Finally was able to get in about 30-45 minutes ago. I really haven't been following this at all, so I was going in with no preconceived expectations. I liked the original and like many, played the hell out of Diablo 2, but I was certainly nowhere near a "hardcore" player. I did "win" Diablo 2 and the expansion on Normal, but I always got frustrated on even Nightmare difficulty. I always just kept rolling new Paladins and playing through the game over and over again. Though I think I only won Act 5 one time - I remember I always had big slowdowns during part of that act.
As for the server issues. I downloaded the client late this morning (when I heard it was open beta this weekend). I was very impressed with how quickly the download went, and thought it was neat they would let you start playing before it was done (you know, if you could log in). Naturally, I couldn't log in successfully this afternoon (I would try once an hour or so). I highly doubt I will buy this at release (more on that below), but I wouldn't worry too much about the launch. It is clear when you fire up the game that this weekend IS a load/stress test (their news updates continue to state this), and these are designed to find problems like the inability to log in and fix/mitigate them. I do think it's silly to require a login to play a single player game, but at least with Blizzard you can expect the support of the game to continue pretty much indefinitely.
As for my first 45 minutes or so first impressions - I am underwhelmed. I know Blizzard doesn't ever try to push the boundaries graphically, but I think this game looks OLD. This looks more like a 2005 game to me than a 2012 game. I am amazed that basic gaming features like camera rotation, zoom (I don't count their toggle zoom which is useless) aren't in this game. I haven't gotten far enough to evaluate the new skill system. Does the game get any lighter? It seems very dark so far - to a fault. Having said all that - it's still Diablo. Even the best of the clones like Torchlight and Titan Quest don't quite have the same magic. I sense the magic is here. Still, I can't stop myself from thinking, "It took them 12 years to make THIS?!" I think it's funny that Nintendo has (rightly) been criticized for being behind the curve graphically, but Blizzard doesn't seem to draw the same criticism. Am I wrong? Does this really look good, and I'm just missing something? My settings are all pretty much on high.
Unless I just have an awesome time with it this weekend, I doubt I will be an early buyer.
Are you all saying the iPad 2 is now $350? If so, where?
My wife has an iPad 2. We held an iPad 2 and a "new" iPad next to each other in a store. Yes, the new screen is pretty, but I would take the lighter form factor and quicker charge time over the new screen for a $100 less - and it's a no brainer if the delta is really $150.
(Gives his Acer Iconia A500 a glare. Oh, how I wish this thing would just die already.)
Quote from: Asharak on April 18, 2012, 02:38:50 AM
Past is prologue: for completely unrelated reasons, I was browsing Babylon 5 Youtube clips tonight and, as the top two comments already point out, JMS long ago wrote a scene that could almost have been grafted into the ending of ME3 without changing a word and been nearly perfect: what Sheridan would have said to the Catalyst (obvious spoiler warning: if you haven't seen Babylon 5, that video will spoil one it's most pivotal and impactful scenes).
- Ash
That scene is the biggest reason that I find B5 to be overrated. I hated that resolution to the war.
Having said that, it's a hell of a lot better than the ME3 ending!
I can't believe they own the rights to System Shock and Ultima and are doing nothing with them. (I'm sure there are plenty more I am not thinking about.) They are well on their way to ruining Bioware (if you don't think they already have).
It's just as good as it was back in the old days, when tile-based, first-person dungeon crawlers had real-time combat. In other words, it's good enough that games like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore have hordes of loyal fans.
I was in college without a gaming pc when those came out. So, I never played a party based, tile movement RPG with RTC. My old days were a few years before then.
I wish there was a demo for this. The thought of managing a 4 person party and moving around in a tile based movement system sounds like a nightmare to me. I assume it isn't as unwieldy as it sounds (to me).
How's the real time combat? I am interested in this, but I shudder at the thought of a tile based movement old school dungeon slasher with real time combat....
Quote from: Roguetad on April 11, 2012, 05:30:59 PM
I feel like that ship has already sailed, at least it did for me when I finished my xbox 360 playthrough last night. Since they are so determined to defend their creative vision for the ending, I think they should just eat it, so to speak, and not do a mulligan or "clarification" of any kind. Devote your resources elsewhere. They missed the opportunity to create a strong ending experience to the trilogy, and that's how I will remember the experience.
