Finished Spec Ops: The Line. I was interested to see if this game would really deliver on the promises and claims made in reviews. Overall I would say it was decent. The story was relatively well written, though hardly brilliant or original. Definitely the darkest and heaviest shit I've seen in a game, but some of it felt a little cheap. Overall well done, though. The gameplay, however...it was utterly generic. I'm okay with the idea of starting the game off like a standard military shooter in order to give the slide into chaos more impact, but the problem is the gameplay never changes. I think they should have spawned fewer enemies, made the damage model even more unforgiving, and made the guns a good deal louder. Would have made combat more tense and violent and would have given each kill more impact. Also, they really should have had the gameplay change along the way to reflect the story. Having gameplay mechanics reinforce the narrative is important in every game, but especially one that relies on story so heavily.
Gamers Thread
- Thread starter Jimmy... Dead.
- Start date
So in case you guys don't know, the summer steam sale is going on right now. Last night I picked up Crusader Kings 2 for $10, KOTOR for $6, Cthulhu Saves The World + Breath of Death VII for $1.50, and Audiosurf for $2.50. My girlfriend picked up Portal 1 + 2 for $7.50 and TES: Morrowind GOTY for $11. There are some other great deals, and it changes every day. Worth checking out. They have a ton of AAA titles on sale as well as indie games, older games, etc.
Manic Ferocity
Active Member
- Nov 5, 2006
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I would stick with Oblivion. Especially if you haven't gotten a chance to try out some of the different guilds.
Morrowind is a far deeper experience than Oblivion. At this point with graphical mods Morrowind looks about as good as Oblivion. The main advantages Oblivion has are slightly more satisfying combat and voice acting. Except the voice acting is embarrassingly bad and honestly detracts from the experience. And the combat is not the strong point in each. Morrowind has a much more interesting world, with a deeper history and far more subtlety, rather than the lotr ripoff bethesda chose to go with for Cyrodil. Dodens, I recommend perusing this:
http://btb2.free.fr/morrowind.html
mods can really enhance the gameplay, and in particular improve the visuals.
Observe:
Also, one does not simply finish Morrowind. I sank about 500 hours into (mostly) vanilla morrowind and there's still stuff in there I haven't seen. When you add in mods (including three projects that add in, respectively, the rest of Morrowind province, Cyrodil, and Skyrim)...there's a retarded amount of stuff to do, though you're not obliged to do it all.
The Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings 2 is pretty sweet. In my campaign, Jon Connington killed Robert Baratheon in single combat. I thought that was fucking clutch.
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skeptik
Member
- Feb 7, 2003
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Oh, trust me, I know all about the depth of Morrowind. I played the X Box version extensively. It started crashing at shorter and shorter intervals the further I got though, so I haven't played it in a while. By the way, am I just missing it, or are there no shortcuts to close dialog boxes or to access the persuasion menu? I haven't really tried to look for the answer to this just yet, but it would make the game slightly less annoying if these things existed.
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
The combat system in morrowind is not that much fun, but it is reasonably deep, which comes out when you find yourself up against an enemy you can't handle (something that literally never happens in Oblivion and Skyrim).
Morrowind is also by far the least combat-heavy of TES 3-5.
As far as shortcuts for persuasion or closing dialogue boxes...what do you mean? You just open a dialogue box and click persuade. If you want to close it you click close.
Morrowind is also by far the least combat-heavy of TES 3-5.
As far as shortcuts for persuasion or closing dialogue boxes...what do you mean? You just open a dialogue box and click persuade. If you want to close it you click close.
skeptik
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Yes. And if you want to repeatedly admire somebody to build up your speechcraft, it's a point and click nightmare. If there was a keyboard shirtcut, it would be less time consuming and mind numbing, as it is on the console version. And to exit menus, you should be able to just hit escape. Evidently you can't, and it's rather annoying, making the game more tedious in comparison to the console version in that regard. The main user menu, where you view your stats, inventory, and map, is also quite a mess in comparison to the console version. Instead of shoving everything on the screen at once, it would make more sense to be able to scroll through the menus like in...pretty much every other game ever made.
