What are you playing?

[middydj]

Been playing Battlefield 1 since release. Play daily. Still have fun. WIsh they would fix lag issues though.

 

[hat]

Ace Combat 4 and 5 have pretty good stories. 5 goes a good bit deeper than 4 though... guess there's a reason why it's the fan favorite.

Zero also has a good story, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to have the same magic 5 or even 4 does. One thing it does have that the others don't though, is that "Ace style" gauge, which has a marker that is largely positioned by how many yellow targets you destroy, which are mostly made up of defenseless enemy facilities such as oil tanks, storage buildings, hangars, etc. Those kinds of things have always existed in the previous games, where you could go through and destroy every object without a second thought. In Zero, when you attack these targets, you'll often hear demonizing enemy radio chatter about it and eventually it will affect your reputation, the enemies you face and the cutscenes you see. You can also go the other way and leave them all alone, which has the opposite effect, or you can strike a balance by basically blowing up half of them, which opens up that story as well.

They're all miles ahead from Air Combat, which was basically a shoot em up flight sim with next to nothing for a story which basically gets retconned into the franchise, and Ace Combat 2, which is a good bit better than Air Combat gameplay wise and feels like it has a little more soul, but nothing like the PS2 games. Ace Combat 3 I've barely played... mostly because the controls felt very weird and sluggish, nothing like any other game from the series I've played. Admittedly, as a PS1 game on the PS3, it could have been down to poor emulation of that particular title... I'll probably give it another try sometime soon.

 

[StrayKAT]

Ace Combat 4 and 5 have pretty good stories. 5 goes a good bit deeper than 4 though... guess there's a reason why it's the fan favorite.

Zero also has a good story, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to have the same magic 5 or even 4 does. One thing it does have that the others don't though, is that "Ace style" gauge, which has a marker that is largely positioned by how many yellow targets you destroy, which are mostly made up of defenseless enemy facilities such as oil tanks, storage buildings, hangars, etc. Those kinds of things have always existed in the previous games, where you could go through and destroy every object without a second thought. In Zero, when you attack these targets, you'll often hear demonizing enemy radio chatter about it and eventually it will affect your reputation, the enemies you face and the cutscenes you see. You can also go the other way and leave them all alone, which has the opposite effect, or you can strike a balance by basically blowing up half of them, which opens up that story as well.

They're all miles ahead from Air Combat, which was basically a shoot em up flight sim with next to nothing for a story which basically gets retconned into the franchise, and Ace Combat 2, which is a good bit better than Air Combat gameplay wise and feels like it has a little more soul, but nothing like the PS2 games. Ace Combat 3 I've barely played... mostly because the controls felt very weird and sluggish, nothing like any other game from the series I've played. Admittedly, as a PS1 game on the PS3, it could have been down to poor emulation of that particular title... I'll probably give it another try sometime soon.

Love Ace Combat. After the death of Wing Commander years ago, it's the only one that usually fills the void.

 

[hat]

I liked Wing Commander 3 ages ago, still have it... Maybe I should revisit it sometime. There's also Colony Wars...

It's especially interesting to revisit games I played as a child, or even a teenager years ago. Having played it then, then again now, seems a lot different, like there's more to it that I missed. Final Fantasy 7 is my best example of this. It's still one of my favorite games, but there's a lot more to it, both story wise and in gameplay mechanics, than I was aware of as a kid. Metal Gear Solid is another one.

Working on getting a Falken in AC5 right now. I already have 4 of every other plane. It was great for ripping enemy air power to shreds in Zero, which was really handy for those tough enemy squads who avoid even QAAMs regularly unless you can get really close. Though those missiles in particular were toned down a lot from AC4, in that game they were almost a guaranteed death sentence, even against Yellows. Still, nothing beats a damn laser, and AC4 doesn't have that, so fair play on that one I suppose.

 

[StrayKAT]

I liked Wing Commander 3 ages ago, still have it... Maybe I should revisit it sometime. There's also Colony Wars...