ME1 - Cool new universe, ok combat, interesting characters, good story. ME2 - Better combat (I liked the more shooty feel to the combat), fun character based stories, good dark moments, awesome ending (well except for the goofy boss, but otherwise a great ending). ME3 - Great combat. Some good fan service for certain places and characters. Some really touching character moments. War Asset system was stupid. Cool final push. Weak ending.
I'm not buying their official PR about the ending either, I think they just ran out of time. I saw many examples near the end (see spoiler thread) that looked like they were crunched for time and just had to throw things together.
I wholeheartedly agree with this post. I am not sure I'll ever bother replaying this series now - which was unthinkable before I finished it (I have already replayed the first 2 games). I really wanted to play a renegade Sheppard, but that piss poor ending has just blighted the whole series for me. They should just move on to creating a mediocre third Dragon Age game.
Super Paper Mario is basically a hybrid somewhere in between the other Paper Mario games and the Mario platformers. It does have more RPG elements than a typical Mario game. I thought it was a solid B title. Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Gamecube) is superb. You can also get the original Paper Mario (N64) from the Virtual Console. I didn't think it was nearly as good as 1000 year door myself, and never finished it.
Since you don't want to play Zelda or Mario, the easy recommendation is to pick up the Metroid Prime Trilogy if you've never given the series a try. It's 3 superb games. The first one in particular is an all time great.
It does get better (though expect some annoyance with side quests), much better in fact. Then in the last 5 minutes it gets much, much worse. Try to enjoy the journey more than the destination.
I get a little more irritated at the ending the more I think about it. It's not like the "right" ending is that hard.
(Fake ending)
Spoiler for Hiden:
Pick up the ending from where Sheppard and Anderson are sitting together. Hackett lets Sheppard know the Crucible isn't working. Sheppard does "something" (with EDI's help perhaps or maybe he has to win a boss fight against the "catalyst") and makes it work. The crucible WORKS, and magically wipes out the reapers (ala the red ending). Depending on your readiness (which should by the way be "maxable" without playing a second of multiplayer or any iOS app)) some of your crew die along the way or in the aftermath (including possibly Sheppard himself). Then you have an epilogue where you show what happened to the survivors (including Sheppard + love interest if they are alive.) This ending requires absolutely zero thought and no one would praise it for being particularly original or creative, but it would be SATISFYING. Would anyone really complain about this?
I sort of agree with what KG said in the console thread. Even if they provide a free patch/DLC that gives us a "good" ending, I don't think it makes any difference. It's like trying to put water back in the faucet. It's too late.
Well, I am at the point where it's time to go to Earth. My readiness was down in the 3000s somewhere, which I know isn't enough to get the "best" ending. I am pretty sure I did every side quest, and I think I scanned everything although some sectors didn't seem to have anything to find. Not sure if that's a bug, they really don't have anything, or I am doing something wrong. I went ahead and activated the free 2 days of Gold, so I can play the multiplayer to get the "best" ending. I do think the multiplayer is fun, but it's just STUPID to force you to play it to get the best ending in a single player game - and then lie about it and claim you can get the best ending without it. I got to about 80% readiness tonight, which should be enough for the best ending, but I'll probably go ahead and get it all the way up to 100% with my last day of Gold tomorrow night.
Speaking of "bug"s, I had quite a lot of them in the 2nd half of the game. A lot of scripted events would not trigger which required me to revert to an earlier save. Generally, it didn't require too much replay so it wasn't too annoying. I also had certain sectors flashing at me, even though there wasn't any quest to complete in them. This coupled with my earlier complaints about the game all point to a game not quite ready. EA seems to be ruining yet another developer after their assimilation. Pretty sad.
Quote from: Destructor on March 13, 2012, 02:15:04 PM
And Citadel missions are easy, IMHO. Once you've found a few things, visit the place and bring up the Map. That will at least give you an approximation of where they are. Poke around the area, turn them in, continue to have fun.
This is not 100% true. As noted earlier, I turned in 3 quests a couple days ago and NONE of them had any map tips telling me where to turn them in. I do think most quests give you a hint on the map.
The Citadel is definitely a chore. I always feel compelled to comb it over most times I visit in case there is a new quest conversation to overhear. Between pouring over the Citadel and trying to get all the conversations on my ship I played for over an hour at one point last night without ever setting foot in a hazardous zone.
