Borderlands blah, Steam bad.
Justisaur
- first thing I've ever purchased on steam and I was rather
disappointed with the service, there's no way to throttle the
download, so I couldn't do anything else online while it was
downloading. I did some searches on this issue, and people have been
complaining about it for more than 3 years. Unforgivable, and I won't
be purchasing anything else through them, unless I hear they've fixed
this issue, even then it's unlikely. I'm also irritated as steam
makes it difficult to mod the program as it doesn't install it like
normal.
Anyway Borderlands - I played it for a few hours yesterday and today
after
purchasing. I was very disappointed with the game, It didn't grab me
at all and seemed like an average shooter combined with a poor
diabloesque wannabe loot system and stylized graphics which I didn't
care for. I can ignore the style much more easily than I thought I
would.
The vehicle control is extremely awkward as you point the cross-hairs
the direction you want to go, basically with mouselook while you are
in a 3rd person view. Speaking of which, this is the only way to get
a 3rd person view, otherwise you are stuck in 1st person.
The RPG elements are very limited, laughable even, you can choose some
effects and modifications, but I don't see characters being all that
different. it doesn't feel like much choice, I had far more choice in
God of War (PS2 game) and way more in Diablo 2. All weapons improve
mostly through use, although some character points can affect them.
As far as I can tell in the actual R of the RPG is totally non-
existant, it's pretty linear and you have no choice in dialogs.
It has typical small confined areas found in console games, making it
feel not at all like a wasteland, and in general feels very
consoleish, other than the FPS controls being average to good.
I will give it a couple points however - Kill/Crits are way over the
top, they almost come close to the original fallout in satisfaction.
Popping people's heads off and
fountains of blood, lighting people on fire while they scream etc.
The problem is they are very short, so it's hard to catch them. The
other point, is I absolutely love
Berserk. The Berserker really goes nuts, muttering, laughing
maniacally and growling for "Mooooreee!" to kill while berserk.
Unfortunately the berzerker isn't very good character, running up into
the midst of things is good way to get killed. The other characters
I've tried seem to be much more survivable.
So I'd say it's a good game if you want to play a console FPS, however
that isn't really my thing. Don't expect it to feel even like a
console RPG, Fallout 3 was 1000x more of an RPG than this. Don't
expect it to feel like a post apocalyptic game, it isn't. As I found
out early - you've come to the planet from offworld to look for this
'vault' of treasure. I really can't think this game is worth the $50
price tag even if you like what it is. It's maybe a $35 equivalent to
ratchet & clank, if that. Which brings me back to disliking Steam -
if I'd bought the game at a retail store I could have at least given
it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
with a $50 boat anchor. Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
- Justisaur
Nostromo
(PST), Anno Domini:
>After the excited reviews of Borderlands here I purchased it on steam
<snip>
>it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
>with a $50 boat anchor. Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
>little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
Thanks for the heads up Justisaur (& Steam as well - didn't realise you
couldn't throttle the d/l b/width, yikes!). I guess that only leaves Fallen
Earth as the last best hope of a Fallout-esque spiritual successor, mmo
though it is.
--
Nostromo
John Lewis
<just...@gmail.com> wrote:
>I really can't think this game is worth the $50
>price tag even if you like what it is. It's maybe a $35 equivalent to
>ratchet & clank, if that. Which brings me back to disliking Steam -
>if I'd bought the game at a retail store I could have at least given
>it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
>with a $50 boat anchor. Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
>little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
>
>- Justisaur
If you had used a throw-away email account , player-name and password
when you purvhased/registered the game on Steam, you could have given
the game away, or sold it to a third-party. Violates the %&^$% Steam
EULA, of course, but who cares about Valve's suffocating DRM and
EULA, when most of the other PC game EULAs even now still fully
permit transfer to a third party, provided that the original "media"
and documentation.accompany the transfer.
John Lewis
Nobody
> After the excited reviews of Borderlands here I purchased it on steam
> - first thing I've ever purchased on steam and I was rather
> disappointed with the service, there's no way to throttle the
> download, so I couldn't do anything else online while it was
> downloading. I did some searches on this issue, and people have been
> complaining about it for more than 3 years. Unforgivable, and I won't
> be purchasing anything else through them, unless I hear they've fixed
> this issue, even then it's unlikely.
