Video Game discussion

[Jackinthegreen]

They are making adjustments to it.

Also, I don't know why I'm keeping track of patch notes to a game that I can't play.  Or if the adjustments they are making actually alleviate the issue.

I still keep track of patch notes for WoW.  I haven't played it since last year, and can't play it at all since my laptop doesn't support it (and I'm not about to resub anyway.)  Still, it's fun to look at some of the changes.  Especially when the theorycrafting pull out something awesome (like prot pallies love haste) and then Blizz has to go along with it because they can't usually make huge changes during an expansion.  I really hope this bit with prot and such has opened their eyes to how boring dodge and parry typically are as tanking stats.

I'd like to try PoE eventually, but I have a feeling I'll like it less than Torchlight 2, especially if I start using mods for the latter.

[X-Codes]

I just downloaded a game on steam and launched it, and then for some reason Warcraft 3 launched and I was immediatly shoved into a game of DotA.

[Demelain]

I just downloaded a game on steam and launched it, and then for some reason Warcraft 3 launched and I was immediatly shoved into a game of DotA.

That sounds bizarre.
Not that I'd complain, DotA was great. Anyone watching The International III?

[Unbeliever]

I am back playing Borderlands. I thank the Psycho and Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragonkeep. That alone was enough to perk my interest up again! And then i read about Orange's being rebalanced, drops being tweaked, and suddenly the game seemed interesting again!

I really hope they will go the Diablo 2 route, and continue to support the game for a long time with content, even if it's paid. Just too interesting!

The same thing has happened to me.  And, it helps that the last few DLCs have been quite good.  Hammerlock is a little annoying, but incredibly challenging.  Torgue and Tiny Tina have been laugh out loud funny, which is something that few games can pull off.  I'm enjoying the Tiny Tina DLC much more than I expected.  Due to Steam's super sale, I even bought the Psycho DLC, so I have another class to try out, even if I don't expect to be in love with it.  I do wish Borderlands had slightly more depth build-wise -- I love my Commando and my Gunzerker, but it does feel like there's a "right" build or two for them -- but it's still quite good on that count. 

In another note... Me, as someone who has played D2 for a long, looooong time, is tempted to play Diablo 3, but i'm really really really disappointed with it. Then i saw Path of Exile.

Anyone plays Path of Exile? Is it good? What can you tell about it?

Torchlight 2?  Ok, so the style is ... different.  And, it seriously lacks the brooding gothic awesomeness that is Diablo.  Then again, Diablo doesn't have that anymore either.  But, I really do like TL's gameplay and build variety.  Or, at least I recall that I did -- it's been over 6 months since I touched it.

[brujon]

I am playing a Psycho. He's AWESOME.

It's a constantly on-edge style of play. His skills actively encourage you to have your shields dropped and health on the red. You keep almost-dying then coming back, and it's awesome. Fight for your life skills galore, a really strong melee (stronger than Zero's!), and an in-your-face style of play. You think Anarchy Mechromancer did shotgun's right? Think again. You'll absolutely love to drop your buckshot and go to melee right after, because you get a bonus when you don't have any ammo on your clip.

This is the middle tree.

The right three, is like suicide-siren. You become a Burning Psycho, can breathe fire, set yourself on fire and do more damage/cause fire damage to everything, and fire gives you damage resistance. What's not to love about constantly taking damage and being on fire?

Leftmost tree is a real nod to Mordecai in the first borderlands, in that you have a bloodlust stack mechanic, and it's a pretty good one, too. Constantly kill things and the bonus keeps stacking, go for a while without, and it drops to 0.

IMO, it's the most flavorful class of all that have made it into the game so far.

[Unbeliever]

Cool.  Glad to hear it.  One buddy had a kind of tepid experience with it, but that might have just been his playstyle.  I'm sort of saving it for when I get the wife a new comp as she's going to then start with the Borderlandsing.  B/c what would be more romantic than that ...

[trappedslider]

As long as they don't half-ass it and make it a NEW game instead of what they did with L4D -> L4D2.

