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Post by Martin Stett on Dec 15, 2023 3:20:35 GMT
I don't really know what soloing is like. Right now Twintania is kicking my FC's ass for the past... two months? We're not making progress. Part of that is picking up people in PF who don't get it (we had one today - was trying hard, but just didn't have enough experience in the fight), part of that is just... us being bad. (Hilariously so today - there were some amazingly dumb moves that had us all losing our shit ) Us tanks are not communicating very well with our swaps, I think I'll have to talk with my co-tank about specific plans because we are winging it waaaaaay too much. Do an unsynced run at some of the Extreme trials for fun. Oh, I've done those for mount farming here and there, but it isn't something that really interests me if you can just walk in and insta-kill stuff. I thought you meant unsyncing but pushing your gear levels down to test the limit of where it becomes difficult
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Post by Martin Stett on Dec 18, 2023 4:01:48 GMT
I spent the past hour+ writing an alliterative description of Wawalago's penchant (oooh, I may add that word) for prostitution as part of my tour guide spiel. I am paradoxically pleased and panicked at the pitiful amount of pressure I put into plying this prose into a potent poem I am personally proud of producing.
I also hate myself.
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Post by stephen on Dec 18, 2023 15:12:10 GMT
Working on my Stormblood sightseeing log, and I'm dealing with the savagely difficult Kugane spots. The tower one in particular has taken me hours to try and nail precisely and I had to stop last night because I was getting frazzled. I'll try again tonight because I want that "Crimson Explorer" title, dammit.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 29, 2023 1:20:43 GMT
new XBox has arrived so it's finally time to say goodbye to my longest-ever F4 playthrough that's been going off and on since spring 2021. Have mixed feelings. I've cleared most dungeons like 5-6 times, spent hours going over every nook and cranny in Nukaworld and Far Harbor, and spent hundreds of hours decorating settlements. Currently in the process of donning my Wasteland Photographer gear to snap some screenshots before bidding adieu for good, and I'll share a few. Hangman's was the first I finished this playthrough.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Dec 30, 2023 2:45:05 GMT
new XBox has arrived so it's finally time to say goodbye to my longest-ever F4 playthrough that's been going off and on since spring 2021. Have mixed feelings. I've cleared most dungeons like 5-6 times, spent hours going over every nook and cranny in Nukaworld and Far Harbor, and spent hundreds of hours decorating settlements. Currently in the process of donning my Wasteland Photographer gear to snap some screenshots before bidding adieu for good, and I'll share a few. Hangman's was the first I finished this playthrough. Unless it's a disc copy, you should be able to save to the cloud.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jan 13, 2024 4:24:29 GMT
I was playing Dark Souls 3 and decided that I didn't want to walk all the way down to the bonfire from Patches' spot in Firelink Shrine, so I dropped off the edge... onto Leonhardt's head, dealing something like 2 damage and turning him hostile. Took 40,000 souls to fix that error.
In FFXIV, my FC's Twintania runs have been on hold over Christmas, and our raid leader was sick on Thursday and cancelled, so I started my own run with random PF chaps tonight. I'll never say anything bad about raid leaders again (well, unless they really suck) - the job is STRESSFUL, having to coach eight people of varying ability through the toughest fight in ARR. Fun, but stressful. You've gotta be motivator, therapist, tactician, AND halfway competent at your own job (it never feels good when you're the one telling people what to do and you're the one dooming us all). I am really proud of the team - they did as well as my FC does in our weekly run. And the veterans were really helpful to the struggling newbies (the other tank was afraid he was getting things wrong - he wasn't, his learning was GREAT and his mitigation game was pretty solid, Twintania just hits like Optimus Prime on steroids), which relieved a lot of tension - sometimes you get some asshole who is snarky and rude and may offer valid criticism but it's always couched in such a way to make everyone want to stop playing, and that was not the case here.
