Unified Vidya Games thread

[Cain]

Khajiit lore was great. But now we've moved on to pretending to care about Nord lore, while really caring about vampire lore. For some stupid reason.

Don't get me wrong, the Gray Host stuff is really cool and I'm glad someone dug that out of the archives to give it another look. And the implications of what the Host are doing is...interesting, to say the least. But at the same time, there's only so many variations we can have on vampires and I honestly cannot take a gothic castle in Blackreach even the tiniest bit seriously. Did the landscaping devs do a wonderful job on it? Absolutely, they always kill it and I bet it was a blast to work on. But fuck me, it's so fucking stupid conceptually.

Even worse, the ending of the DLC suggests two things. 1, they're going to the Reach with the Q4 DLC. And two, it's still going to be focused on vampires. This means less time spent on the Reachmen, which means almost invariably more "herp-a-derp Reachmen are evil don't overthink it" writing. There's literally one non-evil Reachman in the entire game, and that's done entirely to emotionally manipulate you when faced with the choice of killing him or a Nord soldier to advance the storyline.

Perhaps I'll be wrong. But given the importance of the Reach to the overall plotline of ESO (their conquest of Cyrodiil set many of the chain of events into motion, not to mention they are primary enemies in at least four major zones and two DLC dungeons), they really deserve an entire chapter devoted to them, at the very least to give them the chance to tell their side of the story. But they won't get one, if Q4 is the Reach and not Whiterun/The Pale/Winterhold.

[altered]

If I wasn’t literally dollars from homelessness I’d be blowing up the writers’ contact info begging for a chance to write reachlore. They’re tribal, you can literally do this the easiest way in the world.

Without fucking with the overall plot at all.

Help a tribe opposed to Molag Bal unseat the Despot and his vampire buddies. Holy shit! It’s like magic! You get to go kill vampires in the Reach while expanding beyond “reachmen are satanists”.

It’s irritating. This shitty “EEEEEVIL REACHMEN” stuff is garbage, sooooo shitty garbage.

[Cain]

Absolutely. Or hell, the tensions between the Despot, the hagraven matriarchs and the tribal warchiefs (OK, no tensions have been implied, but I'm betting they sure as fuck exist).

Interestingly, it's the Gray Host who not fans of Molag Bal. As per the Greymoor questline, they are quite upset with him and their activities are essentially thumbing their noses at him.

Given, as I recall, the Despot has an alliance with the Worm Cult, we could even get a Big Bad Hero moment from King Rapey himself. It'd be a very bold move, casting literally the worst daedric prince in the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" role, but given all the hinting that the Vestige is Molag Bal's champion and not Meridia's, it wouldn't come entirely out of left-field.

But it'll probably just be more "valiant Nords versus evil Reachmen" stuff.

[altered]

Which SUCKS.

Michael Kirkbride may have been a mess sometimes, but he could make antagonists more interesting than “literally just rebranded satanists/Satans depending on role”.

[Cain]

I will say this: as lacklustre as Greymoor was, the Antiquities system is awesome and interesting.

[Freeky]

Khajiit lore was great. But now we've moved on to pretending to care about Nord lore, while really caring about vampire lore. For some stupid reason.

Don't get me wrong, the Gray Host stuff is really cool and I'm glad someone dug that out of the archives to give it another look. And the implications of what the Host are doing is...interesting, to say the least. But at the same time, there's only so many variations we can have on vampires and I honestly cannot take a gothic castle in Blackreach even the tiniest bit seriously. Did the landscaping devs do a wonderful job on it? Absolutely, they always kill it and I bet it was a blast to work on. But fuck me, it's so fucking stupid conceptually.

Even worse, the ending of the DLC suggests two things. 1, they're going to the Reach with the Q4 DLC. And two, it's still going to be focused on vampires. This means less time spent on the Reachmen, which means almost invariably more "herp-a-derp Reachmen are evil don't overthink it" writing. There's literally one non-evil Reachman in the entire game, and that's done entirely to emotionally manipulate you when faced with the choice of killing him or a Nord soldier to advance the storyline.

