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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I haven't played Mass Effect 3 yet, and based on the news this week I won't be for a while.
(I have saves from ME1 and ME2 waiting, and enjoyed both games, more or less.)
Firstly, there was some news about character models from ME1 not importing correctly if you didn't tweak them in ME2. I believe this is true of my save, and playing without my Rick-Astley-as-Commander-Shepard guy just wouldn't be the same.
Next, there's the ending. I don't know what it is, and I'm sure that the outrage is waaay overblown. But now they have said they might change it...so why should I play until it's decided.
And then, there's this "From the Ashes" DLC. From listening to some detail about it on the Giant Bomb podcast, it sounds like it contains really good story bits about the Mass Effect universe...but you need to have it installed from the get-go. Day 1 DLC that's required for a full story experience? I'll wait for the GotY edition, thanks.
Overall, it sounds like the game was a bit rushed (which, coming after Dragon Age 2, isn't too big a surprise I guess). That's too bad, it had a lot of expectations. I'm sure it's still enjoyable and I will definitely play it at some point. Just not tomorrow!
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I finally got into Skyrim -- I was delayed only because I felt compelled at the last minute to finish the main quest of Oblivion first.
Spoilers for the start of the game follow.
1) It's pretty. No big shock here.  I read through a performance thread on NeoGAF (warning: registration there apparently takes 6-24 months, don't hold your breath) and did a bit of fiddling. Still not completely happy, but at some point you just have to play the game!
2) Dungeons are way, way better, at least so far. I've been in 2-3 and each is completely custom made.
3) Khajiit claws are nasty. At level 7 I'm still taking down random bad guys in 1-2 shots unarmed.
4) It seems on the easy side as compared to Oblivion. Partially because of the claws, but in general it does not seem as unforgiving as Oblivion (let alone Morrowind!).
5) I'm having a hard time choosing sides in the civil war because both sides seem like jerks. I suppose eventually I'll choose sides, or just wait for my next character. (If I stay true to Oblivion, I'll take at least two characters through, maybe three.)
6) Early on you get made Thane of a town...how can you be expected to play an unbalanced loner character if everyone likes you?
7) While it is very pretty, I miss temperate forests. I guess I am just a sucker for traditional fantasy.
8) I could not believe that a PC interface could be so console-centered. Nearly everything feels like it would be better with a controller. Un/fortunately, "nearly everything" does not cover aiming with a bow, so it's mouse and keyboard for my archery character. I am hoping that the eventual UI mods help with this issue.
9) Apart from the interface, the game does feel "consolified" in many ways, but so far they are not terrible ways.
I'm happy and want to play more. This will be happening soon.
Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:52 am
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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So, Skyrim is going to be good, and almost certainly great. However, there are some things from previous Elder Scrolls games that it could do to improve on.
1) Level Scaling. Oblivion was really not good at this -- as you got more powerful, so did the bad guys. Depending on what skills you leveled, the bad guys might even get powerful faster!
Oblivion tried to make it so you can go anywhere at any time. Games like this shouldn't work that way. There should be more dangerous and less dangerous areas. Morrowind did this (with level scaling mixed in more subtly). Hopefully Skyrim goes back in this direction.
2) Leveling. In Oblivion, you only leveled up if your chosen skills improved. You could stay level 1 the whole game by playing "against class". This did not make a lot of sense. From what I've heard they have changed this so that you level based on whatever skills you improve.
3) Dungeon Architecture. Oblivion had a ton of dungeons, but they all followed a few patterns using a small number of pre-made pieces. It didn't take long to learn those pieces, and then the dungeons mostly looked the same.
4) Back up and Shoot. I saw a preview that pointed out that "run backward and shoot" was a key strategy in Elder Scrolls games. I certainly did a lot of it! The preview mentioned that they had done something to make that harder, but I don't know what it is.
5) Jump up and Down to Level. Your skills in Oblivion increased through use, which makes sense. However, since there was no context to how/when you used them, you could level by using them constantly in irrelevant ways (like jumping constantly while you ran). What bugged me in particular was that casting tiny little spells constantly counted more than casting big spells once in a while.
