Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[king3pj]

Finally trying out Dishonored..

There's not much insight I can give since I think nearly everyone else here has played the game already. The only thing I feel hasn't been addressed is, this game has by FAR some of the WORST voice acting and character animation of this console generation (7th.) I was amazed at how laughably bad it is. The opening murder scene was about as impactful as watching an episode of Captain Scarlet. Also, the dialogue seems like it was written by a 12 year old, especially that of the guards. The fact that they just speak about what ponces they are (when they're not just pontificating in sentence fragments of swears) does break the immersion quite a bit. The worst part is that you know they're trying really hard to come across as serious, as opposed to a game like Aliens: Colonial Marines where the actors just don't care. Here they were really trying, but I think my two young girls could do just as good of a job.

Other than that, the game does seem intriguing, although I'm torn as to how I should play, whether I do a Low chaos or a High Chaos playthrough. I'm leaning more towards "do whatever seems right at the time" and depending how I like the game and the ending I get, I'll either play again in the opposite way, or just look up the endings on Youtube.

I went low chaos when I could but I didn't let it pigeonhole me either. If I thought the route that made the most sense required killing people that's what I did. If I could sneak past them using blink or other means that's what I tried to do. If I had to knock people out and hide the bodies to avoid being detected I did that too. If I was detected I had no problem with using my powers to kill the people who saw me. I think that is the beauty of the game. There are always multiple ways to complete a mission. To get into a house, some people might knock someone out and take a key while other people never even have that confrontation because they found a way in through a window on the 3rd floor. I still got the low chaos ending even though I killed people now and then. The game isn't perfect, but I certainly had fun with it.

I still haven't played the two story based DLCs yet. I hear they are both very good and some say they are better than the actual game. I got The Knife of Dunwall in a Steam sale but I still don't have The Brigmore Witches yet. I'm kind of holding off playing the first one until I have them both.

 

[Zookster]

I didn't find the voice acting in Dishonored so bad it proved a distraction. I generally expect cheesy mailed-in dialogue from background NPCs. This is actually one of the best casts of recognizable names I've seen in a game recently: Susan Sarandon, Chloe Grace Moretz (Hugo, Kick-Ass), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), John Slattery (Mad Men), Michael Madsen (prolific character actor), and even a cameo by Carrie Fisher.

However, story, and by extension writing, is definitely not this game's strong suit. Just be sure to visit the various characters around the headquarters after each main story mission. There are some pretty interesting moments to be found (especially in the servant's bathroom after the Sokolov mission ).

Being the inveterate trophy monger I am, I did two complete playthroughs: high-chaos using no powers; low-chaos with powers, but no kills or detection by enemies. The second low-chaos playthrough proved much easier because you get fewer rats and weepers when you don't kill anyone and I had learned the levels backwards and forwards in my first playthrough so I knew the best "sneak" routes. But this is certainly one game when my trophy-centric ways interfered with my enjoyment of a game, as it would have been more fun to use powers on my high-chaos playthrough. Thankfully, for the DLC, I won't have to worry about that.

 

[king3pj]

I didn't find the voice acting in Dishonored so bad it proved a distraction. I generally expect cheesy mailed-in dialogue from background NPCs. This is actually one of the best casts of recognizable names I've seen in a game recently: Susan Sarandon, Chloe Grace Moretz (Hugo, Kick-Ass), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), John Slattery (Mad Men), Michael Madsen (prolific character actor), and even a cameo by Carrie Fisher.

However, story, and by extension writing, is definitely not this game's strong suit. Just be sure to visit the various characters around the headquarters after each main story mission. There are some pretty interesting moments to be found (especially in the servant's bathroom after the Sokolov mission ).

Being the inveterate trophy monger I am, I did two complete playthroughs: high-chaos using no powers; low-chaos with powers, but no kills or detection by enemies. The second low-chaos playthrough proved much easier because you get fewer rats and weepers when you don't kill anyone and I had learned the levels backwards and forwards in my first playthrough so I knew the best "sneak" routes. But this is certainly one game when my trophy-centric ways interfered with my enjoyment of a game, as it would have been more fun to use powers on my high-chaos playthrough. Thankfully, for the DLC, I won't have to worry about that.