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Post by mhynson27 on Jan 13, 2024 4:32:28 GMT
Spider-Man 2 Finally able to play it now that my arm is out of the sling
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Post by Joaquim on Jan 18, 2024 23:31:09 GMT
Taking a bit of a break from trying to figure out the mechanics of Baldur’s Gate III and I’m now spending some of my nights playing Hearts of Iron IV until I pass out because micromanaging every last aspect of your wartime economy is so much more simpler than trying to pick the right spell and then literally rolling the dice
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Post by Martin Stett on Feb 29, 2024 4:23:31 GMT
I have started Divinity: Original Sin 2, and I can tell this isn't for me. I'm gonna attempt it for a bit longer, because it isn't a bad game, just not something I'm comfortable with.
The battle system is so confusing - I can't tell where anyone is, how their abilities interact with the environment, what spells and skills have synergy with each other, etc. It's a neat battle system with a decent amount of depth, but GOOD GOD is it finnicky to navigate. The story follows the WRPG approach of "full customization," which is shorthand for "you can do everything and we can't arsed to write any decent dialogue trees so every dialogue option will end up in a completely generic way." This narrative is soooooo boring, man. I walk up and see a dude murder his buddy and... that's it, end of scene, this will never be mentioned again. Why??? I'm sure if I intervened maybe the one dude wouldn't be killed, but so what? Would it change anything important? I doubt it. You can only write so many branching scenarios, which means that every damn branch in this game will end up in the same few terminus points. WRPGs need figure out that quantity isn't quality.
Look at Disco Elysium, which has so much quantity and not one vaguely intriguing character in its myriad of choices to get through. It looks like this will go down the same path.
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Post by themoviesinner on Feb 29, 2024 12:28:00 GMT
I have started Divinity: Original Sin 2, and I can tell this isn't for me. I'm gonna attempt it for a bit longer, because it isn't a bad game, just not something I'm comfortable with. The battle system is so confusing - I can't tell where anyone is, how their abilities interact with the environment, what spells and skills have synergy with each other, etc. It's a neat battle system with a decent amount of depth, but GOOD GOD is it finnicky to navigate. The story follows the WRPG approach of "full customization," which is shorthand for "you can do everything and we can't arsed to write any decent dialogue trees so every dialogue option will end up in a completely generic way." This narrative is soooooo boring, man. I walk up and see a dude murder his buddy and... that's it, end of scene, this will never be mentioned again. Why??? I'm sure if I intervened maybe the one dude wouldn't be killed, but so what? Would it change anything important? I doubt it. You can only write so many branching scenarios, which means that every damn branch in this game will end up in the same few terminus points. WRPGs need figure out that quantity isn't quality. Look at Disco Elysium, which has so much quantity and not one vaguely intriguing character in its myriad of choices to get through. It looks like this will go down the same path. I enjoyed this game, but I agree that storywise this was weak, even more than the first Divinity: Original Sin. But it's battle system is among the most fun and entertaining of all the RPG's I have played. I'd still take Pillars Of Eternity over it any day though. Also, Disco Elysium was a boring slog to get through. But I only played it because it was compared to Planescape: Torment storywise when it first came out (my all time favorite game), but it definitely doesn't feature the same quality of writing. By the way, what are your favorite WRPG's?
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Post by Martin Stett on Feb 29, 2024 16:30:31 GMT
By the way, what are your favorite WRPG's? Mass Effect Trilogy, if that counts. The first game is lousy. The second has strong character work, but the narrative is a disaster: the loyalty missions are all good, but nobody on the ship ever interacts with each other. Everyone is in their own little bubbles. And the third tries its best to fix the issues of ME2 by having people talk with each other and improving the battle system, but fails as an ending: it proves my fears that ME2 was an extended side quest that had absolutely no bearing on the end narrative (you could remove ME2 entirely and the only things that would change are some character interactions), and it fails to make the death mechanic of ME2 have any weight (I had two crew members die in the suicide mission - Tali and Miranda - and instead of having any meaningful story threads after their deaths, we just have a giant Tali shaped hole in the narrative when we talk to the Quarians). All choices and decisions from the first two games amount to a paragraph of text as this group or that says "yeah, we'll help you out" or "screw you." Despite all that, the characters still shone and I loved being around them. Aside from that, I was bored by Skyrim, bored by Planescape Torment, bored by Disco Elysium, bored bored bored... The emphasis on "choice" in these games is a joke, because the writers cannot allow for every possible choice. They'd have to write an infinite amount of scenarios! So everything always goes in a generic direction and your decisions don't matter. If you're playing a board game with friends, improvisation will absolutely change the story because the GM doesn't have to write a whole script beforehand. (I've never played a TRPG, but I understand the concept.) In video games, choice is an illusion, and I prefer it when there's a clearly written story where my choices do not matter.
