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Offline juner

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #780 on: September 05, 2017, 04:00:56 AM »
Doom (2016; PS4 Pro)

Pros:
1) It is a goddamn beautiful game.
2) Gameplay and mechanics are nearly flawless.
3) Gore. Lots of glorious gore.


Cons:
1) It's repetitive.
2) It's repetitive.
3) Did I mention it's repetitive?
4) Generic Story.
5) The Ending (It sucks balls).


It really is a gorgeous game in terms of graphics and gameplay. It is arguably a continuation of previous Doom games/stories from previous games. This isn't necessarily a good thing. While the plot is interesting, it is about an inch deep. And after dozens of scenes of fighting literally the exact same demons, it begins to wear on you. I would suggest playing the game in 2-3 bursts, unless you like doing the exact same shit over and over and over (collecting keycards and skulls...). And the ending... It just sucks. It leaves you hanging with zero satisfaction for all you went through. It isn't surprising, but I think at this point the writers of all the Doom games have no idea where it is supposed to end so they keep cliffhanging. Oh well... .


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Offline beardo

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #781 on: September 05, 2017, 05:11:54 AM »
The Mastery.

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Offline juner

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #782 on: September 20, 2017, 03:43:43 AM »
This may blow your mind, but I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild since March 3rd. Just beat it. This also may shock you, but I am crying and sniffly and my brain is full of love and sadness. This is also why I've been gone from IRC because I've just been dedicating every moment to playing it.

Not reading any further to avoid any potential spoilers, but I finally bought myself a Switch and also BotW. Will report back once I have beat it.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #783 on: September 29, 2017, 03:22:29 AM »
I was going to review Sonic mania until I found out Austin gave the exact review I would've, just better.

There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #784 on: September 29, 2017, 12:41:57 PM »
I like this guy.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #785 on: September 30, 2017, 02:47:56 AM »
Austin is one of like two or three people I keep up with on YouTube. He's like me or my nephew if we had any drive to do things.
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

Hmmm

Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #786 on: September 30, 2017, 08:10:22 PM »
I know the joke is overused, but i currently play in "LIFE".

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Offline honk

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #787 on: October 28, 2017, 01:24:42 PM »
Middle-earth: Shadow of War

The ending of this game is awful. It's a cowardly, last-minute attempt to bring this series in line with the continuity of the LotR movies, and not only is this effort laughably unsuccessful, it cheats the player out of an awesome climax they're going to feel they deserve after playing through the story. The devs didn't have the balls to follow through with what the series had been steadily building up to and fully divorce themselves from the official canon. I know that nobody in the world is going to be playing this game for the story, and rightfully so, but the lame toothlessness of the ending really is that frustrating. I was genuinely onboard with the loopy fanfic feel of the game up to that point, and enjoyed the blatant disregard of the moral philosophy of LotR for its sheer audacity.

That's far from the game's only flaw. The combat is a good deal harder than it was in Shadow of Mordor, but it doesn't quite play fair in how it increases the difficulty. Battles now seem to be a lot more chaotic, with enemies that require different keystrokes to dodge or counter all attacking at the same time, attacks are harder to dodge or counter, last chances and executions are trickier to pull off, captains have a lot more defenses and immunities in general, and the beasts you can dominate and ride have been nerfed to the point of near-ineffectiveness. If you have fond memories from Mordor of riding a caragor or graug around and slaughtering orcs with gleeful abandon, be warned that your mount will be very, very quickly killed if you try that here. The drakes - yes, they're drakes, not dragons - are no better. You are not going to be soaring triumphantly over Mordor as you consume the armies of Sauron in flame. You are going be turned into a pincushion by the orcs below as you awkwardly do your best to maybe blast a few of them with your short-ranged breath before you die. Also, there's an unfortunate MMO-like feel to the game, as indicated by the general structure (short and repetitive) of the missions from the main quest, the focus on collecting and upgrading gear (the microtransactions are annoying, but can be ignored fairly easily), and excessive grinding being essentially required.

