Game you're playing. How far you are.
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SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
be back when I can exit buildings without C'ingTD
Thanks, whoever turned the lights back on. I thought I was going to have to keep the bitching about PoE to myself. 
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SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
What can change the nature of a god ? :salute:
OH NO OH NO SPOILERS PILLARS OF ETERNITY SPOILERS
Classic Obsidian. BUT NOW I WANT TO KILL ALL THE GODS IN THE SEQUEL.
Pillars of Eternity is a good game. A very good game. A little rough around the edges at certain points, perhaps, but still impressively high quality.
Midway through chapter 3 with a blunderbuss toting Orlan cipher, a highly entertaining class. I am looking forward to <strike>breaking any semblance of balance over my knee</strike> dabbling with seventh level spells and seeing how the rest of the game turns out.
Unlike Wasteland 2, it has yet to leave me feeling that I've been wasting my time, neurons, or to regret the money spent. Kudos, Obsidian.
Am mildly perplexed by the lack of emphasis and urgency regarding the Watchers Always Go Insane Eventually plot point introduced/elaborated upon by Maerwald. Did I misunderstand this, and it's particular to Maerwald, specifically the exceptional trauma of remembering in great detail being being both his own father/son, the latter of whom was the result of rape ? Perhaps I unintentionally glossed over it, but from what I recall the detail that the PC has been literally unable to sleep at all since their Awakening is first mentioned part way through chapter 3 ? Yet you can wander around for several months (thanks in no small part to all that fast travelling) rescuing chickens, Lara Crofting the wildlife and helping plucky children cut their own fingers off without any apparent adverse side effects ? At most, your potential companions occasionally comment on your 'difficulties' sleeping ? You're informed that your character is steadily going mad, a scant handful of times, yet not once are the players shown this. Perhaps occasional inconvenient hallucinations that gradually become more and more disturbing/debilitating ? Blurred distinction between what's actually here and now versus echoes of past lives ? Past personalities intruding into conversations and interjecting with their own opinions and commentary ? Illusionary enemies ? Interface fuckery ? Reputation and/or stat penalties ? Missed opportunity.
Then there's that bit of flagrant cutscene idiocy at the culmination of chapter 2, during the animancy hearings. Knew it was coming when they mentioned 'balcony'. That one cutscene renders almost everything the player can effect in Defiance Bay irrelevant. While it's easily arguable that that was the entire point of the scene, and I concede that it's a personal irritant of mine - cutscene paralysis really pisses me off. I would have preferred the option to try (and fail) to thwart the assassination, or simply arriving too late to stop Thaos, than being a gormlessly passive spectator as he fucks everything up and slowly swaggers away. Reminded me of the trial sequence in NWN 2, in that no matter how thoroughly you prepared (or not), no matter how easily you destroyed your opponent's arguments (or not), it concluded with trial by combat. This is followed by the riots, which features a selection of violent altercations between various groups, who ignore your presence entirely. I'll have to test it, but I suspect if one were to force attack one of the participants, both parties would forget their animosity and unite against the player. Aggravating.
Regarding the riots, when you return to Defiance Bay after travelling to Twin Elms, almost nothing has changed. The Sanitarium has been razed, the Cipher detective agency has been (almost) completely depopulated, certain characters have different flavour commentary, but aside from that, the city is virtually identical to when you first arrived. No new characters, no (other) destroyed buildings or fire damage (that I can recall), no new quests. Odd.
The whole faction issue at Defiance Bay was handled oddly. Three groups, very much in opposition, each with a short sequence of tasks, which mostly do not directly interfere with the machinations of the other organisations ; the mere acceptance of which will cause you to, unbeknownst to the player, silently pledge your loyalty to a faction. Are they employing psychics ? Do they commission the town criers to boast by proxy of how they have convinced you to aid them ? How is it, for instance, that the Doemenels were even willing to talk to me after I ended two of their precocious, enterprising children, and their eminently reasonable retort of throngs of hapless assassins, let alone entertain the promise of my willingness to advance their goals ?