The journal is also junk for side quests. It doesn't always indicate when you've picked up the quest item and can return it. So, if I pick something up in the heart of battle, I can be ready to complete a quest without knowing it.
I did get a nice play session last night and got through some story, and THAT part is going just great so far. Did anyone finish this yet and actually LIKE the ending?
I find the Citadel missions to be horribly designed. First of all the map does NOT show you where all the quests have to be turned in. I turned in 3 last night with no help from the map screens. Also, after getting so mad last night I checked walkthroughs. Apparently you can try to turn in a mission too early OR too late. What a crock. I have 2 right now that I should be able to complete but I can't. That means I am either too early (I haven't done much of the main quest so I doubt I am too late) or the quests are bugged. Either way it's poor design.
I also think the scanning/getting chased away from a system by the reapers is stupid. It is in no way fun or challenging to flee from them, it just means I have to go do a side/main quest before I can finally tick off a system. That's not fun, it's just annoying. On the other hand, it's at least better than the scanning/mining in Mass Effect 2.
These things plus the way disc swapping works (and is required even after fully installing both discs) plus the inexcusable face import bug have left a somewhat sour early impression on me. Hearing more and more reports about the ending being horrid, have me worried.
All those complaints aside, I am really enjoying the game, when not dealing with the above issues, a lot.
Quote from: The Grue on March 07, 2012, 06:51:35 PM
Installing doesn't mean you don't need the disc. You always have to have the disc in for whatever disc you are on at the time. All installing does is cut down load times (and makes your XBox run quieter if you have an older one that has a noisy drive).
If true, I think that stinks. If they handled the disc swap like ME2 did, where I basically swapped discs once during the entire game, then that's one thing. But if I am going to have to keep swapping every time I veer from main to side quests and vice versa then that's just piss poor.
Disc two thus far seems to be for side missions, disc one for main ones...
Wow, after returning to the main quest I had to put disc 1 back in despite the fact it's installed. Now that disc 2 is installed I better not have to keep swapping discs!
Pretty surprised to be asked to swap discs the first night I play it. I'm taking a break to install disc 2 now. Installing disc 1 seemed to help with load times which seemed awful from the disc. Game seems good so far. Annoyed at the import bug as I couldn't get my appearance quite like I remember it.
I'm baffled by W8 as well. I assume the vast majority of users will just run it in the normal desktop mode. I don't know why anyone would opt for touchscreen controls when they can use a mouse.
While I remain deeply unsatisfied by my Acer Iconia A500, I would recommend the Dolhpin for tablet beta as a browser for Android tablets. It sometimes crashes (though it's not unique in that department), but I think it's the fastest of a bad bunch (stock, Chrome, etc.).
I've put ICS on my Iconia, and I still think it's a vastly inferior experience to that of an iPad 2.
Yeah I am not hooked at all with this one, which is saying something, since I am pretty much a fanboy of the series. (I loved the first game!) The tower defense thing is just a lame waste of time. After a couple of nights with it, last night I yanked it out of the tray and started playing Saints Row 3 instead. Not sure when I'll get back to it.
I continue to be disappointed with my Android tablet experience (Acer Iconia A500) and would definitely recommend an iPad 2 over it. I love having a tablet, and use it every single day. I use it for fairly simple things only (web browsing, YouTube, and.... uh Sudoku every now and then). It's a slower more glitchy experience than the iPad 2. I deal constantly with web browser crashes (often due to Flash, but not always). The tablet often shuts down for no reason (this is when it's in the charger, so not due to running out of juice - but boy does this thing's battery SUCK compared to the iPad). I often have it get stuck on the lock screen (also while charging). Anytime my wife uses my tablet for something briefly because she doesn't want to go get her iPad 2 she can't believe I can put up with how slow it is. I recently tried a factory reset to see if that would make things more stable and have barely installed any apps on it at all, but it's still just as glitchy. I am tempted to sell this thing when the new iPad comes out. I'm still holding out hope that I will enjoy it more when ICS comes out for it in April.
