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Any gamers around here?

Started by Agramon, June 21, 2013, 02:55:17 AM

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Mike Cl

Quote from: Hydra009 on May 29, 2021, 11:15:47 PM
I've been thinking a lot about Fallout New Vegas and which ending is the best, both for the fictional inhabitants of that world and my own personal tastes.

4 options:
NCR victory
Caesar's Legion victory
Independent with Mr House
Independent with Yes Man

A lot of players choose the Independent option, which I strongly disagree with.  House is at best a benevolent dictator, and we see in the ending slides that his rule is far from benevolent.  The trains do run on time and Vegas is no longer an active warzone, but that's about it.

Yes Man is even worse.  He shows worrying signs of sentience, his loyalty is questionable at best, and his need to be "more assertive" is a Fat Man-sized red flag, so giving him absolute power strikes me as every bit the reckless and foolish decision as the global nuclear war.

Caesar's Legion is a slave state with a strong misogynist streak, backwards and disgusting.  Politics aside, they're needlessly brutal and hopelessly maladaptive.  Lacking industry or know-how, and getting by producing only slaves and warriors, they pale in comparison to the actual Roman Empire.  They're essentially the Manson clan cosplaying as Romans.  'Nuff said.

NCR is the only faction that is even theoretically answerable to the people since it's the only faction with democracy.  Despite some corruption, questionable alliances (Crimson Caravan), and the burden of taxation, they undeniably bring trade, science, and the rule of law - a restoration of the old world.  And if you win over the Brotherhood of Steel, both factions patrol the Mojave and keep it reasonably safe.  In my view, this is the only faction that truly brings both peace and progress, making it the only sensible choice.
You have made good points.  But I usually choose Independent Vegas (with Yes Man).  Off camera this is what my plans are.  Veronica, ED-E and I will head east; going to the place where the Khans settled first--they offer the best deals on ammo, after all.  I'll arrange for the Kings to help keep Yes Man in check.  I will explore all points east while killing all of Caesar's men I can find. 
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Hydra009

Quote from: Mike Cl on May 30, 2021, 09:30:56 AMYou have made good points.  But I usually choose Independent Vegas (with Yes Man).  Off camera this is what my plans are.  Veronica, ED-E and I will head east; going to the place where the Khans settled first--they offer the best deals on ammo, after all.  I'll arrange for the Kings to help keep Yes Man in check.  I will explore all points east while killing all of Caesar's men I can find.
I spend 90% of my playthrough along the route from Goodsprings to Primm to Novac to Freeside.  A giant J shape on the map.  I didn't even know about Westside or Jacobstown until my third playthrough lol.

And if I'm honest, I spend like 50% of the playthrough in Freeside.  The Kings, the Atomic Wrangler, Silver Rush, old Mormon Fort, etc.  There's just so much to do there!  It puts most other areas to shame.

There are some areas I'm still not very comfortable with.  I really dislike Vault 22.  Creepy AF and paranoia fuel galore.  I swing at the grass with a ripper just in case when I'm in there.  And Vault 34 - the one with ludicrous levels of radiation and it's super easy to get hopelessly lost - is like my personal hell.  Place is a deathtrap.  I see that quest and I nope TF out.

Mike Cl

Quote from: Hydra009 on May 30, 2021, 03:08:16 PM
I spend 90% of my playthrough along the route from Goodsprings to Primm to Novac to Freeside.  A giant J shape on the map.  I didn't even know about Westside or Jacobstown until my third playthrough lol.

And if I'm honest, I spend like 50% of the playthrough in Freeside.  The Kings, the Atomic Wrangler, Silver Rush, old Mormon Fort, etc.  There's just so much to do there!  It puts most other areas to shame.