The Twin Elms sequence felt rushed, perfunctory. The whole sequence of escalation from NO-OUTSIDERS-ALLOWED-EVER to grudging permission on the strength of 'I am totally a Watcher, trust me' <strike>and the undertaking of menial tasks</strike>, then inhuming every occupant of their hall of warriors because they assumed I'd be simpatico with the ritual murder of a baby and that there was no way I'd be able to kill them all, culminating in everyone at Blood Sands essentially running face first into my weapons due to their absurd loyalty to their Grand Most High Fuckhead. All without comment or repercussion. Actually, that is a lie, there was one consequence for purging the infanticide club house and war paint factory - a gain of reputation in Twin Elms . . . What ?
As far as antagonists go, I found the Leaden Key to be strangely detatched from the gameplay. You encounter a few small groups at a couple of points, and, like the Doemenels, they dispatch assassins to wait for you, but I never felt as though they were trying to hunt me down. Unlike, say, the various bounty hunters/assassins in Baldur's Gate 1, for example. Their leader, Thaos, is pleasantly menacing though, I'm looking forward to ruining his day.
The various recruits you can collect like strays ranged from bloody excellent (Durance), interesting (Edér), amusing (Hiravias, Kana, Pallagina), milquetoast (Aloth), a bit boring (Sagani) to Livejournalesque wank (Grieving Mother). Nonetheless, they all felt varyingly disconnected from the central narrative, even those with ostensibly strong links to the themes, characters and set pieces. With the exception of Grieving Mother, whose under edited writing simply didn't do justice to what was otherwise an intriguing character concept, I thought they were all very well written.
All the Backer NPCs can (and did) die in a fire, though. Cathartic.
Pet zombie cat. That is all.
The world building and lore is top notch, creative, interesting, cleverly interwoven and strongly written. I'm enthusiastic at the prospect of seeing other parts of the world they've created.
The stronghold felt a bit tacked on, aside from being virtually bereft of inhabitants :
YOU HAVE RECRUITED 'GENERIC SHOPKEEP', +50XP.
YOUR PROFESSIONAL LACKEYS HAVE FAILED TO DEFEAT A MOTLEY BAND OF BRIGANDS, -3 FACELESS MOOKS, -8 DAYS WORTH OF UPGRADES.
ALL YOUR TAXES HAVE BEEN STOLEN. AGAIN.
YOUR KEEP HAS RECEIVED A VISITOR WHO WILL DEPART BEFORE YOU CAN JOURNEY BACK TO INTERACT WITH THEM, YOU HAVE LOST REPUTATION WITH RUSTIC SHITHOLE #5.
YOU HAVE COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION OF A THING YOU WILL NEVER USE BECAUSE INTERMINABLE LOADING SCREENS.
AN AVERAGE ADVENTURE IS AVAILABLE, COMPLETING IT WILL EARN YOU AN AVERAGE OF AVERAGES AND WILL IMPROVE YOUR AVERAGE IN AVERAGE.
YOU HAVE DEFEATED YOUR OPPONENT : IMPRISON Y/N ? YOU NOW HAVE. SIX. PRISONERS. THAT'S IT.
I am hopeful that they'll be refining this system, and polishing the rough bits in the (I HOPE) inevitable expansion(s)/sequel/spin-off, which I am very much looking forward to. Yes.
Save and load times have become extremely long as play progresses, heard that this may have had something to do with a chant that I haven't been using. Oh well.
Love that the 'Clever' dialogue has continued the brave tradition established with 'Suave' in the wonderful Alpha Portabello, i.e - it makes people want to hurt your character. So refreshing.
Classic Obsidian. BUT NOW I WANT TO KILL ALL THE GODS IN THE SEQUEL.
Pillars of Eternity is a good game. A very good game. A little rough around the edges at certain points, perhaps, but still impressively high quality.
