Video Game Thread

[AtheistPreacher]

Me Personally I thought Mass Effect 1 and 2 were kinda boring lol. After playing Knights of the Old replublic and even Jade Empire to an extent I expected Mass Effects story to be better. There are some "I can't believe this just happened" moments in those previous two games made by the same company and the story of the first two mass effects were eh.

I haven't played Jade Empire, but I did play both Knights of the Old Republic games. They were fine and all, but I much preferred Mass Effect both for story and gameplay. Now, the second one... that one I wasn't terribly impressed with the story. The way I would describe it is to say that it suffered from "middle installment syndrome." It started off very abruptly, and then 90% of the story was about collecting your crew, and then you do the last mission and the game is over. But for me the first game was just friggin' epic. Loved it.

 

[Brown Notes]

Just got SWTOR. In case anyone cares. I love it so far. Bought a new machine too. Anyways cheers to you gamers.

 

[AtheistPreacher]

For anyone with a PS3, I strongly urge you to download the newly released Journey. It's probably one of the best games I've ever played, although it's about as nontraditional a game as you'll find. It's an entirely different kind of experience than anything else you've played before. This is the kind of game that will (hopefully) help to change the way games are made altogether.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqeD7ojynw

 

[AtheistPreacher]

I posted about this game about a month ago, but the latest previews for Dragon's Dogma have gotten me even more excited, especially the one I've embedded below. Anyone with a PS3 or X-Box 360 should seriously check it out, it looks friggin' amazing. Plus this guy doing the preview is just really entertaining and has a great accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrCiV4LOYk4&hd=1

The same guy did two more follow up videos, one on classes and skills:

[url[/MEDIA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c8krHCKHDI&hd=1[/url]

...and one on the Pawn system:

[url[/MEDIA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEsVmmXQqWA&hd=1[/url]

Can't wait for May 22nd. I've already pre-ordered this one.

And while I'm in this thread, how about Diablo 3 actually getting a release date? It's been looking as good as I'd expect, I'll definitely be picking that one up as well. May 15th... less than two months away now. Weird after so much waiting, it seems like it's been in development forever, and they changed a lot of game mechanics around at the very last minute.

 

[prodigy]

I've been playing Alan Wake, i've never owned a xbox so i had to celebrate when they finally brought it to the PC. It's a game i've waited forever for, I remember when Remedy first announced it I was so excited but only now I can finally play it. I don't know how it looked on xbox but on PC the graphics looks fantastic. It's the best game i've played since Red Dead, which I still play a lot.I loved it when the dude that plays max payne was on the tv show, as a fan of max payne series on pc, I cannot wait for the new max payne, i know it's in great hands at rockstar games.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

I haven't played Jade Empire, but I did play both Knights of the Old Republic games. They were fine and all, but I much preferred Mass Effect both for story and gameplay. Now, the second one... that one I wasn't terribly impressed with the story. The way I would describe it is to say that it suffered from "middle installment syndrome." It started off very abruptly, and then 90% of the story was about collecting your crew, and then you do the last mission and the game is over. But for me the first game was just friggin' epic. Loved it.

While playing both mass effects I played through the whole game trying to guess what the cool awesome twist at the end of the game is and nether of them had one.

Spoiler alert for KOTR 1 and Jade Empire:

For KOTR 1 find out that you are Revan was awesome. Also Bastila turning evil was cool too.

For Jade empire you find out that your Master is secretly the brother of the emperor and the emperor captures him and is about to kill him. You spend the whole game trying to save your master and after you defeat the emperor at the end I set down the controller and had mixed feelings about the game. Then a cut scene happens as you walk over to your master that you just saved and he suddenly backstabs you and shows you a cutscene from the start of the game in a new light and you die! The end portion of the game you are in the underworld and are a ghost and meet very mystical things and fight your way back to being alive! This was on top of two more plot twists (one that you are the last spirit monk, and two that the emperor has captured the water dragon and used its power for himself and your master secretly did this whole plan so that he himself gets the water dragon.) It turns out your master trained you with a single flaw that only he knows and therefore he became the only one that can kill you! (I admnit Jade Empire wasn't an amazing game, like it was the first time Bioware left the turn based action and went to real time action and you can tell...)

