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Jun 4th, 2015 at 09:04:46 - Fallout New Vegas (PC) |
I will update this more than once, unlike Fallout 3. I'm 4 hours in. Impressions so far are summed up by "this is an improvement."
The first thing I notice is that the NPCs are more unique and there are less "filler" NPCs, that is, NPCs who have all the same dialogue options as the other NPCs. Most of them have something interesting to tell you, some problem, some other way to interact and learn more about them or the world. For example, I've already fixed a woman's radio (I received Fame with her faction), repaired a man's robot (it is now my companion), rallied a whole town around protecting a man against slavers (but he died in the fighting, and I got Fame with the town), and reprogrammed a robot to serve as sheriff (which was funny). Like, I've had more meaningful interactions with NPCs in this game in 4 hours than I did in 20 with Fallout 3. The writing is so much better.
The world is also more diverse. It's still The Wasteland, but there is more to see. After 4 hours of Fallout 3, I had seen the inside of a vault, Megaton, and a whole lot of ruined buildings. After 4 hours of New Vegas, I've seen several towns, each with great little stories about them. One has a freakin roller coaster! It's a casino town, so it makes sense. Another one had recently been annihilated by The Legion, who were quite brutal in their tactics of "cleansing" it. I've encountered some New California Republic troops trying to take back a town taken previously by some other group of slavers. There is so much more going on. Also, unless there are multiple world maps, the world map is much smaller. This is a good thing because it eliminates such wide expanses of absolutely nothing featured in Fallout 3.
There are plenty of differences. The first I thought was a bug and I had to look it up. You get a perk every 2 levels instead of every level, yet there are like twice as many perks. I guess this makes them more valuable and makes you think about your character build more. I was pretty much an unstoppable badass by the end of Fallout 3, although I don't feel at all fragile yet in New Vegas. I did build my character differently. My Fallout 3 character spread his SPECIAL points evenly. Now, I maxed out Strength, Perception, Intelligence, and put a lot into Agility and Endurance. Luck and Speech are at 1! I am unlucky and a poor communicator, haha.
In Fallout 3, I started by making a thief-type character, with high sneaking, lockpicking, and...something. I wound up using laser weapons and, yeah, stealing a lot. I swore I would put less emphasis on taking items in New Vegas, so I only skilled my lockpicking up to 25. My science is 50, because often times you can hack a computer to open locks, and because science is useful for working with robots. It's already gained me a companion, E-DE. Oddly, my carrying capacity is now about twice what it was at the end of Fallout 3 since I have such strength plus a companion.
It's good I have more carrying capacity because there is even more crap to pick up in this game. I'm not even attempting to make money. My barter skill is 5. But there is a new "survival" skill that lets you cook food and combine ingredients over campfires, as well as deconstruct and build weapon ammo, of which there are many new types (hollow point, etc.). There are also weapon modifications, so you can scope or silence guns, for example. Neat. I foresee getting some weapon mods, but I don't foresee getting into crafting. So far it is a pointless system for me.
Finally, all the DLC came preloaded, so I think I have some more advanced weaponry than I normally would. Woops! There are also about 4 radio signals and map markers for DLC, one of which I am right next to and I guess I will explore. It is some sci-fi drive-in movie I'm supposed to check out.
So yeah, this is looking bright. I've been much more immersed in the world and less distracted by carrying capacity and micromanaging inventory.
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May 31st, 2015 at 11:35:07 - Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (PS2) |
I am on the final episode, #13~! Yesterday, I started on episode 12. The first stage has two +50%XP geopanels, so I used that stage to level all my main characters up to between 40-50. Enemies were in the low 50s. Now, by the beginning of episode 13, enemies are in the high 50s, with usually a couple per stage at 60, and in the last stage, the two minibosses were level 70. Plus, one was immune to physical attacks, yikes! He relentlessly attacked my mage and killed him, and the only other magic attacker I had out was my rune knight. So I kept casting giga fire on the miniboss, who would nearly kill the rune knight every attack he got, and keeping my main healer behind him to heal him to full every turn. The miniboss eventually one-shotted my healer, but by that point I had switched out a physical attack character for my druid, who helped the rune knight to finish off the miniboss. It was pretty intense.
My main characters are currently all about level 45-55. I may want to go back to the beginning of episode 12 and grab a few more easy levels because I'm not sure how difficult the beginning of episode 13 will be. I'll try it and see, because 12 was easy after leveling.