divine_torture
leVel
I'm heavily debating whether or not to get a PS Vita right now...I never even had a PSP, so I have no idea whether I want it or not. Of course all the games I'd wanna play are PSP games until they release better ones for Vita, but apparently I can download PSP games from PSN on the Vita...hm.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul makes Oblivion play like that too, it's a terrifically balanced mod and I find Oblivion quite frankly unplayable without it. I created a character who specialized in Alchemy, Athletics, Marksman, Blade, Light Armor, Illusion and Sneak and I found my survival in the wilds depended on 6 of those 7 skills (never really found a use for Illusion). It was the most fun I've ever had in Cyrodiil. If someone manages to make a similar overhaul for Skyrim it'll be the best game in the series, despite how it's been dumbed down in many ways that modding can't fix.
skeptik
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So has anybody else been taking advantage of the Steam sales? I've bought a few games just because the prices were too good. I was going to buy Borderlands, but I went back and read WAIF tearing it a new one in this thread and decided it's probably not even worth the $5 considering I might never even get around to it. This is what I've purchased:
Morrowind
Age of Empires III
Amnesia
Dear Esther (an odd "game"...purely exploration-based. You walk around a (fucking gorgeous) island as a narrative gradually unfolds, and literally nothing else. But well worth the $2.49 I paid for just because of how great the environment is)
Far Cry
Far Cry 2
Edit: My Steam name is Dodens Grav btw.
Morrowind
Age of Empires III
Amnesia
Dear Esther (an odd "game"...purely exploration-based. You walk around a (fucking gorgeous) island as a narrative gradually unfolds, and literally nothing else. But well worth the $2.49 I paid for just because of how great the environment is)
Far Cry
Far Cry 2
Edit: My Steam name is Dodens Grav btw.
Dear Esther is great. thechineseroom are actually co-developing Amnesia 2 with Frictional.
Just downloaded The Orange Box and Garry's Mod for a tenner.
Anyone else excited for Dishonored. It looks like a fusion of Bioshock and Hitman, which is a pretty winning formula. I always tried to play Bioshock as a stealth/melee game anyway, so this should be interesting.
Just downloaded The Orange Box and Garry's Mod for a tenner.
Anyone else excited for Dishonored. It looks like a fusion of Bioshock and Hitman, which is a pretty winning formula. I always tried to play Bioshock as a stealth/melee game anyway, so this should be interesting.
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skeptik
Member
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Dear Esther is on Flash Sale right now on Steam for $2.49 again. I think some of you should check it out. It's not a conventional game, like I said earlier, and it's short, but it's well worth it. The environment is really some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in a video game, and I like the concept of an exploration narrative. The story itself is not bad, nor great. Some may consider the narrative filled with purple language, but it fits the atmosphere.
Age of Empires III is also the Community's Choice pick atm for $10 (75% off).
Age of Empires III is also the Community's Choice pick atm for $10 (75% off).
Draehl
Lurker
Good picks. I found both of the far cry games didn't live up to their potential, but they're both good and iirc both quite cheap.
I have to confess I'm looking forward to Borderlands 2. It looks like fun.
Oh hell yes. For the record, it looks like a mix of Dark Messiah, System Shock/Deus Ex/Bioshock, and Thief. I like all of those things, and Dishonored has been giving me a serious mind-boner.
Also, as someone who didn't particularly like Darksiders (I think it's okay), Darksiders 2 is definitely looking good to me.
Also looking forward to: Far Cry 3, Dark Souls (although I'm pretty sure it's gonna be the worst port ever), Watch Dogs, ArmA 3.
skeptik
Member
- Feb 7, 2003
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Yeah, I bought Far Cry and Far Cry 2 (complete with all the added crap) for $10.
...I miss the Steam sales already. But I still have dozens of games I haven't even played yet. Right now I'm finally getting back to finishing Deus Ex (I'm pretty sure I'm very near the end), working through the storyline of Age of Empires III, and intermittently playing Morrowind.
...I miss the Steam sales already. But I still have dozens of games I haven't even played yet. Right now I'm finally getting back to finishing Deus Ex (I'm pretty sure I'm very near the end), working through the storyline of Age of Empires III, and intermittently playing Morrowind.