I played the game and had no idea all of those actors were in it. I'm kind of surprised their voice cast wasn't promoted more because having that many TV/movie actors in a game is pretty unusual.

 

[Zookster]

Two other Bethesda-published games, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, have impressive (recognizable name actor) casts as well that you wouldn't necessarily know about.

Perhaps the money saved by not having a speaking protagonist affords them the ability to hire these other actors for smaller parts (the Carrie Fisher-voiced character in Dishonored is actually easy to miss if you don't go down a certain side street during a certain mission to resolve a minor altercation).

 

[yourbeliefs]

Two other Bethesda-published games, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, have impressive (recognizable name actor) casts as well that you wouldn't necessarily know about.

Perhaps the money saved by not having a speaking protagonist affords them the ability to hire these other actors for smaller parts (the Carrie Fisher-voiced character in Dishonored is actually easy to miss if you don't go down a certain side street during a certain mission to resolve a minor altercation).

Not exactly. Typically the budgets are enough to throw in a good cast of people to fill out everyone. Hell look at the voice talent in GTA: Vice City. It's like a who's who of character actors. Also, the whole slient protagonist thing in this game gets a little annoying after a while. Maybe if he could speak he could have cleared up the whole mess very early by stating "Hey DUMMIES, why the hell would I kill the person I'm sworn to protect, in an open area, during daylight?" It also makes it hard to relate/like the character, as well as round him out. Makes you wonder then how Corvo responds to people. Does he hold up different flash cards with his answers?

 

[king3pj]

Not exactly. Typically the budgets are enough to throw in a good cast of people to fill out everyone. Hell look at the voice talent in GTA: Vice City. It's like a who's who of character actors. Also, the whole slient protagonist thing in this game gets a little annoying after a while. Maybe if he could speak he could have cleared up the whole mess very early by stating "Hey DUMMIES, why the hell would I kill the person I'm sworn to protect, in an open area, during daylight?" It also makes it hard to relate/like the character, as well as round him out. Makes you wonder then how Corvo responds to people. Does he hold up different flash cards with his answers?

Vice City had a great cast. It's pretty surprising that a PS2 game has more well known actors than any of these cinematic experience games we have been getting for the last few years.

I guess Corvo staying silent never really bothered me in Dishonored because most of the game didn't center around dialog. Sure, a speaking Corvo could have made the game more cinematic but keeping him silent didn't pull me out of the world too much. The story wasn't outstanding but there was enough there to keep me searching the world and the gameplay was fun.

Skyrim is an example of a game with a silent protagonist that does ruin some of the immersion for me. Maybe if I would have played it before the Mass Effect series I wouldn't have noticed this but I definitely did. It just felt a little weird to have Mass Effect style dialog choices and then never have my character speak. They have you go back and forth through multiple lines of dialog with these NPCs but it plays out as a one sided conversation.

 

[Zookster]

I've actually shied away from certain RPGs because I didn't care for a mute-telepathic protagonist, having started my RPG-playing career with the Mass Effect series (and please no comments from the peanut gallery regarding Mass Effect not being a real RPG ).
I didn't even know before buying Dishonored that Corvo was silent as I was on a media blackout for this game. But once I got into the game, I hardly even noticed except during the brief interactive cut scenes. Regarding why they went this route, one of the delvelopers explained:

It’s been mentioned in the past that Corvo was left intentionally blank as a character. “That was a deliberate choice,” reiterated Raphey. “If we portrayed Corvo angry and seeking revenge, it might offend the nonlethal player who is seeking a stable outcome for the City of Dunwall, and vice versa”. He wasn’t always intended to be a mute avatar, though. “We added some text input options for Corvo around Alpha but never really went further. To this day, we wonder what the other version would have felt like in the game”.

source

 

[yourbeliefs]

