Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[yourbeliefs]

On the topic of AC:U, Polygon has posted some of the more hilarious glitches. What a nice feature of the PS4/One to have in game recording to allow for easier video exports.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/12/7204745/assassins-creed-unity-is-an-amazing-glitch-factory

 

[Zookster]

On the topic of AC:U, Polygon has posted some of the more hilarious glitches. What a nice feature of the PS4/One to have in game recording to allow for easier video exports.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/12/7204745/assassins-creed-unity-is-an-amazing-glitch-factory

Loved "France's first mime" and "Invisible kart racing." It's killing me that this game is such a mess. When I first played AC II, I hoped that an Assassin's Creed game would be set during the French Revolution (I have a master's degree in 18th-century French art), but now that it's here, I'm not sure it's worth the bother... certainly not worth buying a next gen console right now. From reviews I've watched, when it works, it does look gorgeous, though.

 

[king3pj]

I just got the email from Gamefly confirming that Dragon Age: Inquisition is on the way. The only downside is that shipping might be even slower than normal. The email mentioned that it was coming from Tampa because my shipping center, Pittsburgh, didn't have any available copies. I'm not sure I've seen that before but I'd much rather have them send me one from Tampa day one than wait until Pittsburgh gets some copies back.

Oh well, I still have 2 missions to to in Halo: CE and then 3 more full Halo games to get through. I'm only a little more than half way through Advanced Warfare too.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I've been playing Unity for the most part (outside of the occasional Halo online match) and have been enjoying it. I'm still very early in it and lord knows I've hit a number of glitches and frame rate hits (more of the latter) but it's a rather surreal experience. On one hand, you can't help but just be in constant awe of the environment and Paris itself. All criticisms aside, you can't deny the fact that Ubisoft made a beautiful looking game, and I constantly get distracted from missions just to look around. I haven't had feelings like that since Assassins Creed 2 (which is my favorite of the series.) On the other hand, you can't help but feel a little slighted by how this is really a step backwards in the series, but then again I was not a huge fan of the boating part of AC IV (which I do plan on trying again after I beat Unity.) Until Halo Matchmaking gets fixed up (or I get more friends to do customs with) I see AC:U taking up some of my time until my rentals arrived.

As far as my other games go, I sent back Bayonetta 2 and CoD:AW. Bayonetta 2 was fun, albeit a little repetitive. It's very similar to the original except they refined the combat a bit and removed certain annoyances, like the insufferably awful QTEs that were bad even by QTE standards. My main complaint is that the game's combat is very robust, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the manual. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by tutorials and such but unless you read up you're at a severe disadvantage and the combat is less fun because you keep spamming the same buttons. So if you decide to pick up the game make sure you read the manual in the Wii U menu. Overall it's a good game worth checking out, but I don't see it being a system seller, and it's sad that the game is a Wii U exclusive as it does NOT take advantage of the system at all. In fact, the Wii U almost hurts the game because the controller isn't exactly the best for a button masher. I hope that this isn't a "full" exclusive and instead is just a time limited one (from what I can tell, Sega still owns the IP) because this would work much better on a Playstation or an Xbox.

CoD:AW seems okay. I had to send it back early because I didn't get to beat it in time but it was fun while I played it. I'll likely pick it up again down the road.

I got my email confirming that WWE 2K15 is shipped out. Hopefully I'll also get SSBU sent my way this week as well.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I just got the email from Gamefly confirming that Dragon Age: Inquisition is on the way.

I guess you don't live in India then..

http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainme...-having-a-gay-character-in-a-key-role-2036086

 

[king3pj]

https://dragonagekeep.com/en_US/

Since Dragon Age Inquisition will be here in a few days I decided to use the Dragon Age Keep website and make choices for the previous games. I would have preferred to actually play through them but I couldn't get into the tactical combat system the PC version used in Origins. The console versions apparently had a more action based combat system that I think I would have preferred. I guess there was no way to import your saves to Inquisition even if you did play those games so everyone is forced to use this website if they want their choices to carry forward.

