Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey Chibi welcome back! Atm it's a bit of a ghost town here, just me and Kits, who both keep getting sucked away with school requirements.

I can't remember there being a specific game thread on here, so let's assume this is a new and needed addition. biggrin

I'm big on RPGs as well (currently Dragon Age is my favourite, haven't gotten to Inquisition yet though and the second has much to be desired but I love Origins and II has its merits) and on occasion will play a shooter, although in those if I can go melee I often do. I like the L4D franchise and killing floor in particular. Console wise I'm mostly a PC gamer now, ahead of that I was a playstation person and recently my partner bought a used PS3 so we've been playing more console games lately. Currently playing Dungeon Siege III on that, though haven't gotten too far into it though. I like to watch horror games rather than play them though. So currently watching my partner play through Alien Isolation and Dead Space.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a big Sims addict, my casual gamer shame. xd However, still on Sims 2. I just don't feel 3 added very much besides better graphics and that mood system, the latter being something I don't know if I'd like (that seems like something that will greatly interfere with my god complex). If 3 ever goes super cheap on Steam maybe I'll get it, otherwise will probably just skip to 4 when I finish my PhD. Already had to dirty my system up installing Origin so I could play DAII (finally gave up on it ever coming back to Steam as EA is trying to push Origin harder, why does EA have to make/control all my favouites?!?).

Will stop rambling there for now.

Well I highly recommend Dragon Age, but yes I'd definitely wait for it to go on sale as it often does. I bought it when it was on sale as my partner was playing it at the time and he thought I'd like it. I got obsessed and he regretted everything. I got very immersed in the story in the first game and while it's mostly linear I still find I've gotten a lot of replay value out of it playing through different mentalities. I can be very repetitive with things I love. The second one is more of a mess and only on Origin (which isn't as bad as I thought but I really didn't want a second platform with a more limited game selection), my big annoyance with that being all the DLC is bioware points versus actual money. Which means to get all 3 content DLC I'd have to buy more points than I actually need as they are sold in bundles not whatever amount of points you want. And I'd never use them for anything else so haven't bought any DLC (I could use the remainder of the points on a stuff pack but I only ever get stuff packs when they are free - or when it is the Sims). I'm hoping Origin will get rid of the points system eventually as it only seems to be in effect for older games. DA: Origins has a game of the year edition with all the DLC but DAII never made one and with Inquisition out now it seemed unlikely they would which is why I caved and bought it cheap during a summer sale. Another thing that puts me off the DLC though, it means I'll have paid less for the base game than all the DLC as the points do not go on sale. But yea, I still found the game interesting but definitely inferior to the first. Where the first had a great overall story the second did not and was mostly just piddle around in the DA universe, a smaller version of it at that. And I can enjoy a piddle around, that's absolutely fine, but the game does have to have massive points dock for failing on the overall story and basically being the loading screen between Origins and Inquisition. Although one thing I like about the DA games is the companions and the second game did have more interesting companions I think, part of what saved it.

Sorry, I will go on about DA for ever if allowed, will shut it now. xd

I avoid MMORPGs like a plague, initially because of the subscription model (especially when you have to buy the base game) though a lot have moved away from that now, but I just don't find them as immersive. I'd love a really good co-op rpg (something like Elder Scrolls or DA but that I could play with a friend), but games that aren't built for a solo player tend to lack on the story or get too generic and so less immersive. However, I am mostly basing this on limited knowledge about some MMORPGs and watching friends play WoW. Although if Elder Scrolls Online ever gets super cheap I'd maybe give it a go.

L4D and Killing Floor are my favourite shooters, preferring L4D a bit more as it has a bit more objective to it and interesting characters, although KF did add some campaigns (though characters are still personality and nameless though).

I've never owned a handheld, though borrowed a DS twice. Once from a housemate and once from a friend who probably would have let me keep it because I think he had a crush on me but that was awkward so I made sure to give it back. I have a PS2 back in the States still but my partner (living in the UK atm) used to have a PS3 and has a bunch of PS2 and PS3 games so he bought a used, backwards compatible PS3 with birthday money over summer.

I definitely don't agree with the stigma but I do find the jokes fun (so long as they are just jokes) and do really enjoy Honest Game Trailers and Yahtzee's Sim game reviews the most. If you don't watch either of those (Yahtzee is on the Escapist, HGTs is by Smoosh on Youtube) I highly recommend, especially the Sims ones. The one thing I haven't done with the sims is mod it and eventually I want to do that but I got into Sims back when my parents still had dial up and never moved away from the mentality that what is in the package is it. But yea, it'll always be one of my favourite games.

Origin kinda is, at least with DAII. As far as I can tell all the Inquisition DLC is just coming out in the regular store (which leaves the potential for bundles and at the very least sales and paying regular money), so at least it's just the one game. The first game is on Steam though so you can avoid the headache and it's very easy and cheap (when on sale) to get all the DLC bundled in. The one upside I was happy about though, is Dragon Age II the story and what quests are available can be tailored a bit to what happened in the first game (based on your choices in the main game and/or in the DLC Awakening) if you import your character/Origins story into DAII. While I have Origins on Steam and DAII on Origin I can still import characters across, so didn't have to have the games on the same platform to still share content so yea, that's at least one thing Origin either did right or didn't know how to d**k people over on, either way win! I would re-buy DAII if the game and its DLC ever went to Steam (back for the base game, but the reason Steam booted it was this separate DLC store nonsense they aren't even doing anymore) though. Would be worth it to avoid that points store which I will at the very least avoid until I finish my PhD and move back to the US.

