Video Game thread XIV ²: No Prequels Club

[The Sad Punk]

Total War™: ROME II - Out Sept 3rd, 2013 - Pre-order to get Greek States Culture Pack! (ESRB) - YouTube

 

[No spoken words]

Oh man, Bonnie, that is so up my alley in many ways. Awesome.

Too bad I cannot play it when it comes out.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Talk about Bioshock!

 

[Jive Turkey]

Do you think Indy would feel at home in Columbia?

 

[No spoken words]

Talk about Bioshock!

Ok.

Spoiler

Well, first of all, I have not pulled a Mobvok and read tons of commentary or watched hours of youtube clips about the game. I've read nothing, actually, including the spoilered comments in this thread. So, I kinda just let it marinate in my head and 24 hours or so later, I guess I know how I feel and what I think.

For starters, I liked it a lot overall and sometimes loved it. I...appreciate what the game was going for, and wish we lived in a world where the game could have been 100% what the creators likely wanted it to be, as opposed to a combination of their vision and the things you need in a game today to make it more universally appealing. I guess I'm saying that the combat felt.....like an afterthought....a cool afterthought, but an afterthought nontheless. What I loved was the look and feel....it felt authentic, odd as that word might be in this case...but it did....world felt real, lived in, etc....I loved just looking around, staring at the posters or statues, etc. I loved Elizabeth and her story, her reactions to the violence and the world around her, etc. Sidekicks usually annoy me, and they usually impede at times, etc...but she was well done and more of a help than anything else.

As for the game's final point....I was made to understand beforehand that the end was somewhat controversial, and perhaps left some items up for debate? I didn't find it all that confusing or ambiguous...but I also am not the most analytical game player, so perhaps I'm simplifying. I simply took the game's ending sequence as a commentary on gameplay itself...and the choices made within. I suppose some people might say it was a commentary on choice itself, but I don't think it was, and if it was, it falls a little short (and defies my personal beliefs)...but if it was simply a commentary on choices within the gaming world, then it hits its mark and then some. I took all the lighthouses to be both all the choices DeWitt did or did not make, his alternate realities...but also as a representation of everyone playing the game, how we all make our few choices but wind up in the same place. I thought DeWitt actually being Comstock was cool albeit not shocking so that was fine. I am a simple guy so I have a simple view, I guess. I'm sure the ending was more complex than I see it.

So those are my simple thoughts on the game. I am glad I played and wish I had a deeper analysis for you lot. I killed many crowmen but in the end, they wormed their way into my head so they won, really, not me.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Spoiler

But the Luteces? Best non playable characters ever?
What about when you found out DeWitt was Elizabeth's father and the finger bit? I felt more emotion at that part than I ever have in a game.
You should try playing it again. It was very rewarding and you realize how much of the story was being laid out before you; things being said before you had any context for them on the first go round make things so much clearer on the second

 

[No spoken words]

Spoiler

But the Luteces? Best non playable characters ever?

Spoiler

Oh, yeah, the "twins". I assume they really were alternate versions of themselves...the female being the original, the male being versions of her in alternate realities. I liked them, felt bad that Fink killed them, or tried to, leaving them in limbo....I liked how they kept summoning different Dewitt's to fight their battle against Comstock for them. I assume that was the case, at least....the flipped coins and the fact that you would wake up after dying in their office made it seem to me that you were just the next DeWitt they tracked down to finish the job.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Spoiler

Oh, yeah, the "twins". I assume they really were alternate versions of themselves...the female being the original, the male being versions of her in alternate realities. I liked them, felt bad that Fink killed them, or tried to, leaving them in limbo....I liked how they kept summoning different Dewitt's to fight their battle against Comstock for them. I assume that was the case, at least....the flipped coins and the fact that you would wake up after dying in their office made it seem to me that you were just the next DeWitt they tracked down to finish the job.

