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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 15, 2012 11:05:59 GMT -5
... which is at least detracting from my dangerous obsession with Jenny Agutter. www.cracked.com/blog/5-personality-flaws-skyrim-forces-you-to-deal-with/I love Elder Scrolls. What other game could you, meh, decide to slay dragons, or alternately, spend days picking flowers and chasing butterflies? Also, does anyone remember when "Cracked" was just an unfunny imitator of "Mad"? Now, it's like the best humor writing in the country. (Although they did the "$11 dollar" typo, which drives me nuts.)
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 15, 2012 21:55:20 GMT -5
That is funny. I played Skyrim on and off for about a month before I lost interest. I did all the Thieves Guild stuff, but after awhile it just became more of the same. I love the open world, and I thought the Norse twist was a nice way not just to do straight fantasy. But...as a game, it never really hooked me in.
Disgaea 4, on the other hand, now THAT is a game I can just dwell in, ignore my family, forget to bathe, etc.
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Post by Joker on Feb 16, 2012 3:13:15 GMT -5
I got Skyrim for Christmas, but wanted to play the other games I got first because I kept hearing about how the game would monopolize your time.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 16, 2012 10:34:04 GMT -5
That is funny. I played Skyrim on and off for about a month before I lost interest. I did all the Thieves Guild stuff, but after awhile it just became more of the same. I love the open world, and I thought the Norse twist was a nice way not just to do straight fantasy. But...as a game, it never really hooked me in. Disgaea 4, on the other hand, now THAT is a game I can just dwell in, ignore my family, forget to bathe, etc. my experience with Bethesda Games is that they all eventually fizzle, at least for me, because they're so vast i just eventually drift away from it. i had the same experience with GTA4, which i loved until i didn't, and oblivion, which i got so overleveled in that i just started running around wiping people out at random. very cathartic, but eventually it loses its interest. i guess that's just as well, i do have to experience sunlight occasionally. i added disgaea 4 to my amazon list.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 16, 2012 11:20:57 GMT -5
i added disgaea 4 to my amazon list. Read about it first. No one I've ever recommended it to likes it. The story is pure parody, 4th-wall breaking stuff (but I like it), and it's really math/grinding engine. As one review says, the game is all about stats going in one direction. It's a tactical rpg like Final Fantasy Tactics. But the real point of the game is to create guys that can just get massively strong. And although you can easily finish the story, most of the game happens after that. Part of the game just includes making random enemies get stronger so that you can get stronger and on and on. Like I said, not for everyone. And 4 doesn't really have much a tutorial because they (correctly) assume that the only people interested will probably be people who are already interested. But I love it.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 16, 2012 12:40:47 GMT -5
fascinating. well, maybe i'll take a chance on an earlier version, then. they're going pretty cheap.
is the PS3 back-compatible for PS2 games? i suddenly can't remember.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 16, 2012 13:33:16 GMT -5
fascinating. well, maybe i'll take a chance on an earlier version, then. they're going pretty cheap. is the PS3 back-compatible for PS2 games? i suddenly can't remember. The earlier models did. I don't think the ones they've made in the last couple of years do. The first and second ones are on the PSP/Vita thing. I actually like 2 the best so far, although they're all pretty much the same game with minor changes. They actively try NOT to recreate it between each version, so any one of them is essentially the same version. The only reason not to get 3 might be that they intentionally went with a pixellated graphical version. It was designed to look like a PS2 game on the PS3...like I said, the whole thing is intentionally kind of geared to its own fan base. A lot of people complained in 4 when they actually redid the sprites in HD. There's even an option to make it look like it has the resolution of the PSP version if you want. But what I really like about it, and I've told other people this somewhere else, is that it's like a complete abstraction of a game. There's no attempt to treat the story seriously, no reason to assume that your "characters" are actual characters, no attempt to suspend your disbelief at all. It's completely about being a game system designed to be, well, gamed and exploited. The challenge is to see how ridiculously powerful you can make your guys. For example, you can "enter" every item (weapon, armor, "potion," etc.) in the game through the "Item World." This is a randomly generated "dungeon" that goes to 100 levels (or 1000 in Disgaea 3 and 4). So you upgrade your weapons by fighting battles within them. And, since you can upgrade any and every item in the game, you could conceivably play forever just to make everything stronger. Why would you do that? If you have to ask, you won't like this game.