I've actually shied away from certain RPGs because I didn't care for a mute-telepathic protagonist, having started my RPG-playing career with the Mass Effect series (and please no comments from the peanut gallery regarding Mass Effect not being a real RPG ).
I didn't even know before buying Dishonored that Corvo was silent as I was on a media blackout for this game. But once I got into the game, I hardly even noticed except during the brief interactive cut scenes. Regarding why they went this route, one of the delvelopers explained:


source

After reading that, now I feel like they missed a great opportunity with the whole Chaos system, similar to what was in Mass Effect. They could have had Corvo's tone and conversation choices/speeches differ depending on how you were playing him. A Low Chaos Corvo would be more subdued, and focused mainly on simply fixing what had gone wrong. Conversely, a High Chaos Corvo could be fueled by piss and vinegar, and driven more by revenge. Still, to each their own. And just for the record, I have nothing against silent protagonists.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I know I mentioned in my GOTY award that Rayman: Legends was the best platformer I had played in a while, but I don't think I really gave it it's due.

While most people would probably declare Mario as the king of the platformers, I have to say that I have had more fun with Rayman: Legends than I can remember with a game of the genre. It's a sequel to Rayman Origins, a game that had a bit of a black cloud over it. Ubisoft went as far as to say that other games being made depended on the success of it, which was a lot of pressure to put on a game. Luckily the game turned a profit and now Ubisoft has rewarded us with Legends, one of the best kinds of sequels: Keep what was great about the original and remove what wasn't so great. Hell, Legends actually has 40 levels from Origins in it, retooled to work with Legends' enhanced gameplay.

I suppose the best thing about Legends is it's difficulty. It hits that gaming G-Spot of having it difficult enough that you can't breeze through, but enough for you to tell yourself "I KNOW I can beat this with a few more tries!" And rest assured, there are plenty of levels that will challenge your skills. Also, while your brain and reflexes are being tested, your eyes and ears will have plenty of candy available. The UbiArt Framework is again on glorious display, and I would contend that this game is best experienced on something other than a handheld device.

Much like Saints Row 4, I found myself doing stuff in Legends that I haven't really done in other games, such as trying to make sure I beat more than the standard "required" levels, and also take part in daily/weekly challenges. Ubisoft regularly updates with new challenges, although it should be noted that they basically have a half dozen or so level frameworks that they can easily modify and change the challenges accordingly, so it's not like you're getting a whole new level experience daily.

Technically I have beaten the game twice (saw the regular ending as well as beat all the regular levels) but I still see myself going back to finish off the Origins levels. Hell, I may try and get all the level points as well (think Stars from Mario games.) There's 700 to get and I'm up to about 550.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this game, or at least put it on your wishlist and get it when it is discounted. The team at Ubisoft made a great game that doesn't involve a shmuck named Desmond, and they deserve to be rewarded for it.

 

[king3pj]

Yeah, I could tell you were into it when I saw your activity list last week. At that time you had 90 hours into it. I really liked Rayman Origins but I haven't picked up Legends yet.

 

[Zookster]

I played Origins on the Vita and really enjoyed it in spite of it being one of the hardest games for me to just beat the main story campaign. It didn't take long for me to give up on collecting max lums, skullteeth, and beating time trails in each stage and settle for just getting through the campaign, but after unlocking all the nymphs, which opened up some new stages, I decided it was time to throw in the towel. So are you saying Legends is much easier? I was worried it would be more of the same, given that those Origins levels are included as well.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah, I could tell you were into it when I saw your activity list last week. At that time you had 90 hours into it. I really liked Rayman Origins but I haven't picked up Legends yet.

That number is NOT accurate. Unfortunately Steam is messed up when tallying the hours. When you play Legends, U-Play launches as well, and it's actually keeping track of how long U-Play is open. When you quit the game, U-Play stays open. I didn't realize that until recently. At MOST I'd say my time is a third of that. Now I close it out properly. The fact that I have to deal with 2 forms of DRM is insane to me. You'd think that all I'd need is U-Play open to play the game. But no. I need Steam AND U-Play open. And yes, at the end of the day it's a very miniscule problem that doesn't stop me from playing, but it's still annoying. I do wish I could find out my real playtime, but of course U-Play doesn't track that..