Are you on dial-up or something? I buy every game I can via Steam (I
have three computers I want to install them on) and no game download has
ever been a bandwidth hog. I've played LOTRO and WoW and various Steam
games while other Steam games were downloading and was never able to
tell the download was going on.
Peter Huebner
@a37g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, just...@gmail.com says...
> I'm also irritated as steam
> makes it difficult to mod the program as it doesn't install it like
> normal.
Hmmm, I don't know about your 'borderlands' ... the one and only game I
purchased off Steam is X3 Reunion. I found the Steam wrapper annoying,
so I located the X3.exe file, and I am starting that directly from a
shortcut I created.
Works a treat. Not only do I totally avoid the Steam wrapper (really
don't care if it wants to go check for updates or not, and do whatever
else it might do) but I've basically an executable that works fine with=
out disk checks and horrid copy protection schemes .... I kinda like
that! It certainly doesn't barf because it's not allowed online.
Of course I have no idea if the same strategy will work for other games
sold over/by Steam.
I noted t'other day that for instance East India Company is also sold
through Steam, and Stardock's Impulse and you can't use the patches for
the ordinary game on the steam/impulse versions, you have to patch via
steam/impulse. I expect that may have something to do with built-in disk
checking in the ubisoft patches. But I also imagine that that might be a
pita if said online 'stores' are slow on getting the patches in place,
or their systems break.
f.w.i.w. -Peter
Vincenzo Beretta
> purchased off Steam is X3 Reunion. I found the Steam wrapper annoying,
> so I located the X3.exe file, and I am starting that directly from a
> shortcut I created.
AKAIK, Steam always asks you if you want to create a shortcut on the desktop
when the install is complete.
Justisaur
Comcast, Not dial up. the D/L was pretty fast, about 2 hours - I just
couldn't do hardly anything, even regular surfing slowed to a crawl.
- Justisaur
Justisaur
Yes, I did that but the shortcut points to steam
"E\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 8980
I keep programs on E... So it still doesn't tell you where the real
program is.
- Justisaur
Justisaur
> Thus spake Justisaur <justis...@gmail.com>, Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:20:38 -0800
I found a way to get 3rd person in Borderlands through the config
files, it doesn't work worth shit though as its off to the side and I
found myself firing in the wrong direction often.
If you haven't played FO3 still it's still way better and more Fallout-
esque than either.
I've been playing the 14 day trial for days of the dead on Fallen
Earth. I like it better than Borderlands so I'm back to it until the
trial is up. I haven't decided if I want to sub yet, although if I do
it'll probably be after playing some other games, at least finishing
Borderlands once and giving them more time to work on it.
It is extremely bugy - It's froze several times. Other issues like not
being able to click on stuff, game misreporting skills etc, but
relogging your character fixes those kind of problems and is pretty
fast - under 30 seconds, and the Devs seem to be fixing things at
breakneck pace. The GMs seem to be quite engaged in fixing players
issues in game which is quite unusual for an MMO, although I haven't
come across anything I've needed them for.
The FPS is shit, and I'd rather they didn't go FPS to begin with - I
don't know why the hell they added extreme cross-hair shaking when
attacking, I guess they figured the normal convention of having the
cross hairs expand for recoil wasn't good enough. I can't hit
anything at range after the first shot. It doesn't help that the mobs
move really fast and intelligent enemies will actually zig-zag at
you. A lot of people in game swear by rifles though so it either
improves once you have access to scopes or they somehow got used to
the FPS. I'd much rather they didn't use FPS at all and had select
and activate like Cox and other MMOs I've played and have the game
calculate if my character hits.
I switched to melee and I found that much more satisfying, I've died
more from falling off cliffs when trying to find ways up or down to
places or not paying attention than combat with that character. The
cross-hairs turn into a circle for melee - and while it still shakes I
can still tell where I'm pointed unlike with the ranged cross-hairs.
