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(Daedalus)

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Posts posted by (Daedalus)

  1. Dark Souls III.

     

    I’ve been able to get in a handful of short sessions, but my minimal time with the game and the brief amount of re-familiarization I need with the game each time I play another session (which in times past would not be an issue, but is now due to the longer periods of time between play) have made progress slow. I am about to enter the Cathedral of the Deep, but this replay has reminded me again how much I dislike the run from the Cleansing Chapel bonfire to the first shortcut from the Cathedral to the Chapel. This segment of the game proved to be one of the more difficult sections of the game for me on my first run through the game, and it is proving to be just as difficult this time around. It’s a long run before gaining access to a bonfire, and the area is littered with a lot of enemies. On their own, the enemies aren’t much of a problem, but they tend to be in groups, which makes them harder to deal with.

     

    Another difficulty I’ve encountered is the build I settled on. I’m all three games, my first successful run was made with dexterity-focused characters, with a little stat investment to also allow for some pyromancy. This particular style of play has proved versatile and most effective for my play style. This time around, I decided to go for something a little more challenging and outside my comfort zone: a strength/faith build. Up until now, it hasn’t been much of an issue. In fact, I was doing pretty well. However, I just switched to a greatsword (which I intended from the beginning to be my primary melee weapon in this run), and the adjustment has been... challenging. The speed is less of an issue than I expected—it’s only a hair slower than the weapon I was using before—but the stamina consumption is an adjustment. Which has led to an issue I worried about: stat allocation.

     

    I knew I wanted some investment into strength and faith because those were obviously the most important stats for a strength/faith build. The problem, however, is that, as I usually do in these games, I tried to spread my stats too much too early instead of focusing in one area until I was super effective and then filling in the other areas I needed. This has left me less effective than I would like, and I have a feeling it’s going to make the next bit of the run a little more difficult than it needed to be. Thankfully, I am close to the NPC that allows me to respec, so I fully intend to take advantage of that.

  2. I like it!

     

    That... sounds an inadequate response to such effort on your part, but trust me when I say I mean that. Is it perfect? No, but no one’s story will be, and I wouldn’t want it to be. Any flaws, small as they may be, just make the good qualities stand out, in my opinion.

     

    I can’t say I understand the context of this story. Why are the Toa scattered? With Gali encountering and recognizing an Agori, this obviously takes place after the reformation of Spherus Magna. Why are the Toa in disarray, and why would they be in search of other Toa? And what is significant about this outpost that Tahu is so insistent that Gali scout it out, and why is Gali so reluctant to do so? To be fair, some of my confusion may be entirely due to the fact that I have an embarrassing lack of canon knowledge after about, oh, 2004 or so, so this might connect to existing story that I am, sadly, ignorant of.

     

    Ultimately, though, what I have mentioned thus far is just framing for the meat of the story, and I found the meat to be the most enjoyable part. I always found Krika to be a fascinating and even tragic character, so the fact that he plays such a large role in this story is a plus. I wasn’t entirely sure of Krika’s motives, but I found his interactions with Gali interesting. I also wasn’t sure what caused the vision or whatever it was, but I found it an interesting plot device and I admit that I’m a sucker for such things, especially when they play on a character’s inner feelings and fears.

     

    I enjoyed Gali’s moment of meditation and her memories of her brothers. I found it a touching moment, and an effective one. I also enjoyed the occasional references to a possible afterlife and even indirect references to (a) higher power(s). Though I am careful to talk about such things here due to rules against such talk, I hold a fondness for such topics. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you gained even more points because of that, even though I didn’t make any mention of such things in my sign up.

     

    All in all, I enjoyed the story, and I can’t tell you how grateful and appreciative I am that you went out of your way spend the time and energy to write something for me. I know that sometimes it can be difficult to write, especially within the constraints of others’ requests, so I am grateful for your time and effort.

    • Upvote 1
  3. An acquaintance at school (whom I would be loathe to call a friend, but whose conversation I tolerated due to sharing an interest in Bionicle) was kind enough to burn me a copy of this game since I did not own it. I struggled to get the game to run properly on my computer, but the game worked well enough that I was able to finish it multiple times, but even at the age of seven or eight I was constantly frustrated by the lack of content. I wanted the game to offer more, but it never did.