 

[king3pj]

That number is NOT accurate. Unfortunately Steam is messed up when tallying the hours. When you play Legends, U-Play launches as well, and it's actually keeping track of how long U-Play is open. When you quit the game, U-Play stays open. I didn't realize that until recently. At MOST I'd say my time is a third of that. Now I close it out properly. The fact that I have to deal with 2 forms of DRM is insane to me. You'd think that all I'd need is U-Play open to play the game. But no. I need Steam AND U-Play open. And yes, at the end of the day it's a very miniscule problem that doesn't stop me from playing, but it's still annoying. I do wish I could find out my real playtime, but of course U-Play doesn't track that..

This obviously doesn't help with playtime but if you want to get around the double DRM you could try to just buy Ubisoft games from uPlay. Unfortunately, they don't seem to ever sell their own games as cheap as Steam does.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I played Origins on the Vita and really enjoyed it in spite of it being one of the hardest games for me to just beat the main story campaign. It didn't take long for me to give up on collecting max lums, skullteeth, and beating time trails in each stage and settle for just getting through the campaign, but after unlocking all the nymphs, which opened up some new stages, I decided it was time to throw in the towel. So are you saying Legends is much easier? I was worried it would be more of the same, given that those Origins levels are included as well.

As far as a direct difficulty comparison, I can't tell because I played Origins so long ago, but I would NOT call Legends "easy." I would say that Legends doesn't have the same difficulty spike that Origins had, where like 80% of the game is okay and then it ramps up to basically "Perfection" mode. The last set of levels are quite difficult, because A: There's no checkpoints, so if you die, you go back to the beginning, and B: They throw in random visual distractions to artificially make the game harder. Here's an example of them, and this one was the most frustrating, although I ended up getting in a "groove" one day and basically plowed through the last 4 levels after I beat that. I was playing with my 3 year old watching. Maybe she's a good luck charm.

 

[yourbeliefs]

This obviously doesn't help with playtime but if you want to get around the double DRM you could try to just buy Ubisoft games from uPlay. Unfortunately, they don't seem to ever sell their own games as cheap as Steam does.

Well I did get a copy of Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD from GMG which gave me a uPlay code, so perhaps I won't have to deal with it then. Instead I'll likely just be dealing with all the inadequacies associated with that game. I got it for like $4 though, so I figured why not.

 

[Scherrman]

I started The Last of Us again over the weekend. It still enjoy it so much. Just the way it makes me feel part of the game and emotionally involved.

 

[king3pj]

I finished up Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on the PS4 over the weekend. Surprisingly, this is the first game in the series I have actually finished. Just a few months ago I rented AC3 and sent it back to Gamefly after about 3 hours of playtime. I just couldn't get into it. According to my uPlay account I put in 28 hours on Black Flag. I could have wrapped it up much more quickly but I was actually having a good time just exploring the world and trying to find most of the collectibles at each island before I moved on. I would spend time hunting animals to craft different items and attacking ships so I could add them to my fleet. The fleet mini game was actually interesting to me by the way too. I spent quit a bit of time controlling my fleet both on the PS4 and the iPad.

Now, I wouldn't say this is a great game but it was definitely a more complete experience than most of the other available next gen games. They still have the annoying tail missions. These are even more annoying when you have to stay in close enough range to eavesdrop in a restricted area. Some of it doesn't make any sense. For instance, they make you tail some important Templar for 2 or 3 minutes before they let you kill him even if you don't have to eavesdrop. The whole point of the mission is to assassinate this powerful Templar but for some reason I have to follow him from the open streets into a heavily guarded fort before I'm allowed to kill him. Not only that but they make you follow him unseen by any guards but once they say you can kill him you are able to run out in the open and take all the guards on to get to him. The combat is similar to the Arkham games so taking out a large mob of guards isn't always that hard. Why did I have to stay hidden for 3 minutes if I am now allowed to just take everyone on head on? Why did I have to wait till my target was in a heavily guarded fort to kill him instead of taking him out in the street where it would have been much easier? Sometimes you had to escape after you took your target out. Lots of the missions let me do an air assassination on my target from an out of sight location though. He would be standing in a group of guards and it wouldn't matter that I just killed him right in front of them. They would just play out this death dialog and then the mission would end which felt a little gamey sometimes.

