What games are you playing now?

Still playing KotOR. I'm enjoying it a lot but sometimes I see too much similarity to ME series. The fact Carth/Kaidan voice sounding *exactly same* doesn't really help either (and I don't like Kaidan, and certainly don't like Carth at this point). At least I was glad that Bastilla doesn't sound like Fem Shep. And I hate fake alien dialogue recordings, it's annoying!

I'm already side tracking a bit and reading about KotOR2… is this worth playing? I did hear things about unfinished story and cut contents for companions which reminds me a lot of NWN2 OC….
Bastila and FemShem is actually the same voice actress - Jennifer Hale. She's pretty much the default actress for very important female character in BioWare's games. I always recognize Jennifer Hale right away (SW: Tor, KotOR, ME, etc), but she does a very good job, so I'm fine with that.

And yes, Carth and Kaiden also use the same voice actor - Raphael Sbarge. I actually feel he's more difficult to recognize than Hale is.

As for KotOR2: It's better than KotOR1 in most ways, such as smoother gameplay and more interesting characters, but there is some cut content near the end. There is a mod that restores it though:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-sith-lords-restored-content-mod-tslrcm

That being said, some of the content was cut for a reason, so the restored content is about 50/50 really. I normally play without the mod because I find certain sections of the restored content boring.

Personally I've played through the Mass Effect series again recently, while waiting for the Diablo 3 expansion. Mass Effect is still an excellent series in my opinion, but some of the ME2 and 3 plot holes are pretty annoying. And then there's Kai Leng. Sigh.

I generally don't like cut scenes that take control of my character and turn him/her into a moron, but the Kai Leng cut scenes just top everything - Shepard, the deadliest super soldier in the galaxy, is suddenly completely, and utterly, incompetent.
Anyway, it's still a great series.
 
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Still playing KotOR. I'm enjoying it a lot but sometimes I see too much similarity to ME series.


Not similar to ME series, just a bit similar to ME1.

ME2/3, ME series to be precise, went into a totally different direction:
no "crafting", dumbed down skills, more FMV sequences than game, no Mako, more shooting, grinding on scanning planets in ME2 thankfully removed in ME3, cutout ingame critical (storywise) content and sell as DLC, DLC turned into pay-to-win as only if you finish them you get bonus points in ME3, more butts&boobs (hey, at least one positive thing), Origin exclusive ME3, etc.

If you enjoy Kotor very much, you'll adore both Kotor2 and ME1.
ME2&ME3 however might not be as fun as you'd wish.
 
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Well I went ahead and did the mega-download for the Diablo III starter kit. And the compulsion began. ;)

Art direction and atmosphere is fantastic. Loot drops and UI not so great. I can't even read or really see the names of items dropped. Some sort of trendy transparent text that badly fails. What were they thinking? Character building seems to pretty much non-existent, which is a sin for this kind of game. Really, what were they thinking? I was thinking a no buy until I ran into an "event" with a boss and minions, and then a goblin dropping gold while running around. Not sure if should have chased and killed him. Fun!
 
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@Maylander:

Yeah I was aware that Bastila and FemShep are both voiced by Jennifer Hale, but if I didn't know that beforehand I wouldn't have picked up that it's done by same person. On the other hand, I wasn't aware Carth and Kaidan are voiced by same person, and yet I could tell it's same voice straight away.

I might give a shot at KotOR2 once I'm done with the first one. Sometimes it feels so weird to play a same series developed by two different companies though as their style it completely different.

@joxer:

Already finished ME1-3 :p And corrections, yes, I meant KotOR is similar to ME1...
 
Definetly go for kotor2. I still don't understand why ppl say the first one is better. IMO it is not.
 
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Definetly go for kotor2. I still don't understand why ppl say the first one is better. IMO it is not.

I would say it's because KoTOR is easier to digest and closer to its Star Wars root: it is an easy good vs evil and save the world story.

KoTOR2 is more personal with an emphasis on ideology even if you fight "bad guys".

