Video game thread. Huzzah!

[Ryan]

<rant>tangent for me to bitch for a bit, i think if i could complain about skyrim my biggest issues with it would be how it kinda sucks how everything can be mastered and then limited without any further advance and how i'm kinda 50/50 on how places you've cleared repopulate eventually. that does make it so there's always more to do, but IMO that sucks. i love the game but am not gonna play it forever. at least for me i'd rather once a place is cleared out it just stays dead & empty unless i start a new game from ground up & all. i'm sort of obsessive compulsive about looting the shit outta places and making as much $ in there as i can (am actually up to 4.1mil :omg: ), but it blows when i go back to a place i've already cleared just to get near a new destination i haven't found yet and i go through killing more or less the same jackasses that were there before.

i hosted a show and was up drinking until about 5am last night so yes i am parked skyrimjobbing tonight.</endrant>

This is a good rant, I agree! I feel two ways about it too, on one hand a dungeon should stay empty after you've killed everything in it and taken all the stuff. On the other hand, it's reasonable that trash mobs respawn and repopulate it a bit.. we can't let these awesome areas not be lived in.

I like how Dark Souls does it.. the yard trash comes back but the main baddies stay dead.. pretty good arrangement.

Has anyone basically finished Skyrim yet? I know there was cool new DLC content recently, I watched my favourite Skyrim LPer do a bunch of Dawnguard stuff... but is there an end to that game? Do you become jarl of every town and kill every dragon and take over the magic school? Is there anybody who's the farthest in that game?

[madmax1012]

apparently the maker of dark souls is considering implementing an easy mode

[space6oy]

there's an end to the main storyline, same tradition from previous elder scrolls / fallout / etc. i finished that long ago. only thing that was kind of a bummer about it was how it was WAY too easy because i'd already advanced enough in the game improving my character. i'm pretty sure none of the major characters that die ever come back - which is both good and bad, can be very annoying with innocents getting / being killed. i've had dragons hit the town of riften more repeatedly than anywhere else i go (though it's one of my two most regular spots for smithing & selling things, there and whiterun), has been very annoying a few times when locals there got instantly blasted & knocked off, having to reload from autosave and usually GTFoutta town so the dragon won't off them.

there are some other quirks to the game that come w/ missions being completed then other basically lower ranked missions that should've been required predecessors being impossible. i just ran into one yesterday, "retrieval." gave me a mission to go find part of a shattered axe that i'd already found & reassembled in another mission. now i'm stuck w/ that being in my list even though it's impossible and the game knows there's nowhere to tell me to go.

the vampire/werewolf DLC is sweet, but just like in reviews, the forced third person view and action in either form blows. pretty big disappointment. i became a vampire first, came w/ some sweet powers i can use in human (coughelvencough) form but it's pathetic and aside from being amused by it the first couple times i've never bothered changing to vampire form again. took on the werewolf scenario after that, they force you to become that right off the bat, had to split town in a hurry instead of killing anyone i didn't want to, got myself changed back to vampire immediately for its better powers (mainly vision for dark places).

yes i've also already become jarl everywhere, finished the main thieves guild (side missions never end...), took over the mages guild / magic school, down to doing apparently also neverending dark brotherhood missions. all twelve treasure maps too (no xbox reward for that? lame!). i'm basically to the point that i'm scouring maps online to find where i haven't found yet and trying to use abilities i haven't already maxed. surprisingly only to level 73, becomes a bitch to level up the further along you get... kinda wish i'd have chosen some different perks along the way...

ohh yeah and i still haven't found all the shout upgrades... only ones i ever use though are whirlwind sprint and unrelenting force. most of the others aren't my cup o' tea.

</end second huge rant>

[t-rey]

I lent out my copy of Skyrim recently, but will pick it back up after I finish Amalur and play a few action games to cleanse the rpg palate.

I finished the main story, but like space6oy, I waited too long and beasted the end of the game with little challenge at about level 40 (the designers said that you should be about level 25 for the end?). I'm like level 47-49 right now, I think, and my leveling has really slowed down since I've maxed out a lot of my primary skills and should switch it up...but one hit kills and crazy good armor are just too much fun! I've been awarded the second in command thing in several cities (did quests for the Jarl and he gave me a sword and a title) but didn't know I could be jarl!!! Finished the mage, warrior, and thief guilds, but will eventually play the big thief guild side quest and get that achievement. I've been initiated into the dark brotherhood, but haven't started their quests yet. Once I pick it back up, I'm going to work on completing the dark brotherhood, daedric artifact quests, kill all of the dragon priests, and play dawnguard. I really want to get all of the achievements since I got them all for Oblivion, but that's just me being dorky.