Melee works pretty well in the game, although I've run into a critter
that could attack me and I didn't seem able to attack him and I died,
it only happened once though. The meaty thunk-thunk of my dual
wielding meat tenderizers is quite satisfying.
I'm not sure what the 17+ 'mature' rating is for, I haven't found
anything in the game that seemed very 'mature' so far other than my
character yells shit or fuck when getting hit occasionally - it might
be nice to be able to turn that off if you have kids about, I'm not
sure if you can as it isn't an issue for me yet. Oddly you can't
swear in the chat channels or the GMs come after you. It did lead to
a funny moment when I was in a rather nasty fight and my character
yelled "Fuck!" when getting hit really hard at exactly the same moment
I muttered it. I haven't noticed anything particularly gory either.
For all that, the game is full of RPG goodness. It's a point based
skill system, which leaves me feeling very wanting for points to put
in everything. You've really got to decide what you want to do with
your character, although it's not as complex as CoX or Diablo - you
basically pick a few skills you want to focus on and buy those up and
their corresponding attributes. There are quests galore in every town
and city, and they don't seem to go too far under your level, so you
can complete them all if you really want. There's one recently I
remember where you can take on teaching some deadbeat gamblers that
they can't not pay their debts to the guy who loaned them money. The
first one you come across tries to sell you his 2 year old socks to
help pay his debt. There's a lot of the typical kill x, collect x,
etc. There's also craft buy or find x, and some town events which you
can do a variety of things to earn favor or tokens that you can get
unique things with.
I normally hate crafting and collecting stuff, but the craft system is
the best I've seen in any MMO or possibly any game, so if you like
that sort of thing you have to check it out. I've actually been
hooked on it. You actually get xp for crafting, and it's required or
easier if you do craft for many of the quests, so it might be possible
to get all the way to max lv without having ever attacked anything.
It would be much more difficult as the best resources are guarded. As
far as I can tell it is possible to craft stuff without going out and
collecting too, although it's very expensive to buy the parts from
vendors, and will cost more money than you'll get in return in most
cases. Scavanging (or mining, and nature) to collect stuff uses nodes
much like I saw in WoW, and there has been some competition for
resources, but it somehow feels more right in this game, and hasn't
been as irritating as WoW - I guess the 'gold farmers' haven't hit
this game yet :/
For a wasteland it feels oddly very populated, however if you wander
off in a random direction not on a road you can end up in some pretty
desolate places. In a way it feels almost more old-west than post-
apocalyptic. Everyone has horses, while the higher level characters
slumming it have atvs or motorcycles. I miss energy weapons from FO -
as far as I can tell there aren't any, except for the ultimate melee
weapon which is the tesla hammer - it shocks it's victims as well as
smashing them. Although there is an option to go mutant powers, Its
apparently not very good until mid levels which I haven't got to yet.
I love the way the characters themselves look. Right now my Melee
monster looks at bit clockwork orange, dressed in a top hat & monocle
while wearing some shoddy torn looking chainmail vest over a padded
cammo jacket, and wielding dual meat tenderizers.
So in all I'd say check it out, especially if you can get in on a free
trial. If you do, I'd suggest starting in one of the craft towns as
they are on relatively flat terrain, and you won't have the headache
of trying not to fall off the cliff or into a hole and dying
repeatedly as you do in some of the other starting towns.
- Justisaur
John Lewis
wrote:
FYI: The new V2.5 patch removes ALL copy-protection from the Retail
X3: Terran Conflict.... Very nice. Thanks Egosoft.
John Lewis
Peter Huebner
@m33g2000pri.googlegroups.com>, just...@gmail.com says...
Yupp, it's fairly well hidden :)
"F:\steam\steamapps\common\x3 - reunion\X3.EXE"
so in your case I suggest looking for
E:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\borderlands\borderlands.exe
or something similar.
-P.