The good news is that the grinding is a ton of fun. The return of the Nemesis System from Mordor, now even bigger and better, is this game's saving grace. There are dozens of orc captains, all with their own colorful, distinctive personalities and plenty of unique situational dialogue. Once I poisoned a barrel of grog and was promptly tackled by an assassin who specialized in poisoning, who then yelled at me that I was an amateur and using too high a dose. There's another captain who confronts you if you gather intel on him. Another is draped in spider's webs and claims that he has become "one with the spiders." Some of them will cheat death and return to you markedly different, sometimes even with a new name and fighting style, like an orc who now has a claw in place of a lost limb, or an orc previously beaten by poison who now is a shambling, diseased wreck. My personal favorite was a bard who plays (and fights with) a spiked lute, and sings every line of dialogue. It's a blast to meet all these wacky characters and then decide whether to kill or recruit them.

So, if you liked the previous game, you'll almost certainly like Shadow of War as well. I don't regret buying it, and I'm sure I have a lot more playing to do before I'm through with it. But it's incredibly messy and inconsistent, and I am a little disappointed on the whole that it's not as good as it ought to be.
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Offline beardo

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #788 on: October 28, 2017, 10:35:56 PM »
Finished Nazi Killing Simulator 2 last night. 10/10. GOTY 2017.
The Mastery.

Rama Set

Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #789 on: October 28, 2017, 10:59:49 PM »
What is the moral philosophy of the LOTR?

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Offline juner

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #790 on: October 29, 2017, 12:43:30 AM »
Finished Nazi Killing Simulator 2 last night. 10/10. GOTY 2017.

Oh hey another FPS, how innovative.

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Offline beardo

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #791 on: October 30, 2017, 11:38:41 PM »
It's the best genre when done right.
The Mastery.

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Offline juner

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #792 on: October 31, 2017, 12:08:34 AM »
It's the best genre when done right.

lol

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Offline beardo

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #793 on: November 01, 2017, 02:22:10 PM »
It's the best genre when done right.

lol
There's nothing more fun than high-speed first-person gory run&gun combat.
The Mastery.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #794 on: November 09, 2017, 03:52:50 AM »
Just beat Mario Odyssey.



Yeah, basically how I feel.
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline honk

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #795 on: November 14, 2017, 05:34:45 PM »
What is the moral philosophy of the LOTR?

The short answer is simply that power corrupts. More broadly, Tolkien presented qualities like hope, perseverance, and inner strength as being how good triumphs over evil rather than through martial prowess and ambition. It's not a badass action hero or a mighty king who takes down Sauron; it's a small hobbit. Now, Shadow of War flips this idea on its head by suggesting an ends-justify-the-means approach to defeating Sauron, where the hero fashions a new ring of power and uses it to dominate, enslave, and slaughter thousands of orcs across Mordor, all in the name of finally defeating Sauron. Such an interesting idea deserved to be followed up on. They should have let us overthrow Sauron and have the player end up as the ruler of Mordor, leaving it to the imagination just how similar to Sauron they've become. Instead, the story and its momentum are utterly derailed at the last second for an extremely weak reason, you're given a boss battle with Sauron in which there are no stakes because you're not playing as the main character anymore, and even after you're victorious, Sauron still manages to win in a cutscene - which is exactly what happened in the DLC of the last game. If they were never willing to let us beat Sauron, they should never have been presenting "beat Sauron" as the main goal. And then we're finally given some bullshit about how we need to keep fighting on to ensure that one day Frodo can succeed in his quest and I furiously told the game to go fuck itself.
ur retartet but u donut even no it and i walnut tell u y

Rama Set

Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #796 on: November 15, 2017, 01:42:43 AM »
What is the moral philosophy of the LOTR?

The short answer is simply that power corrupts. More broadly, Tolkien presented qualities like hope, perseverance, and inner strength as being how good triumphs over evil rather than through martial prowess and ambition. It's not a badass action hero or a mighty king who takes down Sauron; it's a small hobbit.

I am not sure I agree with this.  Tolkien presents other characters who dwarf Sauron in power but are not corrupt, like Tom Bombadil.  What Tolkien presents is a classic myth about the overthrow of the old order and replacing it with new knowledge.  In this way, there is little morality to find; not only does  the dominion of Sauron end in the LotR, but the more importantly, the dominion of elves also ends.  Elves are portrayed as greater paragons of good, wisdom and virtue in Middle Earth but with the coming of age of men (and hobbits), they must cede their dominion.  I find it to be this lack of an ultimate good triumphing over ulitmate evil that makes the LotR so timeless. 