I GREATLY prefer Anrdoid to iOS when it comes to my phone experience. There are plenty of things about iOS that drive me crazy. But, my experience with Honeycomb has been very disappointing. The only advantage this thing has over the iPad in my mind is flash support - which is still very glitchy and more and more it seems sites are providing non-flash alternatives for iOS devices. The one thing I would miss is using the ESPNRadio web site (which is one of the things that crashes my browser 2-3 times before it works most days), which doesn't appear to work on the iPad, but I could always work around that by ponying up $3 for the app.
Basically, I already did. The key is to interrupt his spells when he gets below half health, but not force lightning - let him cast that. I buffed myself up with Enure, shields, etc. before the fight. Then I attacked him. I ignored the fakes entirely. At one point I used a med pac and then he was down to half health. I kept my force kick and hilt strike abilities free so I was able to do 2 quick interrupts when he tried casting stuff with his health low. Other than that I just hammered on him with everything I had. T7 helped too (he was barely scratched). It's not much different than what I had read people say to do on the SWTOR forums, I just finally managed to save the interrupts for when I really needed them. I can't really explain how this time I was able to do it when I couldn't before, except for the fact I didn't burn my interrupt skills early and was a little better about not wasting them late.
I finally won the fight and completed Doomsday! Being judicious with the interrupts was definitely the key. While I did use a med pac, I actually had more than half my health when I won, which was surprising.
I must say it feels anticlimactic to get new quests on Ilum after this one - particularly since I can't get any more exp. I'm not sure I'll bother. Is this continued quest line worthwhile? Is the storyline good?
Yes, the final boss fight for the JK is ridiculously hard. I've ranted about it in the past. I have reached the point in this game, where I am ready to move on (though I definitely see me coming back for a month to play an alt later on), but I really REALLY want to beat this jerk before I quit. I had tried and failed so many times that I was out of credits and had armor on the point of breaking and couldn't afford med packs or stim packs. So, last night I logged in and went around the level killing mobs for credits. Sadly, I died a couple times which took some of my armor into broken status. So, after wiping out the level and still not having enough credits to repair everything, I fleet passed out of there. I decided to respec my guardian. I was a straight Vigilance DPS build, but i decided to go with a defense build - if for no other reason because I would get another interrupt skill. I then went back and worked my way through the entire area again which got me enough money to repair everything and take 2 cracks at him. Well, I failed both times, and am back to where I need to make some credits so I can buy a med pack. I might even leave again and look for better, player made med packs on the GTN. I like the new spec. I am MUCH more able to stand up to punishment, and I haven't sacrificed as much DPS as I would have expected. I think I *may* be able to beat him now. The problem is I tend to interrupt ANY spell he casts, instead of saving my interrupts for the crucial spell(s). I need to research exactly which one is the instant death spell and try to be more judicious about interrupting him. I read on the SWTOR forums some people say they don't do anything but hammer on him, and didn't even bother to interrupt him. Those people are lying or crazy or were fortunate to get some sort of bug with the fight IMO.
The thing that frustrates me about all of this is this: I played through the ENTIRE game playing the character the way I want, but this ONE fight has made me have to respec, reorganize my skill bar and play almost entirely differently than I played for the 50+ hours it took me to get to this point. I hate that kind of design. There are some out there who think this fight has already been nerfed from what it was, so I am no longer sure if they are going to patch it to make it easier or not. I just hate the fact that once he gets to the 30-50% health range he has this one spell that knocks you back and kills you instantly (I am guessing it takes out half your health or so). If you can't interrupt him, you're dead. So even though I got him down to around 30% last night and was not particularly low on health, he cast a spell, all of my interrupts were cooling down and BAM~! I'm dead. Very lame. I may punish Bioware for this by playing through some of the games in my rather large 360 backlog and wait to buy ME3 when it's reduced in price.
I am, as usual, late to the party. I almost finished this game before I got started. That chariot ramming section at the beginning nearly broke my patience. I think I finally got by it on the dozenth (or so) attempt. I have no idea what I did "correctly" on this last attempt to survive. I have always found these vehicle/action sequences to be pretty annoying in the AC games, and this was maybe the worst. I managed to finish the "tutorial" kill and get back to the animus. Pretty underwhelmed with that beginning and I haven't even made it to the new stuff that everybody dislikes.
Believe me, there are plenty of suits against Apple already. All of these mobile electronic companies seem to take delight in suing each other and attempting to get injunctions against the other from selling in Market X. I am sure the lawyers are howling all the way to the bank.
