What Vidja games are you playing?

[Mckma]

Installed and started playing Mass Effect again last night.  Basically I'm trying to whittle down at the massive backlog of games I have...

[Moondog]

Really enjoyed Mass Effect. Good game.

You got a favored class?

Edit: Mine is Infiltrator. ALL THE WAY.

[Mckma]

Really enjoyed Mass Effect. Good game.

You got a favored class?

Edit: Mine is Infiltrator. ALL THE WAY.

I'm really digging the infiltrator.  Played a bit of engineer or whatever it was called, didn't like it.  I'm sure soldier is enjoyable as well...

[Moondog]

Soldier? Why play an awesome space-faring RPG as a class that gets nothing but guns? Be a man, be an Infiltrator or Adept. /elitist snob

Funny story, Soldier is the most popular class in ME1 and 2.

I, personally, can't imagine playing Soldier more than once in either game. It's so mind-numbingly boring, particularly in Mass Effect 2, which completely gutted the RPG elements stream-lined things like abilities and leveling.

So everyone else gets awesome crap that you probably wouldn't see in other third person shooters, like the Adept's singularity (so fun) or the Infiltrator's cloak+sniper combo.

Soldier gets the same bullet time feature in every other shootin' game and a bunch of guns, whoopididoo.

[Mckma]

Soldier? Why play an awesome space-faring RPG as a class that gets nothing but guns? Be a man, be an Infiltrator or Adept. /elitist snob

Funny story, Soldier is the most popular class in ME1 and 2.

I, personally, can't imagine playing Soldier more than once in either game. It's so mind-numbingly boring, particularly in Mass Effect 2, which completely gutted the RPG elements stream-lined things like abilities and leveling.

So everyone else gets awesome crap that you probably wouldn't see in other third person shooters, like the Adept's singularity (so fun) or the Infiltrator's cloak+sniper combo.

Soldier gets the same bullet time feature in every other shootin' game and a bunch of guns, whoopididoo.

I understand this totally and I plan to play something more interesting in the second.  I just didn't find the use of the powers particularly easy or that enjoyable, so I would want the ability to use more than just the pistol.  Though I've heard the second streamlines this so that the powers are much more fun to use...

[Moondog]

Soldier? Why play an awesome space-faring RPG as a class that gets nothing but guns? Be a man, be an Infiltrator or Adept. /elitist snob

Funny story, Soldier is the most popular class in ME1 and 2.

I, personally, can't imagine playing Soldier more than once in either game. It's so mind-numbingly boring, particularly in Mass Effect 2, which completely gutted the RPG elements stream-lined things like abilities and leveling.

So everyone else gets awesome crap that you probably wouldn't see in other third person shooters, like the Adept's singularity (so fun) or the Infiltrator's cloak+sniper combo.

Soldier gets the same bullet time feature in every other shootin' game and a bunch of guns, whoopididoo.

I understand this totally and I plan to play something more interesting in the second.  I just didn't find the use of the powers particularly easy or that enjoyable, so I would want the ability to use more than just the pistol.  Though I've heard the second streamlines this so that the powers are much more fun to use...

Mass Effect 2 does some things very well: It's an excellent action oriented third person shooter. As a roleplaying game, it is slightly less so. The changes are drastic and in some cases horrible (See: Aria ), but when it does something right, it *gets it*.

The powers have been retooled as has leveling. Instead of getting exp for doing things like killing dudes and opening locked doors and using tools and doing awesome conversation stuff, you instead get a canned, never-changing amount of exp at the end of every mission, which means that no matter what you do, you'll probably finish the game at 20th level, which is the level cap.

Combined with the way abilities and skills have been changed so that there're only 4 or so per class, each with 3 or so ranks (I forget the exact number, but it doesn't matter in this instance), and, provided you don't do nothing but blaze through only the story missions, you're almost 100% guaranteed to hit the cap, and therefore have maxed everything.

So that's how they've been streamlined: Leveling now has no real point to it (as I see it), as no matter what you do, you'll always end up with max everything you can do.

Abilities can be assigned to quickbuttons and used that way, which makes most of them a blast (Adepts in particular are hilariously fun to play, you get to knock things flying in low gravity and so on).

Due to the ammo limit, with its accompanying horrendously stupid retcon (We know you can easily build a gun that fires forever without heating up in the 1st one, but apparently everyone who isn't Shepard is retarded and fires in full auto, all the time, so we've switched to a 'thermal clip' (read: Ammo) system that is UNIVERSALLY USED EVERYWHERE despite only jumping a year or two in the timeline), combat is more tense and action-y.

Of course, it all takes place in hallways full of boxes. . .

(edit: also if I come off as an ass or like I'm giving you shit about your choices, I totally don't mean it that way)

[Mckma]

Oh no, I assumed you were being sarcastic (or I guess being an ass is a good description, but in a "good" way), as I myself often do the same, so no worries there.

The main point is, Mass Effect has a really fun/interesting world it has created so people should play it.  (Also I have an added appreciation being a student of physics and getting to enjoy reading about all the reasonably plausible "technical" aspects of the world, i.e. the titular "Mass Effect")

[Moondog]

Good, good. Didn't wanna come off wrong.

I totally agree, Mass Effect has a pretty awesome universe going for it (although I'm pretty 'meh' on the Asari as presented in ME1), and should be played if only for that.

Speaking of physics, have you seen

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

I could get through a single physics class, my self. But even I thought this was awesome.

[Moondog]

While I am posting forever, I may as well throw down my impressions thus far of Capcom's 'Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective'. Made by the same dude who did the Phoenix Wright games (as per the sticker on the label). Because of this sticker, I am going to be making a *lot* of PW comparisons.