It's especially interesting to revisit games I played as a child, or even a teenager years ago. Having played it then, then again now, seems a lot different, like there's more to it that I missed. Final Fantasy 7 is my best example of this. It's still one of my favorite games, but there's a lot more to it, both story wise and in gameplay mechanics, than I was aware of as a kid. Metal Gear Solid is another one.

Working on getting a Falken in AC5 right now. I already have 4 of every other plane. It was great for ripping enemy air power to shreds in Zero, which was really handy for those tough enemy squads who avoid even QAAMs regularly unless you can get really close. Though those missiles in particular were toned down a lot from AC4, in that game they were almost a guaranteed death sentence, even against Yellows. Still, nothing beats a damn laser, and AC4 doesn't have that, so fair play on that one I suppose.

I'd like to play FF7 too, but they said they were remastering it awhile back... so I've been waiting. Haven't heard anything else about it though.

 

[hat]

They've been saying that for years and years. It's supposedly in progress, but I wouldn't expect a release any time soon. Also, it likely won't be very much like FF7 at all. Same characters and story, but it won't have the same gameplay mechanics. It's also supposedly going to be released in 3 installments. Right now, though, there's plenty of mods for the existing PC version to pretty it up.

The only bad thing about the PS2 is its inability to play PS1 games from the hard drive. It's my best option for PS2 games by far, which can be installed to the hard drive with HDLoader, but the only way to run PS1 games from the hard drive is with an emulator that has a lot of compatibility issues. Yeah, imagine that, there's actually a PS1 emulator for the PS2, a console that already works with PS1 games natively. Evidently Sony themselves created the emulator for one particular game for some reason, but somehow the homebrew guys got a hold of it and ran other PS1 games on it. It's just a shame there's no real way to run PS1 games from the hard drive though... Evidently it can only be done with PS2 games. The PS2 can only work with PS1 games when it detects a PS1 disc in the optical drive, and then it runs in some other way than it does when it runs PS2 games which makes it compatible with the PS1 games. Attempting to run a PS1 game off the hard drive means you're stuck in PS2 mode, so PS1 games aren't gonna work without a shitty emulator. I'm surprised nobody has figured out a way to exploit that and make it run in PS1 mode anyway... The PS2 is actually still surprisingly popular though and some homebrew development does still happen, so maybe one day...

Anyways, those issues with the PS1 side of things aside, it's the best way I have to run PS2 games, of which I have plenty... Namely the Ace Combat series as of late, plus other games I find I may be interested in that I've never played, or have played before previously. I have RE4 now which will be new to me, as well as Area 51, which I played ages and ages ago on PC when I still had my FX 5200 Ultra... I know now that was a terrible video card, but I had some good times with that thing. It even ran Oblivion with the Oldblivion mod... And countless hours playing various types of Quake online. Rune quake, Future vs Fantasy, the Slide mod...

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Mass Effect 3. Still say it's the better ME games ever made by Bioware despite being 6 years old-ish. Might go back to Andromeda since someone on the Denuvo thread thingy said there's performance gain/restored on ME:A as of Patch 1.10...

 

[StrayKAT]

Nah, ME2 all the way

ME3 would have won me over, if it borrowed ME2's suicide mission.. but they squandered it. It's not the absolute final ending of ME3 I hate (that sparked a lot of drama), but Priority:Earth itself. So uninteresting and anticlimatic, with next to no squad interaction or choices like ME2. That was freaking epic.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

ME2 definitely had the better options. But for extra missions, ME3 did it better like Citadel: Shore Leave "side mission". Was both funny & awkward. BTW, seeing female Shepard x Garrus ship is by far the better couple choices I've made back from ME2. Not regretting that decision at all =D

 

[FordGT90Concept]

ME3 would have won me over, if it borrowed ME2's suicide mission.. but they squandered it. It's not the absolute final ending of ME3 I hate (that sparked a lot of drama), but Priority:Earth itself. So uninteresting and anticlimatic, with next to no squad interaction or choices like ME2. That was freaking epic.