Quote from: Chordian on February 11, 2012, 07:36:19 PM
I can see it's a problem with such a limitation. Didn't know about that.
Does the game tie your hands regarding a choice of companion? (spoilers trimmed) But I guess in your situation your hands are tied?
(more mild spoilers about final JK fight)
Spoiler for Hiden:
No, I can't change him. You can not summon any other companions. They do all this for storyline reasons I won't get into here.
I actually went back and tried some more. I had hear resetting the instance could fix the chest and when I logged back in (and things had been reset), sure enough I could finally loot the chest. My droid does much better now (although he still has some empty equipment slots) and can stay alive a bit longer now. I tried another dozen times and failed. I did get close a couple times and got him down to around 25% health. The problem is that I can't do "well" consistently and sometimes I die with him with more than half health. Once he gets below 50% he has an attack that just WHIPS me. It's something I can interrupt, but I keep running out of interrupt skills (they are all cooling down) and I end up just as dead. Now I am literally broke and have to go kill monsters in the instance so I can get credits and repair my fragile armor. Frustrating.
I went on with the my Sith Sorceror, who in his early teens seems WAY overpowered in comparison to my Guardian. I have even taken down a couple of champions with my tank companion. I haven't made up my mind about going healer or lightning spec yet. Pretty fun.
Chordian, I couldn't help but chuckle at your (very well intended) advice. There are some spoilers about the Jedi Knight final battle below, so if you don't want to know don't read....
Spoiler for Hiden:
Summon another companion? That would be *lovely*. Sadly, the game forces you to use the first (and only the first) companion you get in the game - a droid tank. Sadly, I haven't used this character since I got my 2nd companion, (quite a long time ago). So, while this character isn't in the exact same equipment he had at the time, he is woefully under equipped for this battle. NOT TO WORRY! Bioware THOUGHT of this, so they put a puzzle which unlocks a chest that lets you upgrade the droid's equipment! One catch... It's BUGGED, so you can't OPEN the chest! So for a while now, Bioware has acknowledged the chest bug, AND that they think the battle at the end is too hard. Any ETA on fixing these problems? Nope. Am I irritated? Yep.
Having said that, even if my droid was wearing a cloak of invincibility, I still don't think I am skilled enough to win this fight. I just get damaged WAY too quickly, despite my best efforts to interrupt the most damaging attacks. Of course I wear down around half my health just trying to one-shot kill the duplicates which spawn at the start of the fight. I've considered respeccing my Guardian from a DPS build to a more Tank build, but from what I've read a lot of the more "tanky" Guardians can't finish this either.
You died ten times on your final fight? I have died at least 25 times on this fight. I have in fact died so much that while I entered this quest with 200,000 credits, I now have less than 20,000 left after dying, repairing, buying medpacs, and buying stims. So, trying to buy my droid equipment isn't viable unless I want to go off an quest for a while - which I don't.
I have read countless tips for winning the fight, and even read ways to "cheaply" win the fight with some exploits. I have been unable to pull them off. I think I once got him to around 40% health, but that's as close as I have made it.
Oh well. I am enjoying playing my Sith Inquisitor so far...
Been playing since the week after Christmas. I don't have many thoughts on how this game measures up to MMO's since I am basically playing it as a single player game. It certainly has a good enough story for a single player game which is an accomplishment. I wouldn't say it's on par with the first 2 KOTORs, but the story was still very fun. I just sort of resent having to pay a monthly fee when I would be more than happy to play it offline, alone. Oh well.
I have a level 50 Jedi Knight. I am at the final fight of the class story against (spoiler), and I just can't even come close to winning it. I hope they really do patch it to make it easier like they said they would. I know some people have done it, and I have watched a youtube of someone doing it, but I just can't even get close.
In the meantime I started a Sith alt. Really looking forward to being an evil, vicious bastard after playing my goodie two shoes JK. I also may start up a Smuggler. Having said all that, I can see me cancelling soon as I was getting burned out on the JK storyline. Also have a huge backlog of console games not getting any attention.
Gamespot review says the single player campaign is only 5 hours. Think I may just replay the first one, which I never did quite finish.
While I enjoyed the first overall, the scene with you and your girlfriend watching the movie was just an incredible gaming moment. I was so connected to the game during that scene.
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