In Mass effect one I thought the whole reaper thing was a minor plot twist and something awesome was gonna happen... Nope. I didn't care about any of the characters except for maybe Rex (I don't get why everyone Loved Garrus so much.)

For Mass effect two I was hyped a little bit to play it because everyone loved it. My problem with it (on top of the thing you had a problem with which I totally agree with ) was that they tried to develop every character equally and in turn to me it didn't develop any character enough. For Kotor 1 they didn't try to do this, like Bastila was more developed then any other character in Kotor 1 and any character in Mass Effect 1 and 2. I played the whole game thinking that I knew what the plot twist at the end was going to be for ME2. I thought that the Illusive man implanted all your memories from ME 1 and that the whole first game were implanted memories (Since Miranda implied that it could be done). I thought your whole crew and people that you meet were in on it and it was all just a big ploy. I thought there would be hints throughout the game that would be hinting towards this and as I played I realized that there were none. Then the end of game happened, no plot twists, no big surprises. Big deal Reapers need biology to eat or w/e in order to survive was the big reveal.

 

[AtheistPreacher]

While playing both mass effects I played through the whole game trying to guess what the cool awesome twist at the end of the game is and nether of them had one.

Spoiler alert for KOTR 1 and Jade Empire:

For KOTR 1 find out that you are Revan was awesome. Also Bastila turning evil was cool too.

For Jade empire you find out that your Master is secretly the brother of the emperor and the emperor captures him and is about to kill him. You spend the whole game trying to save your master and after you defeat the emperor at the end I set down the controller and had mixed feelings about the game. Then a cut scene happens as you walk over to your master that you just saved and he suddenly backstabs you and shows you a cutscene from the start of the game in a new light and you die! The end portion of the game you are in the underworld and are a ghost and meet very mystical things and fight your way back to being alive! This was on top of two more plot twists (one that you are the last spirit monk, and two that the emperor has captured the water dragon and used its power for himself and your master secretly did this whole plan so that he himself gets the water dragon.) It turns out your master trained you with a single flaw that only he knows and therefore he became the only one that can kill you! (I admnit Jade Empire wasn't an amazing game, like it was the first time Bioware left the turn based action and went to real time action and you can tell...)

In Mass effect one I thought the whole reaper thing was a minor plot twist and something awesome was gonna happen... Nope. I didn't care about any of the characters except for maybe Rex (I don't get why everyone Loved Garrus so much.)

For Mass effect two I was hyped a little bit to play it because everyone loved it. My problem with it (on top of the thing you had a problem with which I totally agree with ) was that they tried to develop every character equally and in turn to me it didn't develop any character enough. For Kotor 1 they didn't try to do this, like Bastila was more developed then any other character in Kotor 1 and any character in Mass Effect 1 and 2. I played the whole game thinking that I knew what the plot twist at the end was going to be for ME2. I thought that the Illusive man implanted all your memories from ME 1 and that the whole first game were implanted memories (Since Miranda implied that it could be done). I thought your whole crew and people that you meet were in on it and it was all just a big ploy. I thought there would be hints throughout the game that would be hinting towards this and as I played I realized that there were none. Then the end of game happened, no plot twists, no big surprises. Big deal Reapers need biology to eat or w/e in order to survive was the big reveal.

I guess maybe I don't place as much importance on plot twists as you do. Extremely simply stories can be very powerful (see, for instance, the aforementioned Journey). In fact, I generally don't care about spoilers at all because my position on story-telling has always been that it should be a joy to experience a story even if you know the entire plot and all the twists and turns already. It's about experiencing the story as it happens rather than the bare facts of what happens. So while it's true that none of the Mass Effect games have had any mind-blowing plot twists, that wasn't something I really cared about. I think the story for those games -- so far as video game stories go -- was well-paced and well executed. Sure, it was kinda generic and predictable, basic heor's journey stuff. But the graphics were about as realistic as they could be for the time, the musical accompaniment was great, the voicework was great. I've always been a guy who cared more about gameplay in games than in their stories, or graphics, or presentation in general. But for ME1 the overall presentation was greater than the sum of its parts, and it really swept me away as a story in a way that few games have ever done.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

