Any gamers around here?

[Hydra009]

You can make it so your ship's captain is a random MLP character.  So far I have Luna, Fluttershy, and a bunch of background ponies.  I'm going to have to tinker around with the mod to pick the exact right ones.

Also, torpedo icons look like giant eclairs.  Cannon icons look like either cupcakes or baked bads.  And cannon fire looks like either red or blue lasers (like in Star Wars).  Makes the game a little more mirthful.

[trdsf]

Evil Twin's kids have me playing Guild Wars 2.  No strong opinions on it yet, and I can only play at their place because my computer can't handle the graphics load (yeah, I know, time to upgrade).  Still actively playing Wizard101 and looking forward to the upcoming level boost and new realm.

[Sal1981]

Guild Wars 2 has a pretty good storyline for the character quests, but other than that, it's a grind fest for legendaries.

[Shiranu]

Fallout night.

[Hydra009]

Heck yes!  I'm finally going to start playing Fallout tonight!

New Vegas, here I come!

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0TSQFulICs

I talked to a couple guys about Fallout 4.  One loves it and can't get enough of it.  The other plays it but doesn't like it - he cites the bugs and states that the occasional crash is unacceptable despite the game itself being very good.  (Exact words:  "pirate it, don't buy it", which I disagree with - good games should earn at least a modest contribution.  You don't have to shell out $60 at launch, it could just be $20 or less after it goes on sale.)  Imho, his standards are too high.  Perfection or piracy seems like an unrealistic choice.  Bethesda games are notoriously buggy on release, but most of em eventually get fixed with patches and community mods, so I wouldn't sweat it.  As far as flaws go, that's a pretty minor one.  Other games are practically unplayable on release or suffer from some seriously questionable business practices *coughEAcough*

I've seen a lot of mixed opinions on this game.  Youtube and Steam reviews generally praise it, but it's taking a beating on Metacritic.  What gives?  Is there some major flaw that I don't know about or is Metacritic the new Yelp?

[Mike Cl]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0TSQFulICs

I talked to a couple guys about Fallout 4.  One loves it and can't get enough of it.  The other plays it but doesn't like it - he cites the bugs and states that the occasional crash is unacceptable despite the game itself being very good.  (Exact words:  "pirate it, don't buy it", which I disagree with - good games should earn at least a modest contribution.  You don't have to shell out $60 at launch, it could just be $20 or less after it goes on sale.)  Imho, his standards are too high.  Perfection or piracy seems like an unrealistic choice.  Bethesda games are notoriously buggy on release, but most of em eventually get fixed with patches and community mods, so I wouldn't sweat it.  As far as flaws go, that's a pretty minor one.  Other games are practically unplayable on release or suffer from some seriously questionable business practices *coughEAcough*

I've seen a lot of mixed opinions on this game.  Youtube and Steam reviews generally praise it, but it's taking a beating on Metacritic.  What gives?  Is there some major flaw that I don't know about or is Metacritic the new Yelp?

I love FO 3--for me that is the game I compare all others to.  And I still play it often.  I also love New Vegas.  It is just a tiny tick lessor than FO3.  And I still play it as well.  I Have been playing FO 4 for the last two days (notice--no postings by me in that stretch???)  and I love it.  So far it matches FO 3--but way too early to see how it fully stacks up.  I read on steam that there was a clash of video cards and it caused an immediate crash.  But there is a patch up for that already.  I had not problems.  I did get a message that the game could not find my video card so the setting were on low.  But if what I am seeing is low then high must be like walking down the street.  I have not had one glitch or crash.

The graphics are great!  The framerate is good.  The views are unbelievable.  So far no technical or graphical problems.  It is clearly a step above New Vegas and Skyrim.  (And yes, I love Skyrim, too and still play it as well.) The quests seem well done so far.  The combat is easy to pick up.  Moving is easy and realistic.  The new perk system is an improvement over NV and will allow for a whole array of directions to develop in.  The biggest difference so far is the crafting.  Working from a work bench I can just about dismantle an entire town down to it's components.   What I can do with that I'm not clear what I can do with all that stuff.  For example, I can break down the toy car into plastic, screws and something else.  That is then stored within the range of that workbench.  And can be used to craft other objects.  The work benches I have found so far are general work bench, weapons bench, chemical, cooking, and armor.  Everything is piece-meal in that you can craft a huge assortment of things from each bench.  Weapon making will be fun, I can tell already.  And armor is created piece by piece now and not just suits.  All the clothing has some value now, even the clean business suits.  They can at least be scraped.  And everything you can pick up can be scraped if you want--so nothing is useless now. 

We do get companions but I'm not sure what each can do, or even who they all are.  Dogmeat shows up quickly.  He is very useful and giving him directions is easier and he can now carry stuff.  The house robot is the first one you come across.  And he is surprisingly good.  But I elected to go with Dogmeat for now.  Other companions show up later, I think.  The opening is draggy--but then that is the norm for the FO series.  And the story has to start somewhere.  And the story centers around finding your son.

I fought with my expectations for a month now.  I did not want to get myself all worked up and make myself be disappointed.  So far, nothing even close to disappointment.  One of the best features for me with the FO series is the replayability of the game.  I can see, even in this short time, that I want to go back and do it differently.  I am sure I will be logging at least 1000 hrs into this game--and maybe (most likely) more. 