If there is one thing I learned in the last few years is that a large section of the gaming community hates personal main story and emphasis on ideology. They want to be the BBH that save the world from evil (BBH= big badass hero).
 
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Aside from KotOR actually being finished, I largely prefer it because I enjoy the Star Wars romantic fantasy. It's not a game that pretends to be a plausible tale of human psychology and it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Unlike Mass Effect, which did have a tendency to be quite serious and that's where Bioware's writing starts to fall apart.

I have no interest in being a hero - and I've always found that particular repeated setup nauseatingly unimaginative of Bioware.

I'm not a big fan of deliberately opaque and pretentious writing either, which is exactly what I found KotOR2 writing to be.

Then again, I was never a big Avellone fan.

Beyond that, I'm a big fan of the planets and locations in KotOR - where I found most of the KotOR2 locations to be dreary and bland - like their world in New Vegas.

The underwater planet, the Star Forge and Kashyyyk all stand out in memory - where I struggle to remember anything interesting from KotOR2 - though I never got through it all. I got through ~65-70% of it once, I think.

I hesitate to get into KotOR2 just because of that miserably boring mining facility, for instance.
 
Unlike Mass Effect, which did have a tendency to be quite serious and that's where Bioware's writing starts to fall apart.

Yeah, it came off as particularly pompous (and pretentious) blandly written pap in the few videos I have seen. And the gameplay did not seem very interesting to me either (then again I was never too keen for cover based shooters ;) ).

I hate to pass judgement on a series I have not played (well I have seen a friend play for a few minutes but that is just it) but I just can't drum up any sort of interest for this one…

I do wonder if I am missing out occasionally but I get over it quickly ;)

Would like some space opera on the menu one day. I would just rather that someone else than Bios current writers got to it..
 
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Jon, please, do not play kotor not ME series. Reason? No endless respawns (except from ME1 ending mission where if you don't push forward, the game does respawn certain mobs endlessly in one area, which means there is an ingame mechanics that stops it from happening).

I mean, why would you waste money on once-killed=dead-for-good games? It's something you dislike. IIRC.
You'll thank me later. :D
 
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I found your one sided conversation about Dark souls more amusing than your current attempt to ape sakichop's jibe (I recall you did not answer to him directly back then ;) ) :D

Ofcourse nothing was as amusing as you getting conviced to buy the Stalker series on the basis that they were RPGs and did not contain mobrespawns :lol:

I have to say you are good for a chuckle occasionally ;)
 
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Yeah, it came off as particularly pompous (and pretentious) blandly written pap in the few videos I have seen. And the gameplay did not seem very interesting to me either (then again I was never too keen for cover based shooters ;) ).

Well, there's a difference between Bioware lore and dialogue. The lore in Mass Effect is quite strong, in my opinion.

That said, the best part of Mass Effect is the sci-fi atmosphere. I know you're into atmosphere, so I have to say you're missing out BIG TIME by not playing the game.

But that's just my opinion ;)
 
Well, there's a difference between Bioware lore and dialogue. The lore in Mass Effect is quite strong, in my opinion.

That said, the best part of Mass Effect is the sci-fi atmosphere. I know you're into atmosphere, so I have to say you're missing out BIG TIME by not playing the game.

But that's just my opinion ;)

Well, I hate to be pedantic for things I have not tried. I may give it a shot one day if I can find it on the cheap and the mood is right.

I have often surprised myself to discover liking things that I was convinced were not for me.

But seriously (and all baiting aside ;) ) I really hope that Bio gets some better writers one day, their games being very story driven and all…
 
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Well, I hate to be pedantic for things I have not tried. I may give it a shot one day if I can find it on the cheap and the mood is right.

Mass Effect can regularly be found for $10 or less during sales, but it's worth more than the normal $20 price anyways. I agree that it's a must-play for anyone who likes sci-fi at all.

I'm only saying that about ME 1 though. The series devolved significantly after the first game imo.
 
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Thanks JDR, will keep in mind.

