Whatcha playin? (Video games wise.)

Montana Smith

Active member


I breathed life into those old dogs when I found 'A Tale of Two Wastelands'.

TTW is a pretty extensive mod that unites the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3 with New Vegas under the New Vegas engine.

You're born in Vault 101, venture out into the Wasteland, and at any time can fight your way into DC to find the train that will carry you to New Vegas.

In TTW lore 12 years pass after you begin your journey and awake as the courier in Doc Mitchell's house in Goodsprings.

You need a few other mods to maintain playability considering you character has two wastelands to explore, such as increasing the level limit to 100.

On searching for a better way to move between wastelands I found a mod that adds an animated Vertibird with a detailed interior to function as both personal transport and player home.

Two navigation screens in the cockpit allow for travel to any previously discovered location in either wasteland.

I read that some players didn't like fast travelling as it ruined the experience, and I can see that now. There's more satisfaction in first hearing, and then seeing, your personal Vertibird flying in after being hailed, climbing aboard to dump your loot, deal with your followers, take a sleep and plan your next move.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Since there hasn't been a post in here in dog years...


Finn said:
Speaking of which, how's your playthrough of The Witcher 2 coming along, Sab? Since you haven't mentioned it in a while, am I to presume it's on an indefinite backburner?

Semi-permanently shelved. I made it as far as the La Vallete brat/heir but got tired of arguing with my computer and its ability to play the game. I'll definitely need to revisit it once I upgrade it.

That said, I picked up The Witcher III: Complete Edition, and just recently made it out of the... intro/tutorial/whatever. I've spent some time in Velen trying to level up and complete a few Witcher contracts -- haven't gotten far really -- and, man, they seem to be stingy with the XP. I'm not sure exactly where I'm at, but I just received a warm welcome from this lady.

latest


Glancing at the map, this is going to be quite the time sink. It's huge. I have some early pathfinding issues with Roach (a horse should be able to traverse certain things), and the combat is a step down from Bloodborne. That's not a complaint, though. Completely different focus. I like where this is going so far!
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Le Saboteur said:
I like where this is going so far!
You and millions of others. The Witcher III is one of those generational titles that will influence its genre for years to come. I mean, "what Half-Life did to FPSes" kind of influence.

I thought about reviving this thread a few months back and write my 2c about this one... but I had to give up because I hated how much of a gushing fanboy I sounded, even after some rigorous self-moderation.


Yes, you can boink her later.
 

Indy86

New member
Last PS game I played was Tomb Raider II. I have them all with exception of Angel of Darkness because I don't own PS2. I never finished them all before so I consider it an adventure to finish them all one time. Also Uncharted is still on the list of playing and finishing.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Finn said:
You and millions of others. The Witcher III is one of those generational titles that will influence its genre for years to come. I mean, "what Half-Life did to FPSes" kind of influence.

Yeah, I can definitely agree with that. Looking at, say, Skyrim, it's embarrassing just how far ahead CD Projekt is. These hefty, branching quests are amazingly involved. I went from attempting to clean out an old manor of monsters to helping Letho of Gulet* and jumped back into hunting down the Ladies.

Now I have to ride up to Downwarren and solve that problem before getting back to Ms. Metz.

* - All this time and I never realized that Letho was a Witcher.

I have a long way to go (this game is obviously deep), but I would have left out the ability to accept quests that you have no hope in hell of completing. I took a Witcher Contract and then realized that it was recommended for Level 23 characters; I'm level 6. Though, I did find my first relic silver sword that's allowing me to take on Level 11 monsters.


Finn said:
Yes, you can boink her later.

Figured as much.
 

IAdventurer01

Well-known member
I'm on my own adventure kick. I've been playing the rebooted Tomb Raider since they released it for Linux, but am also playing through Uncharted 4 at the same time.

It's been interesting comparing the two. While both are really good, I'm finding Drake's latest quite a bit more enjoyable than Ms. Croft's.
 

IAdventurer01

Well-known member
TheFedora said:
I tried playing Arkham Knight and got stuck halfway through.

Stuck because of bug or stuck because you couldn't get past a part? The game is good and you should really try finishing it at some point. (But Arkham City was the best in the series, IMO)
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Finn said:
You and millions of others. The Witcher III is one of those generational titles that will influence its genre for years to come. I mean, "what Half-Life did to FPSes" kind of influence.

I'm curious if anybody has seriously considered that fan petition to bring the series to the small screen via HBO. With six-million copies sold in the first six weeks, that seems like a solid foundation for a series. I don't even think Game of Thrones hit those kinds of numbers until season three.

I'm currently at ~67 hours in and I've come to something of an impasse. I've just (perhaps unfortunately) lost Triss* to Kovir and hit let level 19 in the process. If I keep running around Novigrad, I'll be wildly over leveled for the rest of the game and if I continue through to the end then I'll be wildly over leveled for everything else afterwards. Assuming, of course, that the side quests remain open.

