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I like being challenged, just not really with combat. I'd love a game which was essentially like Tomb Raider with huge sprawling levels, loads of complicated platforming and devious puzzles to solve, but without being broken up by annoying bits where you have to fight a dinosaur using fucking quick time events.
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quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: this one after two failures to clear a cave of fucking spiders I gave up for the night and am considering knocking the difficulty down to normal level.
Fuck that man, normal is what I play DA:O on when I'm feeling saucy. On a few occasions I've had to bump it down to 'casual' to ease the frustration.
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I didn't get to play much over the weekend apart from a bit of Dragon Age which is still great fun.
Benway - WRT Borderlands - It does get tough towards the end of the second playthrough and you do have to start using tactics, but you are right that it is too easy up to that stage. I suspect it will get even harder after beating the second playthrough as then everything is level 50-52 which is going to be mad hard but a little pointless as you've already completed the game twice so doing more is something that very few people are likely to do.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
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quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: I still enjoy the occasional bullet hell game, but in RPGs I only really like to be challenged on boss fights and just like to enjoy the story.
It's nice to have the option. Sometimes I want to fight blow-by-blow, and sometimes I just want to button-mash and blam the hell out of everything nice and quickly so I can get back to flirting with Leliana and Alistair.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
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Also, if anyone knows where the fifth goddam hooded courier is in Denerim, I'd be grateful for the information.
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Yeah, I've stuck on hard. Apart from the spider things I've been fine until the lighting of the beacon which was tough but doable.
The spiders were just annoying because twice I went in, one jumped on me and then they both kicked shit until I was dead with no way to do anything which I found irritating, but after taking it a bit slower it was pretty easy.
Although, there's no achievement for doing it on hard mode, so really what's the point :shrug:
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quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: Benway - WRT Borderlands - It does get tough towards the end of the second playthrough and you do have to start using tactics, but you are right that it is too easy up to that stage. I suspect it will get even harder after beating the second playthrough as then everything is level 50-52 which is going to be mad hard but a little pointless as you've already completed the game twice so doing more is something that very few people are likely to do.
Very true for me right now. The game feels very conceptual and only halfway complete. While overall a fairly consistent package, I can't help feel the game will benefit mostly from DLC. The world map can easily be expanded on. Obviously the levelling system can be tweaked a bit more so that characters can go up further levels to explore new maps, creatures loot etc. I don't want to say I'm disappointed with Borderlands, unless they make the first two playthroughs a testing ground to unleash your characters into a decent arena. It would be nice for them to expand the arena for teams of 4 v 4 so that all that nice loot and tailor made characters will actually be for something.
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I would agree with NWOD that Borderland 2 should be excellent. They have a great engine built and the gameplay is good but there is just so much more that could be done with it.
As it was such a success they're (hopefully) going to put a lot of effort into the second one so we'll have a lot more and more varied characters, much bigger boss fights, better story etc etc. It's like Mirror's edge. It's a great technical demo but it just really doesn't quite feel like a great game. It's close and with tweaking it'll be excellent.
I've commented on gamefaqs that they need to look at WOW for how to do endgame really and have sections that you don't stand a chance of even denting until you get four people all at top level and with really good equipment and then the equipment you get from that will enable you to do the next harder level. That way there is an incentive to keep actually getting better weaponry. At the moment you can complete the game (twice) without having to farm for good weapons/shields which means by the time you can start getting good stuff there is no point.
In case it isn't obvious, I've been listening to your podcast. Only heard half of it so far on the way to work but it's good. Will listen to the second half on the way home!
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quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: I would agree with NWOD that Borderland 2 should be excellent.
That was kind of a half-serious, half-joking comment on how quickly we've been drilling through games, but in a way I meant it. 26 quid is a good price to be so flippant about a release like Borderlands compared to the eye watering price of £35 for Halo ODST.
quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: How is AC2 Ringo?
Well Cherry, I'm glad you asked. Although I must admit I've not had much time over the weekend for playing games, what with me moving in with my girlfriend and doing all my Christmas shopping (I had the day off today specially) but I'd have to say I'm enjoying it.
You can definitely tell there's been a lot of work gone into developing the storyline for AC2. Your character, Ezio, is a much more fleshed out individual. You start out as a fairly well off young Florentine lad, getting into brawls with sons of rival families in scenes vaguely reminiscent of the Capulets and Montagues from Romeo and Juliet. You start off running a few basic errands for your father, until he's suddenly arrested and put to death before you're able to do anything about it, along with a few other members of your family. You learn then that your father was actually an Assassin, and his execution is part of an ongoing power struggle between the guild of assassins and the Templars. And so begins your journey towards becoming an assassin, firstly to avenge your father's death and then becoming embroiled in the wider events of rennaissance Italy. There's lots of little details in there obviously thrown in as a result of the popularity of a certain book by a certain Dan Brown, so it's conspiracies galore, with lots of symbols and hidden meanings.