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Post by stephen on Feb 29, 2024 17:07:50 GMT
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth dropped today so that's my weekend sorted.
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Post by themoviesinner on Feb 29, 2024 17:34:51 GMT
Mass Effect Trilogy, if that counts. The first game is lousy. The second has strong character work, but the narrative is a disaster: the loyalty missions are all good, but nobody on the ship ever interacts with each other. Everyone is in their own little bubbles. And the third tries its best to fix the issues of ME2 by having people talk with each other and improving the battle system, but fails as an ending: it proves my fears that ME2 was an extended side quest that had absolutely no bearing on the end narrative (you could remove ME2 entirely and the only things that would change are some character interactions), and it fails to make the death mechanic of ME2 have any weight (I had two crew members die in the suicide mission - Tali and Miranda - and instead of having any meaningful story threads after their deaths, we just have a giant Tali shaped hole in the narrative when we talk to the Quarians). All choices and decisions from the first two games amount to a paragraph of text as this group or that says "yeah, we'll help you out" or "screw you." Despite all that, the characters still shone and I loved being around them. Aside from that, I was bored by Skyrim, bored by Planescape Torment, bored by Disco Elysium, bored bored bored... The emphasis on "choice" in these games is a joke, because the writers cannot allow for every possible choice. They'd have to write an infinite amount of scenarios! So everything always goes in a generic direction and your decisions don't matter. If you're playing a board game with friends, improvisation will absolutely change the story because the GM doesn't have to write a whole script beforehand. (I've never played a TRPG, but I understand the concept.) In video games, choice is an illusion, and I prefer it when there's a clearly written story where my choices do not matter. I'm a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy as well and I also consider the third one the best of the series and definitely has some of the best written characters in WRPG's. And I understand that the feeling some games give you that you can make choices that affect the story, but in the end amount to nothing can be quite disappointing, but, honestly, it never bothered me much. It's mostly how the story is written and unfolds that matters to me the most and that's the main reason I hold a game like Planescape: Torment in high regard, despite it's lacking gameplay, because I found it's setting and thematic concepts incredibly interesting, in contrast to the writing of Disco Elysium for instance, which I found most of it to be shallow, pseudo-intellectual musings. There are two WRPG's that you may find interesting in regard to the choices you are given storywise. The first is Mask Of The Betrayer, an expansion of Neverwinter Nights 2 (the base game isn't worth playing), in which the choices you make affect your character mostly and not the story and the second is Tyranny, in which your character is a lackey of an evil overlord and all the usual rpg tropes are turned on their heads.
