Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (11 AUG 2012 11:44am)

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Originally Posted By Traveller (11 AUG 2012 11:02am)

I tried LA Noire, but i hate the driving!  Such a waste of time, (not to mention that i suck with it

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Why can't one just use a map to navigate and drive "off-screen" or automatically? 

 

I guess coz it's a Rockstar game, but the driving is one of the reasons i never enjoyed the GTA games either.

 

I'll probably get back to Skyrim again, tho i'm tiring of it now.  I love Markarth, btw.

 

 

Yep Trav, the driving in LA Noire really sucks as it does in all PC games that force you to use clumsy WASD vehicle controls with no mouselook for steering.

 

I assume it is much easier with a gamepad or console controller, but who cares? 

 

Borderlands is one of the only PC action titles that got it right.

 

On another front, I'm having a ball running back through Titan Quest on the Legendary difficulty with an eye toward the new Hades chapter added by its Immortal Throne EP. 

 

My fearless, little lady warrior is reaching amazing levels with epic gear and maxed-out abilities.  She has also accumulated mega millions in gold plus a great cache of alternate equipment in the caravan drivers' storage units. 

 

Otherwise, Divinity 2 is going well...

 

Cheers, Terry 

 

 

Terry, if you like Titan's Quest, you might also enjoy Silverfall. 

Now you mention it, a controller might be a good idea to try LA Noire with.  The next time i fire it up, i think i'll plug in my 360 controller for PC. 

Often you can make your assistant do most of the driving, by holding the key to enter a car.

Alas that's not possible when you're chasing someone.

I'm actually getting bored with LA Noire, all missions seem to be more or less the same thing over and over again.

they're very compelling though..

I think i'll continue with Saint's row the third, i'm tired of playing the good guy 

And now I've beaten Old World Blues & Lonesome Road as well.

Old World Blues was the best DLC of the bunch. While the main story of it was relatively forgettable, and the jokes got a bit repetitive, the DLC had a large piece of land to explore, with a lot of different locations and quite a few hidden things scattered all over the place. It was also quite lengthy (well, I guess you could just rush through it, but what is the point of playing an open world game if you are not going to explore a bit?)

I had heard quite a lot of bad things about Lonesome Road, but I actually liked it. While it was a linear DLC, with little room for exploration, it had the strongest story of the lot. If it had been longer, then it would most likely have started to overstay its welcome, but it was short enough to remain interesting all the way through. 

Well, I almost feel like a monster now..

But now I have at least seen the closes thing to a bad guy ending in New Vegas (though Caesar's Legion were not really "bad guys", they just had different values. None of the factions who try to take over Vegas were really good guys)

My own :-)

Trav i am glad you got into LA Noire finally it is an amazxingly accurate world that they built, for that alone i am intrigued by it, for i study that period a lot and am actually working on a 3D virtual street car route to the west of downtown LA set in 1948 for MS Train Sim, focising on the Pacific Electric line which is featured in LA NOire, quite accurately. So for many reasons it is of great interest to me, it does get boring but just use the assisant for the dirving.. press E next to the car and he will drive for you.

Admire the detail, the interiors and the amazing work they did to create the entire downtown city.

i am playing and greatly enjoying the Assasins Creed series for many of the same reasons, amazing historic accuracy and of great interset to me....and the game play is fun..esp the part where you get to restore buildings and collect famous paintings..and even meet and work with Leonardo Da Vinci on some of his inventions...

amzing what computers can do in skilled and imaginative hands.

UPlay sucks btw, fortunately there are ways to avoid its trammels.

Hi Chris!  Well, now the Skyrim bug has finally bitten me!  I couldn't get into the game earlier, because in comparison to Ob the quests didn't feel as if they had enough "story"  to them for me, but i supppose Skyrim has it's own set of charms, the civil war, for instance, and trying to decide which side i want to be on.

I decided i'll leave choosing until later, so now i'm working hard at getting to "later"  . 

Yes, I noticed that AC can be quite addictive for some people, but to me AC seesm to have even less variation in the story?   Maybe i just feel that way because i've not really played much of even the first game myself, but i've watched other people play the first 3 games.  (And though the settings differ, the modus operandii seem quite similar).

I must say that the Italian one with Leonardo Da Vinci does seem the most interesting one to me.

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Glad to see you're getting into Skyrim after all, Trav. It really is a superb game set in a starkly rugged yet beautifully scenic locale. 

Speaking of RPGs (actually the action variety), I can now report that it is possible to exceed level 64 in Titan Quest with the Immortal Throne EP played at the legendary difficulty.  

It took forever to get that first bonus EP level-up and even longer to reach my current 67. I had to replay many tough sections to keep re-killing the big boss monsters after reloading for extra XP. But my little, dual-wielding warrior girl with nearly maxed-out fighting skills was up for the challenge and she will soon be heading down into the final lair to face-off with Lord Hades himself. 