Perhaps I'll be wrong. But given the importance of the Reach to the overall plotline of ESO (their conquest of Cyrodiil set many of the chain of events into motion, not to mention they are primary enemies in at least four major zones and two DLC dungeons), they really deserve an entire chapter devoted to them, at the very least to give them the chance to tell their side of the story. But they won't get one, if Q4 is the Reach and not Whiterun/The Pale/Winterhold.

all of this sounds stupid and dumb, and does a disservice to what could have been a really good story. Thanks, Bethesda, I hate it!

[chaotic neutral observer]

I have started playing The Darkest Dungeon.

This game is horrible.

This game is horrible and bleak and mind-wrenching and dismal and it's not good for my mental health.

It's the most fun I've had with a turn-based RPG since SMT Nocturne.

[Cramulus]

I love darkest dungeon but I think I hate it slightly more

The art, music, whole aesthetic is incredible. I love all the concepts. I like the classes and the combat.
And the constant punishment fits, it makes perfect sense for the mood and the style of the game.

But that's what killed it for me. I played up until I got access to the final dungeons. To do one of those, you really need an all-star party with complementary skills and relatively stable minds. To get a single character to this point takes a lot of careful grinding.

And these late game dungeons are gonna kill at least one of your characters. Or maybe I just sucked at the game, I dunno, but it felt like the dungeon was designed in a way that you're going to have to say bye-bye to at least one character you've been grinding for a long time. When I realized that finishing the game would mean grinding like dozen characters just to say goodbye to them.... I lost my mojo. And if it was just a matter of patience, I might have stuck it out, but sometimes your town gets attacked by some horror, and that destabilized my grinding plan. Felt like I never got to a place where I felt safe - which I realize is the intentional design of the game - but life's too short, lol

Like I said, maybe I just sucked at it. I actually picked it up again last week cause I was in the mood for the aesthetic.. really enjoyed it for like 3 hours and then put it back down.

[Faust]

Cram describes the exact point I stopped playing  high level dungeons in each area, two squad wipes on bosses (cookpot witch) and then the thought of having to build up a roster capable of even trying those again put me off

[chaotic neutral observer]

I'm sorta looking forward to it; I like it when a game forces me to adapt my approach as I proceed, rather than letting me get away with the same tactics throughout.

But I'm still early in the game.  I've got past the initial difficulty hump, have a handful of level 3 and 4 characters, have taken out a couple low-level bosses, and haven't lost anyone I've invested much time into.

Sometimes the gameplay itself spontaneously produces a narrative.  I sent a noob Hellion into a dungeon with some more experienced characters.  At first, her stress level increased quite quickly; but when she landed a few crits, her stress decreased again.  I can imagine the newcomer panicking when first encountering unspeakable horrors, but then calming down when she realizes "hey, I can do this."

Can I do this?  We'll see.

[Cain]

Midyear madness is back. Stay tuned for stories from the frontlines in Cyrodiil and, as always, celebratory killing of elves. It's what Pelinal would've wanted.

[Cain]

War commentary delayed, war is too popular.



Me outside the North Morrowind gate:

[altered]

 

You’re a sick, sick man, Cain, and they know it and are keeping you away from the children, for the children, by way of the children.

[Freeky]

having to wait in line to commit some war 

[Cain]

Well, try as they might, ZOS could not keep me out eventually.

War...war never changes. In the case of Cyrodiil, this means spending entirely too long looking at your horse's butt



However I soon found my way to the Zerg...also a guy catapulting a statue. Yeah, great siege work there.



We did eventually break down the doors, no thanks to that guy though



War is no place for a master thief. Get out of here, stealing scrub



OK, yes, the inner keep may have been breached, but I am clearly on a killing spree here



All in all, the campaign is off to a strong start (I'm with the Pact...the reds). And I'm almost 25% way to the Captain rank already, which is what really matters here.