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Post by Martin Stett on Feb 29, 2024 21:23:51 GMT
Mass Effect Trilogy, if that counts. The first game is lousy. The second has strong character work, but the narrative is a disaster: the loyalty missions are all good, but nobody on the ship ever interacts with each other. Everyone is in their own little bubbles. And the third tries its best to fix the issues of ME2 by having people talk with each other and improving the battle system, but fails as an ending: it proves my fears that ME2 was an extended side quest that had absolutely no bearing on the end narrative (you could remove ME2 entirely and the only things that would change are some character interactions), and it fails to make the death mechanic of ME2 have any weight (I had two crew members die in the suicide mission - Tali and Miranda - and instead of having any meaningful story threads after their deaths, we just have a giant Tali shaped hole in the narrative when we talk to the Quarians). All choices and decisions from the first two games amount to a paragraph of text as this group or that says "yeah, we'll help you out" or "screw you." Despite all that, the characters still shone and I loved being around them. Aside from that, I was bored by Skyrim, bored by Planescape Torment, bored by Disco Elysium, bored bored bored... The emphasis on "choice" in these games is a joke, because the writers cannot allow for every possible choice. They'd have to write an infinite amount of scenarios! So everything always goes in a generic direction and your decisions don't matter. If you're playing a board game with friends, improvisation will absolutely change the story because the GM doesn't have to write a whole script beforehand. (I've never played a TRPG, but I understand the concept.) In video games, choice is an illusion, and I prefer it when there's a clearly written story where my choices do not matter. I'm a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy as well and I also consider the third one the best of the series and definitely has some of the best written characters in WRPG's. And I understand that the feeling some games give you that you can make choices that affect the story, but in the end amount to nothing can be quite disappointing, but, honestly, it never bothered me much. It's mostly how the story is written and unfolds that matters to me the most and that's the main reason I hold a game like Planescape: Torment in high regard, despite it's lacking gameplay, because I found it's setting and thematic concepts incredibly interesting, in contrast to the writing of Disco Elysium for instance, which I found most of it to be shallow, pseudo-intellectual musings. There are two WRPG's that you may find interesting in regard to the choices you are given storywise. The first is Mask Of The Betrayer, an expansion of Neverwinter Nights 2 (the base game isn't worth playing), in which the choices you make affect your character mostly and not the story and the second is Tyranny, in which your character is a lackey of an evil overlord and all the usual rpg tropes are turned on their heads. Oh, I don't really care about choice - I care about "choice" being used to mask bad writing. My point is that if Tali dies, the writers don't have a plan for that and there's just a hole in everyone's dialogue where she's supposed to be speaking. If my decisions result in the story being significantly worse, I would rather not have them at all. And most stories seem to use the dialogue options and choices to kill people as a crutch - even if the best scenario story-wise is chosen, it can't be terribly interesting because the writers have to make sure every other possibility is accounted for, so even the best choices wind up tasteless to account for the "bad" options. Even the best storytelling that can be written for a multiple choice game will be generic. Edit: Further, I intensely dislike the "main character syndrome" of WRPGs. The PC is always, ALWAYS the "hero." Shepard is the leader and *Shepard* will save the galaxy, everyone in the story will revolve around *Shepard.* In many of my favorite VG stories, this isn't the case. In Dark Souls, you may be the "Chosen One," but nobody gives a crap about that and just go about their own business (there's slightly more to the story than that, but that's the vibe). In Threads of Fate (a case of decent gameplay and wonderful story), your character is just a treasure hunter like all the others that got the tipoff of a magical relic in the area. In Final Fantasy VI, all the characters are equally important. In FFX (a game with pretty awful gameplay and mediocre narrative but great characters - much like Mass Effect), our heroes are simply one group amongst many that are seeking to free the world from Sin. In FFXIII, our characters are normal folks who suddenly find themselves enemies of the state and most of the game is about the different characters struggling to accept that their lives are over. In all of these games, the ensemble cast is more important than any "main character." Edit 2: Btw, have you ever played Her Story? It's an interesting experiment. It isn't perfect by any stretch, but it is lots of fun as a strange little curiosity. The super melodramatic twists make me laugh too - it has one of the most ridiculous soap opera plots ever written and that makes it so juicy to dig through
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Post by themoviesinner on Mar 1, 2024 12:59:54 GMT
Martin Stett I understand your gripe for the "main character syndrome" that many WRPG's suffer from and there are games that this bothered me as well (Dragon Age: Inquisition and Neverwinter Nights 2 being the worst examples), but if I find the story interesting or the battle system fun, it's something that I'm willing to ignore. From the games you mentioned I tried playing Dark Souls once and it definitely was interesting, but it's controls on PC were I nightmare (I didn't have a controller then and still don't ) and the battle experience was very annoying and not fun at all, so I quit it. I've also played FFXIII, but I can't say I was a big fan, as I found it's writing quite juvenile, unlike FFXII which I thought was great. But those two are the only FF games I've played. Also, I hadn't even heard of Her Story until you mentioned it here. It looks interesting, it's available on Gog, so I might give it a try now that I'm not currently playing anything.
