For the thread of the previous month (leading back eventually to my original rules guidelines for why I'm doing this thread), click here (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4284.0).
Much to my not-surprise, I'm still trudging along on The Witcher. By which I mean not moving in the slightest, primarily due to resolving various hardware issues involved in switching to a new PC, new monitor/TV, and new PS3. Most of those issues have been resolved, but I'm still working on getting my old PS3 ready for sale. (It's already spoken for, btw.)
On the other hand, I'm keeping my New Year Resolution not to buy any new games until I've finished five I already own; The Witcher itself was the first new game bought that way, although since it came along with a 75% sale including its sequel I went ahead and bought that, too. So I need to finish 10 games (which can include both of those, or not as I choose) before buying another new one.
Goooooooo me! 8)
I should perhaps add here that games I prebought last year before starting this disciplinary exercise don't count toward the new-buy, since I already budgeted money as "spent" for them. In other words, when Injustice: Gods Among Us releases sometime in April, I don't have to finish five games to play it. But we'll get to that later.
Having thus caught up with my... um... non-progress... who else managed to finish a game this past week (and/or this weekend)?
PS == while my PS3 is already spoken for, I have a Falcon Northwest Talon dating back to WinME days I'm trying to find a home for. It'll come with a bunch of classic software that I haven't tallied yet. I'll be posting up a sales note in the proper category here eventually, but I figured I might as well put a preliminary notice here, too. :)
I finished the "Lost to the Ages" quest line in Skyrim. It was added as a side quest in the Dawnguard DLC. Got a pretty cool item out of it, that allows you to have 2 standing stone bonuses at the same time. I also beat the first Alduin fight, thus finishing up Act 2 of the main quest. I started the first act 3 quest, but didn't get very far before I had to quit playing last night. If I get the time, I should have the main quest wrapped up sometime this week.
Other then that the only other thing I "got done" this weekend is killing some dragons and claiming their word walls.
I finished my first game of Warlock. It was fairly smooth for the most part except I did lose a lot of veterna units taking out one of the other mages. Good learning experience.
I played co-op Iron Front on Saturday and co-op ArmA II on Sunday and had a good time in both sessions. ArmA was the more interesting of the two due to the fact that the guys running the session have had a lot more experience with it so the mission scripts were less buggy and the missions more detailed.
Plugged through a few more tutorial sessions with DCS: A-10C. Looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and spend a couple hours creating a script macro for my HOTAS in order to map everything the way I'd like. I hate doing that stuff.
Kushan, if there was one thing I learned from my 250 hour campaign in Skyrim (which I was coming to the end of this time last year... Holy Christ Almighty has it been a whole year already since I played Skyim?!?! :P ) it was that the Shouts were rarely very useful (except in special quests designed to put those powers to use).
That didn't stop me from hunting up dragonwalls anyway, of course. :)
Thing Learned #2: if an item doesn't have a sell value better than 100:1, and I don't intend to use it in the foreseeable future, leave it behind. When-if-ever I go back to the game to play a mage instead of an armored sneaky two-mace wielding archer, this is information that will doubtless serve me well. (Plus the various alchemy exploits I learned about after finishing the game.)
Thing Learned #3: closely related to TL#2, dwarven mines (or the Skyrim equivalent thereof) are great for finding gems and not much else of high value-to-weight, so I never bothered much with them unless the main plot needed me to.
Thing Learned #4: after much experimentation timing the number of swings per minute, I decided swords, axes and maces basically do the same amount of damage per span of time (other things being equal like materials, forging class and enchantments), but since maces hit harder initially they're proportionately more likely to get one-hit kills, consequently they're where I invested my light-weapon skills. Meaning that by the end of the game I looked like Sauron.