The fundamental gameplay though still feels like it's missing one or two things. They don't seem to have found a way of successfully integrating the story into the actual gameplay so you basically end up running from one cutscene to the next, with the occasional fight thrown in for good measure. There are little minigames which are activated by discovering hidden symbols around the various locations, which usually take the form of a basic logic puzzle. In one you have to find hidden spheres in historical photos, and another you have to rotate parts of photos of famous historical leaders to unlock sections of video. I've no idea what this is leading up to, and while it does provide a nice little distraction from the core gameplay, it does feel a little bit clunky. I'll reserve judgement until I've unlocked the actual meaning of all of these little minigames.
AC2 has more of an RPG feel about it than the previous title. Now you need to accumulate money to repair or improve your armour and weaponry, plus spend money on improving your Uncle's Villa to improve tourism and eventually give a continual flow of cash.
As with the first game, the cities are wonderfully rendered, with more of a natural feel to the skylines and less obvious free running points. It's still just as much fun to run around and explore as it was in the first game, if not even more so. Again though, there's a sense that the gameplay hasn't moved on quite as well as it could have. You still start off with a blank map which must be filled in by climbing to the top of tall towers and having a look around.
Thankfully some of the annoying side missions from the first game are now gone. You won't need to do any annoying pickpocketing for instance (unless you fancy it - you can now pickpocket anyone you like and get a few Florins for your troubles). There's also a system in place where you can lower your profile so that guards won't automatically attack you just for running past them, involving tearing down 'wanted' posters from the walls. Although the positioning of these posters is a bit questionable - they all seem to be halfway up a wall where nobody would ever actually see them anyway.
So all in all it's a case of evolution rather than revolution. Some of the really clunky elements from the first game have been removed or at least scaled back to the point where they're no longer annoying, and thankfully the good points of the game are still in place if not improved upon. The core of the gameplay hasn't improved dramatically so it is still a case of wheeling your character between locations to see the next part of the story, but now the story is probably interesting enough to be worth the effort and your character is slightly more likeable which is obviously a bit of a step forward. If you absolutely hated the first game, you're probably not going to find much here that will change your opinion, but if you thought it killed a few hours you'll find this an even more enjoyable playing experience. It's still fairly early in the story for me so I can't say whether or not I'll get bored of it like I did with the first one and fail to complete it, but I'm pretty hopeful.
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I think it's a pretty good insight into my life that I'm more interested to find out what you think of a new computer game than how you are adapting to living with your girlfriend.
Thanks very much for that detailed analysis. It sounds quite interesting and I think I will pick it up just not for a while. I guess when it is down to about £15 new is going to be my selling point on it.
How is living with your girlfriend going? Make sure you learn from Mikee's mistake and poo with the bathroom door closed.
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Well it's early days, obviously. The flat is a bit of a mess at the moment because it was already pretty much full of Reema's stuff so adding mine has created a bit of a logistical problem. I've thrown away so much stuff over the last week or so it's crazy. There's still a fair bit still at my parents' house, in their loft and in the shed and stuff, that I simply can't find space for at the flat. In addition to this, we've had to get a load of new furniture, including book cases, a big chest of drawers, an enormous computer desk, and a few other bits and pieces. We hammered Ikea. But actually I like that we've bought a load of new stuff because the flat now looks quite a bit different from when it was just her living there by herself so I think it feels a bit more like 'our' place now.
It's weird doing things like food shopping again. And now I can't get away with not changing the cat litter and things. But, y'know, the positives obviously vastly outweigh this. I've also brought over my own TV which we've set up in the bedroom so I can play games and stuff when I want without hogging the TV. Obviously eventually we'll think about a bigger place, but times are hard at the moment and this is probably as good as we can afford. It's only 15 minutes' walk from the University where we both work so that's a bonus too.
So yeah, all in all it's been positive so far.
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quote:Originally posted by Tilde: I've been playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for 17 hours straight. I had a bit of a mental breakdown at the end and filmed it on my webcam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZgrEDqVZw
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: I've been playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for 17 hours straight. I had a bit of a mental breakdown at the end and filmed it on my webcam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZgrEDqVZw
quote:Originally posted by Tilde: Mind, Mikee's version is nice with the music and the editing - but there's not enough wall punching IMHO.
No, I was on a bit of a time limit though. The punching was good but I had to get a careful balance of sobbing, commentary on what makes it suck and an overly dramatic 'worst. game. ever'
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