Best posts made by Testament

Hope and pray that The Expanse game gets made. That's what I'm waiting for when it comes to sci fi.

Saying "You too" whenever a server sets down your meal at a restaurant and says , "Enjoy your meal".

Recently got back into Warframe after a break from it. Really feels like the one free game that keeps giving. And it's just so damn good, seems like the game that Destiny should've been.

My problem with Warframe, isn't exactly Warframe. I originally spent a lot of time playing on PS4, before I got a new desktop. Turns out there's a number of co-workers that have their own clan and I wanted to join.

But just like everything else Sony hates, it really hates account migration. There's no way to bring over all the frames, weapons, etc that I bought while playing on PS4, never mind what level I happened to be at. So I have to start completely over from scratch. Which is really a let down, but I should've expected that. Because Sony.

Anyways, Warframe is still good stuff.

The Churn relates to a side book in the series about Amos and it's also something he says during the series. To a guy he really wants to vent into space.

I mean it's just more Amos appreciation which I can completely get behind.

@Arkandel Then we should make it weirder.

I don't much play JRPGs anymore, but I have a certain fondness for the Yakuza series. Just because they're both equally off-the-wall zany and ridiculous while also being well-written and serious when it wants to be.

I say that as a precursor to the fact that I picked up Fight of the North Star: Lost Paradise. It's more or less Yakuza with a Fist of the North Star skin pulled over it. If I didn't think that Yakuza could get better, there's something about the 80s anime apocalypse veneer that takes silliness to a certain new height that I cannot help but appreciate.

This game may go under the radar of a lot of people, but I'm advising if you enjoy a game that can take it seriously while at same time not at all, you may get a kick out of it like I have.

If you give me a game where Kenshiro mixes drinks with the same intensity that he explodes bandit's heads, this is a game I cannot help but love.

Yeah, I'll probably give this game a try when it opens. Haven't read over everything, but probably will once the wiki stuff gets set in stone an whatnot.

I still find it strange that, depending on the person and if they deserved it, I can observe suffering and be unphased about it.

The moment it's a cat or dog or any other pet like animal, and I get irrationally emotional about it and with the overwhelming desire to do SOMETHING.

I can only offer cash but I hope your fuzz gets better soon.

@Ganymede I dunno, mush politics can be just as bad. At least with games, I can play by myself and everyone else can go kick rocks.

Or maybe mushing is just not as interesting to me as it used to be.

Feels so small to say but all I want right now is the new The Expanse book coming out in Dec. Tiamats Wrath, I need to read it.

Gotten lost in Elder Scrolls Online.

Please send help. Or play with me.

Happy Jacks RPG Podcast
The F Plus
Sawbones
Science VS
Philsophize This
Adam Ruins Everything
You Are Not So Smart
Your Mom's House

Goddamn that's a lot to unpack. I really did just want to come home, eat my sandwich and fall asleep. And now I have to sit here and defend my point of view.

You absolute assholes. All of you.

The problem with DA:I I find is it's story. In particular, its villain. Or lack of one(again, until Trespasser). Corypheus is little more than a cipher for the plot. That's it. The villain of DA:I is so one-dimensional that I just couldn't care. There was no investment for me. To be perfectly honest, I didn't give a shit about the ending of DA:I until that final scene between Flemeth and the Actual Villain who actually has real motivations and real reasons for being a bad guy. And the best part was if you look from a certain light, his reason are somewhat justifiable, if from an extremist standpoint. And that's compelling. That's interesting.

That's what Mass Effect 1 does so well. Goddamn did I hate Saren. The first fight with him on Virmire, he gets away before the bomb detonates, I remember being so goddamn livid. He beats me to relay gate on Illus. But it all pays off, and you have the mother of all goddamn set pieces in gaming with that charge up the Council Tower on gravity boots, with Sovereign just lurking in front of you, shooting your way past Geth and Krogan. That's memorable. That leaves an impact.