     

    Fast forward about 7 years. My family and I were at a local Rite Aid to get some ice cream, and I did a double take when passing an end cap. For some reason I have yet to understand, the end cap was filled with various LEGO video games: Bionicle: The Game, LEGO Island, LEGO Island 2, LEGO Racer, and LEGO Stunt Rally. My brother and I were quite surprised and excited to see games from our younger years, including titles we never got the chance to play. Unfortunately, my brother had no money at the time, and I only had enough to purchase one of the games. I was strongly tempted to purchase one of the LEGO Island games since I never owned one, but in the end, nostalgia for the Bionicle line and rose-tinted glasses in regards to the game led me to purchase Bionicle: The Game, since our burned copy had long since disappeared.

     

    That experience with the game was short, but I enjoyed the nostalgia of playing through a game from my younger days. I can’t say I enjoyed the game much—the controls, even once changed from the cramped default PC controls, were too imprecise, character movement was oddly floaty, and the game was far too short—but I wasn’t disappointed with the experience. It gave me a window back into childhood, and I was grateful for that. Part of me wishes I had chosen another title, but I suspect my memories of Bionicle: The Game would be fainter for that choice, so I don’t regret the choice I did make.

     

    Now, I have much stronger memories of the Gameboy Advance version of the game. I can honestly say that that was probably my first dream game. I watched the trailer for it dozens of times over, and I scoured the Internet as well as I could with the limitations I had to find out as much as I could about the game. The game finally came into my possession when I was somehow able to convince my grandparents to buy it for me as a birthday gift. I spent untold hours struggling my way through what I considered an incredibly difficult game, but I loved the sense of accomplishment with each level beaten. I have fond memories of laying on the couch in our den and playing this game while my mom watched Judge Judy and Judge Brown. I have much less fond memories of the game’s save passwords not always working properly, but I still view the game with nostalgia.

     

    In fact, now that I’m talking about it, I realize that I still have my Gameboy Advance and Bionicle: The Game. Maybe I’ll pull them out and give them another try.

  4. I made a mistake.

     

    Since I got engaged to my wife, I have pretty much given up gaming. My reasons were many, but it primarily had to do with a shift in my priorities and the fact that I left my gaming computer at my parents’ house. At the time I moved out and even now, I don’t have much time to use it anyway, and my brother has invested as much money into that computer as I have. He may call it mine, but he has as much a right to own it as I do, so I just left it with him until or unless he decides to buy his own.

     

    Regardless, I have played probably a combined total of 5 or so hours since last November. However, due to circumstances in which my wife attended a wedding as a plus one for her sister, I spent this last Saturday hanging out with my dad and brother at my parents’ house. Having caught up on life and played a game of Uno, I decided to jump back into the last game I played just to pass some time and get some nostalgia kicks.

     

    And that, my friends, was my mistake.

     

    See, if there were any game series I could truly consider my weakness, and if I could name any game series that I have missed and often wished I could play again, it would be the Dark Souls series. I don’t know what it is about those games that I enjoy so much, but every time I get more than an hour into them, I get hooked—almost to the point of obsession.

     

    The particular entry I played that Saturday was Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, which I have before considered my least favorite in the series, though I still enjoy it. I didn’t make much progress due to the limited time I had to play, but that hour or two was all I needed. I felt that old obsession creeping back in. Five days later, and I still haven’t stopped thinking about it. I’ve spent much of my free time at work scouring wikis to read about bosses and locations and enemies and weapons and the different magic. I keep wondering when another opportunity will arise in which I can play again.

     

    Few other games have affected me like each game in the Dark Souls series has. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on any entry and I’m probably a middling player at best, but I so thoroughly enjoy the experience. Even when the games frustrate me or annoy, I cannot deny the sense of accomplishment when making it past another boss or another tough area in the game. I cannot stop thinking about the different builds I could try, or how I might have handled one boss or encounter differently. These games represent the pinnacle of why I enjoy gaming: it’s not just a pastime or hobby, but a great mental challenge—not just against the developer’s efforts, but against myself. Can I alter my strategy that keeps failing to make it work? Can I utilize weapons or tactics that go against what I’m comfortable with to progress through an area I’m stuck in? Can I make it past the next challenge?

