.

 

Courtesy of Beamdog's Twitter account: http://planescape.com/


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and so on and so on.

 

This screenshot is emblematic of what I hate about Mass Effect Andromeda

Spoiler

You apparently can't disagree with people the devs didn't want you to disagree with. In the above screenshot, a group of people treated you with suspicion and hostility despite you having helped others in their group earlier. When you help these people out, though, they change their tone. That's fine. In fact, I have no problem with that series of events. What I do have a problem with, however, is that I can't admonish the person. I can't tell them they were wrong. I am given two options: affirm their decision as correct or downplay the negative aspects of their decision. I cannot tell them they were wrong. I cannot tell them I think they're wrong. In fact, there have been many instances where I have just had to affirm an npc's statement or action with no ability to disagree. I don't care to fight whatever internet culture war is surrounding this game, but this is a clear problem. Taking away the renegade and paragon options is one thing (sure, I'll miss that we won't get a "Ryder is an jerk" video but that's not the biggest deal in the world). But either you have to disagree with someone because the devs want you to, you have to agree with someone because the devs want you to, and a small percentage of times you get to chose between either. You've been completely neutered.

 

It's so beautiful.

 

So um, is Andromeda worth getting?

I've been playing a bit more Wildlands, and whilst being a very patriotic American soldier and indiscriminately killing targets with no regard to innocents has been fun (esp with friends), I've reached that point where I've got the best kit and my drone has an explosive attached so I can literally do entire missions without getting close to a target. Which is of course VERY patriotic but also boring.

 

Nearly done with Deus Ex, sidelining that with Shadows Of The Empire.

I might get Prey next and save Andromeda for Christmas - hopefully by then the bugs would have been resolved.

EDIT:

Actually,

 

Finished Mankind Divided - I liked it, but preferred Human Revolution. I love the new augmentations (remote hacking is the best yet), the overall look and feel of the game. But I preferred the locations of the predecessor and the path/ending system. Although the final mission in London did make for a great dilemma.

 

Yeah, the hub being Prague was a nice touch and it was a pretty nicely realised city but I liked the variety in DXHR more too.

My favourite is this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Mankind_Divided#Allegory_to_racism