The same with Dragon Age 2. Two points really. Challenging the Arishok and when Anders blows up the Chantry. They're memorable, they have impact. I think back to DA:I and there's nothing that really comes to mind. There's no one 'Oh shit' moment. At least, not until the very very very, last two minutes. To me, it wasn't worth that. Especially when I had so little build up.

And it's insulting that I had to slog through what could be between 30 to 100+ hour(depending on how much you did or didn't do)game to get to that point. Once I came down from the "OH SHIT" moment, I realized that, "Hey, fuck this game." for doing that. Never mind the handful of plot holes that DA:I just kind of leaves wide open, even questions asked in DA2 were never actually fully answered. Just kind of, which only left me with more questions.

The Descent DLC did not do DA:I any favors by opening up a whole can of 'WTFuckery' when one really unpacks the ramifications.

The whole graphics bit I can handwave. Partially because I don't care. But if @Thenomain is gonna sit here and say that DA:O had better visuals than DA2, you're off your rocker. I mean, I really hope you're not gonna suggest that DA:O had better facial animations than DA2. Because...well, it didn't. DA:O was about one step above TES Oblivion in ranks of facial expressions. DA2 had a lot more color. Everything seemed to 'pop' out more. There was a vibrancy to the look of things that I appreciated. In DA:O things looked drag and dull. DA2 kind of almost looked cartoony to a certain degree, and well, I kind of liked that.

But when we talk about story, and I've already talked at length about my issues with DA:I, let's go ahead and look at DA2. The reality is that there was two stories. There was everything before the Arishok was killed and everything after. That point is where one story ends and the other starts, with various strands connecting side stories together. You could say that it's one long line of cause and effect, suggested by the fact that Hawke is the real villain of DA:I. Without Hawke, none of DA2 or DA:I even passes. I wonder how s/he sleeps at night, being responsible for an entire war. But that's pretty tangential right now.

DA2 was something different in storytelling according to video games. Or at least, BioWare games. Because really, most BioWare games up to that point had a particular set formula. I'm not going to list that formula, but if you've played KOTOR, ME, DA, and Jade Empire you know exactly the formula I'm talking about. Hell, I could Google image search if I really wanted to.

You know what, screw it, I will

What DA2 wanted to do, or at least tried to do, what throw this whole method into the grinder. There was middling success. Instead of travelling to those three different locations/planets/cities/whatever, with that one bonus one after the third, it kept things in one location and expanded from there. I could see an attempt at making things more scaled down and intimate. In some respects, I saw a certain amount of Fable in DA2. The idea of playing across one character's life, or at least, a large chunk of their life. This was different. Did it succeed? I think so, at least partially. It almost felt like it was trying to be a tv series instead of one long movie.

I look back at the number of various stories in DA2 and I name at least seven impactful side stories. I can't remember a one with DA:I. No, I can't remember two. Cassandra's knights getting wiped out and the fact that Varric's bow is actually named after someone named Bianca. But those are more companion stories so of course you'll remember those better.

I think there was a better message being sent with DA2 that just got lost in translation when people bring up enemy spawns with no tactics, the button mashy combat, the recycled dungeon environments, the list goes on. What I love DA2 is that it tried to do something different. It may be remembered for all it's faults, but people are far too quick to ignore the fact that it had a lot of good going for it. What it had better than other DA to date was character development. We saw characters age. Some mature, some not. We saw their lives move in their own directions while staying somewhat near your character. They weren't just tired to your hip, following behind you wherever you went. They had their own stories, and often times, you were just there to help. Most times when it came to your companions, you took a backseat. And that was cool. It's not all about you, Hawke. There are other people in this world, and life goes on, despite what you're doing. Some what to start a family, some want revenge, others want a prize, some just want to survive. Characters in DA2 felt honest, and I haven't seen that in many games.

And while I bashed on DA:I handily, I don't hate it(despite having the weakest cast, Iron Bull notwithstanding). It was perfectly suitable for what it was trying to do. I did like the weapon crafting, I will say that. It just wasn't memorable. And that's where DA2 shines.