Lets hope I am not tempted to this year though (that could only mean that more of the highly anticipated RPGs are further delayed :Knocks on wood: )...
 
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I started the replay because I'm going to play the DLCs afterwards, and I wanted to refresh my memory in terms of the story.

I didn't expect to enjoy it this much, though - as I'm not really big on replays.

But there's something about this game that gets to me in a big way, and that's quite rare.

I've played ~5 hours straight - which is even more rare for me these days, and I'm only taking a little break to get something to eat.

Love it ;)
Looking forward to when that one goes on sale over at Steam. Just can't justify the expense right now, but that one's near the top of my wishlist. I abandoned my Bioshock2 replay a while back due to a corrupted save causing an insta-crash every time I loaded it up. I had some older saves, but I had other things to focus on and decided to walk away even though I was in the home stretch.

I just don't care for shooters that much, but those games are so damn atmospheric.
 
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Looking forward to when that one goes on sale over at Steam. Just can't justify the expense right now, but that one's near the top of my wishlist. I abandoned my Bioshock2 replay a while back due to a corrupted save causing an insta-crash every time I loaded it up. I had some older saves, but I had other things to focus on and decided to walk away even though I was in the home stretch.

I just don't care for shooters that much, but those games are so damn atmospheric.

I don't care for shooters much at all, either.

In fact, I think the Bioshocks would have been tremendously improved as pure RPGs - or at least more cerebral shooters like the original System Shock - or perhaps even better as stealth games like Deus Ex/Thief.

But you can't have it all.

Don't play Infinite expecting to change your mind about shooters. In fact, I recommend playing it on Easy if you don't care for that kind of gameplay.

That said, I do find that you tend to invest yourself more when you play with a challenge - because you have to be cautious and you start giving more value to everything you find that's of use. That's why I rarely play any game on easy - even if I don't really care about the actual challenge aspect.

In that way, maybe the best way to experience them - the first time - is at doable challenge level that's not too easy.

In any case, not playing Bioshock Infinite as a passionate gamer is as akin to sin as it gets :)
 
Well, there's a difference between Bioware lore and dialogue. The lore in Mass Effect is quite strong, in my opinion.

That said, the best part of Mass Effect is the sci-fi atmosphere. I know you're into atmosphere, so I have to say you're missing out BIG TIME by not playing the game.

But that's just my opinion ;)

Yeah, ME1 had this.. "wow factor" going on due to the sci-fi lore and atmosphere. It was genuinely exciting to explore and learning about the setting (both through dialogues and the in-game journal). ME2 and 3 never came close in that regard.
 
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Yeah, ME1 had this.. "wow factor" going on due to the sci-fi lore and atmosphere. It was genuinely exciting to explore and learning about the setting (both through dialogues and the in-game journal). ME2 and 3 never came close in that regard.

The sense of mystery was very significant - and that's something we don't get enough of in the sci-fi genre!
 
Playing Fallout 3 GOTY modded.

After messing around with various mods and giving up on ENB (unfortunately), I got this modded to a state I'm happy with - and I've slowly started getting into it again.

FWE remains utterly fantastic as an overall balancing mod, and playing on "Normal" feels just right at this point - as I'm not looking for a super hard experience.

I've also started Bioshock 2 - Minerva's Den - which just might be the best Bioshock DLC of them all, based on what I've seen so far. But I might wait a bit before going back to it - as I'm kinda full with that setting right now.

This week and beyond is going to be great - as D3 expansion is coming out tomorrow and ESO starts Early Access on Sunday. Then we have Age of Wonders 3 coming out on Monday, I believe.

Star Citizen Dog Fighting Module is supposed to come out around the end of April - and I'm looking forward to that quite a bit. It's the only crowd-funded title I've had enough confidence in to pledge, and I have very high hopes that it's going to be one of the most important games of all time when it finally comes out. I've even elected to subscribe to it, just because I want to be a part of making it happen as much as I can.

Great games ahead!
 
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