I'm guessing they can't totally fix this, but they should be able to do something to make it better.
6) Seamless Town/World Interface. I understand why Oblivion towns had to load and exist separately, but it was a sacrifice that made the world less fun. Hopefully this is not the case in Skyrim.
7) Bring Flight Back!. In Morrowind you could (if you tried hard enough) fly. I have fond memories of making aerial assaults on some of the buildings in the main plotline. Oblivion removed this (I think mainly because of how the towns were separate zones). Skyrim has flying dragons...I want to be up there too!
8) Better AI. Bethesda talked up their AI prior to Oblivion, but it really was nothing special. People did move around, and once or twice I met someone who had wandered really far from their town, but for the most part it had no effect on gameplay.
All this said...I'm ready to spend a LOT of time playing this game. One more week!
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I have been playing the iPhone game Tiny Heroes (which is apparently not in the database here). It's a very fun game, but the creator made a few design decisions that I find questionable.
The game is in the "tower defense" genre, where you build stuff to protect your "base" against swarms of bad guys who show up in waves. In Tiny Heroes, you are the owner of a dungeon, and the "bad guys" are adventurers coming to plunder your treasure. The defense consists of dungeon-y traps and monsters. It's a clever theme that works well for this kind of game.
Another nice thing is that there's some randomness in the behavior of the attackers (and some of your defenders). In many tower defense games, each level plays exactly the same way each time. (When playing a game like that, I often wish there was a just a "rewind" button so you could perfect your strategy quickly; but of course, that would mean less game...) With this randomness, each level has just enough variety to take some of the sting out of failure.
As you play through the levels, more and more of the defenses are unlocked. In addition, however, several defenses can only be obtained by getting certain sets of achievements. Almost all of the complaints I have center around this decision. Getting these defenses is both part of the gameplay and (presumably) necessary to improve my performance in the game. Thus, I have a strong incentive to get these achievements. If they were just standard e-trophies, most of these problems would go away.
Required Social Networking
One achievement requires you to post on Facebook (or Twitter), which requires you to connect via OpenFeint. I don't particularly like OpenFeint (mainly due to irritation at the "no, I don't want these awesome features" button I have to click in many games), so this was annoying to me. But hey, if I want that defensive item, what choice do I have?
(So, I posted "don't buy this game, it makes you post on Facebook to get stuff" and then immediately deleted the OpenFeint account I had created to make the post. Ha!)
Difficulty Level
The people who made Tiny Heroes also made GeoDefense, a tower defense game on the iPhone that is apparently very difficult. In GeoDefense, however, the levels are clearly divided between easy/medium/hard, and you are free to play whichever ones you want. (I have completed Easy and am a tiny bit into Medium...and yes, it's difficult.) This seems like a great way to do it -- if you don't like the hard levels, you know where they are and can avoid them.
In Tiny Heroes, each set of levels has "challenge" levels. These levels are optional in terms of completing that set of levels...but can you guess where I'm going here? In order to get several defensive items, you need to complete some of these levels. And hey, these levels are annoyingly hard. One in particular (Boulderdash) is not only hard, but really, really slow paced (all of your items have long recharge times, so there is a lot of sitting and waiting).
This is not the end of the world -- I found strategy advice at tinyheroes.com, followed it, and got my stuff -- but it seems like a poor way to set up the game. Plants vs. Zombies, for example, does it much better; you buy items with in-game currency, and you can earn currency by playing whatever levels you want.
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Despite these complaints, I'm still playing the game. Hopefully the developers will see these choices as mistakes and correct them next time!
Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:31 pm
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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Still playing Deux Ex, still enjoying it. However...
(...spoilers...)
...boss battles. I've only fought the first one so far, but it was more than a wee bit annoying.
The level on which the fight took place was totally empty, which was more than a bit weird. You walk through several rooms/corridors and then come to a door. Opening the door triggers a cut scene. Regardless of your stealth/cautiousness/whatever, you walk boldly into the room and have a brief conversation with some bad guys. One of them (an extremely unsubtle 7 foot or so soldier who somehow manages to sneak up on you) sticks around to fight.