Also, two-handed weapons need some tweaking to be truly competitive: sure they do higher damage on the first hit but even the fastest 2-handed weapon (the axe) is quickly outpaced by a single-handed mace. On the other hand, literally, unless a particular skill is invested in, dual-wielding doesn't rack up hits faster than single-plus-shield, and even with the slight speed advantage in putting points to that skill I never felt like I had done much. I probably would have been better off dishing damage single/magic (assuming I didn't want to bother with manually operated defense, i.e. a shield); I'll be thinking along that line for any new character in the future.
SDR,
For special reasons I'm not at liberty to talk about yet (but which may involve a special Grogheads series early next year), I'm going to be watching fantasy turn-based strategy reports closely this year, particularly comments comparing Warlock with Fallen Enchantress and Eador. Any thoughts from you on that?
I've only played Warlock and I just got that last week so....nope. Nothing from me.
Hmmm... Kingdoms of Amalur is killing my ability to finish a game... I did finish another zone. That count?
Finished a second scenario in Battles from the Bulge.....and this time I ended up with a marginal loss, but it was a loss none the less.
@Jason
As of right now, I've got 380 hours in Skyrim. It is by far the most played game on the Steam list, the next being CK2 with 110 hours. Theres a couple of shouts that I consider a must have, mainly Mark of Death. But your right, most are only good in specific circumstances or character builds. I haven't used any of the souls I've captured, The deadly dragons mod lets you convert dragon souls into perk points so I'm saving most of them for those. I'm also using huntng dragons as a reason to visit all of the out of the way places I've never seen in previous play throughs.
I use the conjurable chest spell mod with my mage, so carry weight really isn't an issue. I'm a pack rat in these games, I collect everything. I have a house mod called the Halls of Dovahndor (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25448 (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25448)), that I plan to use after I beat Alduin. I can get access to it anytime, but since its located in Sovngarde it doesn't feel right using it before I beat the game. I plan to display all of my magical objects in it.
I've had my fill of dwarven ruins for awhile. The quest line I completed had me delving into them. It was one of the better quest lines that I've done so far. Got plenty of soul gems. Been using the Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson almost constantly. It needs to be recharged after almost every fight, and if I'm fighting a dragon, multiple times per fight. But its one of the best staffs in the game.
I tend to not play optimized builds in the Bethesda games. In fact I tend to go out of my way to play un-optimized builds, even when I play on master difficulty. I did it for 6+ years in WoW, I don't want to do it here. I play with the Skyrim Redone mod, which overhauls almost the whole game; perks, spells, weapon/armor balance, etc. It makes playing a destruction/alteration mage (my current character) a viable option. It makes playing with light and heavy armor completely different from each other, same for 1 and 2 handed weapons. I've already have the perks for my next 2-3 characters planned out for when I beat Alduin.
This reminds me that when-if-ever I get around to playing a Skyrim campaign again, I'm definitely going the PC route so I can mod brew up (and benefit from the increased graphical glitz).
Not that I'm unhappy with the PS3 version, but I sure would have preferred to use dragon souls for perks. ;)
Edited to add, yeah on my next playthrough (whenifever) I won't be optimizing. But for learning the game I preferred to do my calcs. :)
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 05, 2013, 09:40:46 AM
This reminds me that when-if-ever I get around to playing a Skyrim campaign again, I'm definitely going the PC route so I can mod brew up (and benefit from the increased graphical glitz).
Not that I'm unhappy with the PS3 version, but I sure would have preferred to use dragon souls for perks. ;)
Edited to add, yeah on my next playthrough (whenifever) I won't be optimizing. But for learning the game I preferred to do my calcs. :)
If you do get it on PC let me know and I can link you some tutorials on where/how to get started modding your game. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but once you get to know mod tools like the nexus mod manager, modding is a breeze.
I have lost my gaming mojo.... was close to wrapping up my CK2 campaign of Poland and have just not been able to play anything I try. Just in a funk I guess.....
PE
Quote from: PanzersEast on February 05, 2013, 07:56:17 PM
I have lost my gaming mojo.... was close to wrapping up my CK2 campaign of Poland and have just not been able to play anything I try. Just in a funk I guess.....
PE
It happens. Maybe try a different genre or something.
