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Aprilsister

  

10 members have voted

  1. 1. Adjudge

    • Play Mass Effect 2
    • Enroll In Therapy
    • Play ______ _____ ___ _________ Instead
  2. 2. Adjudge Anew

    • Play STALKER
    • Play ___ ________ __ ___ _______ Instead
      0
    • Stop Playing Games Already. Grow Up!
      0


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Okay, I've decided that, since I did like the 1st one, and since going back and playing older "games-I-might've-should've- played" is too excruciatingly clunky, that I'd give ME2 a go. It was, after all, rated higher than the 1st one. And that's an ado about something, for sure? It's, so, like, all GodFather II-ish? So what could possibly be the harm?

 

Well, immediately the fucking custom keybinds, if you do customize them (which of course I do, because WSAD iswasandwillalwaysbe a terrible set-up) not only aren't properly intergrated into the "helpful" forced (NTM, I'm On Rails Here!) tutorial. Always the I'm being referred to the keys/buttons that default setup would have me use. Pretty chintzy. But, eh, okay, I can easily overlook and excuse such a minor bit of annoying sloppiness. Nothing is perfect. A single, a couple, or even a few, tiny flaws don't necessarily prefigure a riddlement of shoddiness.

 

But. It does get worse. Some of the keys don't actually work if you reconfigure them...

 

"Storm"? "Storm," you say? Using the key (combo, actually) I want to use? No. No. No.

 

...

 

What makes me think I should be able to go in to the Options menu provided; go to the Key Bindings menu provided beneath that; set up the keys I want to use using the system provided for doing that; see that the keys and buttons are registered as having been changed to my preferences; witness that for the most part these changes translate to working in-game as desired; and then assume that I should be able to "storm through the fire" as instructed without having to reset all of my mfing keys back to default so that using the (asinine!) "w and spacebar" I can "storm"?

 

It's only the controls -- my interface to the god-damned game. What am I complaining about? It's only the year 2011. Such fancy expectations. Game. Fun. Keybinds. Behave.

 

...

 

Anyway, this does NOT bode well, as far as I'm concerned.

 

But I understand, this is after all a small-time, shoe-string-budget, mini-market game.

 

Is this game interesting enough that I should persist? Is it really better than ME1? Is it indeed the GFII? Has all this bitter sarcasm made it clear that I have no business playing games at the moment and should, rather, be in therapy?

Edited by Aprilsister
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Yeah, I pulled my old self forth.

 

...Then proceeded to totally reconstruct my look... and change my specialization class. :laugh:

 

...

 

Well, that's one more testify! for the ItIsTheAwesome column. Still haven't had enough and looking forward to #3? Quite something. And I know you aren't some random consumer-bot.

 

I certainly have some things I look forward to in this episode having played the 1st, both gameplay-wise and story-wise. But god-damn such an messed up and major bug like this one with the keybinds frustrates infuriates me.

 

But being able to spill it out in the rant above was in itself a bit of therapy.

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Well, good. I'll decompress a bit more. And go back over there. I found some things about working with the "Coalesced.ini" in relation to setting up the "Delete" key, for instance (someone wanted to use that key, and had to hack it)... but it only escalated my "frustration" as the file is buried in some unnecessarily convoluted path; it's not a pure text file; it's not a matter of editing that file and things stick -- it's only step one...

 

Is it me? It's them. Isn't it? Is it me? No, really, it's them. The "engineers", the "them". The "improvers". The "idea-men". Them. Wizards and Ribbon-Brandishers. The Guides and Friendlyizers. It's not me... is it? It's them.

 

Right?

 

So, anyway, I'll decompress a bit more. And then look into it.

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Sorry, had to vote "Play ____ instead" and by "_____" I would mean no Sci-Fi RPGs, as I really don't like those. :) For RPGs, fantasy and end-time scenarious (borderland Sci-Fi) are the way to go for me. But have fun playing.

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I voted the third option, too, because right now I'm playing Riddick: Dark Athena, and it's fucking awesome. As long as you limit yourself to non-firearms, the game almost plays like Thief. It has great graphics and a wonderful, coherent art design. That, along with Vin Diesel's smooth animations and the story that's definitely not one for minors, remind me why I'm a fan of Richard B. Riddick.

 

Also, Dark Athena is 2 games in 1, because the first part Escape from Butcher Bay is also included, and it's much better than the second part. Right now, the game costs 20 Euro's on Steam (frequently priced lower, when some weekend deal is on), so I definitely recommend to check it out.

 

 

My Eigenvalue is bigger than your Eigenvalue.

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Yeah, Riddick was pretty cool. I prefered the second one though. :)

 

those games are how old..?