The fight begins, and you are stuck in this room for the duration of the fight. There's little chance for stealth. There are a decent number of items in the environment that can be used to your advantage, but the whole thing feels totally different from the rest of the game. (Apparently, the boss battles were actually done by a different company.)
I had made a very stealthy character who was not set up for this kind of fight. It turns out that it was not difficult to defeat this guy, but I was so thrown by the shift of pace/style that it took me multiple tries to get it right.
I fear that there are more of these battles coming up, which is a shame. They feel so different that regardless of difficulty, they make the game seem less polished.
I also made the mistake of putting two Praxis into the stealth upgrade...but hey, everyone goofs once in a while!
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I've played 4-6 hours so far, and am enjoying it.
-- I forgot how much I like stealth games!
-- Graphics are good, sound is good although for some reason my side channels seem unduly quiet. If I am talking to someone and not facing them directly it's hard to hear them. Could be my setup though.
-- I am debating restarting in order to redo my character. I put 2 levels into Stealth, 2 levels into the social thingie, and 1 level into hacking...and am finding that I really wish I had put two more levels into hacking.
-- Oh yeah: story seems good so far, combat is fun as well.
-- After this and Witcher 2, I think I've had my fill of monotone breathy protagonists though.
Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:34 am
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I've been dabbling in PC gaming via a MacBook Pro (which was feeling a bit underpowered during Dragon Age 2), I'm finally back in the PC world for real. I definitely missed the PC, and for two main reasons: Mouse and Keyboard.
Console controls are fine for some types of games, but I could never handle any sort of first person game. From Metal Gear Solid 4 to Red Dead Redemption, moving and aiming just felt slow, mechanical, and clunky. Mouse and keyboard controls feel quick, natural, and smooth.
PC gaming does have two big drawbacks, however: Desk and Chair. This time around I'm trying to bypass this problem by using a beanbag for seating, with an HDTV as a monitor to permit reasonable viewing distances. So far so good!
Thus far I've only played a little bit of Portal 2, Oblivion (for the nostaliga!) and Witcher 2. I'm planning to dive into Deux Ex shortly...can't wait!
Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:20 am
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with what Sony ended up doing in response to the PSN outage:
-- Free identity theft insurance
-- Free month of their pay service for PSN (free two months if you already had an account, which makes sense since you lost a month anyway)
-- Two free games from a pretty decent selection (Infamous being my top pick). Obviously some people who buy everything will be out of luck, but what can you do.
The identity insurance was nice to have, especially since my credit card number got stolen last week(!).
The two free games are nice too -- or would be, if my PS3 hadn't just died.  Given that I was not too far from the EF3 tornado that swept through Massachusetts (and took out my power), I think it would be a bit of a stretch to blame Sony though.
Anyway...it got a Yellow Light of Death, which apparently can mean HDD, power supply, or motherboard. Taking the HDD out didn't change anything, and there's a trick to test the power supply (turn unit off using physical power switch, then turn it on while holding down the Eject button). It passed that, which means unless I feel like doing some soldering, I'm probably out of luck -- or at least out of PS3s. Guess a PS3 slim is in my future...
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
-
I own a PS3. I bought a PS3 instead of an XBox for a few reasons:
-- Blu Ray (I purchased right after the end of the HD Format Wars)
-- Ability to upgrade the hard drive yourself
-- Distrust of Microsoft
Hoo boy was I wrong. Sony has proven to be completely clueless about how to support their console, particularly with respect to online functionality. There has been maybe one firmware update that mattered to me, and about fifty that did not. Cross game chat, anyone?
There was all this marketingspeak about the Cell processor being superior and the PS3 having greater technical potential...but still, a PS3 game that's flat out better than the XBox version is a rarity at best.
Oh, and then there's the current PSN outage. I can understand that no network is completely secure, and that incidents will happen. But at this point the Playstation Network has been down for over a week!. This shows a complete lack of interest in security until after the fact.
