Anyone know of a zombie game with a good solo campaign? Most of the ones I’ve seen are all geared towards the multiplayer/coop side of things.

“Anyone know of a zombie game with a good solo campaign? Most of the ones I’ve seen are all geared towards the multiplayer/coop side of things.”

STALKER.

Dude.

STALKER.

The game does have some… creative voice acting as well. I still love it, but I also have terrible taste in everything.

“The game does have some… creative voice acting as well. I still love it, but I also have terrible taste in everything.”

MEESTAH JAY SEE DENTON

IN DA FRESH

AS DAHK AND SELIOUS AS HIS BROTHA

“Games are a visual medium,”

I’ll take Dwarf Fortress for 400, Alex.

But my point is this: if graphics are a factor in the quality of a game (and in my opinion they’re not), then they’re definitely weighed less than other factors, including seemingly optional ones like musical score and atmosphere. In fact I think graphics are the least important aspect of a game.

I know I’m a snob, but I just can’t get into Deus Ex... the graphics, man, the graphics.

If anything would turn someone off, I’d think it would be the “stay perfectly still for ten seconds for your highly-trained nanoaugmented agent to have a reasonable chance of hitting anything”.

I’ll take Dwarf Fortress for 400, Alex.

I want to be able to tell what something in a game is by looking at it, not by memorizing what Symbol [X] is supposed to represent.

The game does have some… creative voice acting as well.

I VANTED ORANGE
IT GAIFF ME LEMON LIME

But my point is this: if graphics are a factor in the quality of a game (and in my opinion they’re not), then they’re definitely weighed less than other factors, including seemingly optional ones like musical score and atmosphere. In fact I think graphics are the least important aspect of a game.

It very much depends on the type of game, for me. Dwarf Fortress, the low-tech graphics are all kind of part of it; the game would probably be too difficult to follow if the graphics were much more complex.

But in a… whatever you call a game like Deus Ex. Action role-playing game, Wikipedia says? Anyway, a game where the graphics are a significant part of the game, where they clearly aren’t an abstraction of reality but are intended to reflect reality, where there’s stuff like stealth and aiming and so on where the graphics are part of the gameplay—well, then they matter more to me. Different types of graphics for different types of games.

For the record, while I don’t play Dwarf Fortress (it’s just too complex and scary :/), I do play Nethack on occasion, which is basically in the same boat. So it’s not that graphics are everything. But when graphics are clearly intended to be part of the whole experience but they let it down—well, that’s when I start having trouble with it.

That’s the point, though. If the game requires me to use my imagination entirely—a game that’s a clear abstraction, such as Nethack or even something like Minecraft—that’s one thing. But poor graphics that are intended to be realistic, they actively work against the imagination IMO.

As I’ve been saying all along, I recognize that this doesn’t bother some people. And I’m not saying it’s a bad game because of it. What I’m saying is that I, personally, find it difficult to get into a game with graphics like those of Deus Ex. If I do get into it, it’s going to be because the gameplay and story are so engaging that I can’t set it down—and to put it bluntly, those aspects of Deus Ex simply weren’t engaging enough for me. It’s a good game. It’s highly regarded for very good reasons. But I, personally, did not find it engaging, resulting from a combination of very dated graphics and gameplay that failed to keep me so interested I’d overlook everything else.

Again, it’s a good game. The parts of it I’ve played have been interesting and fun. They just weren’t engaging enough for me, personally, to keep going.

EDIT: and to add, I have a hard time getting into games like that anyway. I never finished DX:HR either, and that certainly wasn’t because it wasn’t pretty enough. Graphics was only one of a list of reasons why I didn’t get immersed in Deus Ex. It’s just one of the most visible reasons.

Just bull rushed through Gone Home. It wasn’t what I expected, but I really liked it. I imagine what you get out of it really depends on your mood though.

I said bull rushed, not speedran. :P

EDIT: I’m also usually like two years behind everyone else because I’m cheap and wait for games to come out on the Humble Bundle.

Dear diary, October 3, 2014:

Tenth playthrough of Thief 2: The Metal Age officially underway.

Still discovering shit I’ve not yet seen in previous playthroughs.

Send help.