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Post by siamesesin on Feb 16, 2012 21:16:17 GMT -5
Actually, that sounds kind of fun.
(Says the girl who can play Minecraft for eight hours a clip)
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Post by mitchell33 on Feb 17, 2012 1:19:17 GMT -5
Skyrim really isn't my type of game. i've been playing 'Ratchet & Clank:Tools of destruction" like mad lately. i'm i think near the end of the game actually. where we go up against the main villian & he brings something out of a dimension? i am guessing? it knocks Ratchet out & he falls into this mist? & where i am is i'm playing as "Clank" trying to rescue him.
anyone ever play the "Ratchet & Clank" series? great series & graphics as well.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 17, 2012 10:21:04 GMT -5
fascinating. well, maybe i'll take a chance on an earlier version, then. they're going pretty cheap. is the PS3 back-compatible for PS2 games? i suddenly can't remember. The earlier models did. I don't think the ones they've made in the last couple of years do. The first and second ones are on the PSP/Vita thing. I actually like 2 the best so far, although they're all pretty much the same game with minor changes. They actively try NOT to recreate it between each version, so any one of them is essentially the same version. The only reason not to get 3 might be that they intentionally went with a pixellated graphical version. It was designed to look like a PS2 game on the PS3...like I said, the whole thing is intentionally kind of geared to its own fan base. A lot of people complained in 4 when they actually redid the sprites in HD. There's even an option to make it look like it has the resolution of the PSP version if you want. But what I really like about it, and I've told other people this somewhere else, is that it's like a complete abstraction of a game. There's no attempt to treat the story seriously, no reason to assume that your "characters" are actual characters, no attempt to suspend your disbelief at all. It's completely about being a game system designed to be, well, gamed and exploited. The challenge is to see how ridiculously powerful you can make your guys. For example, you can "enter" every item (weapon, armor, "potion," etc.) in the game through the "Item World." This is a randomly generated "dungeon" that goes to 100 levels (or 1000 in Disgaea 3 and 4). So you upgrade your weapons by fighting battles within them. And, since you can upgrade any and every item in the game, you could conceivably play forever just to make everything stronger. Why would you do that? If you have to ask, you won't like this game. that's interesting. i dunno, i think with my style of gaming i tend to like to drink the kool-aid on some level, kinda buy into the illusion. f'r instance, i got into Civilization: Revolutions for a while, kinda enjoyed winging it a bit in terms of strategy. I'm all, hey, I like the Egyptians! I don't like the Huns! USA! USA! USA! and picked my teams based on that. then i started chatting with people on line and they'd managed to taylorize and optimize EVERY aspect of the game, cooking through decision trees like they were chess computers etc. and they were all, no, you wanna pick the egyptians if the terrain is like this. You wanna pick the Americans if your strategy is going to be like that. forget the nations, just pay attention to the attributes. and it took all the fun out of it for me because suddenly i had to analyze it in terms of numbers and stats rather than lashing out in blind, nationalist hatred against Maltese men. seeing too much of the wizard behind the drapes makes NewMads cry.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 17, 2012 10:24:35 GMT -5
Skyrim really isn't my type of game. i've been playing 'Ratchet & Clank:Tools of destruction" like mad lately. i'm i think near the end of the game actually. where we go up against the main villian & he brings something out of a dimension? i am guessing? it knocks Ratchet out & he falls into this mist? & where i am is i'm playing as "Clank" trying to rescue him. anyone ever play the "Ratchet & Clank" series? great series & graphics as well. now i've put THAT on my amazon list. it's like 20 bucks, as opposed to 60 for Skyrim, which is a plus. It seems quite well loved, if the reviews are any indication.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 18, 2012 23:33:34 GMT -5
