Hey, you dumb motherfucker who doesn’t yet have Metal Gear Rising yet, yes you, you can purchase it right now for $6. You should do it unless you hate video games and fun and being cool and having my personal respect.

I am a nerd with nerdy desires that thrilled as anything to have Kingdom Hearts 2.5.

But how many Metal Gears do you get to cut in half with a high frequency katana

How many individual missiles in a salvo can you run on

How many smug Brazilian samurai men do you swordfight in the desert

How many lives do you get to decide the fate of, only to have them die anyway five minutes later?

Wait, I thought Telltale mostly made adventure games. Are the fights decision based, dialogue based or do they have an actual fight system?

Unless you’re not paying attention, in which case you kind of deserved to get punched in the head.

I have discovered that while you can play a silent protagonist in The Wolf Among Us, it’s a bad idea to.

Have yet to have everyone die, but I’ve been only giving games about 15 minutes a piece to try to get through my “play through my Steam library” challenge. Currently in the ‘E’s.

BTW, another Humble Bundle Steam Key dump. Does anyone actually take these?

EDIT: I swear, I can textile.

I’ve been playing through Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition the past couple of days. While I appreciate all of the bugfixes and quality of life improvements the devs have made to the game, I have to admit that I’m not a fan of the new NPCs; they just feel really out of place and the writing for their stories is so incredibly cheesy and snarky it feels like it was written by a 13 year-old.

Finally finished my Gangrel run. I think it’s time to give Nosferatu a whirl.

Reminder that Tremere is for casualbabbies who want the game to be easy.

Finished Saints Row 4 just two minutes ago.
aaaaaaaaaa!
It's gloriously stupid and gloriously awesome at the same time, holy crap, awesome. But now I have a new ship and that is terrible.

Apep: I know, right? The control changes are just confusing. I kept jumping when I wanted to pause until I remapped it.

platformers went the way of 2D graphics: collateral damage in the decade-long onslaught of nearly-identical gritty bleak modern FPSes done up in muted palettes of grey and brown and dark red.

I think we’re definitely due for a swing back towards cartoonishness and ridiculousness and bright colours, all these sombre greyed-out war games have to be getting old.

I would love to see something in the style of Ratchet and Clank, or even Banjo Kazooie, made with modern tech and graphics. Journey comes close, IMO, but doesn’t have that frantic over-the-top comic-book design that the older NES/ PS games had.

I always thought Journey was closer to Ico than Ratchet and Clank, but i do miss the fun and silly early 2000s. Though not sure if I have viewer bias because it’s been a while since I bought a new, non-Humble Bundle non-old schol game.

Reading through TVTropes

no

Started playing Hitman: Blood Money, and I’m swiftly coming to the realization that although the game may literally be named “hitman” and your objectives are generally to kill people, the game’s not a “killing” game at all. No, it’s a puzzle game. A puzzle game in which the objective is usually to kill someone, and a puzzle game that can technically be solved just by shooting everyone in the face, but still, a puzzle.

Every move you make, every action has a reaction. Everybody has their predefined routes, their routines, their behavior is totally set. And the point isn’t to kill all of them (unless you want to, which is always a valid option), it’s to make that behavior work to your advantage, to set up all the puzzle pieces in the right places to “solve” the level. By killing someone.

But I still say it’s not really about killing people. :)

Although maybe I’m just saying this to excuse why I spent like two hours on a single level this afternoon, failing repeatedly until I managed to pull it off.

Stealth games are essentially puzzle games.

Sierra puzzle games.

I hear that in the earlier Hitman games, you totally could do that.

But lol yes old adventure games were the worst about that. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anybody?

The DAI ending boss battle is butts.

Underwhelming 'is that it' butts.

Bioware seem kind of bad at ending their trilogies. At least this one didn't cough up over the rest of the franchise though.

In fairness, apparently neither is Mass Effect any more. I suppose I should say 'ending the third game of a series' then. XD

Nah, it wasn't that it ended differently to how I imagined. It was that there was no real build-up to the final battle, and the battle was just too easy. I would have appreciated some speeches, all my companions fighting with me, or my army being relevant, and a much harder battle. It just felt like it was really rushed and it lacked so much of the flair of pretty much everything else in the game. I don't mind the ending itself, basically, but the pacing and the lead-in to it. Still, the rest of the game was A+ in my book. I will be replaying for sure, the journey was well worth price of admission.

That after-credits scene though. Oh man, that was awesome!

...I am going to be positively destitute by the time they're finished, aren't I?
*bought JoH the day it came out*

*preordered the Digital Deluxe months before release*
I'm dreading the con I volunteer at every year, because there's probably going to be art books and I'll blow all my money on them like I did last year.

By the way, have you noticed that there's placeholders for Black Emporium and some multiplayer maps on the game page, in the Add-Ons section?

Me neither. I have a friend who loves it, but I haven't touched it.

It'll probably be its own map location, like it was in DA2. Presumably it's still under Kirkwall. Though maybe the whole mage war thing got in the way of that. I don't know, we'll see when it's released.