More thoughts later, but Gwent is really, really fun. I'm looking forward to the stand alone game.

Finn said:
Yes, you can boink her later.

She's no Ves, and definitely no Yennefer, but Keira grew on me.


Off to the Passiflora!
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Le Saboteur said:
I'm curious if anybody has seriously considered that fan petition to bring the series to the small screen via HBO. With six-million copies sold in the first six weeks, that seems like a solid foundation for a series. I don't even think Game of Thrones hit those kinds of numbers until season three.
I guess the usual response would be to look at all these movies that started out as video games, and how they're, well, uniformally crap. And the reason is obvious. Most video games that people agree are good, are good because they have good gameplay. Their story content, on the other hand... well. To put it simply, when you have a highly interactive visual medium and transform that into a visual medium that is not-so-interactive, you're stripping away the bits that made it so good in the first place.

But when you have a game that - apart from being a good game - receives acclaim for its narrative content as well? Hmm, I guess that's different. There would arguably still be some meat left in The Witcher franchise even if you remove the gamey parts. Not to mention it all began as a series of books*, and those do have a better track record of being adapted to the screen than video games**. Then again, said books - while highly revered - were largely obscure outside Eastern Europe until someone chose to turn them into a damn good video game. So, how would their cultural quirks translate to a more global audience if it doesn't come with a good game?

I guess my stance is that it could work, but regardless, there's more to consider than merely the games' sales figures.

And oh, there is a movie in the works, based on not on the games, but on the early books. So I guess we'll have a better inkling soon enough.


*There actually IS a TV series already. The Poles made one out of the books, but as I've heard, the best words to describe that one are "flaming turd".

**Come to think of it, why aren't there any good Game of Thrones video games yet? Only ones that are considered mediocre at best.


Le Saboteur said:
I'm currently at ~67 hours in and I've come to something of an impasse. I've just (perhaps unfortunately) lost Triss* to Kovir and hit let level 19 in the process. If I keep running around Novigrad, I'll be wildly over leveled for the rest of the game and if I continue through to the end then I'll be wildly over leveled for everything else afterwards. Assuming, of course, that the side quests remain open.
I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the game actually rubberbands the XP rewards to your level. Only significant gains come from doing stuff that roughly respond to your current level (the "green" quests) or activites you're grossly underleveled for (the "red" ones). Once a quest or activity "grays out" because you're overleveled for it, you gain little to no XP from doing it. The biggest XP rewards are also always tied to the main quests, so even if you do tons of side stuff, at worst you're constantly only slightly overleveled for your next main quest.

So I'd say that as long as you meet the level requirements, you should definitely do the side stuff when you come across it and not worry about it too much - that won't turn the game into a curb-stomp cakewalk. But if you just plough through the main story, that will eventually overlevel you for most of the SQs, meaning your only motivation for coming back later is seeing the story content. (Of course, in a game like this, that alone is plenty motivation.)

As for losing Triss, that may or may not be unfortunate, depends somewhat on where your priorities lie. I don't wanna spoil too much, but you might wish to watch which creatures you skewer with your trouser sword. In the previous two games there were no repercussions whatsoever, but that may be a little different now that Yen is around. She's the canon love interest, after all.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Currently unrelated to The Witcher, but pork buns all around! And if you don't have a pork bun you'll never be a whole man!

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R.I.P United Front Games & Sleeping Dogs in particular.

For all of you don't own it,you're obliged to now pick it up. It's one of the best games of the last generation.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Finn said:
So I'd say that as long as you meet the level requirements, you should definitely do the side stuff when you come across it and not worry about it too much - that won't turn the game into a curb-stomp cakewalk. But if you just plough through the main story, that will eventually overlevel you for most of the SQs, meaning your only motivation for coming back later is seeing the story content. (Of course, in a game like this, that alone is plenty motivation.)

More on everything else later...

105 hours later and I've just completed... Ugly Baby. Visiting my Brothers in Arms now, and it feels like we're coming to the end of things. I'm at level 25 now. Should I aim to complete the main campaign and then tackle the expansions or finish them and then come back to the campaign? Does it really even matter?

I probably have another... thirty hours, maybe more of side things to do. There are plenty of monster nests left as well as an ample amount of question marks on Skellige.

Back to it!
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Le Saboteur said:
105 hours later and I've just completed... Ugly Baby. Visiting my Brothers in Arms now, and it feels like we're coming to the end of things. I'm at level 25 now. Should I aim to complete the main campaign and then tackle the expansions or finish them and then come back to the campaign? Does it really even matter?
End? Believe it or not, you're perhaps 2/3 through the main quest. I know what you're talking about though, they've planted sort of a huge false climax there. Just when you think the credits are about to roll, you find out you still got hours to go.