That's what Citadel DLC is for. Has more non-fighting squad interaction than ME2 and ME1 combined.

ME3 at launch was a smidge above ME2 simply because the gunplay is a lot more fun (it was 100% consolitis in ME2). With all of the ME3 content, it ends up a smidge behind ME. ME shines because it's a classic third person shooter so even if planet exploration gets a wee bit repetitive, murdering husks did not. ME3 failed on the major choices simply because it was the end of the trilogy where ME was the beginning. I'd have to do a T chart between ME3 and ME to figure out which is better. ME2 would be a T chart with MEA for 3rd/4th.

Andromeda is worth playing once. Unlike the ME games before it, it's really, really hard to convince myself to replay it. At least the mechanics borrow from ME3 so gunplay is probably the best yet; however, the story is so generic and bland and choices feel like they don't carry weight. It's also got more grind than ME (planet exploration) and ME2 (scanning planets) did. Squad mates are so forgettable, I can't even remember most of their names now. MEA was a swing and a miss.


I can't believe how slow I'm progressing in Dishonored 2. I think it's slow for four reasons: 1) playing on very hard difficulty, 2) not killing anyone, 3) never being detected, 4) not familiar with the maps so I'm searching every nook and cranny. Definitely enjoying it.

 

[cucker tarlson]

I've been exploring prey mooncrah, got 26hrs in and all but one kasma orders completed, only thing I haven't managed is to escape with alll 5 characters in a single simulation, but I haven't really tried. It's gonna be fun but it takes some planning to do. Meanwhile, completely by accident, I discovered the base version of prey has ng+ now, something that was missing when I completed it for the first time and wanted to replay immediately. I was disappointed,especially given how much fun the second run of dishonored 2 was, but decided to wait for this feature in prey too. I already started a ng+ run.

 

[StrayKAT]

That's what Citadel DLC is for. Has more non-fighting squad interaction than ME2 and ME1 combined.

Yeah, but it has nothing to do with Priority Earth. It's that in and of itself that drags it down for me.. I suppose Citadel is indirectly cathartic or whatnot, but I didn't really care about anything in it. Especially the story. Even THAT story itself was a sign of how badly ME3 was handled. Kai Leng was actually supposed to play a bigger part in the original game. Due to rushing and rewriting, they had to cut things and screwed the whole pacing up. His role was that he infiltrated the Alliance and after Ashley or Kaiden got hurt on Mars.. they became Spectres.. and this nerdy guy becomes part of their team, as sort of a counter to your/Shepherd's own team in hunting down the Prothean relics. It was supposed to culminate at Thessia, where the nerd finally reveals his true colors: Kai Leng. He then screws the mission over and forces you to decide to kill Liara or Ashley. Only then does Javik finally become a squad member (and whoever you didn't kill between Liara and Ash)... because Javik wasn't originally a DLC either.

The reason I mention this is that basically he was Brooks from Citadel, before that DLC was written. They must've realized how cool of an idea it was, and tried to rewrite it with Brooks.

This, of course, also had ME3 with a totally different Citadel mission in the original story (which originally didn't have the Kai Leng reveal or a face off against Ash). It was tied to Kasumi's side mission with the Hanar.. they had planted a bomb on the Citadel. It was going to drag you all the way to the Hanar homeworld later as well, where you'd join Thane and his son. But I digress. lol

ME3 had tons of potential, but fell very short for me.. but I still would've liked it if they at least didn't screw the Earth mission up.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

for my experience in ME Andromeda, the story definitely needs some rework. Squadmates are kinda unique I guess?? (got no other words to say) Played as Scott Ryder since he's the more "normal" looking one than his sister; Sarah Ryder. As usual, romancing Vetra Nyx was the first thing I go after. Peebee didn't strike me fancy, being the weird one in the team.