I’m playing Planetside 2 again… we’ll see how long it lasts this time, but if you don’t hear from me for a couple of weeks, send out a search party.

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is out. Just in time for a very busy work week. :|

@ Organic: My brother’s playing that right now! He says it’s an obvious mashup of Prototype, Crackdown and The Hulk, and is entirely and specifically derivative of The Matrix.

It’s still apparently really fun to play, and also to watch. The weapon designs and effects and just awesome.

:P

I’m with SarahSyna. I acknowledge that DA2 has its share of issues (which I’m noticing more now that I’m replaying it) – the same maps are constantly being reused for no reason, fights are artificially lengthened by having more enemies spawn in, to name two – but I’m willing to overlook those issues because of the characters and the story. Those are the things that make a game good to me, not blasting bad guys with lightning (though that doesn’t hurt).

Not Anders, Justice.

And how is the plot “not for everyone”?

See, having choices outside of your control doesn’t bother me. It happens in a lot of game plots I really enjoyed. This one rubbed me the wrong way because it felt like a lot of things happened because the plot demanded they happen. Trying to remember al the instances of this since it’s been a while, but I do remember feeling like the mother’s death was kind of contrived and very… off if you were actively siding with the mages. I also hated the fact you really couldn’t sympathize with either side. They were trying to go for well meaning extremists, but it just came off as what would happen if you put a bunch of murderhobos in charge of each faction.

I really don’t think it could be saved by adding in more legnth. That’d just draw out the conclusion and the sides would still be grimderp. Even at the end of the game as is, I wanted to just get rid of both sides. Rocks fall, everyone dies.

I’m also a bit baised because I got into Warhammer 40,000 between games and noticed just how many interesting concepts from DA were flat out lifted from 40k.

Personally, I read the development of Mage-Templar hostilities as a series of escalating reactions – the Templars of Kirkwall crack down a bit on the mages, so the mages are forced to conspire in secret, leading to further crack down by the Templars, and the voices of moderation either being shouted down or forced to become extremists.

But I think there are two problems with DA2’s plot that cause issues: the bigger scope of the meta-plot, and having to set things up for further installments. Origins only dealt with events in Ferelden, a relatively small part of Thedas, while the events of DA2 impact the whole world. Also, all the stuff released after DA2 (novels, comics, and Inquisition) all cover events relating to the Mage-Templar war, so DA2 has to explain what the war’s about and how it started.

Also, DA took a lot of ideas from a lot of places. For example, the Qunari are similar to the Seanchan from Wheel of Time, both being powerful nations from across the sea who leash their magic users.

Sounds like a good reason to me. And there is an Empress in Orlais…

This is the worst duel I’ve ever seen on any screen

ever

like holy shit were they making it this bad as a joke?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QJ8wiHFp4Vs

“I think the lines were worse TBH.”

DUEL TO THE DEATH

no just kidding, I can’t stand in the way of true love

Especially lesbian true love

Especially interracial lesbian true love

which are all totally acceptable in this tolerant medieval-fantasy world of ours

Don’t worry, I definitely won’t lose honor or favor with the courts by walking away unharmed.

“At first I thought the dude was just trying to scare the Inquisitor (hence the Flynning), but when everyone else acted like it was serious, I just couldn’t believe it.”

This! Exactly this! I thought he was testing her reflexes and shit, and I was sort of involved in the scene.

then they just…keep doing it.

yes

Annnnnd my desire to play this game is dead. They never got around to hiring a new animation team, did they?

I never actually played DA2. (to give credit to the writers of DAO—I was sufficiently depressed by the ending that I couldn’t go back) Did they ever get around to lessening the blood splatter thing, where everybody’s standing around having ordinary conversations while being liberally streaked with gore?

Swenson, if the ending of Origins depressed you that much, that’s kind of on you. What did you do, go for the quick and easy solution to every major quest?

@Apep – eh. Not really. Just made some decisions toward the end that I regretted later.

So, um… they made more multiplayer?

Picked up Choice of the Deathless on Steam for about $2. It’s basically a digital version of one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with some additional stat tracking. No real graphics, not even artwork, but it’s still fun.