Graphics are 3D, rather than sprite based, are pretty decent. The animation is smooth and fluid, so that's a thing in its favor. Character design is less pun/obviously emphasized than the Phoenix Wright series, and much more. . .esoteric, I'd say. Some people are green or blue, some attributes are (over) emphasized, that kind of thing. It's a different, but just weird enough to be awesome kind of affair.

Music is alright. Nothing as iconic or immediately awesome as what you'll find in Phoenix Wright, such as Edgeworth's regal sounding theme, or the incredible Steel Samurai theme, but the songs in Ghost Trick have a quirky feel to them that meshes well with the art style and backgrounds.

The localization seems a little spotty. I've noticed a few things like 'Let's see what this than will do.', and it can't be attributed to accents. Nothing as hilarious as say 'I WILL KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN' or 'I AM ERROR' but disappointing, given the precedent PW has set with localization and humor.

Gameplay is just as quirky as the art and music. You're dead, so your soul has to hop from object to object, and it can only go a short distance, so if you want to get somewhere, you will have to do some at times creative things. In the first scenario, for example. . .

[spoiler]You'll be stuck at the bottom of the screen and need to get to the top. The way to do this is to possess a blender, turn it on, hop from the blender to the flag to the fan, turn the fan on, quickly hop back into the fan, and watch the wind raise the flag and its rope up, which the blender will catch and 'crank', letting the flag with your soul in it reach near the top of the screen, where you can jump to an object.[/spoiler]

It's rather like being a Rube-Goldberg machine, and some of the reactions are pretty darn fun.

Storywise, I dunno. I'm not very far into the game, but it seems interesting enough. A  basic 'whodunit' kind of story, albeit one with goofy gameplay and some crazy characters.

So all in all, good game.

[joecrak]

Delayed response!

Make no mistake, i am by no means a fan of Final Fantasy 7, though i grew up on jrpg's i too have become kind of sick of them.  The only one's i really like nowadays are final fantasy 6, which will forever be my favorite game of all time, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon (which isn't like most stereotypical jrpgs)

I only say that part is good because i hate cloud, and his terrible storyline that requires a much better made movie to tie up and make coherent.  and Tifa has giant boobs.

I do love both mass effects, i think my favored class in the first one was infiltrator (really any class that had the sniper rifle, and if they didn't normally have it, i used that perk to give it to them)

Some things about ME2 i like more, but i do miss the overheating system from the first one, because it became pretty easy to abuse.  It also doesn't make logical sense about how technology that develops more seems to downgrade into a blatant ammo system. (though of course they won't call it ammo)

The bigger issue i have, is you can only use 1 power at a time, unless you're a soldier. So if you're an adept, you have to wait for whatever power you just used to recharge before you can use a different power.  Really annoying.

If it weren't for biowares incredible story telling ability i would be more than annoyed with them for changing ME2, and DA2 into Dragon Effect.

[Moondog]

DA2 doesn't seem to be like Dragon Effect at all. It just seems to not be mind-numbingly boring, combat wise. Don't get me wrong, I like tactical combat and all, but DA:O's 'Press button. Wait for cooldown. Press button. Wait for cooldown' system just sapped my will to play the game.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed it.

Also, I agree that Cloud is an awful character and that Tifa's boobs are way too big.

[Shallazar]

For my four cents, Mass Effect rules. 2 does things a little differently but is still awesome.
 I was a fan of the unlimited ammo and the random exploration, granted the Mako sucks ass.

DA2 will be great, at least I can still be a mage. If I can make Hawke look like an old dood, then I'll be happy. I thought at first that they would make it more mass effecty but I'm more sure after watching the latest developer diary that it will be fine. Sure combat is going to be a little more ADHD than AD&D but that should be fine if I can still nuke the shit out of areas. The lack of a voice in DA:O was kind of lame, especially after playing through Mass Effect.

I'm interested to see the fallout of my choices.


And Awakening was horrible, imo.

[Mckma]

Started Resident Evil 5 again.  Playing with a friend, and it's a lot of fun, not necessarily because it's a good game, but because it's such a cartoon...

[Moondog]

For my four cents, Mass Effect rules. 2 does things a little differently but is still awesome.
 I was a fan of the unlimited ammo and the random exploration, granted the Mako sucks ass.

DA2 will be great, at least I can still be a mage. If I can make Hawke look like an old dood, then I'll be happy. I thought at first that they would make it more mass effecty but I'm more sure after watching the latest developer diary that it will be fine. Sure combat is going to be a little more ADHD than AD&D but that should be fine if I can still nuke the shit out of areas. The lack of a voice in DA:O was kind of lame, especially after playing through Mass Effect.

I'm interested to see the fallout of my choices.


And Awakening was horrible, imo.

Haha, Dragon Mage: Origins. So effin' broken.

My 2 cents on ME2: Why the hell couldn't I kill Aria? Worst. Character. In. That. Entire. Universe. I mean, really, BioWare? I know you want your new game to be 'hard' and 'edgy' but why do you go from 'nobody drops F-bombs' in the first one to 'a character with a tight ass prances around and slowly drops one, not to mention angry Sinead O'Connor who is amazing in cutscenes but shitty everywhere else who uses fuck like it's a punctuation mark'?

Paragon Jennifer Hale Shepard should have had an option to put Aria's stupid blue head through the damn rails. Multiple times. :<

[Charlie72]

Started Resident Evil 5 again.  Playing with a friend, and it's a lot of fun, not necessarily because it's a good game, but because it's such a cartoon...

And this is after the game where you get chased by a giant clockwork statue of the dwarf who's castle you're in.