But definitely before I start the final episode, I will go to the Senate and boost some characters' movement. The Senate has only about a 35% approval rating to give a character +1 movement, so I usually have to bribe them with almost a whole inventory's worth of items. I managed to successfully win them over to boost a few characters a while back, and the +1 movement is so incredibly useful that I want to get it on everyone. That reduces the need to equip shoes, and I can put something more defensive in their place...or keep the shoes and have even more movement. I haven't increased anyone's counterattack, mostly because enemies rarely counter me more than once anyway. The other cool Senate options that have popped up are to open the Cave of Ordeals (some extra dungeon?), a Prism Rangers storyline (which I really want to see), to battle an Overlord (is it Laharl?!), and to become a Senator (which surprisingly has about a 45% approval rating, and I assume lets you vote yes on bills). I will probably try to unlock all those things to see what they do. I sort of doubt I'll go through the Cave of Ordeals, because if I know Disgaea, it is like a 100-stage dungeon for powerleveling and getting ultimate weapons or something.
Anyway, I'm knocking on Zenon's castle door and just defeated his lieutenants (who have a secret for Adell). Onward to defeat (fake?) Zenon!
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May 28th, 2015 at 11:59:43 - Fallout 3 (PC) |
So...two hours later and I beat the game. Kinda came out of nowhere. I wonder how long this game is if you just go through the main story? I bet it's like 20 or 25 hours. I really wanted to like this more! I read about the DLCs and decided not to bother with any of them, in large part because I have to download and install through Windows Live (die, Windows Live, die!), and in large part because I have New Vegas, which will be better than any of the DLC.
After knowing what disappointed me about Fallout 3, I plan on playing New Vegas a bit differently. I will not loot everything in sight. I will not try to get a lot of money. I will resist the temptation to talk to all the NPCs and search all the things. I will just go through the main quest and not get too distracted (unless I see something awesome).
I really hope I like New Vegas better...I hope there is more interesting narrative. I hope the environment is more colorful. Las Vegas should be. I hope the NPCs are not as dull and similar. Crossing my fingers...but first, I'll play another game or two. Maybe I need to watch Mad Max again to pump me up for New Vegas.
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May 28th, 2015 at 07:58:15 - Fallout 3 (PC) |
I should have written something about this a while ago, but I kept not feeling like writing. I am really surprised at how lukewarm I feel toward this game! I've been looking forward to playing it forever. Since August 2013, I haven't been able to play anything very visually demanding because I lost access to my gaming rig at work, but I just bought a new laptop, so I can now play things my old laptop couldn't handle (basically anything AAA after 2009 or so, including Fallout 3). So it's been...years...that I've wanted to play this. Maybe all the waiting raised my expectations to the moon and they couldn't possibly have been met. Or maybe Fallout 3 has just been surpassed by other open-world RPGs that I have played since, or just other games in general that I've played since this now-7-year-old game was released.
35 hours I've pumped into this game. It feels so long, in a bad way, dragging. I've identified several reasons: (1) the urge to loot things; (2) there is so much space and places to explore; (3) NPCs are dull; (4) enemies are almost all the same.
(1) There is too much crap scattered around. I am constantly looking for valuable items to pick up and sell. I am having horrible flashbacks to Bioshock Infinite. Last night though I realized that I don't need that much money anymore, so I should probably stop pixel hunting for cigarette packs and whatnot. I've boosted my lockpicking to 100, so I can pick any lock. My science is over 75, so I can hack all but the most difficult terminals. My sneak is at 60 or 70, and so I'm an adept thief too. Early in the game, I stole everything I saw. Then I figured out that Karma was being affected (although I still don't know exactly what the point of Karma is), so I stopped. So far, I've been able to recruit a paladin because of my good Karma, and as far as I know, that's the only thing in 35 hours that Karma has affected.
Anyway, why do I feel the need to loot things? It's making me bored! Well, I still need money to buy things every now and then. But wait. I have plenty to buy any schematics I come across (a grand total of 4 so far), and I've bought everything for my house in Megaton. My repair skill is up around 50, and I have plenty to repair my guns. What do I need money for?