 

[StrayKAT]

Forgot to add that Kai Leng teaming up with Ash/Kaiden was the REASON why they were so paranoid about you in the first place. He kept putting shit in their head. lol. There was supposed to be a few missions where you kept running into them leading up to Thessia, and he was always causing doubt, saying you were still Cerberus (when he was the actual Cerberus plant).

This goes without mentioning that I could have killed Liara. Hehe... I hated how Liara centric the final version became.



I forgot where I found the original script, but it was definitely better.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Yeah, but it has nothing to do with Priority Earth.

Earth is under siege. Game makes it very clear from start to finish that the Crucible is the only way to defeat the threat so that's what the whole game is fundamentally about: getting it built and activating it.

Even THAT story itself was a sign of how badly ME3 was handled.

The Citadel story is mostly comedic, at least until the very end of it. Where Citadel shines is all of the side stuff besides that (e.g. retracing the steps of a drunken Grunt).

Kai Leng was actually supposed to play a bigger part in the original game.

No, he wasn't. He came from the books and was briefly injected into Mass Effect 3 to tie the books into the games. Two of the three terminals during the attack on Cerberus Station in Mass Effect 3 was tying the books to the games. The remaining terminal gave more back story to the Illusive Man.

His role was that he infiltrated the Alliance and after Ashley or Kaiden got hurt on Mars.

That is fanfic (yours or someone else's?). Kai Leng was a Cerberus stooge since the Alliance dishonorably discharged him. Anderson shot Leng in both legs which lead to Leng being Reaperized (or just cybernetically enhanced) before his appearance in Mass Effect 3.

Ashley/Kaiden both have Alliance roots and through their contacts (namely, Anderson), would know that Kai Leng is trouble.
Ashley/Kaiden both hate Cerberus (obvious in Mass Effect 2) which (through Anderson), they would know Kai Leng was affiliated with.
0% chance of Ashley/Kaiden siding with Kai Leng in anything but a plot to killing him.

for my experience in ME Andromeda, the story definitely needs some rework. Squadmates are kinda unique I guess?? (got no other words to say) Played as Scott Ryder since he's the more "normal" looking one than his sister; Sarah Ryder. As usual, romancing Vetra Nyx was the first thing I go after. Peebee didn't strike me fancy, being the weird one in the team.

By the end of the game, I wished I romanced Cora (she starts off as preachy and ridged but softens with time). By the time I made up my mind, the door to *any* romance was shut. Much regret.

 

[StrayKAT]

Earth is under siege. Game makes it very clear from start to finish that the Crucible is the only way to defeat the threat so that's what the whole game is fundamentally about: getting it built and activating it.


The Citadel story is mostly comedic, at least until the very end of it. Where Citadel shines is all of the side stuff besides that (e.g. retracing the steps of a drunken Grunt).


No, he wasn't. He came from the books and was briefly injected into Mass Effect 3 to tie the books into the games.


That is fanfic (yours or someone else's?). Kai Leng was a Cerberus stooge since the Alliance dishonorably discharged him. Anderson shot Leng in both legs which lead to Leng being Reaperized (or just cybernetically enhanced) before his appearance in Mass Effect 3.

I know he came from the books. They were written after ME2.. but he was a centerpoint in the original ME3 script. The books were meant to set him up for the next game... which they did... until it fell apart as I said.

Everything broke down when Casey Hudson begged EA for extension, and couldn't get it. He has briefly spoken how heartbreaking this was for him, but doesn't talk about it in detail. When I found the older script, I realized what he meant. They had to strip ALL of the original plans for Javik and Kai Leng.. then cut entire worlds out and redo a different version of the Citadel heist thing. They then added a non-essential Javik not tied to any default plots, and made him a day one DLC.

I can understand still liking the game, but it doesn't follow their original vision. At least ME2 did.