Didn't you realize that the golden era of gaming is over already? I too prefer to stick with quality old games, instead of the standard shooters of today that feel like you're on a rail. Good games are rare these days, as most are designed to be a consume good instead of a challenge.

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Ah, this is turning out good.

 

I got the stupid thing (keybinding BUG) working in a couple of different ways. So I'm good to go and on my way to Bangkok... so that's going to be okay. It looks as if I'll play this bastid.

 

minor

 

 

:laugh: I got quizzed and had little memory of the former game. I rarely get so involved that I care to store fiction in my precious head-space (the one thing I do want resolved is the bit about those mysterious info-beings that inhabited the Citadel...)

 

When it came to me deciding (as it turned out) who now runs the Council I was given the choice of Udina or Andersson... no idea...

 

So I picked Udina. Sounded more exotic. Hope I made the right choice, though, cause now I think I recall Andersson as being a friend/mentor/less-than-horrible-bereaucrat?

 

 

 

...

 

Anyway, what's also good is that a lot of you folks went for 3 in the poll and filled in the blanks. So let this thread serve as a What-Are-You-Playing-Now and a What-Are-The-Greatest-Games-Of-All-Time-But-You-Might-Have-Missed-'Em type of discussion.

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I haven't been playing anything aside from TDM and Amnesia the last few months and won't change that until I am done with my thesis. I am looking forward to play Witcher 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood though. :) I admit ACB will probably be just as much of a simple consume product as its predecessors, but AC2 simply got me hooked. Witcher on the contrary was far away from a broad mass game in my opinion. Really loved that one and I expect Witcher 2 to be even better.

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Well, I'm into ME2 aways.

 

The plot, or at least one big "reveal" to come, I think, may be pretty hugely telegraphed. But that's okay (and I may be wrong).

 

I've only once felt that I was given little choice when I really wanted to do something completely different*; which is impressive and continues to bode well for the future of gaming. The authors working in this difficult medium are becoming experts!

 

There have been a few more highly irritating gameplay/control issues, but they are eventually adapted to... and once that is done it becomes as much fun as it ought to be considering the overall design intention(s).

 

I still have my personal favorite story-line (The Keepers) to hear more about -- no lost "Lost" BS here so far.

 

*I think I will just shoot the MF and see what happens... though it seems to be something that might be entirely unmanageable for the story, maybe there is a plotline-contingency that will kick in?... I'll give it a shot. His head.

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Well, now I have a tip about The Keepers... finally a little (or more) info on them!

 

And now I have another possibility to fulfill my Paramour...

 

Dr. Chakwas I tried, but that isn't in the system, apparently;

 

Jack was and still is interesting, but I've been warned off of her and she is STILL a little too vengeful, despite plenty of what I'd hoped would be time and whatnot to progress otherwise;

So now I shall probably persue the one they ObviOusly want me to. :laugh: She's even more Blatantly 'outfitted' than the other 2 they want me to try...

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Well I finished. And it was great. At times you feel like nothing you do is going to make a difference, but I rather suspect it (the narrative) is tailoring itself to my game. I may still be wrong about that and it is all an illusion, but I can at least feel like what I've done is impacting things.

 

And aside from the already acknowledged brilliance of being able to produce such a choose-yer-story story, the mechanics work wonderfully too. There has been only a couple/few times I felt the shorthand dialogue did not properly convey what I was intending to do.

 

Problem is one of the most crucial ones is one of those... but I think I can still correct it, as I have maintained enough control over said situation to rectify.

 

...

 

I felt I made some big errors that cannot be blamed on the misinterpretation of the shorthand too; none that I shall bother to take back or redo. Lessons learned. Redemption awaits -- or at least the prospect of it fuels my ambition to play ME3.

 

...

 

So, I'm glad bikerdude told me there is no question that I needed to play.

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Well I finished. And it was great. At times you feel like nothing you do is going to make a difference, but I rather suspect it (the narrative) is tailoring itself to my game. I may still be wrong about that and it is all an illusion, but I can at least feel like what I've done is impacting things.

 

And aside from the already acknowledged brilliance of being able to produce such a choose-yer-story story, the mechanics work wonderfully too. There has been only a couple/few times I felt the shorthand dialogue did not properly convey what I was intending to do.

 

Problem is one of the most crucial ones is one of those... but I think I can still correct it, as I have maintained enough control over said situation to rectify.

 

...

 

I felt I made some big errors that cannot be blamed on the misinterpretation of the shorthand too; none that I shall bother to take back or redo. Lessons learned. Redemption awaits -- or at least the prospect of it fuels my ambition to play ME3.

