[Games with happy endings?]

19 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I bet btw that the ending of Dragon Age II drove you crazy, unless you happened to agree with Anders' decision.

Anders acted crazy through the entire game, there were memes created about him, it was so bad.

[Most rewarding video game romances?]

Max Payne and Mona Sax, in Max Payne II

The Inquisitor and Cassandra Dragon Age Inquisition

Shepard and Miranda Mass Effect 2 - 3 - Citadel DLC

Juno Eclipse and Starkiller Force Unleashed

[Series where you never played the oldest installments]

Metal Gear Solid: Only ever played MGS:V (and hated that game)

Wing Commander: Only played IV and V, wanted to play III as well but never could get my hand on it at the time

Red Dead Redemption: Only played RDR2, and abandoned it a few hours in, a very boring game with typical unlikeable rockstar characters

Fallout: Ok, this is a stretch, because I did technically play fallout 1 and 2, but never liked them, and thus never got far into either. 

Mercenaries: Mercenaries II is one of my favorite games, but I never even saw the first

Elder Scrolls: I only really played IV and up. Morrowind I tried but didn't like it when it released, tried again after oblivion and turns out I still didn't like it

Assassin's Creed: Only really got into Odyssey and Valhalla, tried the first when that came out but didn't like it at all. Also tried Origins after Odyssey but couldn't enjoy it as it was two steps back from Odyssey.

 

 

 

[Do you keep autosave on or turn it off?]

It's a convenient feature, even if the game saves at inconvenient moments, turning it off won't make it better. Unless the game is so badly designed that there is only one save slot shared by manual and autosave, then I'd turn it off.

I actually had problems when I played older games recently that had no autosave, and I often forgot that I needed to manually save even when at the start of a new level.

[Games with happy endings?]

13 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I felt the structure of this story was parallel to that of Spec Ops: The Line, which also makes no sense until you get to the end and find out what the player character has really been up to. And in that story, Walker also didn't know. Both of these characters were soldiers with PTSD, but their memory suppression happened via different means.

Yeah many people rave about spec ops the line, I've tried it once and concluded after about 10 minutes that it's definitely not for me. I don't even remember why I Abandoned it, but I did nonetheless.

[Petition to finish games]

"Finish" yeah, there are more shades to that word in development than you can imagine. When is a game really finished?

There is no clear point when you can say "Finished", but there has to be a point where the developers draw a line.

It's never possible to have all features conceived by the developers in a game. There is always cut content, unrealized ideas.
There must be, ideas change, superseded, become incompatible with other features, or turn out to be bores.

So there is no truly finishing a game, or if you insist you get something like star citizen, that after 8 years and 350 million dollars still doesn't resemble a fully featured game.

[Games with happy endings?]

9 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

You have a lot of control in BioShock though, and can completely alter the ending of the game (and you can win).

With BioShock Infinite, I actually guessed at the "twist" the first time Comstock talked to Booker. And if not for the twist, the entire game wouldn't make a lot of sense, being as there would be no other explanation for why Columbia is Booker's own personal hell that is utterly specific to his life story. The journey didn't feel pointless to me at all, but a battle through that hell for redemption.

That is exactly my point about Bioshock Infinite: The story doesn't make any sense without the twist, because it is completely subservient to it. The plot twist is not the saviour of the story, it's the root cause of all of its problems. The game feeds you nonsense for 10 hours then at the end gives you a pill for it. I won't thank them for that, damn them to hell and their game.

And with Bioshock the player character should know about the twist from the very beginning of the game. I hate it when games keep you in the dark about things that are known to the player character. It's a very cheap plot device, one I do not appreciate one bit.

[NPCs you hate the most]

14 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

Wow, this did not happen to me. And I hate the Chantry. Do you recall what happened?

I didn't remember exactly it was a long time ago, but I looked it up. If you corrupt the urn of sacred ashes with either Leilana or Wynne in the team, they'll attack you. I must have done that, but I didn't have Wynne with me, just Leilana.

[Games with happy endings?]

22 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

Example?

Examples include

With spoilers in small:

Bioshock - The player character must've known that he is being mind controlled, yet this is kept from the player to the very end, hence all your efforts are pointless

Bioshock Infinite - Same again, Comstock and Booker being the same person is kept from the player for the sake of a cheap twist reveal at the end. again rendering the whole journey pointless

FarCry 5 - You have literally one task to get joseph seed, yet in the end only he survives, not even just survives, but gets the better of you

Max Payne3 - You literally fail in all your tasks in this game, everyone you tried to protect dies, and in the end "you are not making any difference" direct quote from the game

CyberPunk 2077 - You cannot win, you work your ass off in the game to save your character's life, but you can't, in all variations of the ending you die slowly, quickly, painlessly, or painfully, but die nonetheless. It's insulting, and the game even rubs it in your face that you don't deserve a happy ending.

 

 

 

 

[NPCs you hate the most]

Just now, StaceyPowers said:

I adore Leliana =D Somehow I managed to never meet Fenris in DA II. I totally missed him. So weird.

Leilana actually attacked me in DA:O over some religious nonsense, I had no choice but to defend myself.

[Games with happy endings?]

Tragic ending is one thing, but I take issue with endings that reveal all your efforts through the entire game as pointless.

I literally can't name any game from recent times that has a completely flawless happy ending. There is always some tragedy involved. And older games I don't remember well enough if they had a truly happy ending or not.

[NPCs you hate the most]

you know, that guy (or gal) who you literally want to pump full of lead or hack to pieces with your sword. Whether the game developers intended you to hate them or not, but you can't stand them anyway for their foolishness, clumsiness, or who simply annoy you.