They even planned more for Earth in the script, with all kinds of choices for the units you gathered. Yet you act like it's supposed to be sparse crap on purpose. Not even Bioware wanted that.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

@FordGT90Concept well, you CAN romance other chracters outside the Tempest. But, I'm keeping Scott's heart loyal to Vetra. Not gonna chase after other alien girls xDD
Oh... I need to play the whole game again from the beginning, with my equipments & customization from the last 3 completed playthrough.

 

[StrayKAT]

When I say cut content, I mean picking units to carry out choices like ME2.. except instead of single characters, it'd be Aria's mercs or Krogan platoons. They even have some cut audio of some of it. Like Zaeed's group. Or Jack.

So yeah, screw Citadel DLC in comparison. Would have preferred a big shebang at the end.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Everything broke down when Casey Hudson begged EA for extension, and couldn't get it.

Hudson went on the record saying that the game panned out as planned (including the ending). The fan's demanding a rewrite of the ending surprised him and Mac Walters (lead writer). EA gave the go ahead to patch in a different ending as well as the planned DLCs.

I'm going to have to see sources for these claims because the claims in regard to Kai Leng make about as much sense as lipstick on a pig. I even read the Making of Mass Effect and there's no mention of any of this in there.

@FordGT90Concept well, you CAN romance other chracters outside the Tempest. But, I'm keeping Scott's heart loyal to Vetra. Not gonna chase after other alien girls xDD

I did some research on them too and there wasn't enough quests left to advance their romance either. I was literally (un)boned. :C

Oh... I need to play the whole game again from the beginning, with my equipments & customization from the last 3 completed playthrough.

Did that twice, highly recommended. The feels in Citadel and Extended Cut were strong, very strong.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

3rd quote; I forget to mention that it was for Andromeda. >< my bad.

For loyalty quests, I did all of the others. One thing that bugs me though is we haven't seen or heard anything about the Quarian arks, after saving the salarian, asari & turian arks. Krogan guys was ok coz they already settled on "New Tuchanka"...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

When I say cut content, I mean picking units to carry out choices like ME2.. except instead of single characters, it'd be Aria's mercs or Krogan platoons. They even have some cut audio of some of it. Like Zaeed's group. Or Jack.

So yeah, screw Citadel DLC in comparison. Would have preferred a big shebang at the end.

Again, Earth is under seige. Why would they put Jack with a school bus of kids (not even joking), trying to dodge Reapers, on to the planet, likely to only be killed if they hit the ground? They wouldn't. It made no sense, so they cut it. It makes sense that a rough draft would have all your allies helping you get to the Citadel but once they actually made it and realized how dark and dramatic it is, hearing all these people would take away from the sense of hopelessness and forboding that the Harbinger encounter is supposed to bring. They had to convince players that Shepherd barely made it and he's on his last legs. Plethora of allies sends the opposite signal.

Bringing Zaeed back for that last encounter didn't make sense either seeing how he played such a minor part in ME3. Wouldn't be surprised if they cut a lot of non-major ME3 characters and put them on video chat because there was serious bugs with their balance, design, or animations that didn't make them free-form combat ready like the main characters. They clearly fixed whatever technical issues there were by Citadel release.

3rd quote; I forget to mention that it was for Andromeda. >< my bad.

You finished Andromeda three times? 8|

 

[StrayKAT]

Hudson went on the record saying that the game panned out as planned (including the ending). The fan's demanding a rewrite of the ending surprised him and Mac Walters (lead writer). EA gave the go ahead to patch in a different ending as well as the planned DLCs.

I'm going to have to see sources for these claims because the claims in regard to Kai Leng make about as much sense as lipstick on a pig. I even read the Making of Mass Effect and there's no mention of any of this in there.


I did some research on them too and there wasn't enough quests left to advance their romance either. I was literally (un)boned. :C


Did that twice, highly recommended. The feels in Citadel and Extended Cut were strong, very strong.

lol.. Come on.. So I'm lying now? What do I even have to gain from that? If I'm going to lie, I'm going to make it worth my time.