 

...

 

So, I'm glad bikerdude told me there is no question that I needed to play.

 

I think it's a great game but I was a bit let down by the ending, not so much because of the story rather because I want to play Mass Effect 3.

 

If you did not manage to you know what with your crew then play it again because it is possible for them all to you know what.

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I think it's a great game but I was a bit let down by the ending, not so much because of the story rather because I want to play Mass Effect 3.

 

:laugh:

 

Man, there is just no way they are going to be able to live up to all of this expectation. Right? I'll just be happy enough if the game is an honest attempt at coherence. And completeness...

 

(unlike that ellipsis...)

 

I'm pretty sure they (or, specifically, Karpyshyn) have an endgame in mind and are not just pulling a "Lost" bunch of nonsense. Though I doubt it is truly a great story, it has so far been brilliantly told; and that is what makes it "epic" to me. There is a lot of nice detail there in the story and some strong plot-lines too. I don't expect (or even particularly want) them to color in all the space around the details. I just want them to wrap up the main story as if it has some sort of purpose for being told. It's actually a lot to ask -- but sometimes, sometimes.

 

...

 

I did "get the girl" I really wanted (Tali); I don't think it is meant to really be a challenge because it certainly wasn't. What was cool (not cool) was that I tried my (nevermeantnoharm) shenanigans on a couple of others and the game paid me back by making me feel like a bit of a cad. Cool for the game, not cool of me.

 

...

 

So, now...

 

S.T.(ohfuckit)ALKER(s)? or Dead Space(s)?

 

I have Azrael's Tear up and running but it just might be too bloody blocky for me... it's hard to go back. Is there an enhancement mod/pak/something?

 

With STALKER I've given it (the 1st episode, Chernobyl) a try -- twice, as I recall. And though it has great reviews which all mention the open-endedness, I was diappointed last try by being sort of made to do something I didn't want to do. I was more or less assigned a mission of predation. This was pretty early in the game, obviously, and maybe it's a one-off, or I can manage otherwise, or... I'm right and the game is NOT open-ended and so not for me?

 

With the Dead Space series, it too seems to be a huge critical success. I think I haven't played it because it is quite certainly a YET ANOTHER "horror survival" game. I don't really like the genre. But i say that having liked quite a few -- because there have been quite a lot. :laugh: So I don't know.

 

I'm pretty sure what I have to have with any sort of shooter, though is the mechanic I have found in ME and Fallout3... the VATS/the SCI. Are these "pause the action" pretty much standard fare in shooters nowadays? I'm old and can't go in gunzablazin.

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Stalker complete is just a graphics overhaul IIRC.

 

IMO these are the best two stalker mods:

 

LURK MOD:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/lurk

Awesome, highly polished, highly detailed, highly functional, highly everything. I'd argue this is the best mod for Stalker period. It has a lot of guns, difficult yet fair game mechanics and I always feel like I actually need to carefully suit up and pack my stuff correctly before leaving to adventure somewhere. And by far my favorite addition is the gun handling. All the weapons handling feel very natural and are fun to use.

 

 

Oblivion Lost:

http://www.fileplanet.com/186077/180000/fileinfo/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.---Oblivion-Lost-2.2-Full-+-1.005-Compatibility-Patch

Many still say this is their favorite. It definitely spices up gameplay with some unique characteristic and has a ton of new weapons and features, but it doesn't feel nearly as polished as lurk mod to me. For example when I see a screwed up reload animation on a gun I just cant use that gun because I fixate on it.

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"Just" a graphics overhaul? It's THE graphics overhaul, and it takes Stalker to a new level. There are also numerous gameplay changes, which are listed on the author's website. All in all a must.

My Eigenvalue is bigger than your Eigenvalue.

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"Just" a graphics overhaul? It's THE graphics overhaul, and it takes Stalker to a new level. There are also numerous gameplay changes, which are listed on the author's website. All in all a must.

 

They seem very minor though, well in comparison to the other mods. But they definitely are improvements over vanilla.

 

Added functionality that don’t change the original story or gameplay

 

* New abilities - NPCs can avoid anomalies, remove dead bodies from camp sites, throw grenades, change armor, and even heal other NPCs. You can also give weapons and armor to NPCs by selling or dropping it near them and giving them privacy to equip them (NPC’s preferences may prevent them from accepting the items, however).

* Early detection - removed the ability for NPC's to notice you at unrealistically large distances.

* Stealth - Removed the ability for NPC’s to notice the player at unrealistically large distances.

* Death panic - Reduced the sound distance of death cries (in the original game it caused the entire camp to alert once one member was hit, as it was set to be heard at a great distance).

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