I have to admit that a gaming funk may be contributing to my lack of trying to play Witcher or any of the many other quite different games which are much closer to being completed. Not that the various hardware sortings haven't contributed to playing delays, but even now that my time after work is clear(er), I'm tending to boot up Netflix to watch eps of the animated sequel to the American Godzilla movie until I can't stand it anymore.
What the hell is wrong with me? :P
Having once again not progressed a single step forward in The Witcher last week, I decided to poke around and see if I could mojo up interest in some other genre of game that I was much closer to finishing.
Jim Zabek's review of XCOM (http://www.grogheads.com/rev-xcom.html) here at Grogheads helped convince me to pick that up again and try to get it finished.
But as I started playing again, I remembered why I had finally put it down before. The lack of multiple base capability combined with an effective income cap means that, where I am in the game, I'm earning about as much per month as feasibly possible already and I've already upgraded my base as much as I can. I'll have to grind for the exotic materials I need to even upgrade my troops all the way to plasma weaponry, plus flying armor, plus my own UFOs, and I just don't know if the endgame will be sufficiently different enough to be worth the effort.
So I put it back down again, into the "twiddle with occasionally as the mood strikes" category. But since I've definitely logged more than 25 hours on it I'll count it (according to my previously established protocols) as FINISHED!
Now all I need is to finish another nine games and I can buy a new one! Woot! 8)
So, who else finished a game this week(end)?
Great. So it's my fault you're watching Godzilla.
Quote from: LongBlade on February 11, 2013, 02:07:52 PM
Great. So it's my fault you're watching Godzilla.
Hee!
I'm not sure why, but I'm compelled to put that in my sig now.
Big finish for me this weekend... Finally finished Kingdoms of Amalur, save one DLC that I'll run through on another playthrough.... Someday. Maybe.
Also finished the excellent iOS puzzle game The Room, as well as the pc version of Secret of Monkey Island.
I am so very close to finishing Dishonored.
Plugging away at Skyrim I finished several quests. I also started a new Minecraft world but I am pretty sure you can never be done with that....
Quote from: LongBlade on February 11, 2013, 02:07:52 PM
Great. So it's my fault you're watching Godzilla.
Not sure about that, but I have to say that the underaged-looking Aquaman cosplayer is kind of distracting. ;)
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 12, 2013, 11:49:38 AM
Quote from: LongBlade on February 11, 2013, 02:07:52 PM
Great. So it's my fault you're watching Godzilla.
Not sure about that, but I have to say that the underaged-looking Aquaman cosplayer is kind of distracting. ;)
Hmmm. Hadn't considered the underage factor. She is rather distracting. But it's better I rotate that out if that's the case.
Well, I wasn't sure, but that was what was causing the distraction. I couldn't just think, "Cute girl in Aquaman cosplay, nifty!" and go on. My brain kept trying to process whether she really was only a girl (and then from that whether she was in fact only a boy, and then from what why he would be wearing a bra, and why does the wrongness keep increasing?!? :P )
I like the new Kirkpurse, though. :)
(...it's amazing how much dirtier that sounds once I've typed it out, than it did in my head.)
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 12, 2013, 01:02:43 PM
I like the new Kirkpurse, though. :)
Thanks. That's actually a uniform shirt I managed to successfully fold. Added a phaser 1 to it and took a photo.
Quote from: LongBlade on February 12, 2013, 01:11:15 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 12, 2013, 01:02:43 PM
I like the new Kirkpurse, though. :)
Thanks. That's actually a uniform shirt I managed to successfully fold. Added a phaser 1 to it and took a photo.
have you worn it?
Quote from: undercovergeek on February 12, 2013, 02:10:18 PM
Quote from: LongBlade on February 12, 2013, 01:11:15 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 12, 2013, 01:02:43 PM
I like the new Kirkpurse, though. :)
Thanks. That's actually a uniform shirt I managed to successfully fold. Added a phaser 1 to it and took a photo.
have you worn it?