I only played maybe 25% of Origins so I didn't have much context for the decisions I was making. It felt a little weird deciding who lived and who died when I didn't even know who many of the characters were. I did watch a couple "story so far" videos first to try to get a little context but these are huge games and you aren't going to form connections like you did with Garrus in the Mass Effect series from watching a 5 minute youtube video. Still, I would rather make my own choices based on the little that I did play than jump into whatever the default is. They do have a pretty nice interactive comic to help you make these decisions but you are still deciding who lives and dies based on a couple sentences.

 

[Zookster]

https://dragonagekeep.com/en_US/

Since Dragon Age Inquisition will be here in a few days I decided to use the Dragon Age Keep website and make choices for the previous games. I would have preferred to actually play through them but I couldn't get into the tactical combat system the PC version used in Origins. The console versions apparently had a more action based combat system that I think I would have preferred. I guess there was no way to import your saves to Inquisition even if you did play those games so everyone is forced to use this website if they want their choices to carry forward.

I only played maybe 25% of Origins so I didn't have much context for the decisions I was making. It felt a little weird deciding who lived and who died when I didn't even know who many of the characters were. I did watch a couple "story so far" videos first to try to get a little context but these are huge games and you aren't going to form connections like you did with Garrus in the Mass Effect series from watching a 5 minute youtube video. Still, I would rather make my own choices based on the little that I did play than jump into whatever the default is. They do have a pretty nice interactive comic to help you make these decisions but you are still deciding who lives and dies based on a couple sentences.

Though I have no idea when I'll get around to Inquisition, I was actually looking into this myself today. It seems to be recognizing my data (synched from PS3). I'll still need to make almost all custom decisions for Origins, since I only played it for an hour.

Looking at the DA Keep defaults on the DA wiki, I would've been really bummed if I had gone that route for DA II. Some of them just didn't make sense, like not recruiting Isabela. I mean, what red-blooded American boy (or any nationality for that matter) wouldn't recruit Isabela?

EDIT: After messing around with the Keep Tapestry a bit, I see that even though it detected my DAII hero, it doesn't accurately reflect all the choices I made in that playthrough, but it's easy enough to fix those and "change history" by undoing choices that I wouldn't want anymore.

I'm thinking I may go back to play through DA:O now, though I don't have any of the DLC (I was waiting/hoping for a sale before I got into it).

 

[yourbeliefs]

Behold the most powerful bow EVER...

 

[king3pj]

So, I'm really liking Dragon Age so far. At this point I've mostly ignored the story and just been doing side quests. The reason being that the game actually gives you a reason for doing most of them so it doesn't feel like a generic chore. They build the story into them and for the most part the objective feels like something that would realistically help the Inquisition. Let's put it this way, the game wanted me to do a few side quests to get my power to level 4 before doing the next main story mission. I'm currently at power level 14 and haven't really felt the need to go back to the main quest yet.

The world feels huge. The part of the world I've been doing these side quests in feels as big as most open world games by itself and it's just one small portion of the total game world. In my trek off the beaten path I have ventured into a few areas my party clearly isn't ready for including a family of dragons.

I am having one problem with the game though. It seems like the disc Gamefly sent me is defective. The game installed normally and runs fine but the disc constantly tries to spin up and then immediately stops the entire time I try to play. It doesn't seem to be affecting the gameplay in any way but I'm worried it will damage my PS4 disc drive. We are talking every 2-3 seconds here. It consistently happens the whole time I play the game even if it's a 2 hour+ session. I've tested with other retail games I own and the PS4 doesn't have this problem. It spins up to confirm I have the game in the drive and then the blu-ray drive shuts off like it's supposed to.

I would just report the disc damaged but I'd rather not wait a month for Gamefly to send me another copy now that I'm hooked on the game. I'm thinking about trying something a little more shady like renting from Redbox and switching out the disc. Gamefly doesn't appear to mark their discs in any way but I've never rented from Redbox before so I'm not sure what they do. Anyone have a better idea?

Edit: If I can hold onto my damaged copy until I receive a replacement from Gamefly I would be happy to do it that way. I'm assuming I will have to send it back now and wait for them to get a copy back if I report it damaged though.

