Oct 6, 2017 1:38:47 GMT X-zero said:

Oct 5, 2017 22:52:51 GMT Kaye88 said:

X-zero ,

I KNOW. I didn't like having to force the poor smithy to off himself, but I needed the bow. T_T

I'm not that far in this time around, but I've got the Sorrows of Arlathan from the Witch Hunt DLC on my pack. I'm still thinking if Far Song would still be needed. Then again, I always equip Leliana with Marjolaine's Recurve for poetic justice. My City Elf only uses a bow for special circumstances.

I didn't even know about it the end of my first play through and by then it was too late so had to get it on my second. Hate how the force an overly evil way to get a bow. Archers aren't seen as evil in dragon age. If anything thing consider dragon age's theme the strongest staff should be locked behind an evil deed. Never got around to witch hunt so didn't see what weapons it offered.

IKR? Instead, the best staff mage can be bought directly from the trader at the Circle Tower, accessible once you leave Lothering (given you have enough money).

I really don't think my OC-ness will help me play anything else but a rogue in the Dragon Age games. I try (up to Lothering), but I can't after a while. I hate having to bring another rogue in my party just to open treasure chests and having to switch to them every now and then to do so. I'd rather my warden do it themselves.

All this talk about WWE '18 inspired me to check out the last entry I bought, which was '13 for the PS3.

The thing I remember about this game is that it was fine in short bursts, but got irritating the longer you played it. The issue I had was the grappling system which was essentially race to your finisher, hit it and win. There was little logic in the match and you weren't really rewarded for taking your opponent down piece by piece.

However, my biggest issue with the game was the roster itself. Instead of committing one way or another, they ended up making a huge compromise with only 40 something current games, and 40 alumnis including various clones. To make matters worse, a lot of the stars of that year were locked behind DLC. Stars like AJ Lee, Ryback, Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow, The Usos, Natalya - all workers who featured prominently couldn't be played unless you paid extra. If ever there was a year that THQ needed to make an exception with the roster, it was '13. To make matters worse, 2012 really wasn't a good time to go with the Attitude Era. Kurt was still with TNA, neither the Hardys nor the Dudley Boyz could appear and even a guy like D'Lo Brown was working elsehwere so the roster is filled with an assortment of clones or guys who don't really fit.

So if that's one positive going for 2K18, at least the roster is bang on. The only negative is holding the Hardy Boyz hostage as DLC, IMO they should be in the game and DLC should be reserved for legends or more NXT guys.

WWE
Don't remember '13 pin system but if you are really good on your timing you can kick out of a lot of finishers. There are still quite a few bonus to hitting a finisher but they are the end all be all to ending the match if you are going against people.

The AI on some of the main events will kick out a ton as well. People like Cena and Seth won't go down easy.

I don't think 13 had the reversal limit either so now you can't have a nonstop reversal matchs and need to pick your spot carefully.

H:ZD
Finally finished and plated Horizon: Zero Dawn. I had it for about 4 months. The first three months was me playing a little telling myself I like it then not touch it for a few more weeks. The beginning you are so weak and have to take everything carefully. And it is a lot to take in. Over the last week I did most of the game nonstop. It gets really good once you get more things online and unlock unlimited fast travel.

You also feel a decent strength growth because things that you have to be really careful about in the beginning because like nothing later on. It doesn't become a cake walk with so many different enemy types becoming new threats.

Spent a good chunk of the day on Shadow of War, just as addictive as the first with a bunch of great new little touches. So far my favorite was when I was in the middle of fighting a captain with a couple allies, and I got him down to the final hit, but then he had this huge attack that took me down for what would have been my final time, but then before he landed his finishing blow, my ally skewered him for that last hit, saving me and ending the fight. Also movement feels a little better, let's you get around a bit faster once you start unlocking things. Not too far yet, first real story mission, but a lot of fun.