Have I worn it? How big a geek do you think I am?
Of course I've worn it!
at a..............
......convention?
Quote from: undercovergeek on February 12, 2013, 02:13:50 PM
at a..............
......convention?
No. Once when I was playing Star Fleet Battles at a LGS, a couple of times for Halloween.
Can't say I've brought it to a con. Most of the time I'm at cons pretending to be a respectable journalist rather than major geek.
have you worn it for Mrs Blade?
Quote from: undercovergeek on February 12, 2013, 02:18:03 PM
have you worn it for Mrs Blade?
Are you out of your Vulcan mind?
lmao - she doesnt join you in the Star Trek love?
No one is perfect.
Not to try and put this thread back on track or anything like that....the only thing I finished this weekend was watching all 3 extended editions of LOTR one after the other. I tried to finish the main quest in Skyrim, but then I took a fireball to the knee.....
I was once an adventurer like you.
Quote from: LongBlade on February 12, 2013, 02:21:35 PM
Quote from: undercovergeek on February 12, 2013, 02:18:03 PM
have you worn it for Mrs Blade?
Are you out of your Vulcan mind?
If he wore a purse made out of Kirk's shirt for Mrs. Blade, I could see it leading to... questions.
(Edited to add: yes I saw, it's not a purse. I'm just running with the joke. :) I first saw it as a purse with a big front pocket made out of uniform sleeve for sliding the phaser into, and now
I can't unsee it!!)
Quote from: Kushan on February 12, 2013, 03:29:58 PM
Not to try and put this thread back on track or anything like that....the only thing I finished this weekend was watching all 3 extended editions of LOTR one after the other. I tried to finish the main quest in Skyrim, but then I took a fireball to the knee.....
One of the hardware issues that delayed me from getting back into my game-finishing list, was studying signal calibration science (or catching back up on it rather after having studied and then forgotten about it back in college for my broadcasting degree). Because I had a new TV (and then another new TV when the first one developed problems), and wanted to dial in the video signal better than I had with my old TV.
I mention this in relation to LOTR, because I popped FOTR in for a demo comparison test and was pleased on one hand to see that the faint green tinge was gone, but that on the other hand the standard calibration techniques lead to an overly dark picture. So I developed some protocols for further tweaking the brightness by checking certain scenes in FOTR.
(Also, after extensive testing I came to the conclusion that the procedures and tests provided by Disney on their WOW Blu calibration disc are kind of broken. So then I had to start over from scratch, though still using the handy color bars and b/w focus/sharpness test screens on their disc.)
I know it's Wednesday but I just finished The Testament of Sherlock Holmes. I think it's the 6th in the Frogwares series of point and click adventures. I really liked the Jack the Ripper and the Silver Earring titles. This one wasn't so good. Chiefly, I think they took too many liberties with the Sherlock Holmes franchise and contradicted some of Doyle's writings. Gameplay was fairly straightforward. The majority of the puzzles were logical and straightforward and fairly easy to solve. There was some pixel hunting but not too much. I did have to resort to a walkthrough twice. Once because I didn't understand what was required of me for a certain puzzle (that was the fault of the UI) and one because there was a disconnect between the graphics and the in-game speech. (You're told that there's a small magician's bag tied to a belt you find and you need to cut it open but the item in your inventory doesn't show any such bag. I was busy doing a bunch of other stuff in the game and didn't get to the part where you needed the bag until a few hours later and forgot that it was mentioned.)
The overall plot of the story is good, but the way it was portrayed was pretty uneven. Sometimes it's a little too goofy and whimsical, like when you take control of a basset hound. Other times the pathos is a little heavy handed and maudlin and the translation from the game's original French is never of the best quality so the dialogue is often stilted of wholly inappropriate.
There is one game breaking part that I found. In one part, you need to cut open some bags to get some documents that are inside. You also must use your knife to try to pry open some floor boards to advance the story. When you attempt to pry the boards, you break your knife. If you hadn't grabbed the documents before prying the board (and the game gives no indication that you should do so), you're stuck and will have to revert to an earlier save.
