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Comments
So, I just played the Kingdoms of Amalur demo.
The game not being as successful as planned or hoped for no longer really surprises me. It's a clear example of game developers talking a bigger game than they provide, all the while falling into a wide range of stereotypes and overused tropes that ensure their game doesn't stand out from its competition. It has everything from elves and dwarves to class typecasting and excruciatingly standard skill trees. The combat is no fun, because every enemy can be stunlocked by just about anything and the one spell I used was just a standard ranged attack.
Besides, I played this game many years ago -- it was called "Fable", and had enough self-awareness that its brand of standard fantasy non-imagination was fun and endearing.
So KoA kind of makes me angry.
I liked it, though it's not that great. It's a semi-open-world game with a really large and pretty world, and the story notion of being the one person unaffected by fate is pretty neat.
You just described every Western fantasy game.
Unfortunately, you might be right.
Perhaps I've been spoiled by Souls and The Witcher.
Honestly, the only thing about the first Witcher game that doesn't fit your descriptor is that the one useful spell is more of a short-range cone.
Though the sequel seems better so far, combat-wise. Sadly, the balance in the first major area seems to be overcompensating for the cakewalk that was the first game.
Well, only one of the spells in either Witcher game is actually a ranged spell for dealing damage -- the other ranged attack spell exists for staggering enemies to support close combat. And quite apart from that, there are only five spells and each has a significantly different role and application. It has elves and dwarves, but they're actually used for the purpose of narrative rather than just existing because lol fantasy. As for stunlock, that only really applies as long as you actually have a properly-timed combo going, so you certainly can't button mash. In fact, the stunlock is a reward for good play rather than a default.
While the second game unfortunately features a more standard set of upgrade paths, the first one was much more modular, with each skill having its own tree that you could advance or ignore at will rather than shoehorning you into a particular style of play wholesale. So it was less of a case of "be good at combat!" or "be good at alchemy!" and more a case of deciding where you wanted your strengths to be and using the modular system to support that. There was also the fact that your damage was based on your skill level with weapons acting as a modifier of that, so there was much more incentive to make Geralt stronger and much less incentive to have the absolute most powerful weapon.
If you need help with the second game's combat, keep in mind that it's mostly about mobility. Your dodge is a better defensive tool than your parry, plus it can move you out of a tight spot and into a location that allows you to flank adversaries. The odds are against you in this one, so you have to be craftier about how you deal with combat and the auxiliary tools you use. As often as possible, you want to ensure you're engaging in one-on-one fights, so strike as hard and as swiftly as possible to thin the ranks of the enemy and then relocate. The counter ability on the swordmaster tree is extremely helpful, allowing you to deal significant damage even when backed into a corner. This time around, the fireball spell is the least useful, whereas all the other make significant contributions to combat, from enforcing a stun to trapping multiple enemies.
It's your call, pretty much. But unlike the first game, you certainly can't tank combat. So you have to remove yourself from the mindset of walking up to enemies and hitting them until they fall, and instead find alternative strategies.
My point was more that in TW1, only Igni was actually of any value outside very specific circumstances.
True, but it makes it really, really easy to keep up a combo, and the group style means you can stunlock every opponent at the same time, which is just ridiculous.
Maybe, but to a greater extent than in KoA? Not really. They're just oppressed minorities.
This is the main problem here. The game has an annoying tendency to spawn 10-20 enemies, any one of which is almost as powerful as I am. I've mostly managed to whittle them down with traps and bombs. The Endrega Queen is just bullshit, though.
One of the biggest things about The Witcher in both game and book form is its examination of racism via fantasy abstraction. It's an absolutely core thematic point in the books and provides plenty of conflict and choice in the games. This is especially important because of how shallowly racism is usually handled in games. If you look at TES, its examination of racism largely revolves around hatred from old wars, which is a simplistic and inaccurate explanation. But The Witcher looks at the disempowerment of people from their native lands as well, providing an examination of racism from one of its root causes -- colonialism, and the disempowerment of peoples from both an economic and social perspective.
