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FUCK! FUCK! YEAH, FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! WHO'S THE BOSS NOW? YOU ARE SO MY BITCH NOW! FUCK YOU!
I hate rockstar so much.
Still, it's working now.
I hate rockstar so much.
Still, it's working now.
Skyrim reprise
Feb. 2nd, 2012 11:24 pmOkay, I've finally got the point of the game where I'm running out of palces to go and am realising I have to get back to the main plot soon. So it's a good time to say what I think.
It is awesome.
Not quite Mass Effect awesome, the plot isn't that high and the endless choices you have with your character kinda ends up being pointless because there's no way for the game world to interact with your choices (again, unlike Mass Effect). However, the fact that I have to go all the way up to my FAVOURITE GAME OF ALL TIME to find it lacking is a damn good sign :)
I'm not sure if I can say it's better than Fallout 3. It's better in many ways, but I love post-apocalyptic settings and had Mirek to play with (before he moved to ME and refused to come out), so it's a purely personal bias. Objectively Skyrim is better.
I also give it major pointers for not being a totaslly derivatve setting. Yes there's elves and dragons and stuff, but the fact that it's been set in a very particular part of the Elder Scrolls world means it's got a lot of originality, in this case, the world of vikings.
I love vikings.
It feels very real. I mean, there's all these people and they have their own politics and stuff. The people who aren't Nords (the viking people) have to deal with discrimination (the situation of the Kajiit people is very reminiciant of attitudes towards the Roma), there's a civil war taking place between the Empire, who are pretty politically dodgy and allied with some even worse people, and the Stormcloaks, who are pretty cool freedom fighters, but a bit 'Nordland for the Nords'.
But the bit I liked the most was with the situation of women. This is why I love vikings. For the period in IRL, if you had to be a woman anywhere in Europe, you could do worse than vikingland. Women could hold land, could rule, could fight. And Skyrim really takes than and goes with it. None of this 'it's medieval times so we can treat women like shite' from so many video games. Women rulers, women soldiers, women fighters, pretty equal opportunities while still have enough limit so we can see the society's perception of a woman's role: not half bad, but not there yet.
Also, the only skimpy costumes I can think of is that of the forsaken women, and seriously, pay attention because this is the only time I am going to use the equivelancy argument: The forsaken women wear fur bikinis, the forsaken men wear fur loincloths. All this tells me if that they like sporting beachwear in arctic climates. Normally I hate the equivelancy argument, but in this case it stands. Men and women are poisted the same, they fight the same, the camera doesn't pan to portions of their anatomy (unless you want to point it there yourself).
Also, you get female undead. The undead are these withered lurching zombie tomb-guardy things, and yeah, it makes sense to have female ones. This is just about the first time I've seen that happen. Fuck you Bioware and your 'how can we make female aliens? Give them boobs and lipstick?' No. Fuck you and the EA horse you rode in on. Skyrim has female guardian-mummy-zombies. What's your excuse?
It is awesome.
Not quite Mass Effect awesome, the plot isn't that high and the endless choices you have with your character kinda ends up being pointless because there's no way for the game world to interact with your choices (again, unlike Mass Effect). However, the fact that I have to go all the way up to my FAVOURITE GAME OF ALL TIME to find it lacking is a damn good sign :)
I'm not sure if I can say it's better than Fallout 3. It's better in many ways, but I love post-apocalyptic settings and had Mirek to play with (before he moved to ME and refused to come out), so it's a purely personal bias. Objectively Skyrim is better.
I also give it major pointers for not being a totaslly derivatve setting. Yes there's elves and dragons and stuff, but the fact that it's been set in a very particular part of the Elder Scrolls world means it's got a lot of originality, in this case, the world of vikings.
I love vikings.
It feels very real. I mean, there's all these people and they have their own politics and stuff. The people who aren't Nords (the viking people) have to deal with discrimination (the situation of the Kajiit people is very reminiciant of attitudes towards the Roma), there's a civil war taking place between the Empire, who are pretty politically dodgy and allied with some even worse people, and the Stormcloaks, who are pretty cool freedom fighters, but a bit 'Nordland for the Nords'.
