What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

good move, i heard Fallout IV was very disappointing after Fallout 3.

i also thought that Oblivion was better than Skyrim but I realize i'm in the minority on that one.

Oblivion was most definitely NOT better than Skyrim. And Morrowind is the best Elder Scrolls!

Handsome Jack is a fantastic villain. Getting more of his backstory in Tales from the Borderlands, and getting to play as him in Pre-Sequel were both welcome additions.

boothwah wrote:

Borderlands counts! I'm a #1 BL fanboi!

The writing (?!) in the first game.... well let's just say the atmosphere was great - and the general tone - But there just isn't much story to the first installment - And the ending. What a f#%$ing lazy pile of dumpster garbage. I love the game for the atmosphere, music, visuals, the guns. There is no story in BL - You;re a murder hobo in a Mad Max spaghetti western.

Now Borderlands 2, OTH - The writing was fantastic! The pacing and the build up to the end are great. The best , most quotable villain in my video game lifetime. The Pre-sequel is shorter, which pissed some people off, but I find that I like the Australian sensibilities and humor tone to my liking.

I liked the loot system in Borderlands better than Borderlands 2. I played Borderlands when it first came out, and you could get a drop that would last you 20 levels or so. B2 reined that back in a little, and the nerfed loot system wasn't nearly as much fun.

Black Barney wrote:

i also thought that Oblivion was better than Skyrim but I realize i'm in the minority on that one.

Me too. The graphics in Skyrim were better, but I had more fun in Oblivion. I eventually ran into the same problem - got bored before I could finish it.

i finished Oblivion after 120-130 hours but never got close to Skyrim. i got SOOOOOO bored.

With Oblivion, I saved the best quest lines for last (Assassin's guild and Thieves' guild) so that helped.

RobertB wrote: boothwah wrote:

Borderlands counts! I'm a #1 BL fanboi!

The writing (?!) in the first game.... well let's just say the atmosphere was great - and the general tone - But there just isn't much story to the first installment - And the ending. What a f#%$ing lazy pile of dumpster garbage. I love the game for the atmosphere, music, visuals, the guns. There is no story in BL - You;re a murder hobo in a Mad Max spaghetti western.

Now Borderlands 2, OTH - The writing was fantastic! The pacing and the build up to the end are great. The best , most quotable villain in my video game lifetime. The Pre-sequel is shorter, which pissed some people off, but I find that I like the Australian sensibilities and humor tone to my liking.

I liked the loot system in Borderlands better than Borderlands 2. I played Borderlands when it first came out, and you could get a drop that would last you 20 levels or so. B2 reined that back in a little, and the nerfed loot system wasn't nearly as much fun.
.

I loved this! There were a couple of drops in BL2 that did this for me, too though. I got some Corrosive Submachine Gun that was just dynamite. I used that for ages even after I probably should have moved on. I really liked this aspect of the game. Honestly, leveling weapons seems weird. Like bullets from this old one are softer or what?

I just don't play video games for the "story". The best games stick to a basic premise and let you get on with the actual gameplay. DOOM, Left 4 Dead, DIABLO 3 are fine examples. I don't feel like a million dialogue trees or cutscenes add any interest to the basic mechanics in video games (which are usually just "kill shit"). Ok, mostly.

To show how much of a console video game newb I am, the ps4 is the first console I have owned since the ps1, and an Xbox for a short time before it red ringed.

Anyways, I got Godzilla on the PS4 used from game stop. Damn, very pretty but that is where the pros end. The game play is utter crap. How can you mess something so simple up? You need a good destruction system for the city, and even a basic fighting system for the kaiju would be enough to make fans happy. This offered none of that. Slow clunky controls ruined what should be an easy kick ass romp one could easily play while drunk.

So I returned it, and investigated Godzilla games further. My GF has a GameCube, so I bought a brand new copy of Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters! - Melee. Now THIS is a god damned kaiju game that didn't fuck around getting it right. Essentially Mortal Kombat with kaiju. It satisfies, and even though I rarely drink, I'm confident I could button mash while smashed and still have a good time. Best $20 I've spent on a game in over a decade. I may have to drag some of these elements into my own Destroy all Monsters!, since it fits so well.

Researching further, it seems that there is another kaiju game called Godzilla: Unleashed for later gen consoles that seem to get good reviews. Apparently, I can use the brilliant GameCube controller on the Wii, so I will keep my eyes out.

How the fuck a decent Godzilla game can't be made in this day and age, I'll never understand. I want my PS4 to earn its god damned monies back. Is Colorcrayons gonna havetuh choke a bitch?

Colorcrayons wrote: To show how much of a console video game newb I am, the ps4 is the first console I have owned since the ps1, and an Xbox for a short time before it red ringed.

Anyways, I got Godzilla on the PS4 used from game stop. Damn, very pretty but that is where the pros end. The game play is utter crap. How can you mess something so simple up? You need a good destruction system for the city, and even a basic fighting system for the kaiju would be enough to make fans happy. This offered none of that. Slow clunky controls ruined what should be an easy kick ass romp one could easily play while drunk.