     

    It may be another couple months before I again get the chance to play, but you can bet that when I do, the obsession, which will probably ebb in the meantime, will return again in full force. And I’m okay with that.

    • Upvote 1
  5. What's the difference between an Alpha and a Beta?

    Someone here probably has a more accurate or technical answer, but my basic understanding is that an alpha is incomplete—playable, but incomplete. There might be large chunks of the game that are missing or in a broken state. A beta is more or less complete, but still has bugs and other issues that have to be smoothed out.

     

    That’s how I’ve always understood it, anyway.

    • Upvote 1
  6. I don’t make resolutions for a new year, but I certainly have something great to look forward to this year: I’m getting married in April. I can’t even properly express how excited I am, and if I tried, I would probably make everyone gag from all the sap, so I will spare you all. Just know that I haven’t looked forward to anything else in my life as much as I am looking forward to marriage.

    • Upvote 2
  7. Nuju was always a favorite of mine. Despite the odd proportions of the Toa Metru, I really liked them, and as a fan of the element of ice, Nuju made the top of the Metru list.

     

    But my overall favorite has to be Axonn. Sure, his arms are incredibly long, his hands are massive, and there are only so many poses you can do with his top-heavy axe, but I just loved him. I liked his articulation, I liked how hefty and imposing he looked and felt, and his mask and axe are just cool. Every time I played with him, somebody got grabbed and squeezed by and/or got clobbered with those massive hands. Fun stuff.

  8. I suppose it depends. Story- slash lore-wise, I like the rahkshi. As many have already said, the fact that each one was just as dangerous to the Toa alone as they were in a group was kind of terrifying. The fact that they were direct spawn from Makuta just made them more terrifying. As sets, however, they always disappointed me. They always looked a tad awkward, and I found their proportions strange and frustrating. Sure, it was cool that their legs bent at the knee, but the proportions are a little odd and I found their stubby arms weird and unsatisfactory when it came to playing with them.

     

    So set-wise, I liked the vahki. The ability to switch between two- and four-legged modes always interested me and gave them an appropriately imposing look.

  9. I like Deus Ex.

     

    Really, though. At the time I joined BZP I was especially in love with the game, mainly because I had just recently obtained the full game after playing the preview a dozen times over. I took an instant liking to the character of Daedalus. I still don't know why. I liked the way the name sounded and the mystery behind him intrigued me, I guess.

     

    One of the reasons I chose that, too, was for what I thought was a cool idea: I opened every post with *Incoming Transmission* and closed every post with *End Transmission.* I even had this crazy plan to one day change my username to Icarus and then to Helios, but I never got around to it.

     

    Oh, and the parentheses are there only because Daedalus had already been taken.

  10. Finished Resident Evil HD Remaster. I played on Normal as Jill, and it was a bit easier than I expected. I'm not complaining, of course; I just expected higher difficulty from a classic survival horror game. The story was--okay? The letters and such you can find were generally interesting, but the plot as told through the cutscenes and such--eeehhh. As I said in my last post, the dialogue is awful, the acting is strange, and the characters behave bizarrely. But the game was worth it. For whatever reason, I enjoyed it from start to finish, and I will play it at least one more time just to experience Chris's storyline.

  11. I am primarily playing Resident Evil HD Remaster. I am enjoying it far more than I expected to. The dialogue is just a step above awful, the cutscenes are strange, and the voice acting borders on campy, but the game retains an appeal I have yet to wrap my brain around. The gameplay is archaic but works incredibly well, even if the use of camera angles to elicit fear is annoying and artificial. I am also not a fan of the save system. I don't mind the limited saves, necessarily, but it makes it difficult for a first time play, if only because I cannot play the game unless I know I will have a good chunk of time to do so. Still, I'm having fun with it, and I will definitely give Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster a try in the future.

     

    When I can't commit to a long gaming session or when I just want a chance of pace, I play Overwatch. I got to try out the new hero, Doomfist. I primarily play Mystery Heroes (in which you are assigned a random hero every time you spawn), and I was lucky enough to spawn as Doomfist in one match. I actually did fairly well with him. The key to using him, I discovered, is taking advantage of his short power cooldowns and using them often, especially in combos. Not only does this allow you to deal out some decent damage, his powers grant him some shield upon contact with an enemy. Thankfully, this doesn't make him as annoying to play against as I expected. Like with any hero, he has potential to be annoying in skilled hands, but on the whole I'd say they did a good job balancing him.