If you like this type of game, do not hesitate--grab it now and play the hell out of it!!!!

[Shiranu]

I have never been a huge Fallout fan, but honestly I have been loving 4. It's been awhile since I have gotten so hooked on a game... and yeah, I have had no technical difficulties either, the only glitch I have seen is Codsworth standing on a table and floating into a roof. No crashes, no game-breaking bugs, just one instance of clipping because of a bad path choice.

Everything about it has been really fun though, so I don't know why it is getting bashed. Maybe the over-hyping it got is catching up to it.

[Hydra009]

Everything about it has been really fun though, so I don't know why it is getting bashed. Maybe the over-hyping it got is catching up to it.

From the reviews, it seems like people expected a masterpiece and are upset that it didn't match their incredibly high expectations.  The negative ones say that it's more FPS than RPG - they didn't like the removal of skills, removal of karma, or the Mass Effect-style dialogue options.  The UI gets a lot of flak, too.

[Hydra009]

If you like this type of game, do not hesitate--grab it now and play the hell out of it!!!!

I will...eventually.  My rig barely hits minimum requirements in some areas.  It'll have to wait until after I upgrade.  It's the first thing I'll buy after the upgrade, though.

[Mike Cl]

I will...eventually.  My rig barely hits minimum requirements in some areas.  It'll have to wait until after I upgrade.  It's the first thing I'll buy after the upgrade, though.

Sorry to hear that.  But I do know your agony.  I've been there and done that.  But it is a grand play so far.  I don't see how anyone can say this is not an epic game.  I would say that so far it has exceeded my expectations--and my expectations were fairly high.   

[Hydra009]

Don't be.  It's an intentionally mid-range build.  I get to play games that are roughly 2 years old and have already been patched and modded to stability - no, excellence - instead of being an unwitting betatester.  Saves me a ton of grief and money and all it requires is a lot of patience on my part.  The only downside is being a bit late to the party, but that's fine.  When I get my hands on Fallout 4, it'll be half the price with a ton of DLC and excellent mods.  It'll be ten times as good as it was, and my time to rule shall come.

[Mike Cl]

Don't be.  It's an intentionally mid-range build.  I get to play games that are roughly 2 years old and have already been patched and modded to stability - no, excellence - instead of being an unwitting betatester.  Saves me a ton of grief and money and all it requires is a lot of patience on my part.  The only downside is being a bit late to the party, but that's fine.  When I get my hands on Fallout 4, it'll be half the price with a ton of DLC and excellent mods.  It'll be ten times as good as it was, and my time to rule shall come.

That is the mirror image of how I tackled most of my favorite games.  When I was working, I'd wait for at least a year to pick up the next game I had my eye on.  I found that I replayed the games I like so much that have plenty of good games to play/replay, and that year or year and a half would go by pretty quick.  That plan of yours is really good!

[missingnocchi]

Not impressed with 4. The quality of the story, dialogue, and characters are all down from New Vegas. They tried to return to the empty, barren feeling of the Capital Wasteland as opposed to the relatively crowded Mojave, but the thing about Fallout 3 is that even when there weren't many people around, there was always something to explore. In 4, the empty feeling is achieved through large portions of the map that are just barren, with no structures, caves, or really anything at all but a few radstags. The writers have so far struggled to convince me of pretty much anyone's motivations, or why I should care about them. [Spoiler warning] I really should have seen it coming when they had more people on the surface defending and operating the vault than people going down... really? I can see the soldiers being willing to give their lives, but the elevator operators? I would have been scrambling to get on that shit myself, don't know about the rest of you. A minor detail, but one that's a microcosm of how they treat personal motivation for basically the entire game - if it doesn't advance the plot, it doesn't exist.

Gameplay fares a little better, but only in the sense that it's a mixed bag rather than being all negative. On the one hand, combat has definitely improved, and I like the setups for the scripted battles. Very fertile ground for a lot of creative maneuvering. It would be a lot better if the AI actually fought back, but unfortunately, AI has retained the bare-bones functionality Bethesda is known for. It's not going to do anything too absurd, but seriously, The Last of Us is what, two years old now? It's a bit of a waste of some of the best designed parts of the game. The worst offense, in my opinion, is the final abandonment of the RPG aspects of the game. Unless you're an absolute VATS maniac, half of the stats don't even matter anymore. The game only gives you two real choices the entire way through, everything else is either completely railroaded or totally self-contained. As a fan of the original Fallout games, I'm disappointed that they've now for the first time dropped the original stats/perks system, only retaining S.P.E.C.I.A.L. as a vestige. At least the lore is still good, though I suspect that's because most of it was sketched out during Fallout 3's development.

6/10, not good enough to pay full price but not bad enough to pirate without guilt. Wait until the Summer Sale and get it for 20 or 30 bucks.

[_Xenu_]

Im joining the Fallout party a bit late. I've had Fallout 3 for awhile but haven't gotten that deeply into it. Per the encouragement of someone at work, I played it again for a bit tonight. I'm still getting killed before I get out of the bunker.