But the bit I liked the most was with the situation of women. This is why I love vikings. For the period in IRL, if you had to be a woman anywhere in Europe, you could do worse than vikingland. Women could hold land, could rule, could fight. And Skyrim really takes than and goes with it. None of this 'it's medieval times so we can treat women like shite' from so many video games. Women rulers, women soldiers, women fighters, pretty equal opportunities while still have enough limit so we can see the society's perception of a woman's role: not half bad, but not there yet.
Also, the only skimpy costumes I can think of is that of the forsaken women, and seriously, pay attention because this is the only time I am going to use the equivelancy argument: The forsaken women wear fur bikinis, the forsaken men wear fur loincloths. All this tells me if that they like sporting beachwear in arctic climates. Normally I hate the equivelancy argument, but in this case it stands. Men and women are poisted the same, they fight the same, the camera doesn't pan to portions of their anatomy (unless you want to point it there yourself).
Also, you get female undead. The undead are these withered lurching zombie tomb-guardy things, and yeah, it makes sense to have female ones. This is just about the first time I've seen that happen. Fuck you Bioware and your 'how can we make female aliens? Give them boobs and lipstick?' No. Fuck you and the EA horse you rode in on. Skyrim has female guardian-mummy-zombies. What's your excuse?
Games I've played, listed by fav
Aug. 6th, 2011 12:01 am(note, I'm not including Portal 1+2 here as they are mostly casual games that I pick up and put down from time to time. I love them, but they're not the ongoing projects of most games I play)
Mass Effect 2 (by a nose, plot is not as good as 1, but the action and playability and lack of a bloody inventory system makes a win, helped by the facts that with Gibbs savegame editor I didn't have to do any mining)
Mass Effect 1 (so much love it's not even funny)
Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic 1 (It's everything that's good about Star Wars, with none of the shit. Rated down because the combat mixes the twin cheats of turn based combat and save anywhere, meaning every battle is a cakewalk, and it crashed a lot. A LOT)
Fallout 3 (Finally, a non-bioware game! So much love. So much love. The plot isn't as good as the above, but the fun of wandering around the beautifully rendered post-apocalyptic wasteland more than makes up for it)
Skyrim (Yeah, it's awesome. Dragons, Vikings, lots of fun)
Baldur's Gate (Dear god this is old, but I still love it, I played it about a million times and was still finding little Easter Eggs here and there, wonderful).
Jade Empire (An odd one, straightforward in some places, very weird in others. Fun to play if only to see what happens next, a lot of unexpected twists and one REALLY OBVIOUS one).
Baldur's Gate 2 (Again, played a million times. Still love it. The characters, the world, the plot. Love. All Round. Had less of the odd little nuggets of the first, which was a shame).
Icewind Dale (More straightforward than most RPGs, which is a shame, but it's beautiful and strange, which means I played it a lot).
Witcher (A bit too much railroading, a lag in chapter three, penalisation for not acting in a predecided way, made up for by great visuals, engaging world, fun characters and one of the best combat systems I've come across. And allowing me to play as Elric. Always a bonus)
Mass Effect 3 (Oh dear. To be honest, even without the ghastly ending it wouldn't have been ranking with 1 and 2. A shocking amount of railroading and forced character development which really did not suit my character at all [why would a Colonist xenophile care two shits about Earth or that bastard human kid? His boyfriend's planet's in flames!], and a rather worrying plot that had my cocking an eyebrow going: Hang on, a bit of black-box technology supposedly built by Protheans but clearly far older, and we have no idea what it does. Where have I heard that before? Follow it up with a stripped down cast, two of my favourite characters dying [three if you count Mirek], no Rachni, bewilderingly wrong-headed priorities and handwaved plot-points, then even without the groinbullet ending it would have been struggling to beat Star Wars. As it is... well)
Star Wars KOTOR 2 (Who the hell though of adding gritty realism into the Star Wars franchise? Even Lucas wasn't that dim. A perfectly good game otherwise, but didn't enjoy it so much).
