Gaming General Chat Thread

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Dragon Age Inquisition:

Dorian:

Did the quest where he meets his father. You learn his dad tried using blood magic on Dorian to make him straight. And that is really shocking and horrifying. But it makes sense in Tevinter that someone would try that. Still disgusting. Reminds me of "correction camps" for youths who are bisexual or gay. The scene was done very well. The father comes across as almost sympathetic which makes what he tried to do even more disgusting. I find bad deeds done by people who are not black all the more disturbing, because you see how human they are, and how not far away from you are. You realize you have the capacity to do the same. And that makes me shudder.
I like that you can navigate the scene via conversation to cut it short when things get really heated, or encourage Dorian to stay and "work it out". It feels satisfying when I encouraged the two to stay and talk. They don't leave in agreement, but it felt like the "right thing to do".

I wish real life had these conversation prompts sometimes.

I felt it was a little creepy that immediately afterwards, if you're male and been flirting with Dorian you can instantly get together and make out. I can understand why your character and him might want to get into a relationship after this encounter. But not snogging. It was funny seeing to manikins bumping faces and completely missing each other's lips with out of sync kissing sounds going on.

[Kapol]

Finished Shadow of Mordor. I didn't care for the ending. But I really enjoyed the game. I got 100% of the main story done and have all but a single 'core' game achievement (getting a level 25 rune. I managed to get a 24... everything else has been epic.)

Fun game, solid gameplay, and an interesting enemy system. I think it did draft on a bit near the end. But that was likely due to me wanting to do everything. I'm likely going to take a break before diving back into the DLC.

[Bebop Man]

Kapol, what system did you play the game on? I wanted to get it for the PS3 but I heard the Nemesis System is kinda broken on last-gen consoles. Don't know if you know about this, haven't found an awful lot of reviews for last-gen platforms.

[Timelady]

So I was walking along and it randomly occurred to me (because my mind tends to wander pretty farrr sometimes) that you right-handed people must actually use your thumb to hit the spacebar in WASD+mouse controlled games. Does...does that feel weird? Does your hand get tired? It seems like it would be so...fiddly.

[Dutch guy]

Not at all. Feels very normal.

[Master Gunner]

Yeah, keyboards were generally designed for the spacebar to be used by the thumb, so it works just fine when playing games.

[Kapol]

Kapol, what system did you play the game on? I wanted to get it for the PS3 but I heard the Nemesis System is kinda broken on last-gen consoles. Don't know if you know about this, haven't found an awful lot of reviews for last-gen platforms.

I played it on PC, but I owned it on 360 before that. If the PS3 version is anything like the 360 version (and I believe it is), it's pretty bad. The 360 version was honestly so bad that I could not really play it. The gameplay was fine. But the texture pop-in, long load times for doing something as simple as pausing, and overall quality of the game was pretty bad. It was obvious that it was made for next-gen and then ported down. The Nemesis system wasn't too bad. At the time I didn't think it was any different. But after playing, it's certainly watered down. The core of it is similar. But the pool of possible enemies seems significantly less than in the PC version.

Honestly, if it's your only option and you don't want to wait, it's likely fine to pick it up for PS3. But the last gen consoles are pretty clearly watered down version of the game. If the PS3 doesn't have as bad of loading times or pop-in, I don't think it'd be that much worse.

[Bebop Man]

The graphics I don't mind and I'm willing to compromise, current-gen is always going to look prettier. Tearing, loading, bugs and pop-ins, not so much. I was kinda hoping they would've patched most of them by now. Every review that mentions them dates from 7 months ago; some comments mention they've patched most of it, but I don't know.

[Kapol]

Yea, graphics weren't really as much of an issue. It was loading and pop-in that was. And I played it around mid-December. So if they fixed it, it was relatively recently.

[RedNightmare]

Ok, I finished Shadow of Mordor myself as well and I think I have an unpopular opinion: I did not like the story.