So I returned it, and investigated Godzilla games further. My GF has a GameCube, so I bought a brand new copy of Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters! - Melee. Now THIS is a god damned kaiju game that didn't fuck around getting it right. Essentially Mortal Kombat with kaiju. It satisfies, and even though I rarely drink, I'm confident I could button mash while smashed and still have a good time. Best $20 I've spent on a game in over a decade. I may have to drag some of these elements into my own Destroy all Monsters!, since it fits so well.

Track down HULK: ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION for GC/PS2 era consoles. Fucking great game, kaiju sandbox done right. He's not a giant monster, but he is the Hulk and he does Hulk shit all over the maps.

While I'm a big ME fanboy, I do agree that the morality system is fake as hell. My final playthrough of thr trilogy I was doing/saying whatever I want (still ended up paragon). The best thing that Bioware does is that it makes you feel as if you're THE character and that character is always fucking awesome. That they do that in the first 3 minutes of the game is nothing short of amazing.

EDIT: On Elder Scrolls, Morrowind was too... strange. I just don't feel at home with it. That's important for a long, open-world game. I initially love the transportation system (getting through by boat, mage guild or silt striders), but eventually I got tired of it. The quick travel in Skyrim is convenient as hell, and it really makes me want to explore since I'd never waste any time as long as I reach the nearest landmark (which is plenty).

But Gothic still hold the crown.

Columbob wrote:

Unicron wrote: played Witcher 2 and 3 and I can’t recall the name of any characters other than Dandelion (because it’s a very stupid name).

His name in the source material is Jaskier, I don't know why they felt the need to change it in the English translation.

Is Buttercup any better?

I've played RPGs that had a pretty good story for a computer game, but few that had pretty good stories, period. I love the worlds of the Fallout games, but I like the incidental side details. The main storylines were junk. I played Morrowind (I think) and Skyrim and didn't care about anything or anyone in them; I never finished Skyrim because boy that was a bunch of "who cares?" in gameplay, setting, and story.

I hate chit-chatting with strangers in real life, so firing up a game to do that with some NPC is not going to happen. The absolute perfect companion in any RPG ever is Dogmeat from Fallout 4: an immortal dog that can carry a battleship and wear goggles, who doesn't talk to you (and still lets you have the "Lone Wanderer" perk!) Even if I weren't digitally anti-social, I have a hard time flipping from "AN ANCIENT EVIL STIRS AND MUST BE DEFEATED ASAP" to "man I gotta fuck this dude". When I recently replayed Baldur's Gate 2 (a rare RPG with a pretty decent story) that idiot paladin asshole tried to chat me up and I shut his shit down because I got people to save and ain't worrying about you getting your dick wet, and that was the end of that.

I also like for world-building details to be inserted organically. How many worthwhile books have you read in which details of the world are revealed by the character picking up a book within the book and getting a big infodump? I don't read that shit in games, and I especially don't read it if you're just giving me yet another History of the Elves bullshit that I've heard a million times already (looking at you, 20 minutes of Dragon Age I've played). My favorite quest (or at least the one I remember the best) in ME2 was the one about the genophage because the information came out by me taking actions along the plotline and not reading a big wall of text and then clicking a button.

Lately I've not paid much attention to plot at all. Destiny has none, as far as I'm concerned, as does No Man's Sky. The plot in Dishonored is inane. One exception was BL2, which has an interesting plot, almost despite itself. Handsome Jack is a great character and your interactions with him are interesting, but mostly in ways that the game seems unaware of (unless it's pulling a Starship Troopers level bait-and-switch that I go back and forth on thinking that it is.) And, as pointed out, I can't think of anyone sadder than someone who actually cares about the plot in Diablo and doesn't cash a check from Blizzard.

Legomancer wrote:
I hate chit-chatting with strangers in real life

This made me sad

I think it can lead to one of the great pleasures in life. Making a connection with another human being.

I think the continuity represented in the Elder Scrolls series is impressive, even if it really isn't all that interesting. One of the neatest things that happened to me in Skyrim was picking up a random book and ending up getting a side quest from it. I loved the idea of someone creating content that they knew most people would never see, but they did it anyway.

I actually read both Elder Scrolls novels. The first one was interesting, the second one, not so much.

I once tried to read a Diablo novel. I couldn't finish it.

Black Barney wrote:

Legomancer wrote:
I hate chit-chatting with strangers in real life

This made me sad

I think it can lead to one of the great pleasures in life. Making a connection with another human being.

I think we'll both survive.

Personally, I like a little plot in a game. "This is the problem, fix it." I don't think I'm interacting with an NPC in a game, any more than I'm interacting with the characters in a novel, or on TV. But, I do enjoy good pieces of dialog.

I'll pick up books in a game, skim them, and throw them in the backpack if they're worth something at a vendor. Elder Scrolls lore is generic medieval fantasy, but it's okay. I've read enough of that sort of thing that I don't feel a real need for more. But some folks like country music and some like jazz, a lot! Who am I to judge?

As for Dishonored, I wouldn't go so far as to say its plot was 'inane'. 'Simplistic' maybe. "We saved your life from the Bad Guys, want some payback? BTW, we're sneaky bastards too." Sure, point me in the right direction, and I curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.