Kenogu Labz

PvP. Given that was a very large focus in the original, and will continue to be so in this, that's where a large part of the continued play value will come from. Yeah, I'd agree it's not the same feel as GW1, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And while the classes may see similar, I do still see a lot of uniqueness in each, mostly in how they handle the use of their skills. I noticed that each class has one or two core mechanic that's shared with only a couple other classes, if any. The Mantras used by the Mesmer, the Marks of Necromancers, the Conjures of Elementalists, etc. If anything, they seem to rely on different mechanics for each class, instead of vastly different effects. A lot of this is likely for simplicity's sake, since it's easier to define and learn a standard set of conditions than to need to explain how each individual skill works. It does mean that, indeed, each class is going to be applying similar effects. However, I think that's also something they're trying to mitigate somewhat through the combo system, where it pays to each be filling a different role. Just because the roles aren't set doesn't mean each player won't adapt their role to fit their style of play. That's my take on it, anyway. No, it's not the savior of MMOs, but it is leaps and bounds forward in many areas that, until now, have been simply considered the norm by hundreds of MMOs, both Korean and American. Whether it fills its role as a proper successor to GW1 is yet to be seen, but I'm certainly seeing a lot of the foundation shining through.

I won't be able to pick up the game, most likely, but boy am I digging the soundtrack! Great blend of moods, strong hooks, and some great violin from Jeff on those collab tracks. Was 'Coccoon Altitude' the WIP you were working on in that live stream awhile ago? It also sounds similar to 'Photosynthesis' from Fittest, so I may just be making connections in odd places, heh.

The problem wasn't just the ending, though. The ending is a symptom of the fact that the final results of all your decisions were reduced to seeing certain people on Earth and/or having more numbers in your readiness tally. Numbers. Didn't they cover the 'calculus of war' topic in conversations between Shepard and Garrus? We already know that we're dealing with sheer numbers when we're building an army. But what's missing is the direct personal consequences of those decisions. It's the relations to the characters that dropped off the end, and that's what is the most disappointing, even more so than vague explanation. We want to see our decision to save the Rachni Queen - not once, but twice! - pay off in a tangible way. We want to know whether the Krogan can truly get past an age-old grudge and start moving forward, or if Shepard's actions pushed them past the point of redeemability. What happened to the Batarians? Do they simply collapse into extinction, or do they end up with a second chance? Nothing people haven't noted before, but I still don't think the ending is the issue as much as people make it out to be. Yes, it's sloppy and does not properly end the story as a narrative should, but that's just part of the bigger problem.

Yes. It's the built-in level editor, along with Steam Workshop connectivity for simple publishing and playing.

I think it ties into Portal 2's "Perpetual Testing Initiative". It sounds like the user-made tests send test subjects to a parallel universe, so it wouldn't be surprising if Cave somehow managed to buy Black Mesa in one of those parallel instances. It's awesome to have more Cave quotes to brandish, though!

Sooo, I recently read Ender's Game for the first time, and the connection between the Rachni and the 'Buggers' became pretty obvious. The hive-mind mentality of the Rachni isn't the same as the Hive Queen's biological extensions, but certainly ends up being very similar in practice. The lone remaining queens, the races' ability to communicate instantly (via ansible or otherwise); hey, you could even say that the Rachni Queen has her own... Speakers in the Dead.

a gigant hit me and im in the air and i cant get back down hlp plzzzzzz!!!!! The Elder Scrolls always felt like they'd be really fun as co-op games - imagine semi-competent followers, but better. But an MMO? Ugh. Not sure I can see that working at all. Wandering the wilderness would turn into mad dashes to get the resources you can before everyone else takes them all. Storming dungeons? Gotta wait for everyone to respawn. That guy you thought was a vampire and killed? Don't worry, he'll be alive in a few minutes, you didn't do any lasting harm. The paradigm shift just doesn't match.

That was classic. They did a great job of setting up future one-liners and paying them off at unexpected times.