(2) Although I appreciate the Wasteland's aesthetic, good lord, it is a boring place to wander through. What's that?! Oh, a crumbling building. And look, there are a couple mutants or raiders inside and I can get a few pieces of ammo and food. What's that?! Oh, a metro station. And look, there are roaches and ghouls, and absolutely nothing else of interest! Repeat x 1000. Drab, drab, drab. I've stumbled on to only a few cool things. Last night (I keep talking about last night because I felt I was reaching a zenith of boredom) I wondered why I was taking side quests and poking around outside the main quest at all. Except for the research for the Wasteland Survival Guide. That quest was amazing. I should probably just start following the main quest around. It, at least, is providing some excitement. I'm currently on the way to Vault...106? The one that's through the Little Lamplight, which, by the way, sounds like a cool idea (as a lot of these places do), but is the same boring town as all the rest. Instead of adults, it's kids, so I guess it's meant to be cute or something, but I found Little Lamplight disappointing. Megaton was my favorite, and pretty much every other place has been void of personality. I have found a couple things (very low relative to time spent!), such as Tenpenny Tower. I thought that was pretty neat, except I couldn't figure out how to get the door to the underground open and I ended up just shooting the ghouls in frustration. I was going to try and move them into the tower.
(3) The NPCs are lifeless too. I appreciate the voice acting, my favorite part. But wow, they just wander around aimlessly, get stuck on things, hold the odd conversation with one another, and basically are not fun to interact with. If you go in any town, 9/10 of the NPCs say practically the exact same thing, in slightly different words. On the plus side, that really hammers home plot points and environmental details, but on the down side, if you talk to all the NPCs, it's equivalent to listening to a loop track. But I don't want to not talk to NPCs because I keep thinking one will offer me something neat to do, which has so rarely happened. 95% of NPCs are just information providers. 5% actually create an interesting situation. I really don't like this.
(4) This is one of the biggest letdowns. I really like the combat, but enemies are all the same! If it's humanoid, it's either going to stay far away and snipe, walk sorta close with an assault rifle or pistol, or charge with a melee weapon. I think all the creatures charge, except the gross-looking spider things that shoot acid. It is so easy to deal with enemies, as long as they aren't just super strong. The only thing I have had any sort of problem with in recent memory is when (annoyingly) I load out of a metro tunnel or something and there are 3 Talon mercs standing right in front of me with a contract to kill me. Oh, and I did fight something called a deathclaw (?), which was beastly, but it only took down 1/2 my life and I have about 100 pieces of food, so that doesn't matter.
To continue the list of crappy things, the keyboard controls sort of suck. They are limited. There is no quick access for anything. I can't assign weapons to hotkeys at all. Why? There is no button for the map. Why can't "M" just open the map? I am sick of navigating through the PipBoy for every little thing. Why can't I just push "Q" to open my quests? I'm sure there is a mod for this.
I thought radiation would matter more too. I was thinking of Stalker, where it was a very real danger, or Metro 2033, where you need clean air. But Stalker and Metro this is not. Radiation, at worst, gives -3 points to attributes, chosen randomly. Not a big deal at all. I spent half the game with severe radiation poisoning and it didn't slow me down one bit. Now I have an infirmary in my Megaton house, so I can just fast travel back there and get rid of my radiation for free. It is not a threat whatsoever. I wish it was!
I'll stop ranting. There are things I enjoy, obviously, or I wouldn't still be playing. I'm drawn on by the hope of finding cool stuff in the world. And I do find enough diversions and secrets and odd characters to keep me going, although the down time can be long. The main plot line has me interested, and I was especially surprised by Dr. Braun's simulation in Vault 112 (?). That was really awesome. I also am in love with VATS. The combat is pretty fun, if easy, especially when you go into VATS and blow an enemy apart in slow motion. I just unlocked the Mysterious Stranger perk, where sometimes this "mysterious stranger" will come to your aid in VATS and drastically improve aim or something. I dunno, I haven't had it happen yet! One of my favorite perks that I unlocked is the one where your enemies explode in a gory mess sometimes. It's so fun watching them in slow motion, their limbs coming off, them disintegrating into a pile of ash. I'm a big fan of the leveling, the perks, the skills, the weapons...a lot of the core mechanics and character elements are a win.
Actually, do you know why I started playing this last week? Because I went to see Mad Max and I said, "I need more wasteland. It is time for Fallout." Perhaps I want Fallout to be as crazy as Mad Max, which isn't happening. Ah well. I am about to settle in for another couple hours today, then I've got some work to keep me occupied for a while. Hopefully I can make some progress.
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