And that's the problem with saying that DA2 is a good game. Because you can't really review something that's 'memorable' or 'intimate'. These are intangible descriptors. Does saying that I think DA2 was more emotive and provacative make DA:I less so? I don't know. I'm sure it's different for someone else.

The point here isn't going to sit here and try to change opinions. Good fuck, I stopped trying to change opinions years ago. I suppose explaining why I like something more than another thing doesn't invaldiate the other thing. I like them both perfectly, just one I happen to enjoy more.

EDIT: Also, Merril is a fucking idiot. Don't get me wrong, I like her, but goddamn is she an idiot. Yeah, let's consort with demons. Nothing ever went wrong there.

This is what we get for taking the sharp corners off coffee tables.

Looking back at the topic of Borderlands 3. My reasoning for not buying the game is completely politically based.

And that's more or less that I refuse to give Randy Pitchford any more of my money, especially given he's more or less a shitty human being who is almost Trumpian in his Twitter rants. You know, when he's not leaving squirt porn at Medieval Times.

It looks like a good game, but I took a stand last year with pushing off EA games. The Outer Worlds will probably be the last 2K related game I buy.

Alex Trebek being diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

You leave that beautiful man alone.

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

There isn't enough Fallout for me in Outer Worlds.

Kind of surprised that's a sticking point for some. After the dumpster fires that Fallout 4 is and the catalyst that is the worst PR nightmare for Bethesda that Fallout 76 still continues to be, and you're saying that it's not Fallout enough?

I dunno, but I feel like if it was more Fallout like than it would be criticized to no end for copying Fallout, despite the fact that Obsidian is pretty much made out of a good deal of people who created Fallout at Black Isle.

The point in this case is that I didn't want another Fallout, I wanted a game that was inspired by Fallout, which doesn't mean it has to be or even retain a great amount of elements from Fallout. And seriously, if it is going to copy Fallout, copy New Vegas.

I'm enjoying it for $1. If I had $60 to drop on a video game sight unseen then I wouldn't be complaining because I'd be rolling 'round in the dolla dolla bills y'all.

I guess my message is: Be better consumers.

Also: Don't know if it's worth $60 yet. Will review more when I get there and when I better know what $60 means nowadays.

In terms of game length, I've been playing for three days because work is suspended due to Company Reasons, so I've had a lot of time to play Outer World, and by a lot, I mean, at least 8+ hours a day. Pretty sure I've went past the 30 hour mark and I'm still wandering around Monarch, having not finished the quest line there yet. So while it's obvious that it's gonna be a YMMV situation on how long the game is, I'm totally getting my money's worth.

Considering the fact that there's no microtransactions, no DLCs, not even any pre order or deluxe/complete/GOTY editions and it's...just a game. That was put out. Without any kind of extra bullshit attached to it? Back when you just wanted to buy a game to enjoy? Without worrying about some possible potential expense?

That fact alone is why, to me, it's worth $60.

@Bad-at-Lurking I'll do you one better. I once saw a rig that was completely submerged in a fish tank full of mineral oil. Didn't require any kind of water or air cooling because....well, it was submerged in a tank of mineral oil. At the time I thought this was absolutely horrific and bewildering. Until I realized that mineral oil is non-conductive and non-corrosive.

So it literally looked like someone had dunked their PC into a fish tank. But I have to admit it looked really cool. The only downside I see to it is eventually you'd have to change out the mineral oil. And the pain in the ass it would be when you'd eventually want to upgrade.

Still. Looked so damn cool.

So far as I'm concerned, Citadel is the official ending of Mass Effect 3. Not Casey Hudson's temper tantrum when the added 'fourth' ending was released.

Fuck that guy for ruining Drew Kapsharin's written ending. It altering the ending that he had written(never mind most of the plot of ME3)is in part what made him quit BioWare.