Nostromo
(PST), Anno Domini:
>On Nov 5, 5:45�pm, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote:
>> Thus spake Justisaur <justis...@gmail.com>, Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:20:38 -0800
>> (PST), Anno Domini:
>>
>>
>>
>> >After the excited reviews of Borderlands here I purchased it on steam
>> <snip>
>> >it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
>> >with a $50 boat anchor. �Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
>> >little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
>>
>> Thanks for the heads up Justisaur (& Steam as well - didn't realise you
>> couldn't throttle the d/l b/width, yikes!). I guess that only leaves Fallen
>> Earth as the last best hope of a Fallout-esque spiritual successor, mmo
>> though it is.
>>
>
>I found a way to get 3rd person in Borderlands through the config
>files, it doesn't work worth shit though as its off to the side and I
>found myself firing in the wrong direction often.
Heh, drunken-out-of-body-cam? ;)
>If you haven't played FO3 still it's still way better and more Fallout-
>esque than either.
Hmmm...I don't bite THAT easily! ;-p
>I've been playing the 14 day trial for days of the dead on Fallen
>Earth. I like it better than Borderlands so I'm back to it until the
>trial is up. I haven't decided if I want to sub yet, although if I do
>it'll probably be after playing some other games, at least finishing
>Borderlands once and giving them more time to work on it.
WHA??? There's a 14 trial of some sort for FE??? I specifically scoured
their site for some such. Can you PLEASE point me in the right direction
dude!?
Never mind - just Goggled it (didn't realise it's another mmo site).
mmorpg.com is also part of the offer...bugger. Looks like the trial was from
Oct 23rd for 15 days only (up until yesterday). BUGGER!!! :(((
Oh well, better luck next time I guess. I do like the i-Phone app they're
developing for early next year to do your char management including crafting
semi-offline, heh.
>It is extremely bugy - It's froze several times. Other issues like not
>being able to click on stuff, game misreporting skills etc, but
>relogging your character fixes those kind of problems and is pretty
>fast - under 30 seconds, and the Devs seem to be fixing things at
>breakneck pace. The GMs seem to be quite engaged in fixing players
>issues in game which is quite unusual for an MMO, although I haven't
>come across anything I've needed them for.
That's what you get from an indy dev you will never get from a
money-grubbing commercial one: love, passion, commitment, focus, hard work
above & beyond, etc. It's almost worth supporting FE for this reason alone &
I would have already if not for having 2 mmo subs already :-/. Sok, AoC runs
out on 11th :)
>The FPS is shit, and I'd rather they didn't go FPS to begin with - I
>don't know why the hell they added extreme cross-hair shaking when
>attacking, I guess they figured the normal convention of having the
>cross hairs expand for recoil wasn't good enough. I can't hit
>anything at range after the first shot. It doesn't help that the mobs
>move really fast and intelligent enemies will actually zig-zag at
>you. A lot of people in game swear by rifles though so it either
>improves once you have access to scopes or they somehow got used to
>the FPS. I'd much rather they didn't use FPS at all and had select
>and activate like Cox and other MMOs I've played and have the game
>calculate if my character hits.
Doesn't sound like a deal breaker & something they could fix easily. I think
from what I've read, your char's stats are far more important than the
player's, so I imagine the shaking & aiming gets better as your skill
improves (FWIW, this was one thing I *hated* in DX & I do prefer ranged
chars actually, well, pet classes mostly with ranged support).
>I switched to melee and I found that much more satisfying, I've died
>more from falling off cliffs when trying to find ways up or down to
>places or not paying attention than combat with that character. The
>cross-hairs turn into a circle for melee - and while it still shakes I
>can still tell where I'm pointed unlike with the ranged cross-hairs.
>Melee works pretty well in the game, although I've run into a critter
>that could attack me and I didn't seem able to attack him and I died,
>it only happened once though. The meaty thunk-thunk of my dual
>wielding meat tenderizers is quite satisfying.
He, he, sounds like fun. I've tried a melee char in AoC & that was not
nearly as distasteful as I thought it might be ;).
>I'm not sure what the 17+ 'mature' rating is for, I haven't found
>anything in the game that seemed very 'mature' so far other than my
>character yells shit or fuck when getting hit occasionally - it might
>be nice to be able to turn that off if you have kids about, I'm not
>sure if you can as it isn't an issue for me yet. Oddly you can't
Of our 2 Shih-Tzus, one of them is 15 & almost deaf, the other has heard
those words plenty of times to know to get out of the way! <G>.