There are some areas I'm still not very comfortable with.  I really dislike Vault 22.  Creepy AF and paranoia fuel galore.  I swing at the grass with a ripper just in case when I'm in there.  And Vault 34 - the one with ludicrous levels of radiation and it's super easy to get hopelessly lost - is like my personal hell.  Place is a deathtrap.  I see that quest and I nope TF out.
Vault 22 is complex and drive one nuts.  Vault 34, for me, is the worst.  It is creepy, nasty and confusing.  Just don't like it! 
My usual route is sort of like yours.  Goodsprings, Sky Diving shack, Primm (get ED-E) Majovie Outpost, Nipton, Wolfhorn Ranch, Legion Camp (start the process of killing Caesar men and pissing them off in general), Novac, 188 Trading Post, Dunn Sacked Caravan (great armor) Fields Shack.  I make Fields my HQ for the rest of the game.  Then go get my fav weapon--YCS/186 gauss rifle.  Later get a fully modded anti-material rifle and a sniper rifle.  I play as a sniper, which makes Veronica ideal for me.  Sometime or other, I work in The Thorn; big game snipping at it's best.  I also go to the 'secret' death claw valley to snipe all the death claws, gather eggs and a suit of armor.  NV is simply a great game!
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Blackleaf

No Man's Sky has a creative mode? Interesting. I didn't even think crafting got that involved. I think the biggest appeal of the game to me is the ability to take a spaceship out into space, pick a random star, and fly to it. That's the stuff of dreams there. I'm not sure if the game really has any goals, other than finding the center of the galaxy or something (which I heard infamously leads to the most anticlimactic ending in video game history), so I'm not sure how long it'd keep my attention.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Blackleaf

#3799
Oh, there is one new game I've been playing: New Pokemon Snap. The original game came out on the N64, 22 years ago, and there hasn't been a sequel since until now. It's a very unique concept, where instead of capturing Pokemon in Pokeballs in the JRPGs, you're capturing them on camera. You use a few tools at your disposal to manipulate the environment and attempt to find Pokemon in new poses, like knocking a Charmeleon into a lava pit to make it evolve into Charizard, or using Fluffruit (basically apples) to lead a Pikachu to a surf board. It was essentially a puzzle game on rails, trying to solve problems and find new situations to observe while constantly moving towards the exit point. You submit the photos you take to be scored on various factors, such as the rarity of the behavior captured and how close the Pokemon is to the camera. I loved the original game to death when I was a kid, and in my opinion, this sequel is long overdue.

One of the main appeals of the games (original and new) is to see Pokemon acting naturally, out in the wild. In the main games, you walk in tall grass, capture Pokemon, and make them battle, but you never really see how they behave in nature. Here, you see Meowth chasing Pidgeys, or Bounsweet stuck in a Ariados' web, etc. This long awaited sequel is essentially more of the same, with better graphics and a much wider variety of Pokemon to choose from (I mean, we went from 151 to 898, not counting special forms, patterns, etc). However, the sequel does offer a few new ideas, such as a scanner which details Pokemon and objects of interest nearby. Some Pokemon can even detect the waves of the scanner, and will turn and look at you as a result, making it, as the game describes it, an "accidental 'say cheese!' feature." You can also play music, which will wake up some sleeping Pokemon or make others dance. And there are the new Illumina Balls, which make Pokemon glow, which is a neat effect in the game's nighttime stages.

Additionally, you can now save, edit, and share your photos online. The game has plenty of unlockable filters, frames, and stickers to use. It's very fun to play around with.

The game does have some issues, though... Like in the original game, you can only submit one picture of each Pokemon for each run. This is even more of an annoyance this time than before, though, because of the new star ranking system the game uses. Each Pokemon photo is ranked between one and four stars, and you can keep one photo for each ranking. The number of stars is supposed to signify how rare the behavior you captured is. So say you get a one, three, and a four star photo of Pikachu all on your first run. Well, too bad! You can only pick one picture! You're probably going to pick the four star picture first, even if the one star is a much better picture, because you don't remember what you did to get that four star photo. This means, it takes a minimum of four runs to complete your collection for each Pokemon captured on camera. That is unnecessarily tedious... Why not let us submit one for each star rank instead?

Also, it's possible to capture multiple Pokemon on camera at once. The game even rewards that by giving a bonus for those other Pokemon. But how does the game know which Pokemon is the subject? Well, within the camera's boundaries is a Pokeball shaped icon. What it's pointing at is the subject. Which means, if you got a real nice closeup of a Pokemon, but you were accidentally pointing your icon at the Pokemon behind it, you're screwed. That photo is scrap now. There was one time I was trying to get a picture of a Wurmple or a Caterpie, and an Emolga just happened to be flying by and photobombed the picture just as I snapped it. I thought, "Oh sweet! I accidentally got an awesome closeup of an Emolga in flight!" But nope. The icon wasn't pointing at it, so it said it had no subject. Oh, come on! Luckily, I was able to choose to save it anyway, and I submitted my "no subject" photo online.