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Post by mhynson27 on Mar 1, 2024 13:36:38 GMT
Trying to 100% Jedi: Survivor
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Post by stephen on Mar 1, 2024 14:28:47 GMT
Trying to 100% Jedi: Survivor Sorry, mentally replacing Yoda with Jeff Probst. "You gotta dig deep, Luke! That's how you do it on the Jedi Council!"
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 1, 2024 15:04:48 GMT
Martin Stett I understand your gripe for the "main character syndrome" that many WRPG's suffer from and there are games that this bothered me as well (Dragon Age: Inquisition and Neverwinter Nights 2 being the worst examples), but if I find the story interesting or the battle system fun, it's something that I'm willing to ignore. From the games you mentioned I tried playing Dark Souls once and it definitely was interesting, but it's controls on PC were I nightmare (I didn't have a controller then and still don't ) and the battle experience was very annoying and not fun at all, so I quit it. I've also played FFXIII, but I can't say I was a big fan, as I found it's writing quite juvenile, unlike FFXII which I thought was great. But those two are the only FF games I've played. Also, I hadn't even heard of Her Story until you mentioned it here. It looks interesting, it's available on Gog, so I might give it a try now that I'm not currently playing anything. Most people find FFXIII juvenile and it is widely considered the worst since the earliest in the series, but I'm happy to be in the minority who loved every over-the-top moment (until the game completely lost its momentum in the final act). FFXII's battle system never connected with me (the same with FF Tactics, which also takes place in Ivalice), so I couldn't get into it. I'm a huge FF fan, but it's hard to figure out exactly what makes the series great, since each one is so different from the others. The only consistent things are a soap opera level of exaggerated emotion, and... uh... chocobos? But even the worst games have *MOMENTS* that are hair-raising in their intensity. I could name off several that fans would instantly recognize: The "leap of faith" from VI. Aerith's prayer in VII. "You're not alone" in IX. "The people long for the Calm" in X. The Sorrow of Werlyt or The Parting Glass in XIV. Even if the games don't always work as a whole, every game strives to hit the big moments. (I think the issue with FFXIII is that it never STOPS going for those - even by FF standards it is a conga line of traumatic events and exaggerated reactions.) These games hit highs that I've never seen in any WRPG. Her Story is a mess, but it's a trashy, glorious mess that enjoys itself too much for me to criticize.
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 1, 2024 15:09:41 GMT
Trying to 100% Jedi: Survivor Sorry, mentally replacing Yoda with Jeff Probst. "You gotta dig deep, Luke! That's how you do it on the Jedi Council!" "Jar Jar, spoken the Tribe has!"
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 28, 2024 0:52:08 GMT
Still gritting my teeth through D:OS2 (it has a good combat system marred by the worst UI of any video game I have ever encountered - that is NOT an exaggeration). Meanwhile, I'm doing a little bit of FFXIV on the side before my subscription runs out. A friend of mine slapped together some Gpose pics after I helped him and his boyfriend through a dungeon and I am suddenly interested in the possibilities of Gpose. These took just a couple minutes - it wasn't exactly labor intensive.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Mar 28, 2024 14:53:26 GMT
Finished the Mass Effect trilogy and now working my way through Andromeda... definitely better than people say, but not as good as the Trilogy. Still, I'm having a good time for the most part.
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Post by Martin Stett on Apr 11, 2024 20:30:35 GMT
It's PC so I can't play it, but have you all heard about the DS3 Archthrones mod? I saw ZeroLenny's video on the current demo (a demo which has a paltry 17 bosses) and WHOA, the presentation is top notch. According to Lenny it is rather too hard at the moment (this coming from a guy who makes a living out of playing FromSoft games), but it is obvious that the mod *looks* beautiful and has some really neat tricks up its sleeves.
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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Apr 13, 2024 22:45:59 GMT
Resident Evil 4 (remake) - One of the greatest games I’ve ever played. If only because it FINALLY made Ashley a likable character.
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