Spent the afternoon playing through the latest Splatfest on Splatoon 2 (oh yeah, I've got a Switch everybody). Life was so hectic I missed most of the Splatfests during the prequel, so I made sure to hammer down on this one and all I can say is I'm rusty. Splatoon 2 has a ranking system known as power levels. If you're around 2000 or so you're considered a good player. I was so rusty I fell to 1400 when I became a King. I wasn't really happy with my performance, so I look up some pointers to figure out where I was going wrong. My biggest problem was that I kept dying in the last 15 seconds or so which is crucial since games are decided on who has the most turf at the end. Despite having something like 900p and 13 kills, I'd often lose and be so frustrated. While sometimes my team mates weren't carrying their load, I loathe blaming them since I was making a lot of mistakes. I decided to play more conservatively, I changed up my Splatter so I could have better subs and mains and straight away my record improved ten-fold. I probably went 15-5, which isn't great but for somebody who doesn't have the best gear and is still adjusting to competitive play, I was happy with the progress.

Anyone else getting in on the Splatfest? Are you team Edward like me? And where are you guys ranked?

Good way through Shadow of War, really damn fun. Word to the wise though, don't try a seige against an enemy stronger then you, I went as a 26 against a 38, but rather than being a war of attrition trying gradually weaken him, it's actually you vs him vs an entire room of infinitely spawning enemies that keep you from hitting him...so even if you do a smidge of damage, he can heal, and since you 3 of the 4 enemies types you encounter can't be brute forced, he'll alway have plenty of time to heal.

While I generally try to turn warning markers off in games like this, Shadow is simply too hectic, there can be more than a dozen enemies around you, huddled into an indecipherable ball, and you just can't tell what is coming from where (more complicated when you add in the various types), already a bitch to have archer and spear chuckers constantly tagging you from off screen.

But other than that, just a ton of fun. Yeah, it is one of those games where you're essentially doing the same thing from start to finish, so if you're not in by the end of the first world (give it enough time to unlock a few of the helping moves), might not be a game for you.

Slapped Blitz into the ol' 64 yesterday. I have no idea why that game requires so much cartridge space.

With a bit o' the video game bug being back and being all alone this week, might revisit No Mercy instead of doing anything productive around the house.

Mystik Belle. It's by WayForward so the usual Metroidvania stuff.

My library has ps4 games.
So me and my kids are playing Injustice 2

I've dived right into Fractured But Whole and I absolutely love it. The game is so typical South Park. I've played at least 8 hours and I don't feel even close to done. Combat takes a little getting used to but it's not that steep a learning curve.

The humour is right up there, within my first hour of town exploration  

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
I ended up in the church and having to fight off two priests who thought I was just so cute

Almost to the end of Shadow of War, get to the final chapter, "Shadow Wars," and wouldn't you fucking know it...turns into tower defense (light), literally one of my least favorite types of games. Doesn't seem quite so stringent as a general tower defense (hence, light), as it seems like all your people can die as long as you can kill everybody without dying. But I also only did the very first one, so they may take checkpoints even quicker as time goes on, which would be a true bitch. Just hell, was having so much fun, and that automatically knocks it down a notch, just not into escorty missions. Still gonna push my way through the end, kind of a bummer though.

In the process of downloading Life is Strange Before the Storm episode 1. Normally would wait for the whole thing, but what the hell.

Back to bitch about Shadow of War, this tower defense is killing me. It's like beat each outpost one, 4 times, okay, not too bad, seems like that was the right place to stop, but you want me to beat them all again? Alright, that's 8 defenses, not too bad, surely that's it? Well, turns out there's 20 total defenses of the fortresses, which means each outpost 5 god damn times. And if you lose, which 3 times I basically had them entirely beat, just for something cheap to one shot me, one was actually a glitch which pissed me off even more...either way, if you lose, you have to retake the outpost, luckily they didn't think to be extra dicks and make you actually successfully defend it.

20 times though...it's like Brutal Legend, I'm enjoying the hell out of the game, absolute blast BAM, RTS game. JUST TOO MUCH...especially when it throws enemies at you with no basic weakness so they take 10 minutes to take down, it's abysmal when you get one that heals, better hope he's the last one so 3-4 of your captains can help. War is hell, thankfully down to the final 2 outposts.

EDIT: Finished up, the ending was great, but Shadow Wars felt entirely tedious and tacked on, really served no purpose in the end, honestly, not sure I'll ever play the game again because of it. 