Quote
Now, Shadow of War flips this idea on its head by suggesting an ends-justify-the-means approach to defeating Sauron, where the hero fashions a new ring of power and uses it to dominate, enslave, and slaughter thousands of orcs across Mordor, all in the name of finally defeating Sauron. Such an interesting idea deserved to be followed up on. They should have let us overthrow Sauron and have the player end up as the ruler of Mordor, leaving it to the imagination just how similar to Sauron they've become. Instead, the story and its momentum are utterly derailed at the last second for an extremely weak reason, you're given a boss battle with Sauron in which there are no stakes because you're not playing as the main character anymore, and even after you're victorious, Sauron still manages to win in a cutscene - which is exactly what happened in the DLC of the last game. If they were never willing to let us beat Sauron, they should never have been presenting "beat Sauron" as the main goal. And then we're finally given some bullshit about how we need to keep fighting on to ensure that one day Frodo can succeed in his quest and I furiously told the game to go fuck itself.

This does sound like they copped out on their idea, which always sucks.  It would be interesting to play out the ending that Gandalf feared so much.  I also hate it when canon is treated so preciously(see what I did there?) that they can't allow other stories to unfold in the world.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #797 on: November 15, 2017, 03:02:53 PM »
I always thought the theme was that industrialization was evil. Greed and domination, etc.

New order overthrowing old order is more accurate and more vague than industrialization.

Rama Set

Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #798 on: November 18, 2017, 02:17:26 PM »
I feel like the industrialization theme was emphasized more by the films than the books. Either that or I missed it in the books....

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Offline honk

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Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)
« Reply #799 on: December 28, 2017, 05:00:33 AM »
I am not sure I agree with this.  Tolkien presents other characters who dwarf Sauron in power but are not corrupt, like Tom Bombadil.

Hardly. Bombadil's power is strictly limited to his own tiny domain, and the general consensus at the Council of Elrond is that if it came down to just the two of them, Sauron would triumph.

Quote
What Tolkien presents is a classic myth about the overthrow of the old order and replacing it with new knowledge.  In this way, there is little morality to find; not only does  the dominion of Sauron end in the LotR, but the more importantly, the dominion of elves also ends.  Elves are portrayed as greater paragons of good, wisdom and virtue in Middle Earth but with the coming of age of men (and hobbits), they must cede their dominion.  I find it to be this lack of an ultimate good triumphing over ulitmate evil that makes the LotR so timeless.

What? The moral themes of LotR are enormously prominent. There's certainly room to dispute my brief interpretation of them, but to deny that they're even there is insane. And to say that it's really about the dominion of the elves coming to an end? That's just background lore, not the story itself. It's like saying that TES is really about CHIM and zero-summing.

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The Sexy Brutale

In this colorful adventure game, you find yourself trapped in a luxurious casino/mansion where a series of murders take place over a twelve-hour time loop. It's up to you to stop them, but the catch is that you can't directly interact with anybody else in the casino, or even be in the same room as them for more than a few seconds. You have to carefully observe the people around you to discover how the murders happen, and then secretly manipulate the environment to thwart them. Sounds great, right? And this is all complemented by a bouncy jazz soundtrack, a charming art style, and a healthy amount of black comedy livening up the dire situation.

My main problem lies with the final third, maybe quarter, of the game. Once the murders have all been foiled, the game inexplicably adopts a dull, pretentious, and self-serious tone and transforms into a boring walking simulator. It clumsily tries to provide a BioShock-esque (that comparison is not intended to be flattering) "twist" that explains everything that just happened, and not only is that explanation lazy and unsatisfying, it's impossible to take seriously with these goofy characters and their silly animations. They waddle when they walk, for fuck's sake! Why did there need to be an explanation, anyway? Why couldn't this just be a game where you're setting everyone free from the time loop by stopping their murders? No hidden story, no shocking twist, no "well actually..." Would Groundhog Day have been a better movie if it ended with a shot of Bill Murray hallucinating in a mental hospital?
ur retartet but u donut even no it and i walnut tell u y