I highly recommend Arkham Asylum. It's the first really well done Batman game I've played. I suppose it helps that Paul Dini wrote the story for it. They got the blend of stealth, beat em up, and gadgets just right...it totally feels like a Batman story.
Combat is a little button-mashy at first, until you get the hang of putting together combos and unlock some of the special moves. Stealth mode is just freakin' awesome...I never get tired of swooping down on a thug, yanking him up into the air, and zipping off to another hiding place, leaving him hanging upside down for his friends to find. Boss fights are, mostly, interesting ans unique. They get a little repetitive towards the end, ad nearly all of them involve one stage where you fight the boss, and then another stage where you fight the boss while a dozen or so of the Joker's thugs join in.
Also, for nerds like me, there are little shoutouts to the Batman mythos buried everywhere. My personal favorite is in one of the game over screens. Whenever you die, you see a screen where whichever villain is associated with the area you're in taunts you. If you die during the fight with Bane, one of his taunts involves him yelling "The bat is broken!", lifting you over his head, and replicating the famous Knightfall cover:
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
So, I started playing Daggerfall the other day. Interface is kinda clunky, which was fixed in the later installments of the series, so going back to the old one is hard (For example, needing to switch to different modes -- Talk, Info, Steal, Grab, whatever, instead of having it just figure it out based on context, and having tooltips to say what/who you're looking at). The way you swing your weapon is kinda blah too, and I'm having a hard time leveling up. Maybe what I have to do is rob a bunch of towns and then just join a faction to train my skills, I guess... there's gotta be a better way to play than this. Also, it's way to hard to commit crimes. I keep getting caught looting shops at night even though there's nobody around to catch me.
Still haven't finished Mother 3, but I think I'm in the second to last chapter.
Also, I'm finally getting a new Xbox 360 (Elite this time), so I'll be back in that Fable II goodness soon. I don't have a memory unit to transfer the save games so I guess I'll just continue to use the 20GB drive for now. I don't feel like dropping 30 bucks just for that, and I feel even less like spending $12 on the transfer cable which results in you needing to be on Live to use any of the transferred data (Not that I'm ever really offline, but hey, maybe the Internet will be out one day...)
They released the new holiday bundle today, so I went with that since hey free games are free (Lego Batman and Pure -- nothing amazing).
I'm just finishing up Halo 3: ODST. Halo Fanboy review ahead:
The campaign was very fun but very short. You start off alone at night in a semi-open world environment, and have to find clues to the fate of your teammates. Each clue makes you flash back to daytime and play a level as one of them, until you finally meet up with them. But...it's really short, maybe five hours for a leisurely play through on the hardest difficulty for anyone who played the previous games.
The whole "mystery" aspect of it was very immersive but had a really lame ending. Also, you play as the love child of Gordon Freeman and Master Chief because YOUR CHARACTER HAS NO FACE AND NO VOICE. It seems kind of forced when the conversation is interrupted every time it seems like your character is going to speak.
Firefight (infinite waves of enemies) is fun, but only when you have three or four good people to play it, which is why there is no game finder.
I'm just finishing up Halo 3: ODST. Halo Fanboy review ahead:
It seems like it's not really worth that much money for the campaign and stuff, but I don't have any of the map packs, so I'd be getting over $25 worth of DLC if I bought this (assuming mythic part 2 would be 800 MS points). That's pretty good.
Can anyone recommend me a good 4X game (e.g. Civilization, Master of Orion, etc.)? Cheap or free would be preferred, but any good ones out there would be appreciated.
Can anyone recommend me a good 4X game (e.g. Civilization, Master of Orion, etc.)? Cheap or free would be preferred, but any good ones out there would be appreciated.
Do you have Civ IV? The Fall From Heaven II mod makes it almost into an entirely different game, and it meets your "free" preference. I think I asked you if you were the author way back when you first started posting here, because he also goes by Kael.
The only other game I've played recently that might qualify is Sins of a Solar Empire, which is about as close to 4x as an RTS gets. It's not free, but it's relatively cheap, and it's from a small development house.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
I don't have my own copy of Civ IV, though I can probably borrow one. Yeah, I remember you asking me that, but alas epic modding is still something I only dream about doing. I liked GalCiv II and I've heard good things about Sins of a Solar Empire, but I keep wanting every sci-fi 4X game I play to be a remake of MOO II. I'll be sure to check out Fall From Heaven as soon as I can get my grubby hands on a copy of Civ IV.
In my blind flailing last night I found FreeCiv and FreeOrion. FreeCiv is basically Civ II, which isn't too bad but I already have a copy of Civ II and it comes with hilarious Council and cool Wonder movies when I play it. Or at least I would if I could find the damn disk, so I suppose it's a good substitute until then. FreeOrion is closest to MOO III, which was a bit mediocre and hugely micromanagement intensive. This one seems a little better on that, but otherwise if you know you didn't like MOO III then don't bother with this one.