Is it true that not buying the microtransactions play a role into that grinding you do?

Oct 21, 2017 2:40:38 GMT G/B said:

Is it true that not buying the microtransactions play a role into that grinding you do?

Not any noticeable way, I didn't pay a dime, and the first trouble I experienced was the last few tower defenses, by the end I had every skill with points left over, good gear, good recruits. They may have made the last defenses easier, but I can't really see too much benefit, it would have had to be drastically higher gear, I had maxed level captains, and was max level myself (your level can only go to 60, you can't recruit anyone with a higher level, 65 is where the enemies maxed). I guess if you want to rush through the game, you might need some microtransactions, but as long as you're completing the quests, I never found myself under-leveled or overmatched (in a one-on-one scenario, when you get several captains  it could be a real bitch). 

Speaking of captains, there was one more thing that really annoyed me about the game, at the start of each captain encounter, it'd slow down, pull you out, and have them introduce themselves. Throughout the game this wasn't too bad, and it'd keep captains from completely surprising you while battling another. But in Shadow Wars, this could get frustrating, you're just trying to play, and it keeps pulling you out to introduce captains (or announce deaths); even worse, there was times I'd run into an encounter, and have to wait for 4-5-6 captains to introduce themselves. This is unskippable, and as far as I could find, unable to be deactivated. It could get REALLY frustrating when you just wanted to go.

Have a free code for South Park The Stick of Truth for anyone looking to try the 1st game out. Only for PS4.

Oct 21, 2017 14:23:36 GMT Blindy said:

Have a free code for South Park The Stick of Truth for anyone looking to try the 1st game out. Only for PS4.

I know the smiley doesn't work but :$

Oct 21, 2017 17:13:01 GMT @ness said:

Oct 21, 2017 14:23:36 GMT Blindy said:

Have a free code for South Park The Stick of Truth for anyone looking to try the 1st game out. Only for PS4.

I know the smiley doesn't work but :$

All yours Ness. I remember you mentioned wanting to play this game but that it was unavailable for the PS4.

I got the free download for preordering the game last year though PSN cancelled my order when the game got delayed so I got the game for free so I think it is only fair lol.

Game is really good and really funny.

Yeah, the stick of truth is great. I plan on getting it once it hits PSN whenever that is. Kinda hope that I like the new battle system of the new game. I hear some of the fans of the first are 50/50 on it.

Does anyone else play EWR?
I've been playing a scenario that begun in 2001, it's nearly 2022.

I'd be interested to hear about your progress NATH45 , which stars you've been pushing. Highlights, lowlights etc. EWR is one of those games I've never really got into. I would have been all over it in my teens, but I would have been in my early 20s when I finally got my hands on a free copy and I just wasn't that interested.

Yakuza Kiwami - I was taking my sweet time with it, when I decided to polish it up. It was exactly what the doctor ordered, more Yakuza 0 with a couple of tweaks to keep things interesting. I'm starting to get the hang of these games as well, so I can't wait to sink my teeth into the other entries.

New Super Mario Bros Wii U - I was up to the final world, so it only took 30 minutes or so to polish up. I don't care if it isn't as creative or innovative as past titles, the game had some great level designs and it met the high standards of the series. I can only imagine with four people the game would leave the other 2D Mario games in the dust.

Nier Automata - I didn't buy into the Game of the Year hype. While there was nothing outright horrible about it, the game just made the protaganists so powerful that it felt like a mindless button masher with a bunch of fetch quests on the side. It was fine and in a poor year like 2012 I could understand it, but not in 2017 when we've had games like Breath of the Wild set new standards. Then the game shifted perspective, set up some interesting scenarios and became one of the most gripping experiences of the year. The last third I had to just about finish it in one play session, I was that enamoured with what was going on. Not only was it a great game, this maybe one of my favourite pieces of science fiction and it's really going to give Breath of the Wild a run for it's money as far as GotY is concerned.

Now I'm just waiting until Friday so I can get my hands on Odyssey.