I've heard a lot of people raving about it, but I thought it was pretty lackluster. There were really only two characters (Talion and ghost bud) and neither got really fleshed out. They also seemed very inconsistent. Talion was suddenly interested in another woman, while his wife and kid hadn't been dead for a week or so. And Brimbore first keeps Talion around because he wants to get back at Sauron and then doesn't care anymore after the Black Hand dies. Didn't you just want to get Sauron back, why stop now?

Sorry for the rant, but maybe I'm just starting to hold games up to regular story standards and find them lacking.

[empath]

So I was walking along and it randomly occurred to me (because my mind tends to wander pretty farrr sometimes) that you right-handed people must actually use your thumb to hit the spacebar in WASD+mouse controlled games. Does...does that feel weird? Does your hand get tired? It seems like it would be so...fiddly.

...um, I'm a southpaw and use my left thumb to hit the spacebar with the rest of my hand in 'the WASD claw' and my right hand on my mouse (trackball, but close enough), and it feels fine to me?

[Jamfalcon]

Ambidextrous favouring left here, but yeah, same thing. If whatever you're doing works for you, great, but I'm really curious what it is.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I used to play GunZ Online: The Duel. Its built up my left hand muscles a lot.
See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8NtJCsV1dc
The "finger dance". You had to play like this to get a chance at a fair game.
Most games are ruined by toxicity. GunZ was ruined by a strict Meta that had strict skill.
GunZ is a game that's really enjoyable to play along to music, since you literally dance with your character.

I also play the violin, so that's quite ambidextrous as well.

[Trippzen]

So I was walking along and it randomly occurred to me (because my mind tends to wander pretty farrr sometimes) that you right-handed people must actually use your thumb to hit the spacebar in WASD+mouse controlled games. Does...does that feel weird? Does your hand get tired? It seems like it would be so...fiddly.

...um, I'm a southpaw and use my left thumb to hit the spacebar with the rest of my hand in 'the WASD claw' and my right hand on my mouse (trackball, but close enough), and it feels fine to me?

Sinister here too; I've always used my left thumb to hit it. What else would you use? What do you use to hit the spacebar Timelady?

On other topics:

I hated the story for Shadow of Mordor too, thought it was incredibly lackluster compared to the incredible gameplay. Would have been nice if the story tied into the nemesis system more instead of falling back on a rather cliche story.

I also used to play Gunz, and I think it was ruined by a number of things, including a lot of hackers.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Hackers were kinda funny. It changed the game into Slasher movie.
You had to avoid the burning ball of yellow death.
Or the disaster movie of raining missiles.

I had to stop playing because it was "Play Korean style" (that hand dancing) or cry.
I did a sort of improvisation of the dancing. But it meant you had to work reaaaallllyyy hard for anything. And you'd end up being kill stolen so you'd lose your exps.

[Bebop Man]

So I was walking along and it randomly occurred to me (because my mind tends to wander pretty farrr sometimes) that you right-handed people must actually use your thumb to hit the spacebar in WASD+mouse controlled games. Does...does that feel weird? Does your hand get tired? It seems like it would be so...fiddly.

...um, I'm a southpaw and use my left thumb to hit the spacebar with the rest of my hand in 'the WASD claw' and my right hand on my mouse (trackball, but close enough), and it feels fine to me?

That's exactly how I do it.

[Timelady]

So I was walking along and it randomly occurred to me (because my mind tends to wander pretty farrr sometimes) that you right-handed people must actually use your thumb to hit the spacebar in WASD+mouse controlled games. Does...does that feel weird? Does your hand get tired? It seems like it would be so...fiddly.

...um, I'm a southpaw and use my left thumb to hit the spacebar with the rest of my hand in 'the WASD claw' and my right hand on my mouse (trackball, but close enough), and it feels fine to me?

Sinister here too; I've always used my left thumb to hit it. What else would you use? What do you use to hit the spacebar Timelady?