  12. I defeated the dragon in Dragon's Dogma, completing the main quest. I intended to keep playing because there is a decent amount of post-dragon content that actually finishes up he main storyline, and that's not even including the Bitterblack Isle stuff.

     

    I say "intended" because after making some decent progress into the post-dragon Everfall and collecting 19 of 20 Wakestones needed to progress, I ran into a poorly explained curiosity in regards to the game's save system. Apparently, the game uses what some refer to as hard and soft checkpoints. Soft checkpoints are the most frequent--they occur when transitioning between areas and during quests--and can be manually initiated from the pause menu. Hard checkpoints only occur when resting at an inn (or at those outpost camps, I suppose). Generally, there isn't much of a difference. If your last save was a soft save, that will be the one loaded when you restart the game or when you select "Retry" if you die. However, if you select "Load last checkpoint" (wording might not be exactly the same) from the pause menu, it loads the last hard checkpoint. Unaware of this, I selected that option when I encountered a no-win situation against the hydra boss in the Everfall. My character had been swallowed by one of the heads and my two remaining pawns were doing little to help me. I knew I would eventually die anyway, so I decided to load.

     

    In doing so, I lost every bit of progress I had made in the Everfall. I was disheartened, to say the least, and I was demoralized at the prospect of having to replay several hours of the game just to get back to where I had been.

     

    I enjoyed the game enough to return to it one day, but for now, it is on indefinite hiatus.

     

    In the meantime, I started Dragon Age: Inquisition as a female Qunari. I decided to go with a rogue again, but this time I'm going for archery. I have also imported a custom world state from Dragon Age Keep. I went with the standard world state my first time through, but I wanted this one to be different. I went generally went with the decisions I had made in Origins, though I included a few tweaks. I know the effects won't be drastic, but it is still nice to see things play out a little differently.

  13.  

     

    I finished Dragon Age: Origins--the base game, anyway. I originally planned on playing all the DLC and Awakening, but I don't know if I will now. When I return to the series, I really want to play Inquisition.

     

    Until that happens, though, I am playing Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. I am liking it so far. I decided to go for a ranged character. I am currently using the Ranger vocation and quite enjoying it.

     

    I wouldn't say I am particularly good at the game, though, and I need to spend a bit more time picking decent pawns. I am not far into the main quest, and despite having completed a good number of side quests, I keep getting wasted by an ogre I need to get past. I think, though, that by enlisting the aid of appropriate pawns and making more judicious use of special arrows and such, it shouldn't be too difficult to bring it down.

    Love Dragon's Dogma, never beaten it though. I always go for being the ranged + melee combo class. I hear that being a magic user in the game is breathtaking in the powers available. A bad side though, the main quest will start to feel like an overarching side quest as the actual side quests are more at the forefront to the point where you are all like '...oh yeah, gotta get my heart back!'. Awesome soundtrack, and I still want a sequel...

    Yeah, I got the impression the "main quest" was more of a vague reason for doing as many side quests as possible than anything else. The sheer number of quests that are already available is a bit intimidating. I've decided the best course of action is to just pluck away at them, doing a main quest here and there to keep the main plot moving forward as I see fit.

     

    As for the vocations, I will probably try out a mage class at some point. If I understand correctly, progress made in a vocation is not lost when you switch to another one, so it is possible to have high levels in several, if not all of them. I am particularly interested in the magic archer vocation; it sounds like it could be fun.

  14. I finished Dragon Age: Origins--the base game, anyway. I originally planned on playing all the DLC and Awakening, but I don't know if I will now. When I return to the series, I really want to play Inquisition.

     

    Until that happens, though, I am playing Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. I am liking it so far. I decided to go for a ranged character. I am currently using the Ranger vocation and quite enjoying it.

     

    I wouldn't say I am particularly good at the game, though, and I need to spend a bit more time picking decent pawns. I am not far into the main quest, and despite having completed a good number of side quests, I keep getting wasted by an ogre I need to get past. I think, though, that by enlisting the aid of appropriate pawns and making more judicious use of special arrows and such, it shouldn't be too difficult to bring it down.