I was so fucking mad. I spent good money on L4D, then, about a year later, comes L4D2 - Same graphics, including ALL of the maps from L4D, all characters/weapons. Some new characters which are just reskins and revoices, a couple of new weapons and some maps. Seriously wtf? This isn't even enough material for a fucking expansion pack and they marketed it as a new game.

k, end of rant.

guessing you missed the new  special infected, the new director and them saying they did one too many improvements to the AI for it to be an expansion

anyway


I WANT MY HALF LIFE 3 BITCHES!

[SorO_Lost]

Anyone still playing Pokemon? I just heard about Mega Mewtwo. Apparently the new generation will have a new evolution stone called the megastone, except the new evolved form only lasts until the end of battle (digimon!). And Mewtwo is one such Pokemon to obtain a new form, said form is being advertised as having an even higher Special Attack. Yes even higher.

Also that shitty Lucario Pokemon has a megaform too.

[littha]

Maybe its Special attack will get close to Deoxys(A)...

looks awful though

(click to show/hide)

[veekie]

It looks like it should be wearing a scouter.

[SorO_Lost]

Vegeta, what is his power level?

It's over five huunnndddddrrrrrreeeeeeddddddd!

[X-Codes]

Oh, god...

I'm not going to say Pokemon needs a mercy killing, because I don't really believe that, but we need something new and Pokemon-like but geared towards a more mature audience instead of... you know... Japanese, 12-year-old shonen anime fans.

Just don't let EA do it.  They'll turn all the Pokemon into muscly dudes with guns.

[veekie]

^^
You could give Machamp some guns.

[DDchampion]

Oh, god...

I'm not going to say Pokemon needs a mercy killing, because I don't really believe that, but we need something new and Pokemon-like but geared towards a more mature audience instead of... you know... Japanese, 12-year-old shonen anime fans.

You do realize that currently pokemon has a quite active video game  world tournament scene with both junior and senior divisions?

And that in order to have any hope of suceeding on the senior division you need deep maths knowledge, patience and careful planning to properly breed a pokemon team since their stat growths are affected by a myriad of factors that usually evade the casual player but are essential on the pro scene?

How many other turn-based rpgs out there can boast the same?

So out of curiosity what else would it need for you to qualify it as "mature"? Swear words, blood+gore and naked chicks everywhere?

Just don't let EA do it.  They'll turn all the Pokemon into muscly dudes with guns.

Considering that currently EA is flat-out refusing to publish anything at all for Nintendo, you can rest safely.

[X-Codes]

And that in order to have any hope of suceeding on the senior division you need deep maths knowledge, patience and careful planning to properly breed a pokemon team since their stat growths are affected by a myriad of factors that usually evade the casual player but are essential on the pro scene?

It is not half as deep as you imply it is.  Any half-decent reference for competitive Pokemon play has the benchmarks listed somewhere within it for important stat breakpoints like 267 Special Attack to 100% OHKO a Salamence with a STAB Ice Beam (or something like that, it's been a while since I was in to that).  The thing is, the game is bloated with such a broad range of mechanics that there's no way you can make a team able to effectively respond to any strategy, and the number of rare candies you need to farm in order to identify a monster's IV's, the items and/or training time to level their EV's, and the possibility that one small mistake could happen and force you to start over nearly from scratch again with a particular monster (the EV reduction items are expensive, too), all combine to make it a massive grind fest to put together a team that no matter what you do will just plain lose to some other team that was one of the things you couldn't deal with thanks to a limited set of 24 moves and 6 pokemon.

What's more, do you lack the mental capacity to think of a middle-ground between swear words, blood+gore, and naked chicks, and what the Pokemon games are? How many times do you see someone even talk about eating in a Pokemon game? Because you know damn well what people eat in the Pokemon universe, but no, Pokemon can't ever be in danger of anything bad at all happening to them.  Even when they fight, they just faint and then get magically brought back to a creature in a drug-induced haze of hallucinogenic happiness by that pretty nurse who is always a metaphor for the sexuality of the target audience: a vague interest in girls covered up under youthful ignorance and helping you out in ways that will never be mistaken for sexual innuendo because you're a fucking child.