As an obsessive looter, I also picked-up every... single... item in the game on all three difficulties and mainly spent gold on emergency health potions, which aren't too expensive if you use them wisely. 

The better item drops for weapons, armor, amulets, rings, etc., are much better than anything the merchants have for sale and you can loot lots of extra potions to boot. Plus the unique / rare / majestic item drops are ridiculously lucrative in the latter part of the game.

So you simply don't need to spend much gold and as a result, I have amassed an astonishing billion+ "dollars" worth of the shiny stuff. 

As I approached that amazing number, I was a bit worried it might crash the program, because the text box for your gold total doesn't look like it will acommodate one more digit. But it does (edge to edge) and now I have a modern-day fortune in the coffer with at least one major area left to play. 

Cheers, Terry   

Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (18 AUG 2012 10:52am)

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As an obsessive looter, I also picked-up every... single... item in the game on all three difficulties and mainly spent gold on emergency health potions, which aren't too expensive if you use them wisely. 

 

The better item drops for weapons, armor, amulets, rings, etc., are much better than anything the merchants have for sale and you can loot lots of extra potions to boot. Plus the unique / rare / majestic item drops are ridiculously lucrative in the latter part of the game.

 

So you simply don't need to spend much gold and as a result, I have amassed an astonishing billion+ "dollars" worth of the shiny stuff. 

 

As I approached that amazing number, I was a bit worried it might crash the program, because the text box for your gold total doesn't look like it will acommodate one more digit. But it does (edge to edge) and now I have a modern-day fortune in the coffer with at least one major area left to play. 

 

Cheers, Terry   

Good heavens, Terry, you sound worse than i am!  I used to, in games like Ob and the Gothics, loot every container and body, and pick every plant i could find, but there's such a lot of stuff in Skyrim that the piles of loot becomes too problematic, even with a house to store it in, and even with lots of vendors to sell to.  Now i only pick flowers while actually running and i don't loot every single urn i find, though I still check most bodies for arrows and money (zero weight) and high-value low weight items.

But i've never yet managed to be an in-game billionaire...  

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I was the same way in Skyrim and am in most other epic quest-oriented RPGs, Trav. 

I loot, steal/pickpocket and harvest everything possiible and do every little quest until reaching a comfortable level with good equipment, items and a nice gold reserve. 

Then I ease off a lot and start focusing much more on wider exploration, overall story and fine-tuning my character. 

However, in fast-action-RPGs like Titan Quest, there are limited side missions and mostly superfluous dialog with a more linear game world packed with respawning monsters that represent a constant stream of XP. The main quest is totally linear too and setting an arbitrary, secondary challenge like reaching a huge gold total, can add a bit more interest as you plow through endless hordes. 

It also helps to master the portal system and scope out the most efficient merchant locations to reduce scrolling and clicking in a continous series of sales trips to unload loot. 

Of course, none of that matters if merchants have limited gold. But in Titan Quest, they all have infinite money and as mentioned above, very little merchandise worth buying. So the gold total just keeping climbing and climbing for as long as you care to play and in the legendary mode during the latter chapters, each sales trip yields a small fortune.

Cheers, Terry  

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Since Titan Quest / Immortal Throne is nearly done and I've finished Two Worlds Two plus its EP, I've also been playing Divinity II with its EP already installed. 

Am having a ball right now flying around as a fire-breathing dragon, but hate all those fast, skittish, little wyverns that attack from all directions while massive lightning towers and giant catapults target you simultanenously from many directions around the floating fortresses. 

It was pretty tough going until earning some more dragon points and improving combat skills. Leveling up for more health points has also helped. But my dragon is still dying often and I hope there isn't too much more of the same.  If so, I could lose interest very quickly... 

Cheers, Terry 

Terry, the flying fortesses are very challenging, but the constant fighting against overwhelming adds both in dragon and human form could become very tedious, and was one of the most frequent complaints from players. That's why the version you have, the one with the expansion, has actually removed the need to clean them out: While it isn't really obvious, it is possible to simply avoid enemies and head straight for the Fortress entrance, which isn't in any way blocked. That's why you may notice some levers that don't actually seem to be doing anything, they are leftovers from the pre-expansion version of the game, in which they had to be pushed for various force fields blocking the entrances to be deactivated.

Do keep at it. You are fairly near the end of Ego Draconis, and the expansion, Flames of Vengeance, is an amazing city adventure.

I also found the dragon fortress aspect of Ego Draconis the hardest part of the game, but that was with the original.  I loved the game so much that i bought the expansion pack, but unfortunately with Dragon Knight Saga, (which i got) one has to start again from scratch, and though i'd love to see the ending and the expansion, i think i need a bit of time before having to start the game right from the beginning again.

Mind you, next time round i'll probably concentrate on trying to acquire more cash from an early stage, as this becomes rather more important towards the end of the game.

