Unified Vidya Games thread

[Cainad (dec.)]

My day-early super-fancy preorder of Dishonored 2 got delayed to Tuesday because Amazon is farts. But I got to play the Clockwork Mansion level a few times over a month early at one of their promotional events, so my saltiness is slightly alleviated. Speaking of, did Bethesda just spill a giant bag of marketing money on this game and be like, "go nuts, guys"? They've done all kinds of promotional events and stuff this past year.

[Cain]

From the sound of it, Bethesda are not exactly hurting for money.  Competent QA people to iron out bugs, yes, but not money.  I mean, consider that Skyrim was one of the most successful video games of all time, and yet Bethesda haven't even started on Elder Scrolls VI.

Even though I'm not interested in the story at all at this point, Mass Effect: Andromeda does seem to have some slick looking combat.  That's one area Bioware has improved on, game after game, and Vanguard gameplay finally looks as awesome as it should be.

[Salty]

I've just started playing Mass Effect. It's pretty rad. I did one quick playthrough as soldier, renegade, on casual, just so I could see how it ends. Now I'm playing on normal and taking my time.

It's super fun and is a nice change of pace from Bethesda stuff which I've been playing quite a bit of since I got a proper PC.

[Cain]

Just FYI, Soldier is probably the worst class to play Mass Effect 1 with.  IMO it's pretty boring.  Adept is good, though massively OP.  Any class with Pistols will work though, because you put all your points into it, get one of those Spectre X Pistols, get two heat sinks and you can spam bullets as fast as possible with no chance of overheating.

On the other end of things, you can take a powerful sniper rifle, explosive rounds X and a high velocity barrel...you only get one shot, but it's a shot which will kill a Reaper itself, especially on an Infiltrator using Assassination.

[Cain]

Speaking of Bioware games, I finally got around to doing what I've wanted to do since I saw the skillset, and created a 2 handed weapon Champion in Dragon Age Inquisition. 

It just makes sense....sword and shield is survivable enough, except perhaps on Nightmare with all the Trials running, so using the Champion skillset, which basically makes you unkillable, doesn't make sense.  With two handed though, you offset the weakness of that playstyle (building up enough guard) and play off the Champion's strength (To The Death with a Champion built for critical damage can easily net you 5k damage, and that's without using fade-touched gear with Hidden Blades or Walking Bomb). 

It also allows you to do crazy shit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5X2bOz64Q8

Next experiment: trying Sword and Shield Reaver, to see if it can add to S+S DPS.

[Cain]

Tried a high chaos, stealth, Mostly Flesh and Steel run of Dishonored 2 as Emily Kaldwin.  Quite a different experience of the game, without powers to solve every problem.  And of course, since I was aiming for stealth (not complete ghost runs, though I got a couple of them), I couldn't just gun down problems either. 

It was satisfying though, taking down witches and Clockwork Soldiers and Duke Luka Abele and Delilah without resorting to the Outsider's cheap tricks.  All crossbow, grenades, stun mines and sword, all the way.  And all those collected runes should set me up nicely for a NG+ (if it works that way).

[Cainad (dec.)]

Tried a high chaos, stealth, Mostly Flesh and Steel run of Dishonored 2 as Emily Kaldwin.  Quite a different experience of the game, without powers to solve every problem.  And of course, since I was aiming for stealth (not complete ghost runs, though I got a couple of them), I couldn't just gun down problems either. 

It was satisfying though, taking down witches and Clockwork Soldiers and Duke Luka Abele and Delilah without resorting to the Outsider's cheap tricks.  All crossbow, grenades, stun mines and sword, all the way.  And all those collected runes should set me up nicely for a NG+ (if it works that way).

I think it does. I finished my campaign as Emily, then started NG+ as Corvo and then suddenly had 49 runes in my pockets after getting the option to buy abilities.

I am too cowardly to play Flesh & Steel mode, but I think I'll get there one day because I like this game so damn much. Between the two characters, and the Low/High/Very High Chaos paths, there's a lot of potential for replay.

[Cain]

Oh, I meant specifically importing from a Flesh and Steel playthrough.  My murderous Emily gathered more runes and schematics than my first playthrough did, so I wondered if they also transferred over, as runes are converted into 200 coins when grab them.