Luckily, the whole Assassin vs. Templar story is downplayed for most of this game. They stopped taking themselves so seriously and made the main character a pirate who is just out for himself instead of an assassin. The story wasn't outstanding but it was passable. The voice acting was good. Some characters were interesting while some were completely forgettable. I did find myself not remembering anything about the person I just had to kill a few times. The best part of the game for me was the stuff outside of the main story. This was a pretty full world with lots of fun stuff to do. Overall, I had fun with this game and it kind of made me want to give AC3 and some of the other early games another chance. I think I have had my fill of AC for at least another year though. I mostly played this game due to the lack of PS4/Xbox One games available right now but I liked it enough to put the AC franchise back on my radar.

Next in my Gamefly queue is Ryse: Son of Rome. I will probably finish either Killzone: Shadow Fall or inFamous 1 while I'm waiting for it. I think I'm pretty close to the end in both of those games.

 

[Scherrman]

I sent Mass Effect 2 back to Gamefly last week but they still haven't received it. I have Borderlands 2 next on my list but I'm afraid my game got lost in the mail.

What are you're thoughts on Borderlands 2?

 

[king3pj]

I sent Mass Effect 2 back to Gamefly last week but they still haven't received it. I have Borderlands 2 next on my list but I'm afraid my game got lost in the mail.

What are you're thoughts on Borderlands 2?

That's my biggest problem with Gamefly. Sometimes their turnaround time is excruciatingly slow for me. I was used to Netflix where I would put a movie in the mail on Monday, they would receive it Tuesday, and my next movie would be in my mailbox Wednesday. It sometimes takes 5 or 6 mail days for gamefly to receive a game from me and they don't always send the next one the day they show it as received. Then it typically takes 4 days, sometimes 5 for me to get my next game once they mark it as sent. My suspicion is that at lot of times they don't mark games received the same day it actually shows up in their warehouse. I have enough games in my backlog that it isn't a huge deal to me but it would be very frustrating if I was relying on Gamefly for all my games. It's still a really good deal for me because it keeps me from buying all these games at $60 a piece.

If you happen to be a PS+ subscriber Borderlands 2 is free right now. If you plan on buying a PS4 in the future it wouldn't be a bad idea to subscribe now and start stocking up on free games. That way, once you get your PS4 you will have a nice library of games to look forward to. There are also a lot of great PS3 games for free right now. Bioshock Infinite, DMC: Devil May Cry, Borderlands 2, Uncharted 3, XCOM Enemy Unknown plus a few more. For $50 per year you can't go wrong there and they add more games every month. Since the PS4 has come out the quality of the free PS3 games has really gone up.

I really like Borderlands 2. It was all I played for about 2 months when it first came out on PS3. Then when I built my gaming PC I put another 17 hours into it and I still go back and play it from time to time. The loot system is very addicting and the gameplay is fun. If you have a friend or two to play co-op with it's even better.

 

[Zookster]

I really like Borderlands 2. It was all I played for about 2 months when it first came out on PS3. Then when I built my gaming PC I put another 17 hours into it and I still go back and play it from time to time. The loot system is very addicting and the gameplay is fun. If you have a friend or two to play co-op with it's even better.

^Pretty much this. Borderlands 2 introduced a number of gameplay improvements over the first one, and the story was much, much better. I pretty much played it exclusively for two solid months as well this past summer. I love games like this that have a great sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously. If it wasn't for so many other games I wanted to play, I could see myself completing the entire game at least once if not twice with every character.