Defiant wrote:
1. While admittedly it was probably good for it's time, I'm annoyed by the interface (eg, having to press a button to reveal what buttons do, rather than just give the name when your mouse is over them) - and its not as if I haven't been fine with the interfaces of other games in the era. Couldn't they improve the interface for the enhanced edition? (or was this one improved?)
I haven't played BG2 EE, but I've played IWD EE. I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm guessing the lack of tooltips. If so, they're there, but there is a huge delay before they pop up. If you go into the options, you can change the delay. It has been that way with the Infinity Engine since the beginning.
When I first started I had to look them up initially. But it didn't take long to learn what they are. The only thing that still gets me is moving the map. WASD doesn't work. You have to use the actual arrow keys. So I tend to open one of my spell books by mistake (I think it's the W key).
Combat gets better. Especially once you add in some spell casting. Right now I have 4 spell casters. My fighters are mostly there to keep the enemies at bay.
But it can definitely be tough to get going at the beginning. Practically every fight is too hard. And if you talk to everyone, you end up with way too many quests and no idea where to go.
I went with a couple different choices this time for party members, and it's made a huge difference.
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
I actually edited some of the NPC party members last time I played. I didn't up their power in any way, but I did give them a little more focus. Someone at Black Isle had a serious love for multi-classing characters, which was a pain in the ass in 2nd edition AD&D. It also didn't help that there wasn't a
Spoiler:
decent thief
available for much of the game. I believe I edited Imoen back into that role, which was where she had been in BG1.
Blackhawk wrote:I actually edited some of the NPC party members last time I played. I didn't up their power in any way, but I did give them a little more focus. Someone at Black Isle had a serious love for multi-classing characters, which was a pain in the ass in 2nd edition AD&D. It also didn't help that there wasn't a
Spoiler:
decent thief
available for much of the game. I believe I edited Imoen back into that role, which was where she had been in BG1.
Actually, you should take another look at Jan. Sure he's also a multi-classed character, but his thieving skills are more than adequate. As long as you aren't worried about stealthing/backstabbing/trapping. Which I'm not. He's a caster that can pick locks, find traps, disarm traps, and, if I give him a bit of a boost, do some pick pocketing.
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
Blackhawk wrote:I actually edited some of the NPC party members last time I played. I didn't up their power in any way, but I did give them a little more focus. Someone at Black Isle had a serious love for multi-classing characters, which was a pain in the ass in 2nd edition AD&D. It also didn't help that there wasn't a
Spoiler:
decent thief
available for much of the game. I believe I edited Imoen back into that role, which was where she had been in BG1.
Actually, you should take another look at Jan. Sure he's also a multi-classed character, but his thieving skills are more than adequate. As long as you aren't worried about stealthing/backstabbing/trapping. Which I'm not. He's a caster that can pick locks, find traps, disarm traps, and, if I give him a bit of a boost, do some pick pocketing.
Yeah, unless the PC is a thief, it's pretty much Jan Jansen or nothing for thieving. Imoen is out for too much of the game AND isn't that good at thieving anyway, while Nalia is just awful as a thief (who the hell dual classes out at level 4?) Plus, he brings some much-needed turnip-related levity to the whole thing.
Edit:
It just occurred to me that Yoshimo is a pure-class thief. But... y'know.
Jan just didn't fit my party the first time I played. I think he'll probably be coming along the second time. That is if I ever clear my backlog enough to get to it.
Blackhawk wrote: That is if I ever clear my backlog enough to get to it.
I was reading a forum/website recently about thieving points. And the comment was that the max lockpicking and find traps that you need is 100. With the boosts from Jan's gear, and some gear that you can find, and the occasional potion, it's pretty easy to hit those numbers early on. Though early on you don't need the max. I just never found a pure thief to be required.
Of course, I've never really focused on backstabbing or traps. So it may be that I just am terrible at utilizing my thieves appropriately.
On a good note, I made it through two of my battles last night. I did have to redo one when I realized I wasn't going to succeed.
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
YellowKing wrote:I didn't have a lot of gaming time this weekend, but I did pick up Fantasia: Music Evolved (XB1) at Best Buy's "Black Friday" event. With my GCU discount it was $8, so I figured why not.
It's a really great game. Terrific mix of songs - classic rock, modern pop, classical. The Kinect recognition works much better than I expected. The mechanics are neat - when you really get good at it you truly feel like a bad-ass conductor. It's also fairly challenging right off the bat - don't let the Disney trappings fool you, because this certainly isn't a kid's game.
