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FF:QLD The Gamers Gaming Thread About the Games they're Playing

Discussion in 'Oceania Discussion Boards' started by -luigi-, Jul 28, 2004.

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  1. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    The interface on Mass Effect takes some getting used to, mind you I rather like it. Makes the whole game seem rather smooth.
     
  2. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    Double post, because I can :D

    I picked up a copy of the enhanced edition of The Witcher yesterday. While the combat took a little to get used to it has stated out well. Not so fond of the bright red interface when you pause though, but apart from that I'm enjoying it so far.
     
  3. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Game-related thoughts from what I've been up to recently. It's been a good month or two since I've sat down and seriously gamed. I just haven't had the time. But I'm looking at remedying that ASAP. Here's what I've been up to:

    Fallout 3: Have not touched since before Christmas. I spent 20+ hours screwing around without even touching the main quest, and unfortunately, I've kinda burned myself out on it, and feel a bit too daunted to go back. I'll dive back in eventually, but right now I'm just not feeling the draw.

    CoD4: Was really enjoying it till I hit a section of hulk-smash-inducing rage and frustration. I'll go back eventually, but I've become very soured to its whole schtick of infinitely spawning enemies to force the player to keep moving forward. Maybe I just suck at videogames, but I play these things for enjoyment, relaxation, and a little escapism. I don't want keyboard-snapping frustration to be a facet of my leisure time.

    Far Cry 2: Hell with that. The further I get away from it, the less I like it and the more sour my memory of all the missed oportunities and immersion-destroying gameplay devices becomes. One day I might take another bash at it, but meh.

    Jade Empire: Got this from the Steam sale. Played a good 5 or 6 hours of it. It's pretty decent. Cool (if slightly cheesy) pastische of Eastern stylings and a very interesting kung-fu fighting system that I'm still trying to master. Might have to try it with a gamepad rather than keyboard and mouse. Also, Nathan Fillion voices one of the minor villains in the game, which is cool but really rather distracting once you realise. :p

    Prince of Persia: The new one, which I like to call The Fresh Prince of Pers-air. Only played about half an hour, so not much in the way of impressions yet, other than that the visual style is totally gorgeous. The controls are nice and flow well, and the highly rhythm-based, almost dance-like combat is really slick, and beautiful to watch. It's a game very clearly inspired by Assassin's Creed, the controls of which I thought were excellent, and it's making me determined to go back and finish that game once I'm done with The Prince. My only beef with it thus far is the dialogue and voice acting, specifically the characters accents. I'm told it gets better and more interesting later into the game, but it's really disappointing after the wonderful dialogue and performances in Sands of Time. They were aiming for Han Solo with the Prince's characterisation, but missed and crashed head-on into Colossal Dickhead You Want To Punch. So close.

    Burnout Paradise: Australian release for the PC version is still a month away, so I have a copy winging its way over to me from the UK right now. Man, it's going to be awesome. :D
     
  4. Murder_Sandwhich

    Murder_Sandwhich Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2004
  5. Grieyls

    Grieyls Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2000
    Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 2.... It just doesn't get better, no farming for recources just straight into the action. Loving it so far. :D
     
  6. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    No time to post in thread. All waking moments taken up playing Burnout Paradise. Alarmingly addictive. That is all.
     
  7. GoobaFish

    GoobaFish Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 15, 2002
    Just finished Mass Effect - thanks to Kahlan for the Xmas present.

    That's an intense game in parts, rewarding yet frustrating in other parts.
    I'm a FPS gamer... TF2, Day of Defeat, back to the old Quake 1 & 2. RPGing a FPS is my aveue to RPG, and I liked that in some ways, yet didn't in others.

    Having a choice on how to reply to conversations was good, Paragon (My style) or Renegade. The way I'd have responded often didn't become an option, but in the direction of the game there was often a close enough alternative. I did what I estimate to be about 3/4 of the non-essential stuff, and that was cool. Mako driving in the mountains became instinctual, and I must say that combating the enemy in the Mako was very easy... using terrain as cover and using the cannon from a distance became a simple tactic to employ.

    Weapon and shield customising was interesting, but I'm not really sure if using Polonium Rounds or Incinderary Rounds (for example) caused too much difference as the detailed info implied.

    The romance between my character (male) and Williams just felt tacked on, and the minor hints at it seemed out of place. I know this game has as much focus, story wise, in cut scenes and role playing, as it does in shoot-em-up, but I did find it hard in places to care about some of the story. I got it all, but wasn't as keen to know. But, most of the time it was my choice to prod the extras about themselves, I think it was my choice to experience the whole game in the first hit. And again, that was my choice.