Yea WoW swears it will never go free and I'm not going to invest in a subscription model. Maybe I'll give LOTRO a try at some point though if it's free. I definitely hoe ESO will go free-to-play but I'd be happier with just cheaper (so long as no implementing a subscription model). I don't mind paying for a base game but I don't like paying to keep playing. I definitely prefer games that can bundle their DLC and items into a package, it's much more attractive.

Zoey and Ellis are my favourites too! Although I will play as Nick in the second and sometimes Louis in the first, but thus far I've been pretty good at getting my favourites when I play with people. But yea the characters are a lot of what makes it enjoyable even if to some extent you impose your own traits onto them, but there is a nice amount of base there to work with. My partner got me Killing Floor and it's one of the few games that about half my steam friends have so it's a good one when trying to find a common game with a good number of people. It has an Alien mod which is really cool but also really hard if you only have a couple of people. The zombies became different alien stages and this includes face hugger, but if you don't have a teammate shoot a face hugger off you immediately you are doomed as yes you will eventually have a stomach explosion! Horrifying but fun, but yea the fewer people you play with the less likely you will get saved. One of the most frustrating plays was when every single person I was playing with had been impregnated and we were all running around trying to finish off all the aliens before our own timers ran out (we did not), but yea I don't like it as much as L4D but it's a good game. I've heard good things about Fear but never played/watched it. Maybe at some point.

Lol, how to get a DS, find a guy who likes you! Haha, I'd have kept it if he was throwing it away or something but yea, it was also awkward as he was a good friends ex (part of why I wouldn't consider trialing dating, I don't believe in exes as property but she was still in love with him and I do respect waiting for people to at least get over a partner), so yea. No free DS for me but I probably wouldn't get great use out of it anyway. I never had a gameboy or anything as a kid so just not really a handheld person. Though there has been some small temptation in handheld only releases, but not enough to get one. Though again my partner has a PSP I could play with, but I don't.

I would definitely appreciate the mod websites. Whenever you get a chance to get them together I'd be interested, the last week I'd been debating starting playing my Sims again as it's one of the easier games for me to multitask some work with (reading during a load screen or while they are fulfilling an activity as I quite like letting it run in real time) so might be a convenient time.

I do really enjoy Yahtzee and I tend to agree with him a lot, but sometimes when he does very obscure stuff (or stuff I'm not at all interested in) I don't get into the videos as much. Although I do enjoy when he really hates something. Like I love his Sim videos even if I of course don't agree with several points (such as the sexiest ones even if in jest), because outrage and/or mock outrage is entertaining. With rare exception I hate when he loves a game or when I know he'll love a game because if he gets to gushy that gets dull, but yea I really trust his reviews. My partner tried to play his hat game, it did not go well. xd I prefer Honest Movie Trailers to Honest Game Trailers but the game ones can be fun too. But like with Yahtzee there are sometimes games I don't care about but as there's more of an effort to create a narrative it can still sometimes be enjoyable.

DAII used to be on Steam but Steam and EA got into it b/c EA started selling the DLC as exclusive to the Bioware store (with the points system) so Steam booted the game. The first game had a game of the year edition and was bundled so it could stay on Steam. Which really sucks and I kept hoping it would come back but after Inquisition came out I kind of gave up hope. EA is really trying to push Origin now so I doubt it will but if it did come back to Steam (with the DLC) I'd definitely re-buy it (although as currently my Origins game on Steam can still import into my DAII game on Origin I kind of hope I wouldn't even need to re-buy it to link the DLC up with the base game) as I very much prefer Steam. I only caved and got it on Origin as it was massively on sale there. I will cave and get Inquisition eventually I'm sure, but after I finish my doctorate as those games can be a big time suck for me. Definitely get Origins when it goes on sale though, it's well worth it.

Same, maybe WoW will die or change it's mind eventually but subscriptions are for things that constantly provide new services and products, not just for access. It's part of why I never really liked Xbox as so many of the games required Live. Maybe if WoW charged annually what they charged monthly, although even then I still probably wouldn't. I definitely prefer games where you can get everything in game, or the buy only options are cosmetic things like skins and outfits.

Oh man, now that's an alteration they should definitely add! Being able to play as a xenomorph (zombie) after you die. KF definitely has some great mods and goes pretty cheap quite often. It's also a good LAN party game b/c you can play with however many people you want (zombies spawn in proportion to number of players).