As for the expansions, I'd say only thing you should mind before tackling Hearts of Stone is your level. It's designed with a +30 character in mind. It's doable around lvl 25, at least on lower difficulties, since things become easier after the spike at the beginning when you get some hefty XP rewards for taking on quests while they're still marked red.

Blood & Wine is meant as post-MQ content, period. There are plot points that really don't make sense if you tackle it while the vanilla adventure is still underway, and some quests won't be available because of the things you haven't done during your search of Ciri yet. Not to mention the best way to reach its recommended level of 35 is to just play through the story, unless you wish to spend a couple dozen hours doing some heavy grinding.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I recently finished Rise of the Tomb Raider (which was excellent) and now I'm in the process of going through the Metal Gear Solid series. It's a franchise I've never given much of a chance but so far I'm enjoying it.:)
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Finn said:
End? Believe it or not, you're perhaps 2/3 through the main quest. I know what you're talking about though, they've planted sort of a huge false climax there. Just when you think the credits are about to roll, you find out you still got hours to go.

It just keeps going and going and going! I had to put it down after ~150 hours in, and then do something else. In the preceding months I went back and platinum-ed Sleeping Dogs: The Definitive Edition. We've spilled a lot of electrons praising this game, and if you haven't opted in yet then there's not a whole lot more we can do for you.

Also a pleasant surprise: Ratchet & Clank on the PS4! I came late to their intergalactic adventures (being a Sly Cooper fan), but their games were some of my favorites on the PS2 & PS3. The blend of platforming and action is superb, but it's the tongue in cheek humor is where they really shine.


At 40 bucks it's well worth the money and not quite the time sink that The Witcher is. You can probably beat the main campaign in around five hours.

You can avoid the movie though. It wasn't very good. What could have been a great introduction for the general populace was, instead, very middling.

Most recently? Rise of the Tomb Raider. Is it still a terrible title? Yes. Absolutely. But there are some great ideas contained therein. The Syria level was great -- much better than Drake's Deception -- but they really, really need to get a handle on the narrative aspect of the game. It's cringe worthy at times. I just made it to the... third area. Will be interested in seeing how everything plays out this time around.

Currently occupied with Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.


I was accepted into the beta a couple of weeks back and have been playing nightly. Until Nilfgaard comes online I've been running a slightly modified Northern Realms starter deck. I manage to win about half the time, but I think I could manage to do better with some further adjustments.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Finn said:
Then again, said books - while highly revered - were largely obscure outside Eastern Europe until someone chose to turn them into a damn good video game. So, how would their cultural quirks translate to a more global audience if it doesn't come with a good game?

I meant to respond to this a while back (No, I still haven't gotten back to The Witcher III yet.), but I guess we're going to find out in the near to immediate future now that Netflix dumped a mountain of zlotys onto somebody's desk. With Platige involved, it sounds like it might be animated but the press release seems to indicate live-action. I could go either way to be honest.

An itinerant monster hunter in a fantasy setting is an excellent conceit with which to base a teevee show on.

Finn said:
**Come to think of it, why aren't there any good Game of Thrones video games yet? Only ones that are considered mediocre at best.[/SIZE]

Because you already know what happens. Nobody really cares about what third pikeman Gerard did during, say, Robert's Rebellion. You can take an existing license (see that Lord of the Rings game with the so-called Nemesis system) and create an excellent game but it takes more effort than most studios are willing to put in. It took Rocksteady's Arkham series to finally do justice to superhero games. I imagine a book adaptation will have to reach a similar apogee.

What's occupying my time now? Nioh. Team NINJA's latest offering.


Think of it as a cross between the much missed Onimusha and the Soulsborne series of games, and you'll have a good idea of what it's like. How much remains of Kurosawa's (yes, that one) unfinished script is unknown, but some of the cut scenes in terms of angles and edits scream Kurosawa.

What is here though, is superb. The combat is top flight.
 

Goodsport

Member
Just as Battlefield 1's first DLC (They Shall Not Pass) most notably introduced the French army into the mix...

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/wp-con...Battlefield-1-They-Shall-Not-Pass-Rupture.jpg



... the game's second DLC (In the Name of the Tsar, expected in July/August) will most notably introduce the Russian army...

https://res.cloudinary.com/pvplive/image/upload/article_images/dlc1.jpg



... while the third DLC (Turning Tides, expected in October) will introduce amphibious warfare...

https://res.cloudinary.com/pvplive/image/upload/article_images/dlc2.jpg



... and the fourth DLC (Apocalypse, expected in December) will introduce brutal tools and unique weapons.

https://res.cloudinary.com/pvplive/image/upload/article_images/dlc3.jpg



-G
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Goodsport

Member
Sorry that I didn't include these two in my last post here. The 30-minute edit time limit expired before I was able to get around to these. :(

In any case, regarding BF1's first two DLC's:






-G
 
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