Midway through chapter 3 with a blunderbuss toting Orlan cipher, a highly entertaining class. I am looking forward to <strike>breaking any semblance of balance over my knee</strike> dabbling with seventh level spells and seeing how the rest of the game turns out.
Unlike Wasteland 2, it has yet to leave me feeling that I've been wasting my time, neurons, or to regret the money spent. Kudos, Obsidian.
Am mildly perplexed by the lack of emphasis and urgency regarding the Watchers Always Go Insane Eventually plot point introduced/elaborated upon by Maerwald. Did I misunderstand this, and it's particular to Maerwald, specifically the exceptional trauma of remembering in great detail being being both his own father/son, the latter of whom was the result of rape ? Perhaps I unintentionally glossed over it, but from what I recall the detail that the PC has been literally unable to sleep at all since their Awakening is first mentioned part way through chapter 3 ? Yet you can wander around for several months (thanks in no small part to all that fast travelling) rescuing chickens, Lara Crofting the wildlife and helping plucky children cut their own fingers off without any apparent adverse side effects ? At most, your potential companions occasionally comment on your 'difficulties' sleeping ? You're informed that your character is steadily going mad, a scant handful of times, yet not once are the players shown this. Perhaps occasional inconvenient hallucinations that gradually become more and more disturbing/debilitating ? Blurred distinction between what's actually here and now versus echoes of past lives ? Past personalities intruding into conversations and interjecting with their own opinions and commentary ? Illusionary enemies ? Interface fuckery ? Reputation and/or stat penalties ? Missed opportunity.
Then there's that bit of flagrant cutscene idiocy at the culmination of chapter 2, during the animancy hearings. Knew it was coming when they mentioned 'balcony'. That one cutscene renders almost everything the player can effect in Defiance Bay irrelevant. While it's easily arguable that that was the entire point of the scene, and I concede that it's a personal irritant of mine - cutscene paralysis really pisses me off. I would have preferred the option to try (and fail) to thwart the assassination, or simply arriving too late to stop Thaos, than being a gormlessly passive spectator as he fucks everything up and slowly swaggers away. Reminded me of the trial sequence in NWN 2, in that no matter how thoroughly you prepared (or not), no matter how easily you destroyed your opponent's arguments (or not), it concluded with trial by combat. This is followed by the riots, which features a selection of violent altercations between various groups, who ignore your presence entirely. I'll have to test it, but I suspect if one were to force attack one of the participants, both parties would forget their animosity and unite against the player. Aggravating.
Regarding the riots, when you return to Defiance Bay after travelling to Twin Elms, almost nothing has changed. The Sanitarium has been razed, the Cipher detective agency has been (almost) completely depopulated, certain characters have different flavour commentary, but aside from that, the city is virtually identical to when you first arrived. No new characters, no (other) destroyed buildings or fire damage (that I can recall), no new quests. Odd.
The whole faction issue at Defiance Bay was handled oddly. Three groups, very much in opposition, each with a short sequence of tasks, which mostly do not directly interfere with the machinations of the other organisations ; the mere acceptance of which will cause you to, unbeknownst to the player, silently pledge your loyalty to a faction. Are they employing psychics ? Do they commission the town criers to boast by proxy of how they have convinced you to aid them ? How is it, for instance, that the Doemenels were even willing to talk to me after I ended two of their precocious, enterprising children, and their eminently reasonable retort of throngs of hapless assassins, let alone entertain the promise of my willingness to advance their goals ?
The Twin Elms sequence felt rushed, perfunctory. The whole sequence of escalation from NO-OUTSIDERS-ALLOWED-EVER to grudging permission on the strength of 'I am totally a Watcher, trust me' <strike>and the undertaking of menial tasks</strike>, then inhuming every occupant of their hall of warriors because they assumed I'd be simpatico with the ritual murder of a baby and that there was no way I'd be able to kill them all, culminating in everyone at Blood Sands essentially running face first into my weapons due to their absurd loyalty to their Grand Most High Fuckhead. All without comment or repercussion. Actually, that is a lie, there was one consequence for purging the infanticide club house and war paint factory - a gain of reputation in Twin Elms . . . What ?