On other topics:

I hated the story for Shadow of Mordor too, thought it was incredibly lackluster compared to the incredible gameplay. Would have been nice if the story tied into the nemesis system more instead of falling back on a rather cliche story.

I also used to play Gunz, and I think it was ruined by a number of things, including a lot of hackers.

Side of my palm. I just barely have to twist my hand a little to hit it. So...you all use your <i>right</i> hand for mouse, huh? *wanders off to think about that *

It's weird. All I hear online is how meh Shadow of Mordor is, and all I hear offline is how great it is. I have NO idea who to believe. XD

[Master Gunner]

From what I've heard/understand, both groups have valid points. Shadow of Mordor is an extremely well put together game with some interesting mechanics. However, some aspects aren't quite as good as others (such as the story mentioned above).

Think of it as getting a steak dinner where the steak was amazing, but the potatoes were undercooked and the vegetables were dry and wilting. Sure, it's advertised as a steak dinner, and that part was great, but some people would be understandably put off because the rest of the meal wasn't up to the same standard (and some people really like their potatoes and vegetables).

[Kapol]

I think most people here are complaining about the story. And that's something that can't really be changed. Personally, I thought the story was fine. Not great, but not bad. It has it's problems. But it seemed interesting to get into the world (as someone who hasn't really read/watched LotR). I feel the best writing was the little moments with the captains honestly. just little snippits that helped show their personality fairly well.

That said, you might be hearing different opinions because the quality of the game differs between console. Or, more accurately, between old-gen systems and current-gen systems (including PC). The PS3 and 360 versions are significantly worse. They still aren't bad really. The gameplay is still solid. But they're only really mediocre from what I played of the 360 version. That might be why you're hearing such different opinions on it.

[RedNightmare]

Sorry, I forgot to mention in my little rant that the gameplay was stellar and the Nemesis system was marvelous (though it didn't create super amazing stories for me).

And the reason I had a little beef with the story was because it was praised by so many people. Had it just been called an ok or even good story, I would have been fine with that. But I've heard some high praise which in the end didn't line up with what I saw.

[korvys]

To be honest, I didn't even get to the point where you can control orcs. I was spending too much time sneaking around shanking orcs.

And then Dark Souls was $5, so I've been playing that. Up to the Gargoyles on the roof. Really digging it. Every time I die and start again, I get a little further. Perfect difficulty curve, for now.

[Kapol]

When I first had it for the 360, I didn't get to the point you could brand orcs either. I didn't even get to the halfway point of the story. I just had too much fun running around, killing captains, and being LotR-Batman. But when I dropped that due to loading and such and picked it up for PC, I kind of got through it faster the second time. Turns out there's actually a whole second area to explore.


Unrelated, but I finally finished Persona Q. I'm playing through again on NG+. And it's so easy that I just auto-battle every FOE and boss without trouble. I think Persona Q might just be the best $-to-enjoyment game I've played in a long time. I'm currently on 77 hours of playtime. 50 or so of that has been really solid. And only a couple of hours felt grindy to me.

The story feels like a Persona 3 x Persona 4 fanfic. That might sound like a complaint, but I actually enjoyed it for the most part. There was a point where the characters started to feel really one-dimensional in a way that never really happened in the main games. But the story mostly felt like it knew what it was. A fun little story for the fans of the two games to see the group of characters interact. And I feel it worked pretty well.

[empath]

Despite being sinister learned to use a 'right-handed' mouse out of expediency - no configurations had to be changed, and I can still write notes, etc. while using a mouse

[Timelady]

Oh, god, I have trouble holding a phone and taking notes. I bow to your superior dexterity (sinestrosity?). I can hold a pencil while touch-typing, at least?

[Kapol]

I have finally managed to sort all of the games in my Steam Library. Considering I had 664 things to categorize, it took a LONG time... But it's done.