The game so far is also structured really well. It gives you a lengthy tutorial, introducing new concepts slowly before turning you loose into the world. And once there, you have ample motivation to replay songs and unlock new remixes.
It's really too bad titles like this weren't more abundant to really show off what the Kinect is good for, as this is certainly the best Kinect title for the XB1. I played for a couple of hours this weekend and enjoyed every second. Definitely looking forward to playing more tonight.
Got an XB1 for Christmas this year, and this was the first game I plugged in - what a blast! Worth getting the Kinect model thus far.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!
Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
About all I did was some more dinking around in Fallout 4. Oh, and some Smash Brothers with my kids.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
After having to abandon ARMA: Cold War Assault (nee Operation Flashpoint), I fired up the King Arthur RPGRTS. Got the tutorial stuff out of the way. I'd like to maintain some focus on it, as I have all the DLC, which means a total of three campaigns.
A bunch of Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Closing in on my first "completion" of the year.
Some Dead Island. Playing through for the 4th time. Co-op with my best friend.
Some more of the Tabletop Simulator Shadows of Brimstone campaign. Also with my best friend.
And a bit of Sentinels of the Multiverse as filler.
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
I found a program that will auto-roll for character creation on BG and IWD. So I fired up IWD EE and had a blast. The highest I got was a 98. Yes, I left it running overnight.
Just a note that Crashlands is fantastic. I bought it on iOS because it was cheaper, but kind of wishing I had picked up the PC version it's so good.
It basically takes all the survival/crafting elements that are so popular in survival games right now and wraps them in a very polished framework of quests, logically unlocked recipes, and a 'one more turn' sense of progression. It's really hard to put down.
YellowKing wrote:Just a note that Crashlands is fantastic. I bought it on iOS because it was cheaper, but kind of wishing I had picked up the PC version it's so good.
It basically takes all the survival/crafting elements that are so popular in survival games right now and wraps them in a very polished framework of quests, logically unlocked recipes, and a 'one more turn' sense of progression. It's really hard to put down.
I second this! According to my save, I've played for 5hr19m so far. Really enjoying it, it's actually taking away Fallout 4 time, which makes the wife happy!
My 10 year old likes it as well, 6 year old wants to like it but he can't put Agar.io down.
Also, Crashlands devs, Butterscotch Shenanigans, seem to be some cool guys. One of them has been battling cancer during the dev process of this game. They share a lot of their process at the website
"Hi!" by the way! Been gone for a long time, just started lurking again a week ago or so!
I immediately checked out Crashlands on Steam.... I couldn't get past the presentation to see if the game held any interesting content. I really am a graphics snob.
I started a game of XCOM with the Long War mod. I figured it was time I figure out what everyone was talking about. I got through the first month without anything too terrible happening. It looks like it will tide me over until XCOM2 comes out... in 11 days!
Isgrimnur wrote:Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is done. Played some Pinball FX2.
I was eyeing PFX2. Wish they had some older classic tables.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
If you want classic tables, you want Pinball Arcade. Looks like you can only get the season packs on Steam, but on iOS, you can get each table separately or as part of a 2-pack.
I was hoping to be able to play this one on my Xbox, but I'll look into the other platforms as well.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Huh. I'll be dipped. Xbone is what I was aiming for. I shall be looking into this post haste. Thanks Issy!
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
I played Don't Starve Together with Chaosraven last night. Had a blast.
Two players is very different than solo. I need to figure out how to modify the world settings in DST.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
Carbon Unit Designated "Wife" now has DST as well...
...she stayed up until 4 playing
"Where are you off to?"
"I don't know," Snufkin replied.
The door shut again and Snufkin entered his forest, with a hundred miles of silence ahead of him.
Started playing some of the new Lego Avengers. Usual Lego goodness.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
My wife was gone this weekend, leaving me and the 16 year old daughter free to run around and frivolously spend money on video games and Chinese food.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
Rise of the Tomb Raider. I especially enjoy revisiting areas I could not get to earlier due to lack of equipment. And the optional dungeons provide meaningful rewards.
Jaymann wrote:Rise of the Tomb Raider. I especially enjoy revisiting areas I could not get to earlier due to lack of equipment. And the optional dungeons provide meaningful rewards.
I guess I need to move the story forward and then come back to the Geothermal Valley... you need a rebreather to go there... and a wire spool for that. Phooey.