As far as antagonists go, I found the Leaden Key to be strangely detatched from the gameplay. You encounter a few small groups at a couple of points, and, like the Doemenels, they dispatch assassins to wait for you, but I never felt as though they were trying to hunt me down. Unlike, say, the various bounty hunters/assassins in Baldur's Gate 1, for example. Their leader, Thaos, is pleasantly menacing though, I'm looking forward to ruining his day.
The various recruits you can collect like strays ranged from bloody excellent (Durance), interesting (Edér), amusing (Hiravias, Kana, Pallagina), milquetoast (Aloth), a bit boring (Sagani) to Livejournalesque wank (Grieving Mother). Nonetheless, they all felt varyingly disconnected from the central narrative, even those with ostensibly strong links to the themes, characters and set pieces. With the exception of Grieving Mother, whose under edited writing simply didn't do justice to what was otherwise an intriguing character concept, I thought they were all very well written.
All the Backer NPCs can (and did) die in a fire, though. Cathartic.
Pet zombie cat. That is all.
The world building and lore is top notch, creative, interesting, cleverly interwoven and strongly written. I'm enthusiastic at the prospect of seeing other parts of the world they've created.
The stronghold felt a bit tacked on, aside from being virtually bereft of inhabitants :
YOU HAVE RECRUITED 'GENERIC SHOPKEEP', +50XP.
YOUR PROFESSIONAL LACKEYS HAVE FAILED TO DEFEAT A MOTLEY BAND OF BRIGANDS, -3 FACELESS MOOKS, -8 DAYS WORTH OF UPGRADES.
ALL YOUR TAXES HAVE BEEN STOLEN. AGAIN.
YOUR KEEP HAS RECEIVED A VISITOR WHO WILL DEPART BEFORE YOU CAN JOURNEY BACK TO INTERACT WITH THEM, YOU HAVE LOST REPUTATION WITH RUSTIC SHITHOLE #5.
YOU HAVE COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION OF A THING YOU WILL NEVER USE BECAUSE INTERMINABLE LOADING SCREENS.
AN AVERAGE ADVENTURE IS AVAILABLE, COMPLETING IT WILL EARN YOU AN AVERAGE OF AVERAGES AND WILL IMPROVE YOUR AVERAGE IN AVERAGE.
YOU HAVE DEFEATED YOUR OPPONENT : IMPRISON Y/N ? YOU NOW HAVE. SIX. PRISONERS. THAT'S IT.
I am hopeful that they'll be refining this system, and polishing the rough bits in the (I HOPE) inevitable expansion(s)/sequel/spin-off, which I am very much looking forward to. Yes.
Save and load times have become extremely long as play progresses, heard that this may have had something to do with a chant that I haven't been using. Oh well.
Love that the 'Clever' dialogue has continued the brave tradition established with 'Suave' in the wonderful Alpha Portabello, i.e - it makes people want to hurt your character. So refreshing.
Experiment in stupidity and/or terror.
Ahahaha, Valve/Bethesda have cobbled together something glorious.
And the poor egomaniacs only receive a 25% share (and even then, only if they reach a $400 threshold), ahahahahaha.
Could we be heading toward peak hilarity ?
And the poor egomaniacs only receive a 25% share (and even then, only if they reach a $400 threshold), ahahahahaha.
Could we be heading toward peak hilarity ?
Bracing for the inevitable Horse Dildo for 5$
Time to start squeezing (hue) dem wanker $$$ out of the highest grossing pornographic game on the market.
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SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
Is a man not entitled to his shitting-dick-nipples ?