Currently playing a ton of Call of Duty 4, in preparation for the new one coming out in a month or so. Not going to lie, I'm pretty damn pumped about this game. It's looking excellent. Has anyone else here pre-ordered it yet? Or am I the only one who is stoked for this game?
Not a game I'm playing, exactly, but that Epic Mickey game I mentioned in the Miscellany thread way back when has been officially announced. I'm not even a Disney fan, really, and it looks awesome. I dig that Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is the main villain.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
I've never heard of that game, probably because I have you on ignore, and so couldn't read your post mentioning it. Like some of the comments say there, I'd prefer they make it multi-platform, but there are already just barely enough Wii exclusives to justify getting one, so...
__________________ Hear me / and if I close my mind in fear / please pry it open See me / and if my face becomes sincere / beware Hold me / and when I start to come undone / stitch me together Save me / and when you see me strut / remind me of what left this outlaw torn
I don't have my own copy of Civ IV, though I can probably borrow one.
Go buy a copy (preferably a bundle pack with both add-ons). It's dirt cheap these days and one of the best, perhaps the best turn-based strategy game ever made.
__________________ The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. -Eugene Wigner
If you haven't played Civ IV,that's my first recommendation, because I agree,it's probably the best 4x game of all time...OF ALL TIME. I just assumed Kael had played it,so I suggested a mod that changes the gameplay up dramatically.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
Oh, I've played it. I roomed with some people that had it a few years ago. Quite enjoyable, though I will always miss the Council and Wonder movies from Civ II and wish they would bring them back.
Problem is right now I have quite literally no money to spend on fun stuff. Maybe by Christmas though, we'll see.
Odd, I had no problem getting The Witcher to run properly, without any help whatsoever. Perhaps the real problem is not so much with the game or its designers as with Kael.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kael
I kinda feel bad, except about Dungeon Siege II which I hated and The Witcher which I couldn't get to run properly. They can suck it.
I'm now onto Metal Gear Solid 4. It came with my PS3 and it took this long for me to actually bother playing it. It's a lot better than I was expecting, like, actually good enough that I think I'll pick up the rest of the series now.
__________________ Father Helel, save us from the dark.
Yeah I was just ordering that when I made the post above, thanks though
I'm still kind of surprised I let a series this good get by my radar (well, obviously I'd heard of them, but never played any) for so long. Then again, there was a good several years where I played absolutely nothing but RPGs and Metroid/Zelda.
__________________ Father Helel, save us from the dark.
I've been playing Lost Odyssey for around a week, and I'm close to the end. It's good. Really good. If you own a 360, get it.
Without giving too much away, the story involves Kaim, a man who cannot die and has lived for a thousand years. Recently he lost all of his memories, but is haunted by dreams which appear to be episodes in his life. The beginning shows him as a mercenary in the employ of the country of Uhra, fighting a war with Khent. While he's singlehandedly cutting down the enemy army, a meteor suddenly falls on the battlefield and kills everyone, but Kaim miraculously survives. He's sent by Uhra to investigate the cause of the disaster. They suspect it has something to do with Grand Staff, the magic facility overseen by Kaim's current boss, Gongora. Needless to say, he's none too pleased about the investigation, and has plans of his own...
The plot is simple, but it's effective, thanks to the engaging characters. In addition to Kaim, your team eventually consists of three other immortals and five mortals, and the way their stories interrelate is fairly compelling. Particularly noteworthy are Kaim's dreams. Throughout these episodes in his life, he encounters many situations which help him understand the interplay between life and death, and what makes people happy. They take the form of about 30 text stories, lasting around 15 minutes each. A few are found automatically, but most must be unlocked by encountering a situation that reminds Kaim about his past. They can be watched right away, or saved for later, and revisited any time you sleep. They are all very well written, interesting and sometimes moving, and add greatly to Kaim's character.
Gameplay-wise, it's turn based and random battles, which is fine with me, but irked some reviewers, apparently. There's a minor twitch element to the combat, where you hold down the R-trigger and release it at the right time. You equip rings that add different effects to your physical attack (extra damage, status effects, elemental effect, etc. Including some more off the wall ones like mugging items). Timing the trigger release perfectly will enhance these effects. It's not like, say, Legend of Dragoon where if you missed the button press, you did shit damage and basically wasted your turn. In this game, it's a nice extra that is neither punishing if you fail, nor really easy to pull off, so it keeps you engaged. The other unique aspect of the battle system is the GC (Guard Condition), which acts like a force field surrounding your back row (and the enemies'). The starting GC is equal to the sum of all front row characters' max HPs, and goes down as they take damage. At 75%, 50%, and 25%, the back row's defense drops, until they are completely exposed. Restoring HPs does not bring back the GC, but certain skills do. I guess someone at Mistwalker was wondering why the back row is always safer and decided to invent a slightly nonsensical rationale for it.