Spoiler

Ya, they were definitely the same person. On one of the vox phones, Rosalind Lutece says something along the lines of "then the only thing separating us is a chromosome"... or something.
I loved their bickering.
I've heard people mention the "different DeWitt" theories, but I'm not sure that's the case. Since space and time don't matter, I think they're bringing back the same Booker each time. Possibly intervening before his actual death. There's a part near the end where they mention something about his brain adapting through repeatedly being subjected to the alternate reality (and Robert Lutece confirms the brain's adaptability by saying "I should know... I lived it"). It's only by going through the same process over and over that the brain is able to gradually retain new memories. I also think the idea of the very same person embarking on the same journey over and over, with no memory of even doing it to be more elegant and satisfying. If it's just a different Dewitt each time, it makes you feel disposable... I could be wrong.
I also loved the music. Not just the contemporary songs done in an old timey fashion, but the score. There's a song in particular near the end when you refuse the baptism; a very simple violin number. Love it. And the single piano notes as each Elizabeth vanishes into oblivion. And the music as your parachute slowly descends through Columbia at the start. And the churchy music when you first arrive. All so well done.

 

[No spoken words]

Spoiler

I loved the music, too, absolutely. Very haunting at times. And, we will disagree on DeWitt interpretations. As I said, I have not read a word so I could be really wrong but it just seemed obvious to me that the twins were using their abilities to time and time again find Dewitt's to kill Comstock, and that they had failed time and time again....but the last Dewitt we are in the game finally succeeds. But, I don't feel strongly, per se, just seemed pretty damned evident to me and part of the point of the story. But you could be right, who knows.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Spoiler

I loved the music, too, absolutely. Very haunting at times. And, we will disagree on DeWitt interpretations. As I said, I have not read a word so I could be really wrong but it just seemed obvious to me that the twins were using their abilities to time and time again find Dewitt's to kill Comstock, and that they had failed time and time again....but the last Dewitt we are in the game finally succeeds. But, I don't feel strongly, per se, just seemed pretty damned evident to me and part of the point of the story. But you could be right, who knows.

Spoiler

I think part of the problem for me is, before I got to Elizabeth, I didn't die. So the first time I even saw any death animations that didn't involve Elizabeth resuscitating me was in Finkton after she ran away.. and even then, I only ever saw one of those animations

 

[mobvok]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwDzbZcUTok

 

[Jive Turkey]

Ya, that's the one. So good

 

[The Sad Punk]

Oh man, Bonnie, that is so up my alley in many ways. Awesome.

Too bad I cannot play it when it comes out.

Oh damn, how come? Because you know you'll get stuck into an endless void of justonemoreturnism? I guess I'll have to make up for you.

Now talk about Bioshock again. Still gotta play it, haven't had a chance to play anything lately. GOW: Ascension collectors is beginning to gather dust on my shelf and it hurts me inside.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Spoiler

I loved the music, too, absolutely. Very haunting at times. And, we will disagree on DeWitt interpretations. As I said, I have not read a word so I could be really wrong but it just seemed obvious to me that the twins were using their abilities to time and time again find Dewitt's to kill Comstock, and that they had failed time and time again....but the last Dewitt we are in the game finally succeeds. But, I don't feel strongly, per se, just seemed pretty damned evident to me and part of the point of the story. But you could be right, who knows.

Spoiler

How about ending up in Rapture? How cool was that? When the Beyond the Sea music started I nearly shat myself

 

[Jive Turkey]

Spoiler

Another reason for thinking it's the same Booker throughout - Not only from one coin flip to the next, but after the death animations - is that, from a concept perspective, the player still has all the memories of what happened prior. From a purely conceptual view, we are Booker Dewitt in this game. If it was a new Booker after you died, it kinda takes away from the first-person aspect of the game; we end up just being input machines rather than embodying a specific person. The only reason we were able to 'win' this time around as opposed to the 122 or so others, is that 1980s Elizabeth intervened this time. I dunno, I really like the idea of a single man being stuck in an infinite loop

 

[IWasBored]

Neverwinter nights is in open beta. It has player created content, which is really cool til you pick up a quest created by some guy in German and you have no idea what the objectives are because you don't speak German...