  15. Dragon Age: Origins. My first run through this game was dominated by a mixture of love and hate: I enjoyed it enough to see the main plot through to the end, but when the epilogue rolled, I heaved a sigh of exhausted relief. At that time, I could best describe the game as an enjoyable slog. The tedium I associated with the game was largely my fault. I did not quite grasp the concept of a character build, and I distributed my attribute and talent points wantonly, not realizing that, unlike in the Knights of the Old Republic games, I would not be able to bungle my way through despite my ignorance.

     

    Still, I enjoyed the game enough to try it again over a year ago, and that run began much more smoothly. I played more intelligently and ended up with a smooth-talking rogue who could also deal hefty damage in combat as long as she had someone else to keep the enemy occupied. I enjoyed this run much more than my first run, and I was on course to complete as many side quests (including the DLC stuff) as possible. However, about twenty hours in, I was foiled by a hard drive crash. With no save backups and a lack of willingness to replay that much of the game just to get back to where I was, I moved on.

     

    The itch returned a month or so ago, however, and I started a female elf mage. I am again enjoying the game quite a bit. Mages are a blast to play, especially if you decide to remove the danger of friendly fire by playing on the easy difficulty setting like I am doing. Loosing Inferno (a fire tornado, basically) or Tempest (a localized lightning storm) in a battle produces spectacular sights.

     

    I still think combat encounters occur a little too frequently. In fact, that is the primary reason I switched to Easy; I don't mind having to play smart and tactically, but when every encounter is dangerous, doing so so often is exhausting and removes some of the fun for me.

     

    That said, I have avoided tedium by playing a couple other games.

     

    Overwatch. Yes, I have discovered this black hole of fun and wonder. When the game first came out, I wrote it off, partly because I figured it would be a flash in the pan but largely because I am, in general, not a multiplayer fan. I'm glad I decided to take a risk on this game, because it is an absolute blast to play. I don't have a "main," but I do favor Widowmaker. Of course, it wouldn't matter if I did have a "main;" I primarily play the Mystery Heroes mode, which randomly assigns you a hero every time you spawn. It essentially forces you to try heroes you would otherwise avoid, and that is an effective way to gain more skill with a wide array of characters. Plus, Mystery Heroes has the added bonus of being fairly laid back. Everyone plays poorly as at least one character, so people are usually pretty forgiving when you play terribly from time to time.

     

    And then my most recent purchase: Wolfenstein: The New Order. Despite being a fan of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and enjoying the fan-maligned Wolfenstein, I paid little attention to this entry. At the time it was released, I didn't have a computer capable of running it, and afyerward I just forgot about it. I would see it mentioned here and there and think, "Oh, I should try that some time; I've heard it's pretty fun," but I would quickly forget it. After seeing recent coverage of the game's upcoming sequel, my interest was finally piqued, and when a recent Steam sale offered the game at a discount, I picked it up.

     

    I will admit that I was initially thrown off by the game's tone, which is a bit odd in the sense that it will have you smiling or laughing at one point, and then make you wince in horror at some atrocity five minutes later. This tonal juxtaposition is frequently found in the game's protagonist and player character, too. In his interactions in the cutscenes, he sometimes acts humorously or sarcastically, but his voiceovers are dark and subdued. I never would have thought this could work, but the voice actor (Brian Bloom, if memory serves) does a fantastic job.

     

    As far as gameplay is concerned, it embraces its roots and avoids the type of gameplay popularized by Call of Duty and its ilk. It does have a type of cover system and you can look through each weapon's sights, but it is still mostly about being smart; without regenerating health, you have to be careful how you approach each battle. I am actually still adjusting to this; it has been a long time since I've played a game like this, so I've had to deal with a few deaths because I played it stupid. All in all, I'm enjoying it, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.

  16. Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (PS2 port)

     

    ...Is it so wrong that I actually kind of prefer the small changes for this console port compared to the original PC release? Only annoying thing are all the dang loading screens.

    Wrong? 'Tis blasphemy!

     

    I'm joking, of course. In fact, my plan is to use an overhaul mod the next time I play it. I can't remember what it is called off the top of my head, but it is supposed to be quite good.

     

    I doubt the changes between the PC version of the game and the PS2 version are anywhere near as extensive as an overhaul, but I am curious: What kind of changes were made?

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