Videogame Discussion Thread

So the first Pathologic alpha came out, titled "Marble Nest", and here I find out that despite that every second line in the Kickstarter and the backer portal saying otherwise, it's only available on Windows. Which sucks. But Pathologic is one of my favorite games ever (that I hate actually playing), which p. much shaped the way I think about stories in video games and the creeping metanarration trend, so I'll probably spend some money to finally fix my PC for that. I already spent a shitload of cash on the KS, after all.

 

Holy crap.. haha.

Yeah - I won't argue with you that the ending of ME3 could have been better. Would the dark matter theory have made for a more interesting ending? Being able to actually side with the reapers? Yupp - that would have been pretty cool. The indoctrination theory would also have been a spectacular ending, but BioWare has pretty much denied that's what's going on.



But for me personally I think the current "organics vs synthetics" overarching story is good enough, it's a good enough reason for the reapers, the citadel and the catalyst to exist. But it was executed poorly and for many I think that ending came out of nowhere. What the Leviathan DLC does in my mind is that it prepares the player a bit for that ending, makes it feel less sudden and forced. Is it perfect? No. But I do think it helps a great deal with giving ME3 a rounder and more coherent feel overall.

And when you say that "shepard already showed peace was possible between organics and synthetics" I'm not sure I fully buy into that. Sure - my Shep also brokered peace between the geth and the quarians but that's just an isolated incident that takes place in the blink of an eye compared to the time scale of the cosmos. It's possible that on a long enough time scale the catalyst might be right. So I think the organics vs synthetics conundrum is valid enough. But I probably agree that the dark matter story, and the possibility of actually siding with the reapers, has more potential.

So overall I think the organics vs synthetics story is good enough. But it was executed poorly and no one likes the blue, red and green choice. Especially not since some one of the choices kill off your squadmates and destroys the relays etc. And I've also heard the same thing as you that the current ending was slapped on at last minute, and I think it was done differently than how BioWare normally handles story. For the rest of the games I think the entire team to a large degree sat down and discussed which way they wanted the story to go. But for the new ending in ME3 I think the two lead-designers just locked themselves in a room and came up with it themselves, which didn't work out too well.

I will also say that out of all the Mass Effect games I probably like ME3 the best.... except for the ending. ME1 probably has the best story, but by far the worst gameplay. ME2 is a good mix of story and gameplay and gathering your team is great fun, but in retrospect the story is kind of stupid and all you're doing is taking on the collectors. The final ending scene in ME2 even downplays your actions when it shows all the reapers coming right after you've destroyed the collector base. In essence all of ME2 is an intermission and sort of pointless apart from gathering your team. ME3 has the best gameplay and graphics and while no one likes the ending I think it hits a lot of high notes. The Krogan, Salarians and Turian story arc and the Geth and Quarians story arc are absolutely fantastic. And the Citadel DLC is great fun too.

As for the shape of that Reaper looking like a human I've heard it said that it was a tribute to the humans for being the first to take down a reaper, but yeah... it's cheesy and didn't need to be in the game.

If you plan to give ME3 another run I can really recommend the nexus mods in case you haven't tried them:

http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/top/

The EGM and ALOT mods are amazing!

(ok - thought I was going to write a short answer but look where that got me)

 

Be still my beating heart.

 

That plus standalone uncharted expansion. Based Naughty Gods.

 

Not worshipping Kojima? Blasphemy! The man is from the future:


Jokes aside, PT dying was an absolute tragedy, that was an example of the kind of lateral, creative thinking that we need but rarely see in game design these days. I like to think MGSV's awfulness was all on Konami and that he will come good with Death Stranding, as he might do better with less constraints.

 

Been making a concerted effort to get back into gaming the last several months. But I've got pretty limited time what with school full time.

But I played and absolutely loved all of Doom 2016, what a game. It's stunning to look at(has probably the best temporal AA I've ever seen), but it also runs like a dream. Fantastic gunplay mixed with some great labyrinthian level design. Gun upgrade mechanics that don't feel just tacked on for no reason. Enemies that ramp up in difficulty but don't feel cheap. I can't really say enough good things about Doom. Except maybe there isn't any single player DLC yet!

I attempted a few other games since then, but nothing really stuck for me, school basically took back over. But now that the term is winding down, and since I bought several games this last weekend..

I played Titanfall 2. I don't play MP though, no time for that sort of time sink in my life. I only paid 28 bucks so I don't feel upset only playing the campaign. Though it is very short, basically beat it in two sittings. It's a pretty game for what it is, running on a decade old, though upgraded, source engine. Though it also does run very well. Machincally the game is pretty tight, not to the level of Doom, and a lot of it does feel pretty tokeny, things feel tacked on. But this is where the short length helps it out, nothing has time to overstay it's welcome. And as cliche as the comraderie is with your mech, it's still pretty awesome.

Last night though, I started playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, and holy hell, that might be the best looking game I've ever seen. Maybe any one part of the graphical presentation isn't the absolute best, but put it all together and it has a sort of realism too it that is pretty staggering. It's one graphical foible though is a lack of good AA, and I don't have the hardware to run SSAA, since my 1070 can barely run it maxed at 1080p and maintain 60 fps.

I don't have much to say gameplay wise, only played the intro mountain level before going to bed, but it seems to be the closest I'll get to playing uncharted without buying a PlayStation.

 

Don't worry, it's a tentacle game. The Japanese have some previous experience in this field.

 

I agree that the ending of ME3 was a little disappointing, but I was actually prepared for that since I didn't do my first ME1-3 run through until just a couple years ago and had read all about it. What I wasn't prepared for was how much I connected with the crews and how sad I was once I finished the games. The Citadel DLC was amazing as a one last hurrah and goodbye to the crew and was the real ending for me. The conclusion of the Reaper saga was almost an afterthought (though I would have enjoyed the discarded ending you described much better). I have yet to come across a set of characters that I have liked more in a game. This is why I can't quite muster up that much enthusiasm for the next ME game - no matter how well done it is, I don't think I will connect with it as an ME game without Shepard et al on board.

 

As long as I can see Mads Mikkelsen ineffectually fighting those off, I'm preordering Death Stranding the moment I can.

 

Last Guardian finally released on PS4. Cannot believe it is actually live. Need to get to Best Buy or Gamestop tonight.

 

Any recommendations for another PS4 game to take advantage of this deal. Preferably something my 7-ear old can also play. My PS4 Slim came bundled with Uncharted 4 which we were enjoying together until my wife went ballistic when she saw it. In fairness, the beginning does not really have violence but she came by just as the shooting started which was more than I had expected and really not age appropriate. Sadly I don't have time to play myself as I really only use the PS4 for games we play together (think FIFA and Lego Dimensions). But I think he will like Last Guardian.

 

OK. Thanks for the headsup. My son is a sports fanatic so lots of FIFA and EA NHL. Maybe I will pick up the EA NBA game to round things out. He also loves Lego games and I can recommend any of those if your kids are interested in Lego. I think Dimensions is particularly good because the franchises are geared towards adults (kids don't know most of the stuff with some exceptions, but also don't seem to care about not having that frame of reference).

 

@Colgin

You can try: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/rayman-legends

Or: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/ratchet-clank