I'll start from recent games and wander backwards in time until I loose track.

• Johnny Silverhand - Cyberpunk 2077
• Sigurd - Assassin't Creed Valhalla
• Every squad member - Star Wars Squadrons
• Tommy - The Last of Us II
• Every squad member- XCOM Chimera Squad
• Jonah - Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Joseph - Far Cry 5
• Leilana- Dragon Age Origins
• Fenris - Dragon Age II

 

[Do you love or hate battle royale, and why?]

It's just a pretentious name for last man standing deathmatch. I hate the name more than the gameplay it refers to itself.

I myself prefer classical deatmatch where only frags matter.

[First game you remember playing]

5 hours ago, killamch89 said:

When did the C64 come out and who made it?

Well you could've just googled it if you wanted to know 😄

Anyway the Commodore 64 was released in 1982, and surprise surprise was made by the commodore company, aka commodore business machines

[First game you remember playing]

Either Wizards of Wor or Le-Mans on C64, I don't know which was first. I don't actually remember playing them, but I remember seeing myself on a video of me playing when I was around 6.

[Share pictures of your characters?]

I absolutely love good character creators, I can spend an hour easily with some games character creation screen.

Here are a few characters from my spotty past:

Jack Shepard my OG character from Mass Effect, the first one I took on a 3 game journey.

Then here is the biggest renegade of the galaxy: Long Shepard, I created this character as a joke, but ended up being one of my deepest playthroughs of all 3 games.

And last but not least still from mass effect

And to remain in the same franchise, my Andromeda Character, I really like how she turned out, when everyone was claiming the character generator in ME:A that it was crap and you can only do goofy looking characters with it.

And here is my favorite character from my favorite Dragon Age game:

There was some modding involved to make her look muscular, this wasn't a standard feature of the game. 

And here is my inquisitor from DA:I in his pajamas, I so hated that outfit.

And for something more recent, V from Cyberpunk 2077

 

 

[Crushes on video game characters]

All the freaking time. OK, maybe not all the time, but more often than most people. And I'm not ashamed for it, to me this is a testament to well written characters. If my subconscious can't tell that they are fictional.

The first time I remember this happening was with Mona Sax, from Max Payne 2.

I know she was also in the first game, but wasn't as developed as a character there.

Then there was Anna Grimsdottir from the Splinter Cell series.

I know, minor character, but still something about the way she was teasing Sam. I didn't like her makeover in Conviction though.

Next Madison Paige from Heavy Rain

This one is a weird one. Because I was actually dating a girl at the time who had the same interests as Madison (motorcycles and photography), and even looked a bit like her.

And, then there was Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect 2 / 3

I know she is not the most popular LI In the series, but to me her romance story was the most fulfilling in the game. And her character goes through the most development over the series, the rest doesn't really change.

And finally after a long hiatus it happened again, with Abby from The Last of Us 2

That's why the end of the game literally crushed me.

[Hello there!]

How do you know it's great to be here? You barely entered! 😄

[Should cheaters be banned for life?]

50 minutes ago, Patrik said:

i meant cheating in a normal game, not competition mate :P, of course cheating during competition should make that player so far from participating in that certain game

What do you mean normal game? Cheating in a coop game? All pvp games are inherently competitive, just because there is no prize money it's still a competition. And getting caught red handed in it, no matter the event should be a ban. And not even from that single game they were caught cheating in, but all games, ever released, and to be released. Harsh? Yes. But F. cheaters.

[Cyberpunk 2077 Save Data Could Be Corrupted If File Size Is Too Large]

I'm enjoying the game, despite the bugs. On my second playthrough right now and experiencing almost no bugs on this one.

[Do you buy your Steam Keys from other marketplaces?]

I haven't purchased anything on steam since they ended flash sales and daily deals.  Regular steam prices are outrageous compared to retail and 3rd party key sellers.

The typical 6-12 months old game will still be listed as €59.99 on steam, sometimes discounted to €41.99, while 3rd parties usually sell the game for 30-35 by this time.

[Racism as a theme in video games]

20 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

You sure about that?

Are you sure that's not projection?

Say if in both cases you were wearing a red shirt would then the game say that, people in red shirts are thieves?  Of course not.

[Star Citizen passes $340 million in crowdfunding]

All that money down the drain.

It is in a perpetual state of pre-alpha. And never will move forward until they stop the feature creep, but it's the feature creep that brings in new money. So they entered a cycle that cannot be broken, and is slowly destined to fail. The sad part is that the only loosers in this are the gamers who will never get a complete game they signed up for.  Whether it is Star Citizen, or Squadron 42, you know the game they actually promised in 2012 but forgot about by 2013.

[Most motivating rewards in games]

The best reward is a well written story. I don't need carrots to finish games. All I wish for is that the game properly acknowledges your deeds with a proper epilogue. Very few games get this right. Most end abruptly without any closure.

As for optional quest rewards, the best motivator is a  cool looking outfit. And that is why the popular opinion "cosmetic only microtransactions are fine" is bullshit. Getting better and more cool looking armor pieces is  a core mechanic of every adventure game. Taking that aspect away makes the game worse. And I'll never pay for any in-game item with real money ever. And even if I did, buying something vs getting it as a reward for a quest is not the same.

[Would you buy a scalped console?]

I'd not buy scalped anything. Scalpers are scum, worse than thieves in my opinion. Thieves are usually born of desperation. Scalping however is a business decision. They just decide to give zero damns about everyone else. That's why I laugh when I see people blame evil corporations. Many individuals would behave the same or worse as those corporations given the opportunity, and scalpers prove that.