Still love the attention to detail that the devs put into these games when it comes to the world and the architecture and furnishings.
The most incongruous bit was the end credits. They look like something straight out of a bond movie.
Here's the video of said credits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNh7oE4-WGk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNh7oE4-WGk)
Just finished Dishonored. Anticlimactic ending, but it is related to my brutish play style. That said, it was by far my favorite game of the last few years. Just wish it was longer. And the music was awesome.
I actually finished something. Just beat the main boss in the Skyrim Dragonborn DLC. Was one of the best fights I've had in the game.
SDR,
I also own all the Frogware Holmes titles (including that one if I recall correctly), off a Steam sale before Christmas. Barely started playing Silver Earring, before I had to migrate to my new computer, and haven't gotten back to it yet, but they're all definitely on my game-finish list. :)
Do you recommend a worst-to-best progression? (I prefer to be not disappointed going from one game to another. ;) ) I'm assuming there won't be continuity progression between games.
There is a bit of continuity between the games. Usually they're just in the form of easter eggs. For instance, you'll find a statue from The Awakened in 221b Baker Street in later games. However, there are some recurring ancillary characters that you can interact with and some of the incidental dialogue might not make sense if you haven't played all the previous titles.
The gameplay is pretty similar between all the titles but I prefered the puzzles in the Ripper and Silver Earring because they tended to focus more on forensics, crime scene analysis, and piecing together timelines. The puzzles in Arsene Lupin (Nemesis in N. America) and Testament tend more towards logic puzzles that don't really believably fit into the game universe. I.E. open a safe by solving a chessboard logic puzzle. Move all the red coloured pegs across a board without jumping over any green pegs, etc.
I finished my Warlock Master of the Arcane AAR. It's in the Digital Gaming AAR's section on this very site. :)
I didn't finish anything but I am locked in mortal combat in the Flu Dungeon. I battled through several levels of Sniveling and Sneezing minions. I almost passed out entering the Chamber of Fevers. However, once I broke out of that I made it to the boss fight. Unfortunately I just can't seem to get by this boss. Perhaps I need to visit a local apothecary and mix some new potions.
^Crap sorry to hear that. As someone who had flu once and bronchitis twice this winter, I feel your pain.
Tent, sorry to hear that, man. Rest and lots of fluids. And games. Yeah, lots of games.
Tent, I'm sorry to hear you are stranded on Planet Flu Misery. Drink lots of slightly flat soda, vary the cracker choices, catch up on some Netflixed back seasons of a good TV show you missed the first time around, and play some games with epic 'splody enemy smackdowns.
Flu on Valentine's Week, too. Grarg. :-\
Not having the flu, but also not having any valentine (thus feeling like I have semi-permanent flu), and also not having progressed a single step on The Witcher, I looked through my stash to see if I could find something to finish this weekend--preferably something bleak where I could shoot lots of people.
Oooo... Spec Ops: The Line! That should work!
:P
...FINISHED! -- yep, I do feel better now. Thanks, dark nihilism! ;D
(In case anyone is curious, without spoiling the game for those who haven't played it yet, I took the shortest ending. Somewhat inadvertently.)
Use the +1 Sword of Ibuprofen to defeat the Fever & Body Ache Demon, plenty of healing fluids(non-alcoholic), rest in a secure location, and if you develope a productive cough- one with green or yellowish sputum or nasal discharge- see your local healer and have him cast a spell of antibiotic or Tamiflu, or both, on you. You may want to take a night-time healing potion to rest well at bedtime. No Dungeon-delving or theiving in cold wet places until your better. Just stay home and finally read all those damned books you found in Skyrim. You should be back kicking Dragon-Ass in no time.