 

[LemonMelon]

EA Star Wars Game Won’t Work on Nintendo Wii U as New Frostbite Engine Not Supported | US Daily Voice

The WiiU is a pile of crap, but this is a blatant lie from EA. Instead of shitting all over WiiU's tech, they should have gone the classy route: "it takes money and effort to port something and nobody gives a fuck about WiiU, so yeah." Now developers are actually going to believe the system's CPU is far weaker than a 360, when they're basically equal, and the WiiU's GPU is vastly superior.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Nintendo did a horrible job marketing WiiU. I didn't even know it was a different console until months afterward. I bet if you ask random people on the street, most will have no idea what it is. Big step backward after monopolizing the casual gamer market so well with the Wii

 

[No spoken words]

Nintendo did a horrible job marketing WiiU. I didn't even know it was a different console until months afterward. I bet if you ask random people on the street, most will have no idea what it is. Big step backward after monopolizing the casual gamer market so well with the Wii

Not all of us walk up and down the street talking to random strangers.

 

[bono_212]

This isn't one of those passive aggressive comments, I'm really being serious: Why don't you guys start a Bioshock thread? Would save you needing to talk in spoilers.

As for the Wii U, I still remember vividly the day I saw its unveiling on E3. I think it took me like 3/4 of the presentation to realize it was a whole new system. Should go find my posts from when we were all watching that.

 

[bono_212]

For example:

@11:53, assuming the Wii U was an attachment:

What the hell is wrong with these people? They took the Wii and made it a giant DS?

Eh, color me intrigued.

@12:14 when I realized the truth:

Wait...wait...wait...THIS is the new console? I thought this was just a last thing for the Wii.

How the fuck is this anything new? It's not a new system is it? It's just a controller you purchase...or did I miss something?

And here comes Mofo to crush my spirit @ 12:18:

It's a new system, they just didn't show a single thing being developed for it (that wasn't being developed for 360 and PS3), so all the talk about how it's hardware "blows away both 360 and PS3" is still entirely unproven. What a terrible way to show new hardware, Kinect and Move's tech demos looked far more impressive than this. If it was still too early to show anything, why not just talk about it for 5 minutes and move on?

And from there, I came to some peace. Still haven't picked up a Wii U though. I might this summer...Unless I really do get a PS4 day of.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Not all of us walk up and down the street talking to random strangers.

You should try it and see how quickly you get punched in the face

 

[Jive Turkey]

This isn't one of those passive aggressive comments, I'm really being serious: Why don't you guys start a Bioshock thread? Would save you needing to talk in spoilers.

As for the Wii U, I still remember vividly the day I saw its unveiling on E3. I think it took me like 3/4 of the presentation to realize it was a whole new system. Should go find my posts from when we were all watching that.

UGH, YOU FUCKING PASSIVE AGGRE... oh, I see

Maybe.

 

[LJT]

I've got another Steam offer, it's a 75% off voucher for Total War: Shogun 2. They keep giving me stuff that I already have. That makes it around 6 quid on Steam and just under $10 for you US folk. Let me know if your interested, it's only valid til the 27th of this month though.

 

[u2popmofo]

If you have a 360 and still haven't played Alan Wake, there are supposed to be some huge sales starting tomorrow (up to 83% off) on all Alan Wake titles (original game, DLC, and American Nightmare). Everyone's assuming this means they're announcing Alan Wake 2 tomorrow for the new system at the Microsoft event.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson ? Coming soon to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace :

 

[bono_212]

 

[mobvok]

The console design certainly won't determine if it succeeds or fails, but the Xbox One appears to have the beauty and aesthetic of a VCR player. They couldn't even round the edges a little bit?

 

[bono_212]

The XBox "One"? Wow.

 

[u2popmofo]

The console design certainly won't determine if it succeeds or fails, but the Xbox One appears to have the beauty and aesthetic of a VCR player. They couldn't even round the edges a little bit?

Considering it's supposed to replace your cable box, DVR, Blu-Ray Player, etc., it's probably exactly what they were going for.

How crappy did "next gen" Call of Duty look?

 

[Jive Turkey]

Toronto's new fancy pants aquarium is opening soon and I just came across this photo of it in the process of being built.

Which plasmids would you recommend I enable for my first visit?