General gaming chatter

[Kasferatu]

Looks like we don't yet have a thread for general gaming updates.

I grabbed a second hand Wii U yesterday for... reasons.  I only have Mario Kart 8 right now which is an absolute blast, but there are a few other games I definitely want to pick up - Breath of the Wild for one.

Most of my time right now however is spent playing Witcher 3.  I'm only about 20 or so hours in, but this is an absolutely engrossing game.  I can't think off hand of an open world RPG I've enjoyed more and I know I'm probably not even 10% through it because I'm really taking my time with it.  It probably helps that I read all 7 novels before starting playing so I'm really invested in the world.

[Sssith]

I really want to find the time to get into Witcher.  I tried playing the first one recently but it is pretty dated.  Might preserve with it on the easiest setting to get through it.

Right now I am mostly playing ME:A which I will be posting about somewhere else.

[Pixie]

The problem with The Witcher is... the witcher. As in, Geralt. The world and everything else about the series is great but Geralt is an absolute tool of a character. He's flat, uninteresting, even downright boring. It's just a chore to play as him. He has zero redeeming/interesting qualities.

Give me the same series with a better protagonist and I would play the shit out of it.

[Kasferatu]

I think that is a problem with the way the game is portraying him.  Or worse still, the fact the game is giving you choice and thus can't give Geralt a character.  From the books, he is a character with a lot of nuance, but book Geralt would resolve many of the quest options in a particular way.

I would argue the criticism could be levelled at most western RPGs though, but the fact you can't customise the looks of Geralt in the same way you can a character in something like Mass Effect makes it feel more like Shephard is you than Geralt is you.

[Pixie]

I can't customize Aloy, or Lara, or Nilin, or any of a hundred other characters and they manage to be interesting and demonstrate growth and development and have personalities... none of which Geralt manages to do.

[Kasferatu]

I only recognize Lara from that list but that doesn't appear to me a fair comparison. They could write Lara's script in it's entirety knowing you would play that out and can't deviate. In the Witcher Geralts character and choices are left in the hands of the player. He's closer to Shepherd or the Inquisitor in that regard, and I would argue those are equally characterless.

[maxbeedo]

Been playing World of Final Fantasy.  It's pretty average for the most part, with relatively boring turn-based combat (not as strategic as it could be), although I'm starting to where they put effort into the game.  For the most part it's a Pokemon/Ni-No-Kuni clone with Final Fantasy characters, though since it was designed by Tetsuya Nomura the backstory is ridiculous and crazy ala Kingdom Hearts.  Thankfully, whoever did the translation/writing of the textual information in the game did an amazing job of not only making it sound interesting, but making it funny.    The voiced dialogue is nothing special and the new characters are uninteresting at best, and terribly annoying at worst, but they did make an effort to bring back the original voice actors for the FF characters and they do a fine job.

Here's an example of some of the writing:
"Maybe you've heard the expression the conductor used - 'peachy keen'- once or twice before.  Did you know where it comes from though?  About fifty years ago, 'keen' was another word for 'cool.'  And fifty years before that, folks called cool things 'peachy.'  Makes you wonder if people a century from now will be saying things like 'phat diggity' or 'totes bodacious' or 'carpe YOLO." (cringe) Let's just hope we're not around to see the worst of the fallout."

"Shiva tried to march right on home once she saw that Sherlotta and Refia weren't accompanied by a cadre of hunky guys--but what exactly would she have done if there were men present?  Freeze 'em up and use 'em to decorate her room?  Does she have an icebox somewhere filled with frozen beefcake?"

[lemming]

no more steam inventory gifts

Can't say I like this.

[Pixie]

Yeah, they've done fucked steam gifting up haaaaard.  No more stockpiling your inventory full of games during a sale to give away later. Ugh.

[Timinator]

Ok, so it means you have to know WHO you are giving it to as you gift?  I'm not quite sure I'm over all the details.  I've done a bit of this but not much, so possibly out of the loop here.

[maxbeedo]

Picked up a bunch of games.  Abzu and Tales from the Borderlands were the free games on PS+ this month which I've heard good things about.  There was also a sale on I Am Setsuna, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, and Nier:Automata so I picked those up.  Now to decide what to play first.

[Kasferatu]

Nier: Automata is definitely a game I'm going to grab at some future point.  I loved Valkyria Chronicles so hope you enjoy it too!

I'm now 55 hours into Witcher 3 and still exploring the first area outside the tutorial.  I think this may be my favourite open world RPG of all time.

[Sssith]

Still making my way through ME:A.  Enjoyable enough so far.  When done I will try to compile my thoughts.

[Pixie]

I lost it somewhere in ME:A. I'm a bit heartbroken about it, but it just... got boring. I still plug away at it here and there though.

I need to get back to NieR but my 360 controller is on the fritz so I'm waiting until I can buy a new one.

In the meantime, I'm back to playing (modding) Fallout 4. Playing a STR build, all melee and big guns. A "Wounding Minigun" is loltastically broken.

Also, the new Prey is freaking amazing. By all accounts, it's basically System Shock 3 but since I never played 1 or 2, I can't vouch for that.

[maxbeedo]

Finished Tales from the Borderlands.  Overall pretty good, although that's mostly because I recognized almost all of the voice actors and are some of my favorites.  First time playing a Telltale game and I definitely won't play any others though (would never have played this one if it wasn't free), since I favor mechanics and their stuff barely count as games.

Started I Am Setsuna.  A few interesting gameplay mechanics, but also some really bad design philosophies and misleading tips.  Got into a battle where one character had story-wise become a lot more powerful, so I switch them into the party, and they're 4 levels lower than the rest of my party, with only 1 ability that did nothing special to the boss, and when the boss died he did a dying AoE attack that one-shotted that character which resulted in a game over even though he wasn't a main character, other characters survived, and nothing in the description suggested he needed to be protected for that battle (when it was optional for me to use him anyway).  I lost 2.5 hours of progress, since there are no auto-saves, no inns, and no save points in most areas.