What video games are you playing? pt. 2

[Chainsaw]

What EA sports should really do, if they wanted to ensure quality product, is release a Madden/Fifa/Whatever in one year, and then patch it with DLC for team and player updates, for literally 2, or 3, or 4 years. However the fuck long it takes to make some *ACTUAL* progress gameplay and visual wise.

Seriously, I've played Fifa 12, the only single difference between 09 and 12 is that the visuals are updated, the teams are updated to match real life, and it's slightly more tactical in choosing your strategy. This could all be done through patches/DLC.

I feel exactly the same about CoD: Modern Business Model. They literally haven't changed a god damn thing since Modern Warfare 1. MW3 looks exactly the same as MW1. For the company that's making the biggest selling game this generation that's simply not fucking good enough. I lost interest in CoD during Modern warfare 1 though, so I'm not the target audience (I.E I have an IQ above 30), but Jesus Christ, that game makes them millions of dollars they should keep it looking modern. I can't believe Battlefield 3 which looks stunning, gets compared to this mediocre bullshit.

/rant

Well that's the thing. People buy these games regardless if they really work on them or not. So it's actually up to the consumers, if they can get away with giving us the same thing every year and make huge profits, why shouldn't they? And yes, Battlefield 3 is looking awesome!

[mrconeman]

Which is exactly why I called it "modern business model".

Activision are putting in absolutely minimal effort, and reaping massive monetary rewards, it's the perfect business set up. However, I personally don't care how many extra blankets activision get to make out of money, what I care about is quality games being released that look like they're from the time of release, not 5 years previous. Which doesn't currently happen.

[Paint_It_Black]

For sure. I was hoping for a little compare and contrast session.
Well the two that irk me that I didn't actually accomplish were leaving the dragon alive in the ruins where you find the sacred urn, and also leaving Flemeth alive.

Yeah I killed both of them. I'm curious if anything would be different in DA2 if I hadn't though. Do you know yet if you'll be importing that save to DA2?

I convinced Alistair and Anora to marry and rule together. I seen it as a fair compromise, because as much as Alistair hated the idea of becoming king, there was something terribly un trust worthy about Anora, I felt so anyway.

Yeah, me too. Did Alistair want to be king in your game? Basically there's a moment earlier in the game where certain dialogue choices determine whether he wants to be king or not. For me he was still hesitant at first but then decided he wanted it. I thought keeping Anora involved would help bring stability to the realm and lessen the burden on him, but...

What else...uhh...I killed Logain, but after the landsmeet I almost felt bad about it, Simon Templeman pulled out some of the greatest voice acting I've ever heard in a game during that scene, just awesome.

I didn't kill Logain. I felt that Alistair was more of a victim of Logain's crimes than I was, and also since he was going to be king, I just thought it should be his decision. And as any Stark could tell you the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. So Alistair passed the death sentence and executed Logain, after which Anora refused to marry him and had to be imprisoned or exiled for the good of the realm. I was actually really happy with this outcome. Though initially I kinda liked the idea of making him a Grey Warden. I had wanted to kill him quite badly all through the game but like you said he's so awesome that you almost don't want to when the time comes.

I'd guess that whatever way you choose to go in the game that the main character always takes the last blow? I could be wrong, but it seems that way

Well, actually, my wife played it as a woman and Alistair was her love interest. At the end Alistair wouldn't let her sacrifice herself so he insisted on performing the killing blow. The dark ritual had not been performed and so Alistair actually died. Oh man, she was soooo pissed.

I think that's all the ones I remember for now, if there's any you're particularly curious about ask away.
How about you? Have you played it multiple times?

How did you deal with the Connor situation?

I played multiple times but not all the way to the end. I only played my mage to the end but I also watched most of what my wife was doing with her warrior, so I saw a lot of the different possibilities. I didn't actually play any of the elf origins so I definitely want to try that still. And I'd quite like to finish the game with my noble origin because that origin seemed awesome.

I'm still trying not to say too much because if you plan on playing through a few more times I don't want to spoil anything.

I thought the same thing about the name pronunciations. I just kinda ignored what the characters said and pronounced them the right way in my own head.

[bighead384]

Right now, catching up on pokemon. I'm playing the Gold remake for my DS and I've also stumbled upon a online PokemonTCG that is in it's open beta. It's actually really fun.

Where did you find the PokemonTCG?

[Outerspaceman21]

Where did you find the PokemonTCG?

http://www.pokemontcg.com/

Here. I saw one of my youtube subscriptions doing a stream of it and made an account. It's really well down for an online TCG.

[bighead384]

http://www.pokemontcg.com/

Here. I saw one of my youtube subscriptions doing a stream of it and made an account. It's really well down for an online TCG.

I signed up but it's confusing. Where do I build my deck? I can only use premade decks? Also, I didn't know they released more cards. I'm honestly not trying to take the time to learn about all these new cards...

I miss the PokemonTCG, but I dunno if this is worth the effort.

[nieh]

Not that I know of, but I may have without knowing. I've only paid attention to developers in recent years.

Day of the Tentacle? Monkey Island? Sam and Max? Psychonauts? Psychonauts in particular is as well written, well acted, imaginative and hilarious as a lot of movies out there. If you haven't played that yet, I'd suggest checking it out.

[Outerspaceman21]

I signed up but it's confusing. Where do I build my deck? I can only use premade decks? Also, I didn't know they released more cards. I'm honestly not trying to take the time to learn about all these new cards...

I miss the PokemonTCG, but I dunno if this is worth the effort.