Icewind Dale 2 (Some good things, some bad things, was rooting for the bad guys all the way, which fails in a game. The hacks were the best part)
Oblivion (My baseline for an enjoyable game. Oblivion was fun in places, boring in others, but still engaging enough to keep me going for 100% completion. Don't want to play it again but didn't begrugde the hours I spent on it)
LA Noire (Really good game, but couldn't really get into it. Gave up on it and haven't been back yet. May do at some point)
Age of Empires, Age of Mythology (Fun in the same way solitaire is fun. Time killer stuff)
Fallout New Vegas (One of the few games I gave up on almost immediately. Not because it was bad, but because everything it did just reminded me that Fallout 3 had done it miles better. Five minutes in and I switched it off and rebooted Fallout 3, no need to play a pale reflection when you have the real thing)
Prototype (Another one I gave up on. Fun stress relief, but no staying power)
Black and White (Good, but not my thing)
Morrowind (Gave up on it, and it crashed before I could exit it. Haven't gone back since)
Dragon Age (Shit! Only completed it for my love of Bioware and took it back to CEX the same day)
Yeah, I like Bioware. Still not playing Dragon Age 2 though.
EDIT/ to add LA Noire and Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 2 (by a nose, plot is not as good as 1, but the action and playability and lack of a bloody inventory system makes a win, helped by the facts that with Gibbs savegame editor I didn't have to do any mining)
Mass Effect 1 (so much love it's not even funny)
Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic 1 (It's everything that's good about Star Wars, with none of the shit. Rated down because the combat mixes the twin cheats of turn based combat and save anywhere, meaning every battle is a cakewalk, and it crashed a lot. A LOT)
Fallout 3 (Finally, a non-bioware game! So much love. So much love. The plot isn't as good as the above, but the fun of wandering around the beautifully rendered post-apocalyptic wasteland more than makes up for it)
Skyrim (Yeah, it's awesome. Dragons, Vikings, lots of fun)
Baldur's Gate (Dear god this is old, but I still love it, I played it about a million times and was still finding little Easter Eggs here and there, wonderful).
Jade Empire (An odd one, straightforward in some places, very weird in others. Fun to play if only to see what happens next, a lot of unexpected twists and one REALLY OBVIOUS one).
Baldur's Gate 2 (Again, played a million times. Still love it. The characters, the world, the plot. Love. All Round. Had less of the odd little nuggets of the first, which was a shame).
Icewind Dale (More straightforward than most RPGs, which is a shame, but it's beautiful and strange, which means I played it a lot).
Witcher (A bit too much railroading, a lag in chapter three, penalisation for not acting in a predecided way, made up for by great visuals, engaging world, fun characters and one of the best combat systems I've come across. And allowing me to play as Elric. Always a bonus)
Mass Effect 3 (Oh dear. To be honest, even without the ghastly ending it wouldn't have been ranking with 1 and 2. A shocking amount of railroading and forced character development which really did not suit my character at all [why would a Colonist xenophile care two shits about Earth or that bastard human kid? His boyfriend's planet's in flames!], and a rather worrying plot that had my cocking an eyebrow going: Hang on, a bit of black-box technology supposedly built by Protheans but clearly far older, and we have no idea what it does. Where have I heard that before? Follow it up with a stripped down cast, two of my favourite characters dying [three if you count Mirek], no Rachni, bewilderingly wrong-headed priorities and handwaved plot-points, then even without the groinbullet ending it would have been struggling to beat Star Wars. As it is... well)
Star Wars KOTOR 2 (Who the hell though of adding gritty realism into the Star Wars franchise? Even Lucas wasn't that dim. A perfectly good game otherwise, but didn't enjoy it so much).
Icewind Dale 2 (Some good things, some bad things, was rooting for the bad guys all the way, which fails in a game. The hacks were the best part)
Oblivion (My baseline for an enjoyable game. Oblivion was fun in places, boring in others, but still engaging enough to keep me going for 100% completion. Don't want to play it again but didn't begrugde the hours I spent on it)
LA Noire (Really good game, but couldn't really get into it. Gave up on it and haven't been back yet. May do at some point)
Age of Empires, Age of Mythology (Fun in the same way solitaire is fun. Time killer stuff)
Fallout New Vegas (One of the few games I gave up on almost immediately. Not because it was bad, but because everything it did just reminded me that Fallout 3 had done it miles better. Five minutes in and I switched it off and rebooted Fallout 3, no need to play a pale reflection when you have the real thing)
Prototype (Another one I gave up on. Fun stress relief, but no staying power)
Black and White (Good, but not my thing)
Morrowind (Gave up on it, and it crashed before I could exit it. Haven't gone back since)
Dragon Age (Shit! Only completed it for my love of Bioware and took it back to CEX the same day)
Yeah, I like Bioware. Still not playing Dragon Age 2 though.