 

[yourbeliefs]

So I got about 4 hours in of Sunset Overdrive before it got locked up again. Overall it seemed like fun and it did convince me to play through it later (albeit probably via Gamefly as opposed to a regular purchase.) The game does take some time to get used to and it is a little weird to constantly have to grind on stuff while fighting enemies. Speaking of grinding, why is the "X" button the grind button? As a Tony Hawk veteran I keep pushing the "Y" button out of reflex. I guess my brain will eventually convert to it. Also, the music sucks. It's just a bunch of generic rock/punk songs, which, as Yahtzee Croshaw so eloquently put it, "(is) the entirety of the Guitar Hero 'Let's appear relevant to people born after 1995 section.'"

Still, it is quite fun and I am interested to see where it goes. I've read that the game gets better as you go in, which seems to be the case as the vast majority of my missions have basically been fetch quests. I don't see it dethroning Prototype and Saints Row 4 as my King and Queen of Open World Madness, but I'm definitely more psyched to play that than I am to delve back into Los Santos in the newer versions of GTA V.

Due to circumstances well within my control I ended up getting Shadow of Mordor instead of SSB Wii U. So far I'm having fun with it. I'll get into more detail as I play more.

I sent back WWE2K15 rather promptly. Sadly the combat and gameplay just wasn't that fun, and the learning curve was more than I felt like dealing with.

Still playing MCC and having fun with it. The bugs are still there but I AM finding matches and once I get in they have been fun (except when I get my ass handed to me because I don't remember the maps I'm playing.) AC: Unity has basically fallen to the back burner (just as well while Ubisoft fixes THAT game.)

 

[king3pj]

I called into Gamefly support yesterday to tell them about the problems I was having with my Dragon Age disc. The lady on the phone told me she was actually hooked on that game too so she understood why I wouldn't want to send the defective copy that kind of worked back until the new one arrived.

She said typically you have to send it back within 7 days of reporting a damaged disc but she would put a note in my file. She told me she would also move me to the top of the priority list so I wouldn't have to wait several weeks for a replacement copy. I was skeptical of that last part but I just received the confirmation that my replacement was on it's way.

I've heard nightmare stories about Gamefly support but I'm actually kind of impressed. Now if they could just work on those shipping speeds so it doesn't take 4-5 days to receive a disc versus Netflix's consistent one day shipping I would be really happy.

 

[king3pj]

I played episode 1 of Tales From the Borderlands over the weekend. First I'm happy to report that the Xbox One version has much more in common with the PC version of past TellTale games than their PS3/360 counterparts. For the most part, everything ran pretty smoothly and looked good.

I was starting to wonder when I would get sick of the TellTale formula with all these games coming out. I also wondered if this might be the one to push me over that edge. I really liked BL1 and BL2 but it's not exactly the most story driven world and I wasn't sure what TellTale was going to do with it. If the first episode was any indication, I'm still 100% on board.

They do make good use of the Borderlands license but this is really just a con artist story. I don't think you need to know anything about previous Borderlands games to enjoy this. There are some returning characters but they are more like set pieces than anything else. You are supposed to be a nobody in this game so the big characters that show up from previous games have little interest in you. They are doing bigger things in the background while you are trying to pull off your little con.

I hear that the TellTale games that came before TWD were pretty funny but I've never played any of them. Even TWD had it's funny moments. I will say that the tone of this game feels very different than The Walking Dead. Even The Wolf Among Us was pretty dark. Parts of this game are genuinely funny and the whole thing is much more lighthearted. It's a change I definitely welcomed.

The voice cast is also very good. You play as two different characters throughout the game. Troy Baker is the male lead just like he is in every other game that comes out these days. He always does a good job even if I instantly recognized his voice. Laura Bailey (Fetch from inFamous: Second Son) does a very good job as the female lead too. Then you have Patrick Warburton nailing the Hyperion corporate d-bag role. Chris Hardwick from Talking Dead and one of my favorite podcasts (The Nerdist) does a surprisingly good job as the main character's best friend. Then you also have Nathan Drake himself, Nolan North. TellTale has obviously reached the point where they don't have to skimp on the voice actor budget. That's definitely a good thing. TellTale games are dialog and story driven more than just about any other game. I hope there isn't too long of a wait for episode 2.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I'll keep my eye on it. As I've said before, I trust TT but I always wait on their games just because they ALWAYS get reduced over time and you can wait and make sure that they're good before you jump in. That voice cast sounds pretty damn good.