Lost Odyssey features a FFIX-inspired skill system, with a twist. Besides the aforementioned rings, you have one slot for an accessory. Each accessory has one skill associated with it--ranging from passive skills like HP Max Up or Auto MP Restore or Counter, to physical attacks and magic. The catch is that, while anyone can equip most of the accessories, only the immortals can permanently learn the skills. Mortals learn their personal skills by leveling up, and then immortals can learn those skills, too. While the mortals get some awesome stuff, they can't compete in usefulness with the fully customizable immortals. Take for example, the white mage character, Cooke. She has no real offensive capabilities, so you would naturally give her black magic with an accessory. But then what do you do if the enemies in an area can petrify you? With the slot already used, there's no way to protect her. And you also can't do more mundane things like boost her MP. So the only real reason to use her is to teach some of her unique skills to the other characters. Luckily, you're allowed five people in battle, so there's never a need to remove an immortal to make room.
The soundtrack rocks, as would be expected from Nobuo Uematsu. I've been humming the boss tunes all the damn time since I began playing. The graphics are also gorgeous, but some of the character designs are a bit iffy. Kaim's hair looks like it hasn't been washed in a thousand years (Yeah, they walked right into that one). In a nice touch, all equipment is rendered on your characters, even seemingly the rings, and even when you're not in battle.
The challenge is respectable until later when you gain access to some of the accessories that make your guys unstoppable (Right now I'm immune to all ailments and elements, have my defense boosted into low orbit, and recoup enough MP per turn that I basically cast magic for free). Of course, I'm going out of my way to make sure I find everything, for the one achievement, so it was bound to happen. Um, what else. The encounter rate is pretty low, low enough that you can often go through a whole room in a dungeon without fighting anything. There are somewhat long load times, but I haven't installed the game on my hard drive. I'm not sure if you even can. I tolerate these things for some reason, even though I've played GTAIV.
I played the demo for Lost Odyssey a while ago. I was kinda 'meh' but that's mainly because I never cared for the genre in general. Also, the soldiers and war machines in the intro battle just looked comical to me, I couldn't take any of it seriously.
Lately I've been playing D&D Online since it went (sort of) free to play. You only get limited access on a free account, with two races (Warforged and Drow) and two classes (Favored Soul and Monk) locked. There are also a great deal of questing areas that are locked on a free account, and your initial level cap is 4 (out of 20). To unlock these items you must acquire points for their in-game store, which can be done by either paying for them or grinding up favor points, which are similar to reputation points in WoW. Some things can be unlocked without purchasing them the store, such as Drow (unlocked fairly easily at 400 favor points on a character) and the Favored Soul class (quite a bit harder, requiring 2500 favor points on one character). For a sense of scale here, a typical quest completion will yield 3-4 favor points on Normal difficulty, with more rewarded at higher difficulties. Some dungeons will give 12 when completed on Elite difficulty. You can also acquire leveling sigils as quest rewards, rather than purchasing them in the store, which will raise your level cap by 4 each.
Or, you can skip all that bullshit and pay them ~$14 a month to have it all automatically unlocked, as well as 500 free points a month to spend in the store on cosmetic and assistance items, such as potions. Unfortunately they already thought of what you might be thinking of now, and everything will be locked again if you cancel your subscription and go back to a free account, though you still retain any store points you accumulated.
As far as gameplay goes, it's a bit different that standard MMO affairs. Most quests are completed by finishing objectives in dungeons, all of which are instanced. Wilderness encounter areas, the closest thing this game has to typical free-roaming games like WoW, are also all instanced. Balance is very much geared toward group play, which makes sense because it's fucking D&D for crying out loud, but certain classes can solo much of the early content even on high difficulties if played carefully. Later content has many more casters with disabling abilities and spells, against which you will fail your saving roll at the worst possible time, so having buddies to help and/or res you is no bad thing. Many dungeons will also have traps and locked doors which only a Rogue will be able to disable and open, and there are doors that can only be opened by use of magic sigils that require high mental stats to use, so you get the most out of a dungeon when you bring a well-rounded party. Don't worry about sharing loot, every chest (the primary sources of loot in the game) generates new random loot for every party member when they open it.
It is based on the 3.5 ruleset and the Eberron setting for D&D, so if there's things you like there you can probably expect them in-game. Contrariwise, if there's things you hate about 3.5 Eberron... you get the idea.
As tight as our budget is right now, free-to-play MMOs look to be the only kind I'll be able to enjoy for a while, even ones that lock out so much content to us poor plebs.
I just recently bought Torchlight from Runic Games. I have to admit that it is a damn fun game. It is an RPG along the lines of the Diablo series. I have been playing it for an hour or so and I had a blast playing it so far.
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Allan Glenn. 1984-2005 RIP
Under no circumstances should Quentin Tarantino be allowed to befoul Star Trek.
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