The vast majority of fantasy games and settings have elves and dwarves because fantasy tends to have those things. The Witcher has them because they're an excellent tool for the examination of real, modern issues, but they're abstract enough for anyone to understand. It displays a deep understanding of the fantasy genre's literary strengths rather than simply using the genre for what's cool or impressive. So they're not "just" oppressed minorities, but an intelligent addition to the setting that provides a level of insight that most fantasy can't even approach.
She can't hit you if you're behind her, and you can stun her for a good three hits or so with heavy attacks. Flank flank flank flank.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it does a really good job of portraying oppressed minorities. But the only reason why the elves and dwarves are elves and dwarves instead of, say, black people, is because it's a fantasy setting and they're supposed to have elves and dwarves.
I tried, but she does half my health bar in one hit, has a poisoning attack that drains around a third of my health bar if I'm using Swallow (which I swear they nerfed between games) and just takes fucking forever to kill. I eventually decided to do easier stuff for awhile and come back at like level 15.
I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle. The elves and dwarves are there because they don't exist in the real world, but are known factors of fantasy. That means everyone is familiar with them and that they provide an abstraction of real-world racial issues, because they don't have to follow the specific historical patterns of real-world disempowered peoples, and can therefore be representative of all of them. This means that what we're presented with in the games and books provides valid commentary on both, say, African Americans and First Nationers, but also Australian Aborigines, South Americans and a host of other minorities. It's using a fantasy standard for an actual function, which is made more clear by how otherwise historical the setting usually is.
You might well be in another chapter of the game at level 15. Trust me, it's perfectly possible to do it now -- you just have to be really anal about getting those rear attacks and staying out of her frontal attack radius. Using the shield spell will help a lot; it gives you at least one hit's worth of margin of error.
Yeah, I don't know what level I'll actually be. I figure I'll do it right before the Kayran.
That's fair.
I miss the days when roguelikes were subtle about wanting me dead.
I don't think I've seen Game Informer give Nintendo this much love since their Skyward Sword coverage.
HOLY SHIT WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS
Cool Dark Souls tidbits:
"Vereor nox", Rhea's parting words to you during conversations, translates from Latin to English as "I fear the night".
Also, the Greatsword of Artorias and the Black Knight sword have extremely similar heavy attack animations, and obviously identical light attack animations.
Finished all the Chapter 1 sidequests in The Witcher 2. Fighting Letho now. He's...not easy.
So, Black Mesa is out in a few days and I don't have the storage space for it. I'm definitely not finishing The Witcher 2 by then, so I guess I'd better rush through Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
> running out of storage space for games
I don't know that feel, bro
I use an SSD. 6GB/second loading time is worth it, but it means I have a total of 120GB for storage. I've been meaning to get a second one just for Steam.
My team has a game in Steam Greenlight. I understand that every game isn't for everyone, but people sure do have harsh judgments for a game they haven't even played. The criticism is all over the place too. What one person likes another person thinks is shit. So maybe I shouldn't take negative words seriously.
Which game? The one that got published on Desura recently?
Yeah. Banzai Pecan: Last Hope For The Young Century. You might have known that.
Not my kind of game, but good luck with it anyway. I can see why some people might hate on it, but then again, people have various reasons for hating on just about anything.
Well, hope it gets on Steam. We might get more sales.
Finished sequence 4 in ACR.
It's not a bad game, but it's definitely the worst Assassin's Creed game since the first. If it keeps up some of its worst habits, it might even usurp AC1 as the worst game in the series.
Carlie has a spell called Tinkle Rain.
Tinkle Rain.
It could be worse.
It could be Tingle Rain.
So instead of being a weak healing spell it summons Chris-chan's Termina counterpart?
Black Mesa is at 42% on Greenlight. Hopefully it will be able to launch on Steam.
...I thought Black Mesa was already slated for a release on Steam? Or is there a difference between "Black Mesa" and "Half-Life: Black Mesa"?
No, it wasn't, even though Valve is okay with the project.
Well, the latter doesn't seem to exist. The project was originally called "Black Mesa: Source," but Valve asked them to drop Source from the title because it might make people think it was an official Valve release.