Oct 25, 2017 9:11:53 GMT Big Pete said:

Nier Automata - I didn't buy into the Game of the Year hype. While there was nothing outright horrible about it, the game just made the protaganists so powerful that it felt like a mindless button masher with a bunch of fetch quests on the side. It was fine and in a poor year like 2012 I could understand it, but not in 2017 when we've had games like Breath of the Wild set new standards. Then the game shifted perspective, set up some interesting scenarios and became one of the most gripping experiences of the year. The last third I had to just about finish it in one play session, I was that enamoured with what was going on. Not only was it a great game, this maybe one of my favourite pieces of science fiction and it's really going to give Breath of the Wild a run for it's money as far as GotY is concerned.

Now I'm just waiting until Friday so I can get my hands on Odyssey.

So looking at your to do list Horizon: Zero Dawn is next. That may top Nier.

Oct 25, 2017 9:11:53 GMT Big Pete said:

I'd be interested to hear about your progress NATH45 , which stars you've been pushing. Highlights, lowlights etc. EWR is one of those games I've never really got into. I would have been all over it in my teens, but I would have been in my early 20s when I finally got my hands on a free copy and I just wasn't that interested.

I've been playing EWR since approx. 2003 maybe. Since around 2010, the updated game date/stats are quite deep. There's a hell of a lot of information to consider in 2017 - think about stats for every WWE employee and independent talent worldwide, staff, etc. What can happen over time, playing with so much information, considering the program itself is an indy game, it can produce a lot of errors and eventually your game can go bye-bye. 

Playing some of the older scenarios, it allows for longevity, as there's very little information, thus not a lot of opportunity for run-time errors, etc. And it moves quickly through game, because of it's lack of size compared to the modern scenarios. 

My current game, started in early 2001, WCW and ECW survived closure and came back strong. I worked for a start-up indy promotions for the first 2 years of the game ( before it allows you to officially start your own ) I basically fed off WCW, ECW and WWF for the next few years. I started my own promotion and invested heavily in development, considering how limited the data was in terms of workers. My development, included booking televised shows of purely fresh talent, straight out of the official development territory - like NXT. I would book more 'development' shows and auto-book my main shows. 

I've basically been the no.1 promotion for the better half of 15 years. I've bought out literally 20-30 smaller promotions, I went to war with the WWF and eventually bought them out in about 2010. There's been many ups and downs, the industry has peaked several times - huge ratings, etc, yet seen a number of periods, I've called ' wrestling recessions ' where the industry had fallen below 15% of its peak. There was also the 'great depression' that came that funnily came in 2007/2008 coinciding with the real world GFC, where the industry feel to 2%. 

I've pushed guys like Matt Hardy, Edge and other similar mid-card talent from that 2001-2003 era to great heights, and matched stats/ages with my developmental produced talent with real world talent - took some creative freedom, changed a few names and pushed younger versions of Kenny Omega, Nakamura, Okada, Ken Anderson, etc. Considering it is a completely different timeline to the real world, John Cena had an interesting run, he was signed to a WWF developmental deal when the game started, I signed him, developed him further in approx. 2004, he got injured, I released him, he worked for a number of higher profile independent promotions and toured japan for the better half of the next 12 years and eventually came back to me, as something of a journeyman, if you use your imagination a bit. 

The challenge is staying motivated, the game can produce very little opportunity at times for development and building new stars. Workers age, they slow down, they retire, they get injured. It's about adapting - I've built my company around brawlers at times, then highflyers, then purely guys who can talk. Because that's what was readily available at the time. 

Oct 26, 2017 4:40:57 GMT X-zero said:

Oct 25, 2017 9:11:53 GMT Big Pete said:

Nier Automata - I didn't buy into the Game of the Year hype. While there was nothing outright horrible about it, the game just made the protaganists so powerful that it felt like a mindless button masher with a bunch of fetch quests on the side. It was fine and in a poor year like 2012 I could understand it, but not in 2017 when we've had games like Breath of the Wild set new standards. Then the game shifted perspective, set up some interesting scenarios and became one of the most gripping experiences of the year. The last third I had to just about finish it in one play session, I was that enamoured with what was going on. Not only was it a great game, this maybe one of my favourite pieces of science fiction and it's really going to give Breath of the Wild a run for it's money as far as GotY is concerned.