Maybe this will lead to the rest of the books being published in English. I know the second short story collection is coming out around the same time, and the third novel in June.

Fallout 4 CONFIRMED
(eeeeee)

The trailer is here for anyone interested.

One of the coolest things (to me) is that Boston has MIT, which in the Fallout universe is apparently the Institute mentioned in Fallout 3. So I’m really hoping that the Android Railroad is going to be brought up, maybe have a full questline or something.

(also yeees the puppy =D)

HOLY CRAP THE FALLOUT 4 STUFF FROM E3
AAAAAA

AND THE DOG
AND YOU CAN BUILD IT A DOG HOUSE
THAT IT SITS IN!
(I have my priorities)

Dishonored 2! Emily’s the protagonist now! And robots! And the Outsider’s back! All we need is rebirth and it’s all of my favorite things in one.

(Also Bloodborne is pretty awesome.)

(I can’t get into Dragon Age: Inquisition. The writing makes me kind of sad because I feel like I’m playing Grey Warden 2.0 instead of a freaking Inquisitor. People shouldn’t be going, “Oh yay, the inquisition’s here to save the day!” they should be going “Aw crap, first demons, now the inquisition. :|”)

“Oh no! Demons are threatening all of us! We’re scared!”

“Oh no! The people who banded together to stop the demons are here to stop the demons! Why aren’t we scared?!”

Or, you know, lower folks to go, “Aw crap, the Inquisition is here. They’re got a pretty bad reputation (deserved or not). I sure hope they don’t decide we caused this, decide to kill our apostates and the rest of us for harboring the apostates or decide that we’d make great meat shields.”

I feel more like a paladin than an inquisitor. Inquisitors in the media tend to operate with a certain degree of fear VS helpfulness. They make solve the problem, but that might involve salting the earth to make sure it never occurs again. And the whole “I dunno, I won’t give you what you need until you do this petty task” feeling I’m getting from a lot of these NPCs seems like a good way to get gutted by a classic inquisitor for getting in the way of their job.

The most infuriating part? Bioware did write a pretty good classic inquisitor when they did the Sith Inquisitor class in the Old Republic, so we can’t just say they have non idea how to make people who aren’t lawful good.

EDIT: Hit Orlais. MUCH MORE LIKE IT.

Oh noes, the Inquisition isn’t like other “inquisitions” and therefore terrible. Logic!

Or, you know, lower folks to go, “Aw crap, the Inquisition is here. They’re got a pretty bad reputation (deserved or not). I sure hope they don’t decide we caused this, decide to kill our apostates and the rest of us for harboring the apostates or decide that we’d make great meat shields.”

Well, considering the Templars were probably already doing that, and most people in Thedas tend to be afraid of mages on general principle, I doubt the general populace would have too much a problem with that.

Yeah, that was a bit I wrote but then edited out. The idea of an inquisition carries a certain… vibe with it, but DAI doesn’t have that vibe. It’s more like some kind of coalition or something, or a particularly friendly crusade. Hell, even a government. But just not an actual Inquisition.

True, but think the general idea behind this Inquisition was “here’s people who will get shit done without any of the petty squabbling that keeps everyone else’s hands tied.” And considering that both the Templars and Mages had made alliances with some pretty terrible people, the Inquisition is probably the least-bad option, regardless.

Well, words do have connotations. The usual connotation of “inquisition” does imply a certain element of unpleasantness.

Yeah, but that’s from historical inquisitions. And Thedas already has/had an equivalent of that – the Seekers.

Thing is that at the start of the game people ARE all ‘what the hell is this, that’s bloody dodgy’, but it fast fades by the time you get Skyhold. There’s a good reason for common people to accept you by then, but I think it shouldn’t be so much so soon from more powerful ones. Like Organic said, last time there was an Inquisition in Thedas it not only had an apparent reign of terror but became the Templar Order/Seekers of Truth, and the Templars ended up so corrupt and abusive that the Mage/Templar war happened. There’s also the political scariness of an organisation with no real Chantry or government oversight just stepping into the power void left by the decimation at the start of the game.

I have a feeling they picked the name for for ‘badass organisation name’ reasons rather than anything else.

The Herald who can be a mage, a heathen qunari/dwarf/elf, who can publicly declare that they have nothing to do with Andraste whatsoever, and that the Chantry is reluctant to acknowledge (or a combination thereof). And you do get penalties for several of those things in the Winter Palace, so they clearly do still matter politically. Even then, one good person does not a good organisation make. As far as people know, they could even just be a figurehead.

The Paladiquistion!

I’m guessing that’s a console issue. On PC it’s that they bound jump to the spacebar, which has been the pause combat key in every other DA game/DLC. I kept jumping mid-combat when trying to aim. XD

Oh man, just imagine a Warhammer40K Inquisitor in DAI. Terrifying and glorious, That said, I’m glad that the game doesn’t force you to be an asshat because you’re an Inquisition, but it’d be nice to be able just go on with in and justify your actions the whole way. Also, inquisiting is a great word.