So yeah. It's a very fun game. As someone who thinks Pokemon Company doesn't give a fuck anymore and is content to just release mediocre games year after year now, I found this spinoff very refreshing. It has some unnecessary flaws that hold it back, but I still have a lot of fun with it.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVe-VsLV_A
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Hydra009

Unofficial New Vegas challenge: beat Cook-Cook to death with Nephi's golf driver.

There's something very funny about marching up to such an armored and imposing figure and going ham on him with a golf club.  Just dent in that pretty helmet.

Of course, I got his attention with a couple well-placed grenade launcher shots and sniped a couple of his men.  Didn't touch Queenie, though.  Who's a good girl?  *scratches Queenie's neck*

Sorginak

I am almost done with my second playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn. I have enjoyed it more this time around, I think.

Also, I cannot wait for the release of the second game, which should be coming soon. Here's the trailer:

https://youtu.be/SCK9uaTpYYQ

Blackleaf

One of the consequences of the shortage of current gen hardware, I've noticed, is that developers continue to downscale their games to previous gen hardware. It makes sense. Can't sell a PlayStation 5 game to people who can't get a PlayStation 5, but you don't want to completely abandon the newer hardware either, otherwise there'd be no incentive to try to get your hands on one. So they make the games to run on previous gen, but reserve a prettier version for current gen. This is a bit of a bizarre situation to me. Closest thing I've seen to this was during the 3DS's terribly handled launch period, where the only games available on the system were old games that were ported over and given 3D compatibility.

Usually, when there's a new console, they entice consumers with original titles that can only be played on the new console, but there's little point to even trying to do that now. I mean, I just checked Best Buy's website out of curiosity, and yep. PS5s are sold out, both the one with the disk drive and the digital only version. XBOX Series X is sold out. The XBOX Series S is available, but from what I understand, that's basically a beefier version of the XBOX One, not current gen like the Series X. These consoles launched last November, and there's still a shortage this bad.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Sorginak

I still haven't purchased the PS5. When I have a better living situation, with proper internet access, I will.

Blackleaf

Quote from: Sorginak on June 06, 2021, 07:58:54 PM
I still haven't purchased the PS5. When I have a better living situation, with proper internet access, I will.

Maybe by the time that happens, you'll actually have the option to buy one. People who want one can't get one. lol
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Sorginak

Why you still can't get a PS5
QuoteGlobal chip shortage

Sony and Microsoft can’t make more consoles available to consumers because crucial components are in short supply: chips. The PS5 and the new Xbox both run on chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an American semiconductor company.

Then I guess I won't be getting a console any time soon. xD

trdsf

(still perfectly happy with his PS2)

(is weird, he knows)
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Blackleaf

Quote from: trdsf on June 07, 2021, 10:13:10 AM
(still perfectly happy with his PS2)

(is weird, he knows)

The PS2 was a great console for video games. And just in case you got bored with Grand Theft Auto 3 or Ace Combat V, the system was also backwards compatible, so you could put in Spyro or Final Fantasy VII. The only problem back then was the lack of memory card space.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Sorginak

Used my mobile hotspot to update my PS4, seeing as how it will be forever before I can get a PS5, then purchased Assasin's Creed: Valhalla Gold Edition, which was on sale.

Now I just need to wait for the download to complete so that I can play.

Hydra009

Beat New Vegas again.  Got some nice achievements that had eluded me before, including the one star challenges.  Also managed to practically speedrun Vault 22.  That place gives me the creeps.

I didn't have much success with the 3 star challenges, so that's what I aim to accomplish in my next run.  Rarest achievement to complete according to Steam, with only 1.3% completion.

This one is very much against my nature since I have to hunt down both NCR and Legion leaders.  Then kill off deathclaws with a puny recharger rifle, which is downright crazy.  Gonna be a real sneaky, underhanded character this time around.