Now I'm just waiting until Friday so I can get my hands on Odyssey.

So looking at your to do list Horizon: Zero Dawn is next. That may top Nier.

Indeed, ever since my marathon session of Mario Odyssey I've been making my way through Horizon Zero Dawn. I just faced off against my second Deathbringer, which I believe is about 2/3s of the way through the game at Lvl 19 with most of my skill points being invested in Stealth abilities. The only other skills I have is Concentration and the Whistle ability which just makes sneaking around that much easier.

Compared to other games from this year, I like how much prep work goes into a lot of the encounters. There is a Last Of Us type of feel to the game where you can't just enter a battle willy nilly. You've got to set traps, pick out enemies in the right order and come up with the best strats to take down machines. That was lost on me for a fair amount of the playthrough, I just burned things with my Hunter Bow until they slowly burned to a crisp. I only learned on the second Deathbringer fight, that the elemental effects are just there to expose weaknesses your normal arrows can take care of.

Was also happy to hear Lieutenant Daniels (from The Wire, I believe his name is Syrens in the game) providing me with feedback and assistance. The voice acting on the whole is pretty good and I like how the settlements keep getting bigger as you travel further out west.

Deciding my Game of the Year is going to be impossible. Is anyone having better luck coming to a conclusion?

Oct 31, 2017 15:56:41 GMT Big Pete said:

Oct 26, 2017 4:40:57 GMT X-zero said:

So looking at your to do list Horizon: Zero Dawn is next. That may top Nier.

Indeed, ever since my marathon session of Mario Odyssey I've been making my way through Horizon Zero Dawn. I just faced off against my second Deathbringer, which I believe is about 2/3s of the way through the game at Lvl 19 with most of my skill points being invested in Stealth abilities. The only other skills I have is Concentration and the Whistle ability which just makes sneaking around that much easier.

Compared to other games from this year, I like how much prep work goes into a lot of the encounters. There is a Last Of Us type of feel to the game where you can't just enter a battle willy nilly. You've got to set traps, pick out enemies in the right order and come up with the best strats to take down machines. That was lost on me for a fair amount of the playthrough, I just burned things with my Hunter Bow until they slowly burned to a crisp. I only learned on the second Deathbringer fight, that the elemental effects are just there to expose weaknesses your normal arrows can take care of.

Was also happy to hear Lieutenant Daniels (from The Wire, I believe his name is Syrens in the game) providing me with feedback and assistance. The voice acting on the whole is pretty good and I like how the settlements keep getting bigger as you travel further out west.

Deciding my Game of the Year is going to be impossible. Is anyone having better luck coming to a conclusion?

That probably will be my game of the year. And you may want to do some more side quests since I think I was 49 when finishing the game. Most of them are pretty interesting too.

If your a plus member in the US, Horizon: Zero Dawn is sitting at a cool 28 bucks.

I was all about EWR in the early 00's, right about the time WWF became WWE I found I no longer had the same passion for wrestling, I wasn't as into the new batch of stars and even some of the older ones had started to wear thin, plus not long after UFC (which I'd been a fan of since the originals) really started to rise to prominence and I just found myself more drawn to real fights. Added to the fact that I gradually hated every Smackdown game more and more after HCTP, I eventually had a total falling out with wrestling, though still have a fond place for Attitude Era, Monday Night Wars, the Streak, and all that good stuff...either way, lost track of EWR and never really looked back. I adored it there for several years, had some really great bookings there for awhile, just all in my past.

Just started in on the New Colossus, as fun as the New Order so far, but with some nice little adjustments, one thing I like is whatever save you load, when you go to load again it's automatically on that save, so if I find a good area to farm the perks (I prefer to get those out of the way ASAP so I can focus on the game), it streamlines reloading (since perk progress saves even when you die or reload, just like the first). Not too far in yet, but a solid start to beginning of the game, I don't so much trust a new ally, see how that one shakes out.

Finished Horizon Zero Dawn.

