Whatcha been playing lately?

[I'm Murrin]

I finished Dishonored on Saturday. Good game, though I wish so many games didn't use the exact same gameplay. (Deus Ex: Human Revolution was pretty much identical just with more weapon options; Batman Arkham Asylum has different combat but the same stealth/gadget stuff.)

[Avatar]

On the other hand, some things are annoying when they're different... In the last 3 long games I've played, doors were opened with the action key, mapped to "E" by default.

In this one, they're opened with the attack button, mapped to "Mouse1."

I'm halfway through, and I'm still pressing "E" to try open the damn doors.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Dishonored took me a little while to adjust for left mouse = right hand, right mouse = left hand.

[Avatar]

Hahaha, it took me a minute to figure out what you meant there. Can't you just re-map them? (Too late now I suppose.)

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Installing Far Cry 3. Hoping for a straight up fps, but I suspect it'll be another action adventure with stealth and rpg elements.

Edit: I thought it was pretty well established that "crouch" in games as the Ctrl key. If you're gonna switch that around, don't ask the player to navigate a stealth mission as the very first bit of gameplay without including any control prompts.

Edit: Blarg. The prompt did show on the second run.

[I'm Murrin]

Enjoying Far Cry 3 so far. Not really playing the plot much, mostly roaming around doing side missions. I also lost a couple of evenings doing nothing but repeatedly lose at in-game poker.

Right now I'm getting a little irritated, though. I've got a nice sniper rifle with silencer and high power scope, but the amount of ammo I can carry for it is tiny, and only place to get more is back at a town. I need to make an ammo pouch, which requires boar skin. There are no boars in the revealed area of the map, so I need to venture into unexplored territory and activate more radio towers so I can find them. But every time I do, I run into a fire fight, run out of ammo, and have to go back to town and start over.

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Go exploring with a different gun?

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I only had the ability to carry two weapons at the time, and I was carrying an assault rifle with the sniper rifle, but the sniper is far, far better for assaulting bases. I get killed more when I'm fighting close, whereas I've cleared entire areas with the sniper rifle. (I also happened to run out of assault rifle rounds after the second or third wave of reinforcements each time.)

Anyway, I went another way, found boars, cleared more outposts, and managed to get the maximum ammo pouch through hunting quests. 30 shots with the sniper, now.

[Avatar]

That's more like it. Interesting RPG sounding elements. How open world is it?

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Very open. You have missions, but can go off and do whatever you like first. The map is revealed in blocks by heading to radio towers and deactivating jammers, various enemy-held outposts are all around that you can convert by killing everyone inside.

Every radio tower you activate allows you to use a couple of new weapons for free, and each outpost you capture has some quests - either hunting or assassination*. The map's also full of loot chests, relics, and other things. You can travel instantly to any outpost, and they all have a store you can buy weapons and ammo at.

Capturing outposts awards skill points, as does just gaining xp, which you use in the usual ways, to improve various things you do. The skills are gated by missions - I've now got every skill I can get, and after a few extra missions still haven't unlocked more.

*Assassination quests are annoying, because you have to go to a camp with several guards, and kill one specific guard using your knife - so if you happen to kill him any other way by mistake while taking out the others, you fail.

[Avatar]

Hmmm, I might try it out. So outposts are permanently converted?

One thing I hated in FC2 was how quickly everybody spawned back after clearing an outpost. In fact, after your description, it sounds a lot better than 2, which claimed to be open world but wasn't really.

(Although the Afrikaans-speaking mercenaries were an impressively detailed touch...what they said even matched the situation they found themselves in, whether it was calling for backup, threatening you, warning each other or whatever. That almost made it worth it.)

--A

[I'm Murrin]

There are some places on the map that don't seem to clear out permanently, mostly places that are going to be used for missions later I think (and yeah, they refill instantly if you die or fast travel). But there are marked outposts that stay converted.

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I think you might have sold me on it, even if it is first person only.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

It's a good game. Except for the damn komodo dragons.

[Avatar]

After gods know how many years of not updating, (actually, I know) I've just done a 12Gb update for Shogun 2. Which promptly broke everything because of my mods.

Still, got it running again so now I feel bound to play it.

I'm also looking at the Fallout 3 GotY edition...apparently it's very similar to FONV.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

The problem, as always, with open world games is that I feel compelled to go out and do everything before progressing with the plot.

I've uncovered most of the north island map at this point. Then I'll have to go back and work through all the treasure, relics, and sidequests I've missed. Then back to the plot. Although I do wonder if I'd be better off completing some missions to unlock more skills - I've got 7 or 8 points unused.

I've got a new favourite weapon - one of the "Signature Weapons", a huge rifle that fires armor-piercing explosive rounds at long range. It's very powerful, and fun (favourite thing: hitting the engine on a car full of reinforcements just as it arrives, blowing up the car and everyone inside), but very, very loud, so attracts a lot of attention. It also, for some reason, shares ammo with the sniper rifle, so I only get 30 shots total between the two guns.

Sniper's good for taking out people when I want to keep a low profile, but this new gun is a one-shot kill without having to line up a headshot.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I'm also looking at the Fallout 3 GotY edition...apparently it's very similar to FONV.

--A

That is the version I got; from what I read the add-ons really help make a much better game than vanilla FO3. I really liked Mothership Zeta and The Pitt, despite the fact that they strip you of all your gear, which I often think is a poor plot device . Point Lookout and Broken Steel were pretty good--Point Lookout captures a "creepy" feel quite well but be aware--some of the weapons are built with extra code that ignores the player's DT but not the DT of people you use them against--that is pure cheese. Still....if you go there early you can pick up some pretty decent weapons to take back with you. Anchorage is not too bad even if it is really linear, but it does allow you to get to the best armor in the game.

[Avatar]

So how does the DLC work for it? Are the add-ons just integrated into the game and happen automatically? Or do you choose to play them separate from the main game?

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I finally finished the story on the north island in Far Cry 3. This game's kinda crazy, it's hard to work out what's meant to be happening or what could be some kind of crazy delusion of the character. Half of it barely makes logical sense, but everyone acts like it's normal.

[Major Isoor]

(Geez, it's been a while since I've been here! And to think I've basically been reading TCoTC this whole time too, so it seems a touch strange that I've forgotten! )

So how does the DLC work for it? Are the add-ons just integrated into the game and happen automatically? Or do you choose to play them separate from the main game?

--A

Yeah, it's all integrated into the main game; generally once you install one of the add-ons you'll hear "rumours" about something leading to the add-on, or hear a strange radio broadcast, etc.

As to what I've been playing, I've done another run-through of Crusader Kings II in preparation for Europa Universalis IV, as they've included a save-game converter, so I can continue my CK2 game in EU4, which is nice. But yeah, if anyone's interested in a grand strategy game with some good RPG elements in it, definitely check out CK2!

EDIT: How could I forget! Murrin's comment just reminded me about Dishonored, which I finished just recently as well. And yeah, I certainly know what you two mean about controls - I kinda wish that each genre would have a uniform set of controls, rather than half the controls being completely different from one another