    I had a few buggy moments, sometimes cut scenes failed to load, and the Matriach Benezia scene kept having me thrown, noclipping, out of the map, frustrating me for about an hour over the 20 times it happened. Thank smeg for cut scene skipping.

    I was happily surprised that this game didn't have many cliche moments, and that fact that it did take some unexpected turns was refreshing. Might post more about it later, but my score (straight after the game) for Mass Effect is 7/10.


    [edit below]

    Going over you guys' impressions from last year - MS you got Williams AND an alien? Who? The Consort? FRAK! :_|
    Magnus, I opted for Soverign's Destruction over the Council, so the end had me choosing my Captain as President of the new Council. Also, I played as Engineer - Pistols only, no Biotic - only stuff like Sabotage, Overload, Hacking and the like. My usual crew was me (Tech), Williams (my Tank), and Wrex (my Biotic/2nd Soldier).
    Other Choices I made:
    - Sent Kaiden to fight on Virmire, and chose to sacrifice him.
    - I talked Wrex down on the beach. Go Charm!
    - I managed to make Saren off himself - not sure if that was the only option?

    Engineer was okay on the first run, I think I'll try Soldier/Tech next, battle scenes were kinda intense to choose which Biotic to use. Did anyone play as pure Biotic? Was it harder than a Soldier type?
     
  8. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Interesting some of the things you took away from it, Goob. good that you liked it overall.

    For my part, I basically fell head-over-heels for Mass Effect. I'm not sure I can put my finger on quite why. I think it's just the overall package. I loved the sci-fi, the intricaies and esoteric details of the world. I found the combat lively and visceral enough to play run-and-gun style, but not so much that it took away from the RPG elements. I always felt like I had a large number of options in combat, and greatly enjoyed approaching fights in new ways when I did my second play-through. I loved the story. It was slightly formulaic, sure, but I thought it was executed really well, and I always felt compelled to keep pushing through it. And I loved the characters. I really felt attached to my party members, something really magnified by the fact that in several cases your choices dictate who lives and who dies. None of that is particularly different to any other Bioware game, but Mass Effect's overall polish and presentation just sucked me in in a serious way.

    I enjoyed the romantic subplots, because they're entirely optional. Like the rest of the backstory, minutiae and character stuff, you can have as much of it or as little of it as you want. Interesting that you felt compelled to follow it through despite not liking how it played out.

    ME's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I seriously loved it, and I can't wait for the sequel next year.




    Oh, and Goob, in response to your list:

    1- The alien love interest is Liara.
    2- I saved the Council. Much better way to unite the coalition of races on equal footing and show that humans are worthy of a place on the galactic stage. On my first playthrough I played saboteur (soldier/engineer), which wasn't bad, but I prefered my second playthrough as a vanguard (soldier/biotic). I also put more effort into actually roleplaying a specific character that time around, which was great fun. Playing pure biotic is probably a bit difficult, at least at the start when you're kind of weak. It'll take good squad choice and management, and keeping yourself out of harm's way.
    3- If you don't have a high enough speech skill (charm/intimidate), you can't talk Saren down. The end result is the same, you just have to fight him twice at the end, not just once.
     
  9. Murder_Sandwhich

    Murder_Sandwhich Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2004
    1 - On my first play through, the consort had a VERY SPECIAL GIFT TO GIVE ME [face_mischief] and then I romanced both Williams and Liara, but eventually I had to make a choice, and I chose Williams.

    2 - I let the council die. All that needed to be focused on at that point was that the citidel survived, and that sovereign was destroyed.

    3 - I played as Vanguard, who pretty much had the same personality as Batman.

    4 - I iced Wrex because he was in my way. Didn't have enough time for a pow-wow.
     
  10. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Oh, there was a 4.

    4 - First playthrough I talked Wrex down by reminding him of the stakes and promising we'd help his people if we found a way. Second time through I was playing a rougher, less well-spoken character and didn't have the sufficient speech skills. I tried to talk him down, and maybe would have managed if Ashley hadn't stepped in and shot him. My character wasn't happy with Williams for it, but she'd had to make a tough call. Sometimes there's nothing that can be done.
     
  11. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    I've been good and I've NOT highlighted the above.
    I'm currently playing through as a biotic. I'm expecting it to be much like consular was in KOTOR, sucky at first but incredibly overpowered by the end. It's somewhat better than KOTOR in that it can be played in a much more strategic manner. When I can manage to get through more than 5 mins play without my arm throbbing I'll play a bit more.
     
  12. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    I started playing the Wallace and Gromit game last night (finally), and so far I'm enjoying it. The puzzles haven't been too painful (although watching Paul play through a bit of it first probably helped), and the general feel of it is right - although I'm still getting used to not using the mouse to move a character around. Fun times, though.
     
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