It’s set in the same world as the Craft Sequence books by Max Gladstone, and he even wrote the game, so it’s a cheap way to get a feel for his writing. The setting’s actually pretty interesting: sort-of Urban Fantasy, only backwards – instead of magic being hidden, all the advanced technology is replaced by magic (dragons instead of airplanes, magic mirrors instead of phones, that sort of thing). And magic users (“Craftspeople”) are basically lawyers. Which actually makes a certain kind of sense, really.

http://www.strawpoll.me/3093046

I caught my coworkers discussing Dragon Age Inquisition for about two hours. It’s fun to hear dudebros talk about how many people they’ve nailed in a video game and how they plan to nail everyone on their team because they’re just that manly, even flat out saying they’re nailing the dudes as well because they can. It’s such a different feeling than the usual “Romance A was so cute!” conversations.

All Bioware romance is dumb, hope this helps.

I caught my coworkers discussing Dragon Age Inquisition for about two hours. It’s fun to hear dudebros talk about how many people they’ve nailed in a video game and how they plan to nail everyone on their team because they’re just that manly, even flat out saying they’re nailing the dudes as well because they can. It’s such a different feeling than the usual “Romance A was so cute!” conversations.

It’s the same sort of thing with female fans on Tumblr.

In between the “what a HORRIBLE INJUSTICE Cassandra’s heterosexuality is to lesbians”, at least.

your entire marketing strategy is to pander to Social Justice Warriors who are sick of straight white dudes in gaming, instead of actually showing art/gameplay direction

make every companion (except one) nonwhite and/or non-heterosexual

it’s still not enough to make these fucking faggots happy

wut?

That’s still not as bad as the Tumblrinas that celebrated “male tears” over Sera’s homosexuality…and cried “bisexual erasure” when Dorian was announced to be gay.

your entire marketing strategy is to pander to Social Justice Warriors who are sick of straight white dudes in gaming, instead of actually showing art/gameplay direction

In what reality was this…?

Not exactly. From the wiki:

“Qunari have been bred for specific roles for a very long time. Parentage is no longer the issue, more like pedigree. However, breeding does not determine a Qunari’s assigned task. If a Qunari was bred to be a soldier but turns out to be more intellectual, the Tamassrans may move him into the priesthood, researching weapons technology, or the Ben-Hassrath, policing the populace, depending on what roles need to be filled by someone with their specific traits.”

So while they do have a sort of caste system, it’s nowhere near as rigid as that of, say, the dwarves. That said, there’s still no real social mobility in Qunari society. And I have no idea how that relates to sexual identification.

Yeah, I thought about that afterwards. Looking through the Qunari entry on the DA wiki some more, I found this:

Qunari strongly believe that the genders are inherently and intuitively better at certain tasks. No matter how much aptitude and promise a male shows for management, he will never be considered as good at it as a female, therefore it would be considered inefficient and a waste of resources to place him in a role where a woman might serve better. Instead, the Tamassrans find another role that he shows aptitude for and will place him there instead. The same goes for females, most Qunari will find it odd if a female becomes a warrior. The odd, very rare exception is made however. A male Qunari will farm if he must, just as a female will fight, depending on the circumstance.
There are fields like philosophy or sciences that make use of both genders, but even then, there is division by discipline. Men will do one kind of research and women another. The Ben-Hassrath also count both genders among their ranks, but they too are separated by specialization.

So I guess the Qunari are fairly strict about gender roles. I’m still not sure how they deal with someone who don’t identify with their biological gender (which is what I was confused about).

To be clear, I haven’t played the game, so I can’t be sure how it’s dealt with in-game.

Well, if you want to get technical, anyone who converts to the Qun is Qunari, but whatever.

Okay, now I have a question for you guys – I’m playing DA2 as a mage, and I’m about to go on the Deep Roads expedition. So, do I bring Carver along with me? If I do, then I’m definitely bringing Anders along as well, because I don’t want Carver to just die. But, if I don’t bring Carver along, then I there will be more drama in the mage-templar plot (at least for me). Then again, I haven’t used Anders all that much so far.

So, thoughts?

So wait, the Qunari culture has very strict gender roles, unless you’re trans in which case you can do whatever you want as long as you believe in yourself, really, really hard?

That’s hilarious.