The earlier models did. I don't think the ones they've made in the last couple of years do. The first and second ones are on the PSP/Vita thing. I actually like 2 the best so far, although they're all pretty much the same game with minor changes. They actively try NOT to recreate it between each version, so any one of them is essentially the same version. The only reason not to get 3 might be that they intentionally went with a pixellated graphical version. It was designed to look like a PS2 game on the PS3...like I said, the whole thing is intentionally kind of geared to its own fan base. A lot of people complained in 4 when they actually redid the sprites in HD. There's even an option to make it look like it has the resolution of the PSP version if you want. But what I really like about it, and I've told other people this somewhere else, is that it's like a complete abstraction of a game. There's no attempt to treat the story seriously, no reason to assume that your "characters" are actual characters, no attempt to suspend your disbelief at all. It's completely about being a game system designed to be, well, gamed and exploited. The challenge is to see how ridiculously powerful you can make your guys. For example, you can "enter" every item (weapon, armor, "potion," etc.) in the game through the "Item World." This is a randomly generated "dungeon" that goes to 100 levels (or 1000 in Disgaea 3 and 4). So you upgrade your weapons by fighting battles within them. And, since you can upgrade any and every item in the game, you could conceivably play forever just to make everything stronger. Why would you do that? If you have to ask, you won't like this game. that's interesting. i dunno, i think with my style of gaming i tend to like to drink the kool-aid on some level, kinda buy into the illusion. f'r instance, i got into Civilization: Revolutions for a while, kinda enjoyed winging it a bit in terms of strategy. I'm all, hey, I like the Egyptians! I don't like the Huns! USA! USA! USA! and picked my teams based on that. then i started chatting with people on line and they'd managed to taylorize and optimize EVERY aspect of the game, cooking through decision trees like they were chess computers etc. and they were all, no, you wanna pick the egyptians if the terrain is like this. You wanna pick the Americans if your strategy is going to be like that. forget the nations, just pay attention to the attributes. and it took all the fun out of it for me because suddenly i had to analyze it in terms of numbers and stats rather than lashing out in blind, nationalist hatred against Maltese men. seeing too much of the wizard behind the drapes makes NewMads cry. Yep. If there's a difference, though, it's that with Disgaea, that IS the game. In other words, it's not BREAKING the illusion by being a game system. The silliness/self-referentiality of the surface is all about the game being "broken" and gamed. The characters talk about their own need for levels or how much they need to grind, etc. It's self-consciously about that kind of game-playing. There's no lifting of the curtain since the game itself about a curtain that's already lifted, if that makes any sense. But at the same time, there's lots of number crunching and tactical grinding to be done, so if you're not into min-maxing and general gaming-as-math-rock, it won't be fun for you. But you will miss out on Prinnies: human souls reincarnated into penguin bodies with fanny packs who serve demons as servants and grunt warriors. And they say "Dood!" in every sentence. Prinnies are awesome.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 20, 2012 13:46:57 GMT -5
I actually work in an office that's lousy with prinnies so i'm covered there.
I'm toying with the idea of restarting my subscription to GameFly now that i've gotten a PS3, since i think that's the only way to really find games I like. (Finding a good game is sorta like falling in love, moreso than, say, finding a good movie. There are tons of acclaimed games out there that do nothing for me, and other games with mediocre reviews i quite like, so i find that kicking the tires is really the only way to determine whether I like a game or not.) If I do I'll definitely throw disgaea on my queue.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 20, 2012 15:01:35 GMT -5
on the other hand, [GEEKALERT]a few years ago i played D&D with some old vets, had a chance to DM for a few months, and i quite enjoyed holing up with some graph paper and some booze and drawing up the campaign, writing up NPCs and dungeons and so forth (i enjoyed drawing up the campaign a lot more than i enjoyed putting that bunch of whiners through it, quite frankly). it sounds like this disgaea game might appeal to someone with a DM temperament. [/GEEKALERT]
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 20, 2012 15:10:15 GMT -5
vis-a-vis skyrim, anyone happen across the talking dog with an accent like he's a junior G-man from "radar secret service"? i was so not ready for that, man.
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