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Fortunately Trav, I got the Divinity II EP as part of an integrated, downloadable discount pack with all final patches applied and evidently, it automatically starts when you beat the original game with an expanded cut-scene segue that sets things up for a continous, seamless player experience (at least according to the blurb I read online). 

So I'm expecting to have my current character simply carry straight over to the EP as the new adventure begins.  

Either way, I like the game and was happy to learn that Larian is working on yet another title in the series. 

Cheers, Terry 

I guess Max Payne 3 kind of fits in, as an action-adventure game; I'm also playing Skyrim. Even though the Olympics just ended, I still haven't picked up the official adaptation game. Think I'll get it soon.

Originally Posted By GoToHellDave (18 AUG 2012 12:05pm)

Do you like my animation? for our point and click game?


I really want to get back into bioshock, did everyone pick up the free games from onlive?

Looks like a classic point & click adventure game, which is always nice!

A friend of mine bought a 4-pack of The Political Machine 2012, and gave me a copy of it. It is an entertaining game, that I think is best suited for multiplayer with friends, though I don't think it has a lot of replay value in singleplayer.

And I'm also playing through Ys origin, a Japanese ARPG, with a good fast paced combat system. Far too early to give a final verdict on it though. 

Thanks we have more stuff on our facebook, I really wana get YS, I remember playing one on ps2 wish they realeased them on psn

Originally Posted By GoToHellDave (19 AUG 2012 6:19pm)

Thanks we have more stuff on our facebook, I really wana get YS, I remember playing one on ps2 wish they realeased them on psn

Well, all the Ys games up to 3 are on PC, though you might have to import the first two from Japan (and apply a fan translation). Ys Origin is a prequel to the series, and Ys 3 is called Ys: The Oath of Felghana, so that is always an option.  Ys Origin & Oath of Felghana are both on steam. 

Cool thanks, have they got controller support?

Originally Posted By GoToHellDave (20 AUG 2012 6:53pm)

Cool thanks, have they got controller support?

Ys Origin at least has, I don't know about the others, though I would be surprised if they don't. 

Just started Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, and I have apropriatetly enough died 4 times in the first 15 minutes of playing. This game probably desrves having its own thread, I'll make one when I manage to progress a bit more. 

You're in for a treat! Dark Souls is an awesome game (though hard as heck, but not really cheap hard, just hard).

BTW If you didn't see you can unlock higher res textures in the game:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=488240

That will make the game look better on the pc.

I've been playing Sleeping dogs myself. This game is great and for anyone that likes open world game slike Mafia, GTA, etc you will enjoy it. I actually lik eit better then most GTA games. The storyline/atmosphere is better. THe PC version released with a high res texture pack (which was awesome of them to do).

For anyone unfamiliar with the game it was actually meant to be the third True Crime game, which were "so so" games, but activision canned it so Square enix bought the game/developers and let them finish it (but activision still holds the name rights so they had to change it).

Basically you play as an undercover cop, Wei Shen, who gets into the Triads and has to play both sides of the fence throughout the game. There's cop m issions, triad missions, side missions, racing, etc.  The game is set in Hong Kong and has a lot of classic martial arts homages and things, especially in it's outfits you can get made famous throughout many films, from classic Bruce Lee outfits to Jackie Chan's rumble in the bronx outfit and others.

Gameplay wise the game is much more focused on melee combat rather then gunplay like GTA /Mafia and other open world games. The melee combat is fun and pretty much works like the Batman: AA/AC games with it's counters and what not. Gun combat is fun as well and much more offense based as jumping out of cover gives you a slow mo effect that makes it easier so you're encouraged to dish out some John Woo style shootouts.

The detail in the game is great, especially at night when it rains, how the pavement reflects light and things that are wet.

I've taken a few screenshots here if anyone wants to see:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Stiler/screenshots/?appid=202170

Also tonight I'm geting ready for Guild Wars 2. The servers (for headstart people) are going to go live any time now.

I've been playing Portal 2's co-op mode with a friend, and it is really fun. Only one puzzle has given us any realy issues thus far (I think we managed to solve it in a far more convaluted way than the designers intended it to be solved, due to the amount of steps we had to do to solve it our way, and the tight timing needed), and we just beat the gravity fields part. 

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It's good to see so many other JA members playing a variety of games from other genres. 

My recent playlist has been jam-packed with RPGs, ARPGs, action adventures and shooters of every kind. 

Finally finished the Immortal Throne EP for Titan Quest and completed the original Divinity II. 

Now I'm playing the Dragon Knight Saga EP for Divinity II and am really enjoying the change of pace. 

Also grabbed Torchlight from GOG.com for my ongoing ARPG fix. 

Otherwise, am still plodding through the two-game Riddick FPS pack plus I have several other games underway and many more ready to go when this batch is done. 

Cheers, Terry