EDIT/ to add LA Noire and Mass Effect 3
More on the Witcher
Jul. 9th, 2011 01:05 amOkay, this has gone straight past Elric look-alike into full-blown lawsuit territory. Wow. Be glad it's not the Tolkien estate you're ripping off, Moocock is fairly laid-back about these things, even though this is taking the piss.
The sex cards are adorable though, am really enjoying the very playful attitude to sex in this game. Gameplay's fine, even on hard difficulty I'm not having too much trouble, and the dice poker game is a hell of a lot of fun. I like games-in-games, Knights of the Old Republic had the best, but Witcher is coming a close second. It was the one thing Mass Effect failed at. Elric is really fucking Elric to the point where it's weird being called something else (although a bunch of the time they call you White Wolf I am not kidding).
The prologue was a bit predictable, I wanted to tell the guy accompanying me "Look dude, I know this spiel. I'm Elric, and this is a prologue, if you come with me you'll be dead three times over, so you stay here and play in the traffic like a good boy while I sort this out solo." Of course, I couldn't say than, so of course, he died. Still, it's doing a good job of throwing you into the thick of the action, you have the choice of either taking down one of the big bads or a huge monsterous beastie in the prologue, and not simply a 'you take them on, they kick your arse'. You win. It does a great job setting you up as an uber bad-ass before you've even worked out where the attack key is.
The fighting's fine, although maybe that's because the last RPG I played was Dragon Age and that had a difficulty curve like a spider's backside and had me chewing on the keyboard in frustration as I was killed for the fifteenth time by a bunch of randomly spawning bad guys. Here I'm on hard difficulty and while it's not exactly a breeze, it's pleasantly challenging. I'm not dying every minute, but it's a real danger if I'm not careful, and I appreciate that. It's not as easy as Mass Effect, but it probably would be if I was doing it on normal.
In design it reminds me a lot of a somewhat better designed Oblivion. I haven't gotten a look at the full gameworld yet, but it appears to be set just after a devastating war which the non-humans came off rather the worst for. I haven't any idea what's going but that's fine because my character's an amnesiac and can't remember either (although he's being pretty laid back about being amnesiac, maybe it's because he's Elric and realises he would rather not know thank-you-very-much). Anyway, it's intruiging me far more than Dragon Age did, because we have no idea whose the bad guys, what we're supposed to do or why we're doing it, and we have to unroll the mystery bit by bit. I LOVE THAT. Nothing I love more than a good mystery plot. I suppose I can't get my hopes up too high for a spectacular shock like in Mass Effect, but hey, one can but hope.
While there was a fair amont of rather annoying railroading at the beginning, it's loosening up nicely now (I'm reaching the end of Chapter 1). Probably the railroading was because the developers had a clear idea of who you were playing and wanted to get you into it before turning you loose. That's fine, I can dig that. The lack of a morality system is a relief too, I could lie and say that's because it makes for a more immersive experience and gives the sense that your actions have long-term as well as short-term consequences, but let's face it, I'm just pleased I get to nick stuff scott-free.
The sex cards are adorable though, am really enjoying the very playful attitude to sex in this game. Gameplay's fine, even on hard difficulty I'm not having too much trouble, and the dice poker game is a hell of a lot of fun. I like games-in-games, Knights of the Old Republic had the best, but Witcher is coming a close second. It was the one thing Mass Effect failed at. Elric is really fucking Elric to the point where it's weird being called something else (although a bunch of the time they call you White Wolf I am not kidding).
The prologue was a bit predictable, I wanted to tell the guy accompanying me "Look dude, I know this spiel. I'm Elric, and this is a prologue, if you come with me you'll be dead three times over, so you stay here and play in the traffic like a good boy while I sort this out solo." Of course, I couldn't say than, so of course, he died. Still, it's doing a good job of throwing you into the thick of the action, you have the choice of either taking down one of the big bads or a huge monsterous beastie in the prologue, and not simply a 'you take them on, they kick your arse'. You win. It does a great job setting you up as an uber bad-ass before you've even worked out where the attack key is.