The end result of this is that the next time I look to buy a console, handheld gaming device, or anything similar, it's very unlikely that I will buy a Sony product. (I'll also be minimizing my use of the PSN, but I doubt they'll even notice.)
Of course, with Skyrim coming out this fall, I'll be buying my first PC since 2006 (when Oblivion came out ), so there will be much more gaming on that anyway.
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Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
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I finished this a while back, but wasn't sure what to think. By now there are a lot of mixed reviews so it's hopefully no shock that this game is not what Mass Effect 2 was to Mass Effect 1.
It feels to me like the game needed 3-6 months more development to add some content and polish what was already there. There are a lot of great ideas in both the story and the game mechanics, but it doesn't feel like they were given their best opportunity to shine.
In short, I would recommend this game to people who loved Dragon Age: Origins enough that they are committed to the series, and to people who like this kind of game. Otherwise, it's not a bad game to play, but there are better ones out there. It's in that "B+ to B" range…which is a shame, because it could have been much higher.
My main points are listed below, with significance (doubleplusgood, etc.). They get a little nitpicky at the end, so don't be put off by the quantity of negative points. I don't go crazy on the spoilers but if you haven't finished the game you might want to skip this.
(++) Non-Epic storyline
I don't like that every fantasy game has to have a "save the world!!!" plot. It was nice to focus a bit more on "small stuff". The storyline was also generally good (not perfect, see below).
(++) I Had a Voice
For Dragon Age 2, they went the Mass Effect route and had your character speak in conversations. This was very nice. Although I can see the benefits to the Dragon Age: Origins route (multiple backgrounds, more story options), this helped me connect with the character and story a lot.
(++) Companions
The storylines, voice acting, and interactions between companions were absolutely top notch. There were many LOL moments just walking around town listening to my party talk amongst themselves. I did not feel like I had to pick certain people to get the good conversations (although Varric was definitely a favorite); regardless of who I was with, they had good things to say.
(++) Repeated Locations
The game is set in and around the city of Kirkwall, and occurs over a period of time years. In each act, you return to the same areas of Kirkwall (docks, Hightown, Lowtown, etc.). This is really nice, as it gives you a sense of continuity and familiarity which helped me to connect with the story.
If the game had more map-based tactics, this familiarity would have been even better (knowing shortcuts, lookout/sniper spots. etc.), but it's not that kind of game. Also, in the later acts it would have been nice to have a little bit of "window dressing" to show the advance of time (either showing the effects of some of the earlier plot points, or just showing that things do change over years).
(+) Companion Homes
In Dragon Age 2, each companion has their own home, and you can go talk to them there (which is where you get their side quests). I really liked this; it made them feel more like people
(+) Gruesome Combats
The fights were definitely over the top violent, with people exploding into chunks or just mist all the time. I'm not generally a huge fan of this, but somehow it worked for this game. Perhaps the fact that you weren't as zoomed in as you are with a first-person shooter (where this level of violence tends to show up) made the difference. It was also useful -- in Dragon Age: Origins, a foe would die and start to fall, but I wouldn't realize he was dead and just keep hitting him for a bit.
(--) Repeated Locations
Repeating locations at the macro level (i.e., sections of town) is good. Repeating locations at the micro level (i.e., dungeons) is BAD. At one point I did three completely separate side quests in a row, each involving its own set of secret conspirators. All three were using the exact same dungeon map! (I imagined an SNL-style skit where they negotiate who gets to use the dungeon when…"but we have an important sacrifice Wednesday night!") It got really, really old. This is one of the things that a few extra months of development could have been used to fix.
(--) Enemy spawns
In Dragon Age: Origins, pretty much every foe was placed on the map prior to combat. There were skills (Stealth and Survival) that could be used to spot enemies in advance and plan out your fight (or even avoid it).