(As an aside, I’m reading a DA2 LP. And well, if DA2 is the worst entry in your game series, your game series ain’t doing so bad. New appreciation found. XD)

I can admit that calling the organization “the Inquisition” is a bit odd, but part of it might have been that all the other good names had been taken.

In-universe, it makes total sense, honestly. The original Inquisition, for better or for worse, DID bring massive change and it became one of the most influential organisations in Thedas when when it changed. Taking that name, in-universe, is a bold declaration of intent, like declaring a challenge that you just can’t back down from. It’s only the real-world choice to use that name that’s being questioned, I think.

I can’t tell you how much time I wasted trying to collect those damn shards.

fuck. shards. so very much. But at the same time, those bonuses.

That’s what I’ve been saying. Yes, DA2 has problems (particularly combat and the lack of maps for non-main quest dungeons), but the characters and story are great, or at least better than a lot of crap that gets major releases.

Heck yes. It’s a really underrated game, I feel. I’ve always fairly liked it, even when I didn’t feel it felt like a DA game, but the LP made me really appreciate it more, especially with the other commenter’s discussions about mages, templars, the damn Qunari, etc. I wish they’d followed through on the two years of DLC promise.

The worst was the one that’s meant to be in Wolf Hollow in the Hinterlands. It’s pretty much inside a freaking wall and you have to take a very specific path to glitch in and grab it. I think they fixed it in a patch, but godammit.

So pretty much like this, then.

So pretty much like this, then.

Kinda.

The Ferelden Frostback and everything to do with it is just a jerk.

The first time I ran into that one, I got through the first stage, and when it flew off, my first comment was something along the lines of “get back here and fight me, you bitch!”

(As an aside, I now have a Dalish Herald so I can be enraged and hopefully charmed by Solas. She’s adorable and has weird eyes.)

I’m more weirded out by her nose. It’s like it’s too narrow, or something.

I know I need to do another play-through once I’ve finished Jaws of Hakkon, because I screwed up and didn’t use my customized world-state (so no Warden/Morrigan demon child for me). I’m severely tempted to go with Qunari/Tal-Vashoth mage, mostly for the added irony. Also so I can specialize as a rift mage, because knight-enchanter isn’t as cool as advertised (I thought I’d get to wear heavy armor, and maybe wield my not-lightsaber, but nooo).

The first time I ran into that one, I got through the first stage, and when it flew off, my first comment was something along the lines of “get back here and fight me, you bitch!”

‘Come out and fight me like a real dragon!’ ‘No.’
And then all its children happen.

I’m more weirded out by her nose. It’s like it’s too narrow, or something.

You’re right, the bridge of her nose is super narrow, I didn’t even notice. I kinda like it though. XD

My friend, let me tell you about a little thing called silverite…

Oh my gosh, you beautiful person, I didn’t even realise silverite did that! Awesome! I’m gonna make a silverite/fade-touched obsidian set of armour now, and it will be most glorious indeed. Because mages need all the Guard! (Seriously, it’s hilarious. Even if something cracks my Trevelyan’s barrier, she still has a full bar of Guard. Biggest FU ever.)

Oh man, Lily, you sound like such a competent gamer. I am seethingly jealous. XD

Actually, gotta ask, how good/bad is Necromancer? I’m kind of going between that and Rift Mage for my Dalish.

Holy crap, that sounds awesome. I’ll probably play Rift Mage this time (Firestorm spell is my favourite), but when I go to make a scary-arse bugger of a Herald, I’m going to try that. This one is just too nice and sweet to Walking Bomb people. XD

Fade Cloak = telefragging = barrier boost. Disruption Field actually works on anything, including dragons and the final boss, but it’s really only worth using on bosses anyway.

Shaaaaaaame
Shame on yoooooooou
shame on your hoooouuuuuse XD

(My only real problem with the combat is the hold to fire. If that was gone or configurable, I’d be happy)

Finally finished Jaws of Hakkon. The fight with Hakkon was annoying, mostly because he kept jumping off to inaccessible areas, and then started spamming his frost-ball attack at me – not my tank, me.

So now I’ve started a second play through, using my customized world state. I’m playing male Qunari mage, and I named him Ketojan, for obvious reasons. I’m a little torn between having him be all stoic or sarcastic.

Sarcastically stoic?

“Stoic” in this case meaning “blunt and kind of an asshole”.

(Also, ;A; KETOJAN WHY)

I know. As tragic as that was, though, you have to respect him for choosing, of his own free will, to follow the requirements of a philosophy that’s done almost nothing good for him.

Thinking of getting Fallout: New Vegas for PC. Any thoughts on the game?

It’s a little harder to get into than 3, less immersive at the start, but the writing is better and once you get into it it’s really good.

DO get an unofficial patch (I suggest YUP). The game is still buggy as hell, buggier than most Bethesda things.