We can take this further if you want.  In every single Pokemon game, you're the sissy kid whose Pokemon are strong because of bonds of love and friendship, not because of any sort of meticulous training regimen or even merciless enslavement and drive to push your minions to conquer the world or anything.  You're always just the same generic pre-teen shonen superhero (unless you pick the girl avatar, in which case you're the same generic pre-teen shonen superhero with pre-boobs of mysterious origin).

[DDchampion]

On the contrary, 24 moves spread across 6 pokemon is part of what makes pokemon strategy deep. You can't indeed cover everything at once, so you have to know how to analyze the metagame and predict what the opposition will bring and how to best counter it while having some contigency plans.

Ray Rizzo for example won 3 world championships in a row. Why? Because he knew how to read the pokemon metagame better than anyone else, aways staying one step ahead of the competition.

As for pokemon "just fainting and coming back and magically brought back by high tech", that's no worse in any way from your typical RPG "You tecnically can die but there's a million ways of bringing you back to life so death is worthless". There's little diference between fainting and dying when both can be solved with the same ease. If anything, death is usually easier to solve in most japanese RPGs out there, with auto-life and mass ressurection abilities and whatnot.

But you know what pokemon has? Cemeteries. Hundreds of pokemon graves lined up, with people visiting for griefing their losses. Haunted by ghosts of all kinds. Ever since first generation that the game recognizes that yes, pokemon eventually die (and there's also at least a pokedex entry of pidgeots eating magikarps).

And c'mon, just because there's a female providing a commercial service it automatically counts as sexual innuendo? Would you prefer if they were faceless automated machines?

As for "love and friendship", last time I checked pretty much every japanese RPG has that.

However that's not mutually exclusive with "meticulous training regimen", and I'm pretty sure 50% of the NPCs you meet in any pokemon game will be repeating some sort of "gotta train your pokemon more/harder". And you are in your way to conquer the pokemon league for fame and glory, stuffing your pokemon with bitter drugs they hate if needed.

Plus, your character is not a superhero, quite in the contrary. You're just a kid from the countryside, not the chosen one/last descendant of an ancient race/royal lineage blessed with exceptional powers or that hapened to trip into a super artifact of power.

Which is precisely part of the big appeal of the series. The player can identify quite well with the character (even if they're older).

[X-Codes]

You know, I was going to go line-by-line and de-bunk every one of these things, then I realized... I'm arguing with someone who thinks that Pokemon isn't exclusively marketed to 12-year-olds, and thinks that my opinion that we need more mature games in the Pokemon style is wrong.

DDchampion, you are not qualified to argue with me.  Bye.

[ketaro]

It'd be correct in saying Pokemon is MARKETED to children, yes. There's pretty much no denying that one.
To say it's only for children to play, eh *shrugs*. For the most part, the majority of the older people who play Pokemon no doubt got into when they were in fact children themselves and kept going with it. For that point, Nintendo knows this and takes advantage of it by doing things like 'senior level tournaments' and other stuff or whatnot. But they're not going to change their marketing of Pokemon for the more mature crowd because their mature crowd are entirely very long time dedicated fans with next to no chance of leaving the following. The children are where they get the new players. 

I'm not going to say Pokemon needs a mercy killing, because I don't really believe that, but we need something new and Pokemon-like but geared towards a more mature audience instead of... you know... Japanese, 12-year-old shonen anime fans.

Well there IS that one game that came out not that long ago...Pokemon Conquest? I haven't played it but it does at least sound like a less childish kind of game :/
Even if, one game (that I can think of) isn't really much. There's so little variety to the genre of Pokemon games.....

[X-Codes]

Well there IS that one game that came out not that long ago...Pokemon Conquest? I haven't played it but it does at least sound like a less childish kind of game :/
Even if, one game (that I can think of) isn't really much. There's so little variety to the genre of Pokemon games.....

Didn't hear about that.  That said, I was talking more about a different universe with a similar gameplay style as opposed to the same universe with a large change in game mechanics.

In any case, it looks interesting.  My interest is tempered, however, by generally not having all that great of a time with other Pokemon spinoffs.

[Kuroimaken]

Pokémon Conquest is fun enough, although no less childish. Basically you have feudal Japan warlords competing to unite a vast country, and when one of them is done Arceus shows up. It's significantly less 'deep' than regular Pokémon, but the tone is slightly more serious, without losing appeal to the kids.