To build your decks, enter the multiplayer tab, then you will see an option for building decks. By default, you will have a premade electric deck to work with, but you have two options to get more cards. The first is completing the trainer challenge, which is just a series of matches against a computer opponent, and you can unlock the fire, water and grass decks by winning 12 games with each deck (very time consuming, though) or you can buy boosters irl and enter codes to unlock them in game.

The game is still in it's beta, but once it's released, you will be able to purchase cards free with points that you build up in game.

As for all the new cards, it's very different from what the game used to be, but it's very easy to pick up.

[mrconeman]

Yeah I killed both of them. I'm curious if anything would be different in DA2 if I hadn't though. Do you know yet if you'll be importing that save to DA2?

I'm not sure yet. I think I want to load the save file I have from the alienage and try to go back and kill both dragons. I will also do the other 5 origin stories, and play the entire game one more time at least, to do all the opposite choices, and get the respective trophies. I think I do want to keep my save file of my main character now though, he turned out really awesome, and if there's any chance of an encounter with him in DA2 or hearing about his activities rather than whoever else I create next, I'd prefer it to be him. Or whatever way his exploits are implemented, I think I'd prefer it to be him.

Yeah, me too. Did Alistair want to be king in your game? Basically there's a moment earlier in the game where certain dialogue choices determine whether he wants to be king or not. For me he was still hesitant at first but then decided he wanted it. I thought keeping Anora involved would help bring stability to the realm and lessen the burden on him, but...

Everytime I spoke to him throughout the game, and the topic of his blood line came up he expressed in no uncertain terms that he did not want to become king. Right up until I convinced him to marry Anora, but even then he was hesitant. Hell, after he became king I made a sarcastic comment about asking for thanks, and he got really angry about it. I was able to persuade him into accepting it happily enough though. I think next time around I'll let Anora rule by herself.

So Alistair passed the death sentence and executed Logain, after which Anora refused to marry him and had to be imprisoned or exiled for the good of the realm. I was actually really happy with this outcome.

That's fantastic actually. I thoroughly disliked her, and I can't really put my finger on why.

Though initially I kinda liked the idea of making him a Grey Warden. I had wanted to kill him quite badly all through the game but like you said he's so awesome that you almost don't want to when the time comes.

I'd like to see how that turned out also, but I get the feeling that Alistair would probably try to kill him or turn against you if you let Logain become an ally.

Well, actually, my wife played it as a woman and Alistair was her love interest. At the end Alistair wouldn't let her sacrifice herself so he insisted on performing the killing blow. The dark ritual had not been performed and so Alistair actually died. Oh man, she was soooo pissed.

Haha, that's awesome. That's an idea actually. I could load my Alienage save and just do all the different options in the ending. A huge reason for choosing the dark ritual was that Morrigan said she was going to leave immediately if I didn't go ahead with it, and I felt like I'd need her in the final battle. I hear this isn't true though and she actually stays until after the battle regardless.

How did you deal with the Connor situation?

As I recall, I let Jowan (blood mage fellow) perform a ritual that killed Connor's mother, to save him. Both of them actually seemed really annoying, like Connor was on Joffrey's level of poncy spoiled annoyingness, I was really tempted to just run him through. But I sent Morrigan into the fade to battle the demons, and that turned out to be quite interesting aswell.

I only played my mage to the end but I also watched most of what my wife was doing with her warrior

Yeah, ever since seeing all of the picking sides kind of options, I sort of knew I would play it twice. I'm not a huge completionist, but now it just feels like I've only played half of the game. I think I'll do all of the origin stories soon, and leave the Mage until last, and then actually play the entire game again as a Mage (unless I prefer one of the other origin stories) and do the exact opposite of everything I did the first time, just to get the scope of things.

I'm still trying not to say too much because if you plan on playing through a few more times I don't want to spoil anything.

I guess I'm pretty cool with spoilers in this game now, I'm about 95% sure I will use my original Elf Rogue game to load into DA2, so all of the other possibilities will really just seem like alternate canon to me.

[Paint_It_Black]

As I recall, I let Jowan (blood mage fellow) perform a ritual that killed Connor's mother, to save him. Both of them actually seemed really annoying, like Connor was on Joffrey's level of poncy spoiled annoyingness, I was really tempted to just run him through.

I did that once just out of curiosity, and because in that particular game I had not yet dealt with the problem at the circle. I was basically roleplaying that playthrough pretty heavily and felt my character wouldn't take the risk of leaving a possessed Connor in command of the town while I went off in search of help. And I felt his mother kinda had it coming. But in my own personal "canon" game I got help from the mages so no blood magic was needed. I was a mage so I entered the fade myself but got seduced by the demon and made a deal where the demon would come back and try to possess him again much later. I rationalized that the entire kingdom was at risk from the blight and I needed all the power I could get to fight it. The demon offered me power and if that meant Connor might pay for it one day, well, so be it.

I guess I'm pretty cool with spoilers in this game now, I'm about 95% sure I will use my original Elf Rogue game to load into DA2, so all of the other possibilities will really just seem like alternate canon to me.

Well, keep this in mind too. When you start a DA2 character you choose which Origins file to import. You don't have to stick with just one, just one per character. I am pretty sure you'll be playing DA2 through at least a couple of times. You could load one Origins file for one character and a totally different Origins file for your next character. Like, your first DA2 character could use your rogue Origins file since he was your first Origins character. Your second DA2 character could use your second Origins file. Just a suggestion.