Not sure where I heard about that call for an extension anymore.. it's been years. It could have been in the "Last Hours of Mass Effect" documentary/video thing. Either way, it's definitely not the final vision, even if you just looked at the vids I just posted of Jack and Zaeed. And that's just a small piece. Like I said, they even had to cut entire worlds - like the Hanar homeworld.

Remember that guy from "Terra Firma" in the first game? He was working with the Hanar in planting the bomb. So really the Citadel mission was more about Terra Firma and Udina.. but it led to a bigger Hanar plot. And that reporter Emily Wong straps a camera on Shep so he can go into the wards and search out the bomb while you're on live TV as she's narrating. Instead, they cut her out of the game as well. And they put the IGN chick as a replacement and another afterthought.

Again, Earth is under seige. Why would they put Jack with a school bus of kids (not even joking), trying to dodge Reapers, on to the planet, likely to only be killed if they hit the ground? They wouldn't. It made no sense, so they cut it. It makes sense that a rough draft would have all your allies helping you get to the Citadel but once they actually made it and realized how dark and dramatic it is, hearing all these people would take away from the sense of hopelessness and forboding that the Harbinger encounter is supposed to bring. They had to convince players that Shepherd barely made it and he's on his last legs. Plethora of allies sends the opposite signal.

Bringing Zaeed back for that last encounter didn't make sense either seeing how he played such a minor part in ME3.


You finished Andromeda three times? 8|

Dude, Jack and her kids were there anyways. Even in the final game, she's there.. she's on your intercom, a few miles from you.

You're just being contrarian for the sake of it at this point. And I'm not even sure why. It's as if you think games are written in stone or something. Instead, it's an ugly process full of broken dreams. We're lucky with the rare gems that actually do follow the original vision.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

@FordGT90Concept yep. Though it was on Casual diffculty for storyline sake. Gonna go up to Hard difficulty later since my equipments are good enough. ;3

@StrayKAT "IGN chick" pfft xDDD good one.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

lol.. Come on.. So I'm lying now? What do I even have to gain from that? If I'm going to lie, I'm going to make it worth my time.

I didn't say you lied. I read the books. Again, what you're saying sounds like FanFic.

Not sure where I heard about that call for an extension anymore.. it's been years. It could have been in the "Last Hours of Mass Effect" documentary/video thing.

That's what I was referring to but didn't bother to look it up.

Remember that guy from "Terra Firma" in the first game? He was working with the Hanar in planting the bomb. So really the Citadel mission was more about Terra Firma and Udina.. but it led to a bigger Hanar plot.

Sounds like a side quest that got cut because creating the Hanar environment (lots of assets), only to be used once, was too costly for how little content it would add to the game.

Instead, they cut her out of the game as well. And they put the IGN chick as a replacement and another afterthought.

Wong was on Earth when the invasion began. The Reapers used her broadcast signal to find her (only quantum entanglement communicators can't be traced). She presumably died.

Lore wise, Wong couldn't be on the Normandy because she isn't Alliance and the Normandy is an Alliance vessel that requires all imbedded journalists to be former Alliance so they know how to behave under duress.

Dude, Jack and her kids were there anyways. Even in the final game, she's there.. she's on your intercom, a few miles from you.

Been a long time since I played it. Most of the similar dialog I remember is from the Grissom Academy mission.

 

[StrayKAT]

This is why EA still thrives btw.. because people apparently like the shitty state these games come in. They don't complain - but rather defend them.

Just like DAI.. there's a lot of rewritings for the series.. especially that intermediary period between DA2/DAI.. where they canceled DA2's expansion pack. Solas and Morrigan/Flemeth were all part of that story instead. And the whole Inquisition thing actually had religious and political intrigue once.. until they rewrote shit and blew it up in DAI's title screen with a cheesy Big Bad story and the Templar/Mage war was resolved in the first act.