And yay, thank you! I think I'll be playing lots of Sims while I get through write up as I need a game I can step back and forth from in busy periods so some interesting mods will definitely be appreciated. biggrin

Yea Steam is definitely leagues ahead of everything else, I mean their approach really seems to be what is friendly for the user whereas every other platform is more about the company's priorities first. EA is one of the worst for that though they adveritse that they are trying to change that but idk, still not familiar enough with Origin and I am playing an older game on it so it's probably not the best example of if they are making changes. Though a good change would be to update things and have the DLC for the older games on their main platform if they want to promote it more now.

I never used to even try mods, but another thing I like about Steam is how easy it makes finding and installing mods. Skyrim has a lot of really good ones if you are into the Elder Scroll games. Very detailed quests, and a mod to make you an actual bard, e.g. able to play the instruments and perform in taverns. I loved the idea of a bard college in the game but like everything else the quests were entirely based on fighting which didn't feel very authentic and bard like.

Glad you found good stuff for your own use then. Of course if my internet is not back up by the weekend I'll have to put off mods another week, wah! xd

Yea that's always a good thing with a company.

Yea after Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls is probably my favourite rpg franchise (I think it's probably the better one but I just found DA more immersive and that is what wins it for me) and Skyrim definitely has some great mods. Although I've mostly just kind of watched my partner play through some (like moonpath to elseweyr, which is amazingly detailed and it's cool to see Khajit life) of the quest ones and have thus far only really used minor main game altering ones like the bard one or the one that makes the dragon bones .5 rather than 15 weight, which was logical but SO annoying early game. The only quest line I've never finished playing through on Skyrim was the Companions, and I still find stand alone quests from time to time but finished Thieves, Mage, Dark Brotherhood as well as the DLC. My favourite is Dawnguard followed by the Dark Brotherhood which I think is really good in Skyrim. I started playing Oblivion again though, as that's the game I never finished most of - finally can now say I've finished the Arena, the thieves guild and almost done with dark brotherhood, though I still have never finished the main quest. I don't know why I can't bring myself to do it, probably b/c I hate timed things and I accidentally found out the ending so it wasn't the drive for story to carry me on at that point (especially as I don't think I like that ending though my partner thinks it's amazing).

I only tried Morrowind once and only for a bit, I found myself feeling very much what Yahtzee felt, that the graphics were just too hard for me to even tell what I was doing. I really am interested in the game though and do want to give it another go someday, to that end pretty curious about this Skywind project and I hope that works out well. I'd love to play the game but not get murdered because I can't tell the difference between a crab and a rock. Also, one of the DLCs (b/c my partner has the goty version) made it really hard to play the way I wanted to in the beginning (as a mage, which is my standard rpg start) b/c of that guy who shows up to murder you every time you sleep or rest. So I'll have to gear myself up to deal with him again if I want to give it another go.

I started with Oblivion because of my partner as he had it, it was around when Skyrim first came out, but at the time he didn't have a comp that could run the game and didn't want to pay as much as a new game cost anyhow. Technically he still probably doesn't have a computer that runs it (though his work laptop might) and plays on mine as I got a much more powerful machine when I started my PhD (primarily motivated by gaming as my thesis doesn't need much more than Word and the ability to open databases). I tried Morrowind last year but got frustrated, but I'm thinking post-PhD when I'm less prone to frustration will be a good time. And I am curious to try Arena and Daggerfall. I knew they were free although that box anthology did look so attractive and was definitely tempted. But not the kind of thing to be buying until I finish the student phase and move onto the job phase, whatever I'm doing with that.

I'm fine with graphics on older games that I've played, like Legacy of Kain was my first major game love - and in a nostalgia way still is - and my partner couldn't tolerate the graphics when I had him try the first game (Blood Omen, my favourite but the only one not on Steam unfortunately) and I think that's why he couldn't get into the game. But I barely see the problem. Similarly Doom is probably one of the first video games I ever played (save for Pong - woo! xd ) back in the early 90s and I am still okay with that. It's just trying to play old games I didn't play that I seem to have an issue with. However I love the world of Elder Scrolls and am interested in the stories of the older games so will try again at some point. May just have to hook the laptop up the a larger screen and see if that helps.

Sucks about losing data, but there is a point where I sometime prefer to start a new game as I'm too removed from the old one (immersion is important to me in rpgs and I sometimes just can't get back into the head-space of an old character, especially one I never got very far with). Hopefully you will get through Morrowind this time, as I'm probably near 10 times of not finishing Oblivion myself I can relate (for the most part it's just been some psychological avoidance of finishing the main quest rather than file corruption or anything). In some ways Oblivion is my favourite game, I mean Skyrim is amazing and I've put so many more hours into it. But I think I don't like the main story in Skyrim enough and that's kind of a problem, similar to Dragon Age II - although in DAII it's because the main story is non-existent, Skyrim's is there and very detailed just not my cup of tea. Back on that whole immersion thing, it makes it harder for me to get into the world. Though I did really get into a lot of the Skyrim DLC (especially Dawnguard) so while I feel I prefer Oblivion b/c I can't say I love Skyrim's main quest, my favourite parts of any of the games are in Skyrim.

And yes, definitely. My username on there is the same as on here, JuokasKurvas (the pic is the Portal 2 beanie with the companion cube on top, about 4 years on Steam and while the picture has changed it has thus far always been Portal based).