[futuresailors]

The comes a point in every Elder Scrolls game where the only thing left to do is find entertaining ways to kill all the NPCs.

[space6oy]

skyrim won't let you kill ALL of them. some simply fight back while they can, fall to the ground then stand up again without enemy status. similar scenario with companions, enemies can't kill them, only you can.

i did somehow lose the horse shadowmere at some point though. no idea how it happened, if i killed him/her it was an accident i didn't even notice. sucks, was handy being able to use him/her to fast travel when carrying too much to be able to on my own.

also i was off on the jarl scenario - you can't become jarl, you can become their thane.

[t-rey]

That makes me feel better - I thought I had completely overlooked an awesome thing I should be doing. I think I'm thane of four places. I probably won't bother with the rest since I have an unfortunately small amount of time to play games because of bullshit adult stuff. I actually only traveled to the city in the south near the dark brotherhood lair at like level 45

[space6oy]

heh dow' souf, guessing you mean falkreath? the only cities i frequent are whiterun and riften and the town of riverwood since the merchant there's the most loaded character in the game. all the others i've only hit when required by missions.

if any of you skyrimmers haven't already, find bard's leap summit. it made me giggle.

[t-rey]

Yeah, that's the place. I don't even know that I've been inside the gates, but 'discovered' it and moved on with my life. My default town was Whiterun for most of the game because of the house there and the blacksmith outside. After a while I started spending most of my time in Winterhold (is that right, or is that the Game of Thrones town?) because I bought a bigass house there with an armory in it.

I miss my castle from Oblivion though...

I will have to find Bard's leap - sounds lulzy.

[space6oy]

yeah winterhold is where the college / mages guild is. i've missed things from oblivion a few times through skyrim... almost like i wish they could redo oblivion with skyrim's upgrades...

you know, so i can waste a few more years of my life.

[Ryan]

apparently the maker of dark souls is considering implementing an easy mode :grumpy:

Haha I heard a lot about this the other night, watching EpicNameBro play the PC version... making a Souls game with a mode that would let anybody just walk through it is a terrible idea in my opinion too. The difficulty is fair and reasonable and badass! One thing I notice with the PC version is the cheating though, it's out of control. Every time one of these pro LPers gets invaded, at super low level at the start of the game, it's by a twink with end game gear using some glitch... I think stuff like that is stupid and that's what the developers should be worrying about, stopping the stupid cheaters from pwning honest noobs rather than neutering the gameplay experience.

I spent an hour last night running around in the Undead Asylum, running up and down stairs, learning to parry, wizarding it up... geeez Dark Souls is a kickass dungeon crawler. Thanks again, Brad (Helter) for the awesome trade, I'm loving it! *McDonald's theme song*

Skyrim is sure a great game too, I've spent hours watching people play it... it's a fantastic RPG, maybe the most complex and involved and immersive RPG ever. For me, I probably won't play it ever, since I'm not really too into the drama, intrigue, political struggles, guild stuff, tradeskills, making gear, none of that stuff tickles my fancy. I really just want to run up and down dungeon stairs casting spells and sword fighting, monsters monsters monsters, magic armor and weapons.

[t-rey]

yeah winterhold is where the college / mages guild is. i've missed things from oblivion a few times through skyrim... almost like i wish they could redo oblivion with skyrim's upgrades...

you know, so i can waste a few more years of my life.

Oh yeah...I was getting my places mixed up. I have my primary home in Windhelm. This thread is making me miss having Skyrim at my disposal right now.

Glad to hear you are enjoying your dungeon crawling shenanigans, Ryan

[space6oy]

For me, I probably won't play it ever, since I'm not really too into the making gear

coming from an amazing gear maker!

[Helter]

Thanks again, Brad (Helter) for the awesome trade, I'm loving it! *McDonald's theme song*

Really glad to hear you're liking it, Ryan! I'm the same way with RPG's, I just want the awesome fantasy atmosphere and the coolest weapons. I'm not too concerned with being Lord of a city or anything like that. I just want to look at misty mountains and hop around in spacious plains in between fighting monsters Tolkien wouldn't have dreamed of.

Also, has anyone played that one newer prince of persia game that came out for the xbox/ps3 a few years ago that is all cell-shaded and cartoon-y. I'm not sure if it was too popular but it's one of my favorite games.

[elevenstrings]

hey guys - just wanted to jump in on the PS3 thread. I mostly just play Super Street Fighter 4 AE, but I've played through all the Uncharted games, Heavy Rain, Borderlands, Demon's soul and Dark Souls. My wife loves the hack n' slash games that drop loot, so we've played Sacred 2 and Lord of the Rings War in the North and some of the old snowblind games.