I'm gonna dump a few thoughts here, since I've started playing: Loading times are some of the shortest I've seen. I can't remember a load time of longer than a second, and that's a huge boost from ME2's mediocre performance. What is with the control scheme? That one-button-does-all really doesn't belong. I understand that was probably necessary for console controls, but for PC, it really doesn't cut it. It's one of my primary frustrations right now, as it makes it very, very difficult to maneuver in even simple combat. Cornered by a Brute? "Sorry, can't jump over the ledge behind you. We'll assume you were trying to roll instead... oh, that's too bad, the Brute's in the way. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to try again." Enemy squad tactics are downright ruthless. I'm playing hardcore, and I may just have to tone it down a bit, 'cuz the sheer numbers of the enemy is sometimes pretty overwhelming for a three-man squad. What happened to all the interaction, the things to find in corners of the Citadel, the fantastic humour from ME2? I understand the darker tone doesn't leave much room for humor, but even then, I expect to be able to talk to more people or read more things than those that are directly related to me and the missions I'm on. It feels like they spent so much time wrapping up the writing from the previous games that they missed the opportunity to continue world-building and adding things to be discovered in this one. I can't even talk to EDI, which makes me fairly disappointed. Hoping some of these show up as the game continues. What happened to the hacking minigames? I really liked those! Still fun, but at the same time it feels like there's something... missing. And I can't quite pick out what it is yet. EDIT: Hah, never mind about EDI! Some humor is definitely coming through, now that I'm past the first few missions. And I guess they decided to make a lot of the 'discoverable' points passive instead of active.

You sell out when you run out of all possible valid keys accepted by your key generation algorithm. Sounded like they planned to have some more up soon, though.

[...] Well, at least these suggestions are from scenes placed in Africa...

Correct, sorry. Wrong terminology.

The upcoming beta weekend (Friday 27th - Sunday 29th) is open to any and all who have pre-purchased the game. They just sent out instructions for client downloads, but if you pre-purchased, you'd have time to jump in. All the news concerning this has been overwhelmingly positive. They had a lot of basic design principles that helped form the game into an MMO that brings out spontaneous group play, and drops of many of the major issues found in other MMOs. Can't necessarily attest to how good it is, seeing as I haven't played it, but a quick search for videos and articles should help give you a good picture of how it plays, and what makes it unique. The official site has a lot of articles as well: that should help see what some of their major goals are, and whet your palate for more.

ArenaNet posted a list of available worlds. We could try coordinating which world we all enter, since it seems to attach an entire account to one world. It'll save on having to transfer characters if we didn't coordinate. Any preferences?

Naw, it's a good romp. A little oddball and rough around the edges sometimes, but still good.

Yeah. Still can't agree with Aerith's theme as being up on that list very high, but I'd bet it's the only one you could get a solid number of votes for, thanks to the broad fanbase.

Been using an old Zune for a few years. Things's built like a brick, even if the control scheme isn't the best. Certainly reliable, though. The software's okay for the most part, and tends to be less intrusive than iTunes. Too bad the Zune's fading out.

Makes sense. I guess a tangential question would be: Is there actually a genre that chiptunes alone can fill?

Personally, I'd argue it is indeed a genre, though one that is certainly strongly coupled with a specific production style. My reasoning is that, like any other genre, it is closely related to a specific set of instruments, and relies on compositional elements that are unique to itself. Using the FX albums as an example, where else do you find such meticulous and rapid-fire runs of notes? Sure, Jake based it off of thrash metal, but thanks to its placement within the chiptune genre, the composition has shifted to use runs that I suspect are tighter than many metal songs out there. (But don't quote me on that, haha...) And that's just one example. There are many techniques chiptunes use which really have become unique to that genre, perhaps because attempts to mimic that style with higher-level instruments lose a lot of the precision that raw waveforms have, or turn the composition muddy. So I guess my argument boils down to this: Chiptunes have the capacity to do things other genres either can not or would not benefit from doing.

Does dropping the resolution help any? Could be a cache-stomping type of issue.

The basic problem people have with on-disc DLC: The content is already on the disc, so why do the consumers still get charged extra to be able to use it? This follows the line of thought that DLC should be used for post-release expansion only. If the content is available at release, there should be no reason to withhold it. EDIT: Ninja'd by Stevo! DOUBLE EDIT: And Fishy!!

Pretty much the same here. I went in without guides, and boy did that take me by surprise. And, quite honestly, it was way better that way, and made that part all-the-more potent.

Dr. Bleck, you can help me! For the first time in my life, I feel like there's hope