Not so in Dragon Age 2. The standard pattern for a combat is:
1) 1st wave of foes appear ahead of you
2) Kill most of them
3) 2nd wave of foes appear either behind you or all around you
4) Kill most of them
5) repeat
This made a joke of tactical placement, as your "rear" characters would *always* be right where the 2nd wave showed up. It got to the point where I would send my main character (rogue) forward until the wave was almost dead, then run back toward my mage to anticipate the 2nd wave appearing. And "appearing" is what I mean -- while some foes (undead, street gangs) had animations to sort of explain their appearance (coming out of the ground; rappelling or climbing down from rooftops), effectively everyone was appearing out of nowhere. It was silly -- and more importantly, it took away a major tactical aspect of the game.
(-) Inventory / Items
Having most items usable only by Hawke was really annoying. I got very sick of finding useless stuff (starting with pre-order items!) which could not be used because I was the wrong class.
Also, it seemed like each act of the game had a "best" armor set, which made my armor choices less meaningful as well. I would have preferred more meaningful options.
(-) Ending and "Epilogue"
(I played as a mage-lover but a badass, so it's possible that these comments don't apply to other endings.)
The ending of the game was OK, but had a few problems that made it feel not quite right.
Firstly, the third act as a whole. Meredith is clearly a problem (or the mages are, I guess), but you don't really get much chance to directly do anything about it. I felt like I wanted to confront Meredith the whole time but couldn't until the final battle when it becomes, well, somewhat less subtle about how much of a problem she is. It felt less interactive than the rest of the story.
Secondly, Anders' 9/11 moment. It seemed (and I'd love to be proven wrong here) like there was no way to stop it from happening. I did not like being connected to an event like that (and in fact, was forced to more or less endorse it). On one hand, it's a problem that I'm being forced to sign up for something I didn't want to be involved with. On the other hand, it's a good sign that I'm getting that attached to events in the game.
And then, the mysterious epilogue. This seemed like a huge letdown. It's pretty unclear what the Seeker was looking for, or what Varric's version of the story did to change her mind or her quest. It seemed to me like her actions/dialog would have been pretty much the same no matter what Varric had said about the Champion.
So, as far as I can tell, the Seekers are collecting information on champions (the Warden, the Champion) who do great deeds and then disappear. In both cases, the disappearing part happens off camera so we have no idea if it's significant, even though in both cases it's our character doing the disappearing. In Dragon Age 2 in particular, it seemed like there was room to make some of this playable. Instead of staying "the Champion left Kirkwall, all his companions (except love interest) left him, he disappeared", I would have liked to play some of that out. I guess that's a tribute to the level of connection I have to the characters.
Again, this seems like something that a bit more development could have helped. Maybe this is their area for DLC to fill in the blanks.
Oh, and totally gratuitous placement of Sandahl and Bodahn right before the last fight. Sheesh!
(-) Continuity from Dragon Age: Origins
From a plot perspective, this game could have carried over nothing from Origins and it would have been no different. It was nice from a setting perspective to have characters and references to the first game, but they were so incidental (for the most part, *coughAnderscough*) that it was a bit annoying.
(-) MMO Combat Style
I may be in the minority, but I don't particularly like the MMO concept of "threat". It's a great solution for an MMO where response times make precise positioning of characters problematic, but in a single player game it feels very artificial. Rather than manipulate game stats about who an enemy is mad at, I'd rather position my characters and let the NPCs make "intelligent" choices about who to attack. (If an NPC turns his back on a fighter he gets smacked, but that may be worth it to get to the mage.) It does not seem realistic for the bad guys to whale on the defensive fighter, while someone else is stabbing them in the back repeatedly. Because this type of combat is so common, it's easy to reproduce. I'd rather see something more realistic.
(-) Hi, How Are You? *STAB*
Killing minions seems to be the main method of social interaction in this game. There were several side quests where a dispute between Hawke and some faction was only resolved after Hawke killed dozens of that faction's followers. Somehow, though, those deaths didn't matter -- the leaders would make peace as if nothing had happened. I know combat is the main course of this game, but there was a major disconnect between the level of violence and it's impact on NPCs. I could almost see the "Society Party" quest where you have to kill a couple rooms of butlers and servants before sitting down for tea and crumpets as if nothing had happened.
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So, that's Dragon Age 2. Coming up, maybe some Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC, and definitely a lot of iPad stuff...
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