I guess maybe I don't place as much importance on plot twists as you do. Extremely simply stories can be very powerful (see, for instance, the aforementioned Journey). In fact, I generally don't care about spoilers at all because my position on story-telling has always been that it should be a joy to experience a story even if you know the entire plot and all the twists and turns already. It's about experiencing the story as it happens rather than the bare facts of what happens. So while it's true that none of the Mass Effect games have had any mind-blowing plot twists, that wasn't something I really cared about. I think the story for those games -- so far as video game stories go -- was well-paced and well executed. Sure, it was kinda generic and predictable, basic heor's journey stuff. But the graphics were about as realistic as they could be for the time, the musical accompaniment was great, the voicework was great. I've always been a guy who cared more about gameplay in games than in their stories, or graphics, or presentation in general. But for ME1 the overall presentation was greater than the sum of its parts, and it really swept me away as a story in a way that few games have ever done.

I agree with you completely with the exception of RPG's like ME. I knew the plot twist in Kotor 1 and it was still awesome. I knew the ending of Red Dead and it was still my favorite game of all probably (if you disregard multiple player games). If you have the number of lines of dialogue that ME has and the amount of Codex logs and information on Alien species etc then there better be some cool story moments. Games, especially RPG's, have the advantage of 30+ hours to develop a character while things like movies don't and it better make me feel for the character and give me some emotions. Doesn't have to be plot twists or anything. The character death in Jade Empire was much better done then the character death in ME1 for example and gave me a much better emotional response.

 

[AtheistPreacher]

I agree with you completely with the exception of RPG's like ME. I knew the plot twist in Kotor 1 and it was still awesome. I knew the ending of Red Dead and it was still my favorite game of all probably (if you disregard multiple player games). If you have the number of lines of dialogue that ME has and the amount of Codex logs and information on Alien species etc then there better be some cool story moments. Games, especially RPG's, have the advantage of 30+ hours to develop a character while things like movies don't and it better make me feel for the character and give me some emotions. Doesn't have to be plot twists or anything. The character death in Jade Empire was much better done then the character death in ME1 for example and gave me a much better emotional response.

Fair enough. To each his own, different strokes for different folks, no accounting for taste, etc etc etc.

This conversation did give me cause to look at my gameshelf and think about which game stories I've enjoyed the most. Besides the aforementioned Journey and ME1, I came up with, in no particular order: FFVII, FFX, Persona 3, Kingdom Hearts, Valkyria Chronicles, Okami, and Metal Gear Solid 1 (still haven't played Metal Gear Solid 4, fwiw). I'm sure I've forgotten some that I've since sold, but there you have it. Most of these were rife with genre cliches, but I enjoyed them anyway. I think you have to have a certain immunity to being annoyed by genre cliches if you plan on enjoying video game stories at all.

 

[AtheistPreacher]

Blizzard has announced an Open Beta Weekend for Diablo 3.

What this means is that ANYONE may download the beta client and play the game starting this Friday at Noon until Monday at 10am. Their stated purpose for the Beta Weekend is that it will act as a stress test of the servers prior to the May 15th launch.

The download is about 4 gigs. Enjoy.

 

[Chris-L]

Thanks for the head up on Diablo beta. Speaking of beta's, I'm gonna be playing the guild wars 2 beta next weekend. Is anyone other than me super excited about GW2?

 

[AtheistPreacher]

Blizzard has announced an Open Beta Weekend for Diablo 3.

What this means is that ANYONE may download the beta client and play the game starting this Friday at Noon until Monday at 10am. Their stated purpose for the Beta Weekend is that it will act as a stress test of the servers prior to the May 15th launch.

The download is about 4 gigs. Enjoy.

Hah, well, this is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected: it appears that Blizzard was unprepared for the number of people simultaneously attempting to play the Diablo 3 beta. I tried logging in at noon, multiple times, and was only able to get a string of different error messages. When I googled the various error codes, it kept bringing me back to the D3 site, which I couldn't actually connect to either, presumably because of all the other tens of thousands of people going there to look for help.

After about 7 minutes, the error message changed to say that the servers were down for maintenance. So it looks like they've given up for the moment and are going to try to shore up the servers somehow before trying again...