I decided to pick up South Park: TSOT because of that Steam sale, and I fell in love with it all over again. For one thing, it runs a F-ton BETTER on PC than my 360. Everything is instant, while the 360 had annoying loading times. Not horrendously bad loading times, but when you have basically INSTANT with the PC it just makes the 360 version seem to infuriating in retrospect. Last time I played as a Warrior, and now I'm trying as a Mage (just like a wizard, but not as cool.)

I also picked up Murdered: Soul Suspect for $6 from GMG. The reviews are varied but it seems to tell a good story and I'm willing to forgive some gameplay issues as long as I'm entertained. I may try that out tonight.

 

[yourbeliefs]

While there's no debate that AC:Unity is a technical mess, there's also no debate that from a presentation standpoint it's amazing. Some guy went and took snapshots of AC:U and put them up to areas in modern Paris. Worth a look.

http://tidamz.tumblr.com/post/102797713555/aujourdhui-jai-visite-paris-2-fois-une-fois

 

[Zookster]

I finally finished my epic run through the entire Mass Effect trilogy with a Shepard ("Destiny") that I first created in ME1, completing every mission and engaging in every possible interaction throughout the entire series, including all the DLC (this was my first experience with the ME3 DLC). Being my third time through ME3, however, I was left with the one ending that had appealed to me the least, but now I like the most ...

Spoiler

Control. In fact, the game itself makes Control seem rather unappealing due to what the Illusive Man's obsession with controlling the Reapers did to him. But now that I've seen all three endings as part of complete playthroughs (not YouTube videos), I think Control makes the most sense. If you haven't seen it, Shepard essentially becomes an immortal, omnipotent, and omniscient controller of all synthetics in the galaxy, while retaining all his/her thoughts, memories, and humanity. And in that role he/she can still watch over his/her friends and squadmates. It's the culmination of the near-messianic status Shepard is assigned throughout the series.

As much as I had previously prefered the Destroy ending (partly because it's the only way Shepard lives in corporeal form and partly because at the end of the day a talking toaster is still a talking toaster--i.e., not alive), it ultimately won't stop the cycle of chaos of synthetics rising up to fight their creators. As far as the Synthesis ending goes, the "ideal" outcome according to the Starchild, I now see imposing the merger of synthetic material on every organic lifeform in the galaxy as no different than forcing inter-species mating on everyone. No one person can make that decision for everyone, as I'm sure there millions, if not billions of purists who would rather die than be merged in that way. It's also the biggest stretch in the "space magic" sense, that the Crucible/Catalyst can make that happen using Shepard's DNA or essence or whatever it was. At least with Control, the Illusive Man's research showed it's possible at the local level and the Crucible/Catalyst made that happen galaxy-wide with someone who wasn't indoctrinated, like Shepard.

Regarding the ME3 DLC, I found it all pretty essential to fleshing out the entire experience. The From Ashes and Leviathan DLCs help deepen your understanding of the cycles and how they started, and how the Protheans failed to stop them. Not to mention, Javik's attitude toward the "primitives" is hilarious. Omega offered an excellent self-contained side-story that's still very much part of the ME universe and the events of ME3. And you also get to play alongside a great character who has her own special kind of attitude, Aria. Lastly, the Citadel (which includes a 3-4 hour campaign, a combat sim that's basically an SP version of the MP mode, an all-night party with everyone, an apartment to decorate, arcade mini-games, and dozens of side quests) offers an amazing culmination to the entire series along with some of the best lines and moments ever written for it. While none of it was really worth the full asking price (what DLC is nowadays?), I definitely feel I got more than my money's worth at 50% off, even if I never replay any of it.

 

[Scherrman]

Have you guys seen the game Dying Light? I just saw a trailer of the game and I thought it looked pretty sweet. It's another zombie survival type game.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I sent back SSBU yesterday. Good game, but really without a bunch of friends, the game wears out rather quickly, and since it lacks the campaign and multiple unlockable characters that SSBB had, there isn't much to push the pure single player portion of the game. There's a bunch of mini games and little 1 player modes, but without a real incentive to play them (I don't care about stickers and coins) I was better off sending it back to get another game from my queue.