From what I've read, Valve's policy appears to allow for the inclusion of one author's (perhaps slightly altered) pre-existing free content into another's paid mod. If that truly is the case, it would seem that the only way for a modder to retain creative control (ahahaha) of their work will be by being essentially forced to monetise it.
I wonder how long it will be before Bethesda takes steps to eliminate <strike>hellmouths</strike> <strike>rivals</strike> sites like Nexus so as to effectively control means and legality of mod distribution ?
It could be the <strike>harbinger of a Humblestore-alike for underaged anime dickgirl 'companions', HD farm animal anus textures and other rarefied horrors</strike> death knell of modding as anyone ostensibly sane would care to recognise it, but it's going to be a bloody amazing source of schadenfreude, either way.
The entitlement issues that will eventuate from the expectation of professional tech support for this brave new market . . .
The outrage that will flow from the inevitable mod piracy . . .
Glorious.
I wonder how long it will be before Bethesda takes steps to eliminate <strike>hellmouths</strike> <strike>rivals</strike> sites like Nexus so as to effectively control means and legality of mod distribution ?
It could be the <strike>harbinger of a Humblestore-alike for underaged anime dickgirl 'companions', HD farm animal anus textures and other rarefied horrors</strike> death knell of modding as anyone ostensibly sane would care to recognise it, but it's going to be a bloody amazing source of schadenfreude, either way.
The entitlement issues that will eventuate from the expectation of professional tech support for this brave new market . . .
The outrage that will flow from the inevitable mod piracy . . .
Glorious.
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SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
Mr. Newell, tear down that paywall.
So, they've conceded that they're withdrawing to lick their egos, while also lamenting the wretched idiocy of those who Just Didn't Understand, and reaffirmed their commitment to finding a more palatable method of ruining modding in a new and exciting way forever.
What a shame. I was anticipating some wicked drama over mod DRM.
What a shame. I was anticipating some wicked drama over mod DRM.
Wait, what were we talking about?
Eh, it were a fancy five days of fat-shaming and crying on the internet. Hit me, Josephine:
When I was thirty-five, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for TES-modding nerds
Of independent wanks
They'd not make a penny, thanks
The fat one would drive
When I was thirty-five
Nevar froget
When I was thirty-five, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for TES-modding nerds
Of independent wanks
They'd not make a penny, thanks
The fat one would drive
When I was thirty-five
Nevar froget
Blargh wrote:ruining
Re: Fuck you and the subjective chronolog you rode in on, Bu
So frustrating?Blargh wrote:The best mask.
Re: Fuck you and the subjective chronolog you rode in on, Bu
So short?Blargh wrote:The best mask.
Apparently GODSDOG was taken
Life is Strange, AKA Telltale's Sands of Farenheit. Amazing how people who have no sensibility for games keep getting roped into making them and missing the forest for the trees. Here be the perfect setup and mechanic to wreak passive-agressive/downright terrorist havoc upon a townful of ne'er-do-wells of varying degrees of cuntishness and yet they're happy to limit you to one tightly scripted moment of schadenfreude (that more than hints you're going to pay for, because "morals" or something) to make way for teen drama and a plot seemingly deserving of one David Cage.
Hint, DONTNOD (hue?)- it's a lot more entertaining (not to mention interesting, gamey or just plain satisfying) to be given the tools and be allowed to find different ways to repeatedly humiliate a random bell-end than to be given the tools to suddenly discover they're only going to be used to very, very mildly affect the outcome of another of those interactive story "games".
In the interest of fairness, bonus point for the ability to witness a teenager being repeatedly hit upside the head by a football.
Hint, DONTNOD (hue?)- it's a lot more entertaining (not to mention interesting, gamey or just plain satisfying) to be given the tools and be allowed to find different ways to repeatedly humiliate a random bell-end than to be given the tools to suddenly discover they're only going to be used to very, very mildly affect the outcome of another of those interactive story "games".
In the interest of fairness, bonus point for the ability to witness a teenager being repeatedly hit upside the head by a football.