Quote from: Sir Slash on February 18, 2013, 11:09:39 PM
Use the +1 Sword of Ibuprofen to defeat the Fever & Body Ache Demon, plenty of healing fluids(non-alcoholic), rest in a secure location, and if you develope a productive cough- one with green or yellowish sputum or nasal discharge- see your local healer and have him cast a spell of antibiotic or Tamiflu, or both, on you. You may want to take a night-time healing potion to rest well at bedtime. No Dungeon-delving or theiving in cold wet places until your better. Just stay home and finally read all those damned books you found in Skyrim. You should be back kicking Dragon-Ass in no time.
:)
@All - thanks guys, don't feel any worse today but don't feel any better either. Looks like it will be another day of bed rest and watchin TV for me :)
Hope you get better soon Tent.
I beat Dragonborn last Wednesday and spent Thursday and Friday nights exploring Solsthiem. After that I didn't even touch the game until yesterday moring. Went back to Skyrim itself and recovered the last 2 dragonpriest masks. I think my mage playthrough is coming to an end. I think with another level or two I should be able to finally take down Alduin.
Other then Skyrim the only other game I played this weekend was Diablo 3. Leveled my wizard from 38 to 44. Sometimes its nice to just mindlessly kill hordes of undead and demons.
The worst thing about having the Flu or a bad cold is I usually feel too bad to play when I have time to play because I'm sick. I finished battle 2 of Conrath's Counterattack for CMFI with a win. Probably wouldn't mention it if I got beat. Gonna re-watch all of Col. Paulding's tactics videos before I tackle battle 3.
Quote from: Sir Slash on February 19, 2013, 10:15:02 AM
The worst thing about having the Flu or a bad cold is I usually feel too bad to play when I have time to play because I'm sick.
Yeah any games that require much thinking I didn't feel up to playing.
^Don't feel bad, that's me ordinarily.
I played a good 3 hours of Iron Front MP on Saturday and a couple of hours of ArmA II MP on Sunday. Good fun for both sessions.
I also fired up The Witcher 2 again and this time, I will finish it.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on February 19, 2013, 07:41:23 PM
I also fired up The Witcher 2 again and this time, I will finish it.
Gah!--you aren't giving me much reassurance about
ever finishing those games!
I'm starting to think I'm just too old for RPGs anymore. Or maybe not old enough again yet. Or words to that effect.
And lo, for the final Monday of Feb 2013, in honor of my continuing lack of interest to advance a step further toward finishing The Witcher, I decided to finaaalllllyyyyy get around to putting in the final missions of Assassin's Creed.
Can't say I much liked the way the future plot non-resolves, but thank God there aren't any sequels to this mess because I can't say I'd be much interested in playing th----what? What are you saying?
Crap.
(Yes, yes, I've heard the sequels improve drastically on the Samey McSameness of the mission structure, which seems more like a concept demo in the first game. I may pick them up later as a collection or something.)
So AssCreed can count as FINISHED!
In celebration of this, I also loaded up Karateka, and spent a few hours beating that. This was one of the final games I bought for my old computer, and was kind of the camel that broke the straw or words to that effect, because if this short remake to a game older than my cousin who's graduating college this season runs clunky on my system then it's damned well past time for a new computer!
So Karateka also counts as FINISHED!
Flush with my successes this weekend, I proceeded to completely break my computer's internet access somehow (apparently by trying to activate Hyper-V, which sounds like a Japanese anti-Godzilla weapon but is actually Win8's version of Virtual Machine). This is annoying. Very very annoying. After hours of trying to figure out how to tell my computer that my perfectly functional wireless adapter ought to be able to see my perfectly functional router (which was all functioning perfectly the moment before I activated Hyper-V, and the latter of which has no problem still working with my Playstation 3), I've given up and called Falcon tech support. Hopefully they have some ideas of what to tweak. Worst case, I'll have to refresh or restore my system I guess--not too problematic, as I haven't installed much yet (and much of what I've installed are games I finished and saw no reason to keep installed any longer).
Thank God for consoles where I can just plop in a disc and be relatively assured everything will work out fine.
Anyway! -- anyone else finish anything this final week(end) in February?