One of the aspects I like about the game is that it doesn't force you to be a certain level to complete it. If you just want to do nothing but main quests, that's fine, but you're going to miss out on some of the best parts of the game. Cauldrons are particularly enjoyable, since they're the closest substitute to the dungeons you'll see in Zelda. Not only are they fun to explore, it enhances one of the games best mechanics, the ability to corrupt other robots. Watching the robots duke it out and even up the odds is one of the cooler things in gaming right now.

The final missions were OK, although I would have preferred more variety with the final mission. The time trial deathbringer as the final test felt like a letdown and wasn't reflective of the experience I had with the game. Then again, I admit I acted like a complete novice. I didn't bother to learn what Hardpoint Arrows did, which is insanity since they make the fight so much easier. In the end, I barely got through, downing the machine with 5 seconds to spare.

Beforehand, there was a cool moment where you had to scale this mountain that was being guarded by all sorts of machines. Halfway through, I decided I was just going to bolt through, so by the end, I was on the run with giant hawks and sawtooths trying to take me out and succeeding every so often. It was thrilling and once again, I liked how the game gave you that option.

If I had one complaint, it would have to be the story. I was hooked after The Proving, but once you become a Seeker and you start working with Sylens I started losing interest. I thought the twist was actually pretty clever and there were some good ideas there, but the way the story was told didn't jive with me.

I only bring it up because as I was playing through the game, I was comparing it to games like Breath of the Wild and Nier through out. HZD actually stands out in a few categories for me - I'd much prefer it's combat and enemy design. However, there are other aspects that I prefer from those other games that may just give them the edge.

Think I'll give myself a break, then start again with a New Game + with the idea of going for a completionist run. In the meantime, I need a break from video games, my eyes are about to run out of blood vessels.

Nov 2, 2017 12:34:47 GMT Big Pete said:

Finished Horizon Zero Dawn.

One of the aspects I like about the game is that it doesn't force you to be a certain level to complete it. If you just want to do nothing but main quests, that's fine, but you're going to miss out on some of the best parts of the game. Cauldrons are particularly enjoyable, since they're the closest substitute to the dungeons you'll see in Zelda. Not only are they fun to explore, it enhances one of the games best mechanics, the ability to corrupt other robots. Watching the robots duke it out and even up the odds is one of the cooler things in gaming right now.

The final missions were OK, although I would have preferred more variety with the final mission. The time trial deathbringer as the final test felt like a letdown and wasn't reflective of the experience I had with the game. Then again, I admit I acted like a complete novice. I didn't bother to learn what Hardpoint Arrows did, which is insanity since they make the fight so much easier. In the end, I barely got through, downing the machine with 5 seconds to spare.

Beforehand, there was a cool moment where you had to scale this mountain that was being guarded by all sorts of machines. Halfway through, I decided I was just going to bolt through, so by the end, I was on the run with giant hawks and sawtooths trying to take me out and succeeding every so often. It was thrilling and once again, I liked how the game gave you that option.

If I had one complaint, it would have to be the story. I was hooked after The Proving, but once you become a Seeker and you start working with Sylens I started losing interest. I thought the twist was actually pretty clever and there were some good ideas there, but the way the story was told didn't jive with me.

I only bring it up because as I was playing through the game, I was comparing it to games like Breath of the Wild and Nier through out. HZD actually stands out in a few categories for me - I'd much prefer it's combat and enemy design. However, there are other aspects that I prefer from those other games that may just give them the edge.

Think I'll give myself a break, then start again with a New Game + with the idea of going for a completionist run. In the meantime, I need a break from video games, my eyes are about to run out of blood vessels.

The main story could have been spread out a little better since most of it was just learning stuff. And the final fight was a little disappointing since deathbringers are one of the most boring things to fight. That why when you mentioned your level I recommended the side quests. Thunderjaws and Stormbirds are a lot more interesting to fight.

Yeah, I just wanted to get the game out of the way for end of year discussion purposes so I at least had something to contribute to the discussion. I've already started a New Game + file, where I'll be taking it slowly and doing all the side stuff as soon as it becomes available, like I normally do in these sorts of games.