Turns out, they are not transferred over from a Flesh and Steel import.  Oh well.  To be honest, I didn't find it that hard, as I wasn't aiming for Ghost or Clean Hands.  The only power I absolutely and frequently missed was Blink/Far Reach.  And it's a good way to unlock Well Funded as well, with the bonus cash from runes.  Bonus cash which went to upgrading all my shit, so when I was inevitably found, I could usually kill fast enough that it didn't matter - Emily's final tier gun upgrade, The Insistent Gentleman, is amazing when your back is to a wall.  And Long Distance Lover, the final crossbow upgrade, is just cheesy - perfect aim when using a spyglass.  You can eliminate enemies from the other side of the map before they ever see you.

[Faust]

Normally I'm not one for first person shooters, but the new Doom was amazing.

For a series that doesn't have any real story, the newest one has a great set of histories of the angry shooty doom guy... told from the perspective of the demons of hell, terrified of him. It covers the first three doom games, of how every time hell recovered he would stomp in again and ruin everything for them. It's not the Inferno or Paradise lost, but it's eerily similar.

And in his conquest against the blackened souls of the doomed, his prowess was shown. In his crusade, the seraphim bestowed upon him terrible power and speed, and with his might he crushed the obsidian pillars of the Blood Temples. He set forth without pity upon the beasts of the nine circles. Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding, the Doom Slayer sought to end the dominion of the dark realm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI9__eYIrdU

[Vanadium Gryllz]

I have been playing Resident Evil 7 on PSVR. Not that far in yet, maybe 1.5 hours.

It's a lot of fun. I have had to stop playing and recover after a couple of particularly intense battles.

[Faust]

I'd say it would be very intense with the VR, I've played a bit with the controller and tv and its scary enough without being immersed in that.

[Cain]

I heard very good things about the new Doom. I'm not entirely surprised though, id Software are pretty damn good at what they do, and John Carmack definitely knows a thing or two about first person shooters, to put it mildly.  What's more amazing to my mind is that he was at the cutting edge in the early 90s, and he's somehow stayed there right up to the present and his work with Oculus Rift.  Pretty impressive, has to be said.

[Don Coyote]

I'm waiting for the final DLC for DS III to hit in March. Not really because I'm eagerly awaiting but more like, I just want to be done with Dark Souls. 3 is barely over all better than 2, and that is mostly because of the space and art. Stupid fucking poise being garbage and armor being relatively garbage.

[00.dusk]

I heard very good things about the new Doom. I'm not entirely surprised though, id Software are pretty damn good at what they do, and John Carmack definitely knows a thing or two about first person shooters, to put it mildly.  What's more amazing to my mind is that he was at the cutting edge in the early 90s, and he's somehow stayed there right up to the present and his work with Oculus Rift.  Pretty impressive, has to be said.

It's my understanding that the new DOOM has little to nothing new from Carmack in it, since he jumped ship shortly after they did another complete reboot of development to join the Oculus team. I don't have any solid sources on this, just scuttlebutt in the development industry says DOOM 2016 is not his work for the most part.

id Software also hasn't been very relevant since Doom 3. Doom 3 BFG was unsuccessful, Quake Live had limited outreach, and DOOM 4 was in development hell for years. Almost all their "decent" original people were fired between 01 and 04 except for Carmack. The work environment was also unhealthy as hell around that time, nigh on abusive, and (to hear the stories) has not improved. I worked for American McGee from 2013 to 2015 and got to hear the occasional angry rant about it.

But yes, Carmack himself is a great guy with a storied history. He helped me navigate some copyright stuff with Bethesda's lawyers at one point, so I can, legally speaking, use the concept of "slipgates" from Quake 1 in whatever I want, so long as the world is otherwise divorced from their IP. And he's definitely never been behind the curve technologically.

[Cain]

Ah, that's a shame, re: work environment.

For what it's worth, Dishonored 2 runs on modified idtech 6 (aka "the Void Engine") and it runs like hot dogshit, so whoever optimised Doom for PC did an excellent job.