The fighting's fine, although maybe that's because the last RPG I played was Dragon Age and that had a difficulty curve like a spider's backside and had me chewing on the keyboard in frustration as I was killed for the fifteenth time by a bunch of randomly spawning bad guys. Here I'm on hard difficulty and while it's not exactly a breeze, it's pleasantly challenging. I'm not dying every minute, but it's a real danger if I'm not careful, and I appreciate that. It's not as easy as Mass Effect, but it probably would be if I was doing it on normal.
In design it reminds me a lot of a somewhat better designed Oblivion. I haven't gotten a look at the full gameworld yet, but it appears to be set just after a devastating war which the non-humans came off rather the worst for. I haven't any idea what's going but that's fine because my character's an amnesiac and can't remember either (although he's being pretty laid back about being amnesiac, maybe it's because he's Elric and realises he would rather not know thank-you-very-much). Anyway, it's intruiging me far more than Dragon Age did, because we have no idea whose the bad guys, what we're supposed to do or why we're doing it, and we have to unroll the mystery bit by bit. I LOVE THAT. Nothing I love more than a good mystery plot. I suppose I can't get my hopes up too high for a spectacular shock like in Mass Effect, but hey, one can but hope.
While there was a fair amont of rather annoying railroading at the beginning, it's loosening up nicely now (I'm reaching the end of Chapter 1). Probably the railroading was because the developers had a clear idea of who you were playing and wanted to get you into it before turning you loose. That's fine, I can dig that. The lack of a morality system is a relief too, I could lie and say that's because it makes for a more immersive experience and gives the sense that your actions have long-term as well as short-term consequences, but let's face it, I'm just pleased I get to nick stuff scott-free.
The Witcher
Jul. 7th, 2011 09:55 pmSo after being burned by Dragon Age I've been away from gaming for a while, but I heard good things about this game, and it was on offer at Steam, so hey.
So I got it, booted it up and was very puzzled when it became clear I would be playing Elric of Melnibone. I mean, seriously, white hair, white skin, yellow-orange eyes (but hey I can work with that, he shouldn't have been white-skinned in the first place), takes drugs to fight, looks all moody and serious... yeah, that's my Elric. Loved him to bits since I was fifteen.
So hey, hi Elric, long time no see, I hope you find playing with me to be as fun as Mirek did with Mass Effect. It's also just as well because this game apparently has a fair bit of sex content and Elric is one of the few characters I have who is definitely straight, and not above jumping in the sack. It also means I have to play the game of max difficulty because he's Elric.
Should be fun, once I get past the endless cutscenes at the beginnign and actually, you know, play. Seriously game, the keyboard and mouse are here for a reason, and while your graphics are lovely I'd like to be able to run Elric into walls for a while.
So I got it, booted it up and was very puzzled when it became clear I would be playing Elric of Melnibone. I mean, seriously, white hair, white skin, yellow-orange eyes (but hey I can work with that, he shouldn't have been white-skinned in the first place), takes drugs to fight, looks all moody and serious... yeah, that's my Elric. Loved him to bits since I was fifteen.
So hey, hi Elric, long time no see, I hope you find playing with me to be as fun as Mirek did with Mass Effect. It's also just as well because this game apparently has a fair bit of sex content and Elric is one of the few characters I have who is definitely straight, and not above jumping in the sack. It also means I have to play the game of max difficulty because he's Elric.
Should be fun, once I get past the endless cutscenes at the beginnign and actually, you know, play. Seriously game, the keyboard and mouse are here for a reason, and while your graphics are lovely I'd like to be able to run Elric into walls for a while.
Mass Effect 2
Mar. 12th, 2011 03:42 amAfter my previous post going on and on (and on and on) about the fun I had playing Mass Effect wth Mirek as the main character (its just as well AIoM is over bar the editing, because he now refuses to leave), so I was hoping to something of the same for Mass Effect 2. Weeeell, it could be easier. Facts are that game was pure solid awesome from beginning to end.
( Cut for Spoilers. And Long. This Games has so many Epic moments I felt bad leaving any of them out. )
IlovethisgameIlovethisgameIlovethisgameI
*Playing Mass Effect with Mirek as Commander Shepard*
( Probably completely incomprehensible if you haven't played Mass Effect )
( Probably completely incomprehensible if you haven't played Mass Effect )