Picked up CoD:AW for $7 after trade ins from GS. Enjoying the campaign quite a bit, but I don't see it dethroning my king of CoD, Black Ops (in SP or MP, as I put in easily 50+ hours into that). I do like the more futuristic weapons. I had fun using infrared through my sights to pick off various guys. Sadly the story is quite predictable (Yeah, I'm sure that Kevin Spacey's character won't do ANYTHING shady, being the CEO of the largest PMC and arguably the largest company in the entire world) but I'm at least curious to see how they get us to that point.

Halo: MCC is finally shaping up to be the game we all expected to be a mere 37 days ago. They added back the Halo: CE playlist (although perplexingly they say it's 4v4 but you can only have 6 maximum players) but it's nice that I can have Oddball and KOTH and Slayer matches and not just Team Slayer in that game. Hopefully they'll get Halo 4 up soon as well. I do find it rather amusing that the only original Halo game 343i made doesn't have it's own playlist on the MCC.

 

[Zookster]

I sent back SSBU yesterday. Good game, but really without a bunch of friends, the game wears out rather quickly, and since it lacks the campaign and multiple unlockable characters that SSBB had, there isn't much to push the pure single player portion of the game. There's a bunch of mini games and little 1 player modes, but without a real incentive to play them (I don't care about stickers and coins) I was better off sending it back to get another game from my queue.

Picked up CoD:AW for $7 after trade ins from GS. Enjoying the campaign quite a bit, but I don't see it dethroning my king of CoD, Black Ops (in SP or MP, as I put in easily 50+ hours into that). I do like the more futuristic weapons. I had fun using infrared through my sights to pick off various guys. Sadly the story is quite predictable (Yeah, I'm sure that Kevin Spacey's character won't do ANYTHING shady, being the CEO of the largest PMC and arguably the largest company in the entire world) but I'm at least curious to see how they get us to that point.

Halo: MCC is finally shaping up to be the game we all expected to be a mere 37 days ago. They added back the Halo: CE playlist (although perplexingly they say it's 4v4 but you can only have 6 maximum players) but it's nice that I can have Oddball and KOTH and Slayer matches and not just Team Slayer in that game. Hopefully they'll get Halo 4 up soon as well. I do find it rather amusing that the only original Halo game 343i made doesn't have it's own playlist on the MCC.

How did you do with the trade value of your older 360 games? Is Gamestop running any special promotions right now? I'm thinking it's time to unload a good portion of my PS3 collection now, particularly the "one-offs" that aren't part of a favorite franchise.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I got awful trade in value ($.50 - $1.00), but I traded in ME 3 and Halo 4 and No More Heroes 2 (Wii). Not exactly rare games. Normally I don't do trade ins unless they have a deal that increases the value, but I figured AW was going to go back to $60 before that happened. I got the bulk of my value from trading in my Wii ($20) and my Xbox Wireless Adapter ($10). I know I didn't get what I "deserved" for those items but all those things were just sitting around, not getting used. And for the record, a Wii from GS costs about $60, so think about that profit margin.

They actually rejected quite a bit of my stuff. They don't take PS2 games, Wii Fit Boards, and also they don't take in Gamecube controllers for some reason. I figured with the release of the SSBU GC adapter that they'd welcome the controllers back, but apparently they haven't because GC stuff still falls under the "it's too old" banner.

 

[Zookster]

I got awful trade in value ($.50 - $1.00), but I traded in ME 3 and Halo 4 and No More Heroes 2 (Wii). Not exactly rare games. Normally I don't do trade ins unless they have a deal that increases the value, but I figured AW was going to go back to $60 before that happened. I got the bulk of my value from trading in my Wii ($20) and my Xbox Wireless Adapter ($10). I know I didn't get what I "deserved" for those items but all those things were just sitting around, not getting used. And for the record, a Wii from GS costs about $60, so think about that profit margin.

They actually rejected quite a bit of my stuff. They don't take PS2 games, Wii Fit Boards, and also they don't take in Gamecube controllers for some reason. I figured with the release of the SSBU GC adapter that they'd welcome the controllers back, but apparently they haven't because GC stuff still falls under the "it's too old" banner.

Sounds like I'm better off waiting for a special deal on trade-ins. I doubt any of the games I'm ready to let go of are worth more than 50 cents. Not even worth the gas money.