>swear in the chat channels or the GMs come after you. It did lead to
>a funny moment when I was in a rather nasty fight and my character
>yelled "Fuck!" when getting hit really hard at exactly the same moment
>I muttered it. I haven't noticed anything particularly gory either.
Good & bad I guess. AoC is fairly 'mature', but really, it's just fluff if
the gameplay is shit. Luckily, AoC's gameplay is far better than a lot of
ppl give it credit for & very addictive, a year on now that they've sorted
most bugs/issues (haven't some across a single one yet).
>For all that, the game is full of RPG goodness. It's a point based
>skill system, which leaves me feeling very wanting for points to put
>in everything. You've really got to decide what you want to do with
>your character, although it's not as complex as CoX or Diablo - you
>basically pick a few skills you want to focus on and buy those up and
>their corresponding attributes. There are quests galore in every town
>and city, and they don't seem to go too far under your level, so you
>can complete them all if you really want. There's one recently I
>remember where you can take on teaching some deadbeat gamblers that
>they can't not pay their debts to the guy who loaned them money. The
>first one you come across tries to sell you his 2 year old socks to
>help pay his debt. There's a lot of the typical kill x, collect x,
>etc. There's also craft buy or find x, and some town events which you
>can do a variety of things to earn favor or tokens that you can get
>unique things with.
Sounds ok, typical mmo fair. If the world/immersion level &
soloing/storyline/exploring/crafting is great it could hold me for quite
some time. I don't like oppressive atmosphere games though.
>I normally hate crafting and collecting stuff, but the craft system is
>the best I've seen in any MMO or possibly any game, so if you like
>that sort of thing you have to check it out. I've actually been
>hooked on it. You actually get xp for crafting, and it's required or
>easier if you do craft for many of the quests, so it might be possible
>to get all the way to max lv without having ever attacked anything.
You just said the magic words!!!! :)))
>It would be much more difficult as the best resources are guarded. As
>far as I can tell it is possible to craft stuff without going out and
>collecting too, although it's very expensive to buy the parts from
>vendors, and will cost more money than you'll get in return in most
>cases. Scavanging (or mining, and nature) to collect stuff uses nodes
>much like I saw in WoW, and there has been some competition for
>resources, but it somehow feels more right in this game, and hasn't
>been as irritating as WoW - I guess the 'gold farmers' haven't hit
>this game yet :/
Heh, shhhhhhhh - you should have munged those words. Their bots have now
probably descended onto FE in droves after your slip up! ;)
>For a wasteland it feels oddly very populated, however if you wander
>off in a random direction not on a road you can end up in some pretty
>desolate places. In a way it feels almost more old-west than post-
>apocalyptic. Everyone has horses, while the higher level characters
>slumming it have atvs or motorcycles. I miss energy weapons from FO -
>as far as I can tell there aren't any, except for the ultimate melee
>weapon which is the tesla hammer - it shocks it's victims as well as
>smashing them. Although there is an option to go mutant powers, Its
>apparently not very good until mid levels which I haven't got to yet.
>I love the way the characters themselves look. Right now my Melee
>monster looks at bit clockwork orange, dressed in a top hat & monocle
>while wearing some shoddy torn looking chainmail vest over a padded
>cammo jacket, and wielding dual meat tenderizers.
So low-tech post-apoc. I can live with that. I'm sure there will be more
stuff like you mention at higher levels or with expansions. Wise/smart of
them not to reveal their entire hand from day 1, if that's the case.
>So in all I'd say check it out, especially if you can get in on a free
>trial. If you do, I'd suggest starting in one of the craft towns as
>they are on relatively flat terrain, and you won't have the headache
>of trying not to fall off the cliff or into a hole and dying
>repeatedly as you do in some of the other starting towns.
Cool. Thanks heaps for all this. Sound like something I at least have to
try, even if I don't fall in love with it. Now, of only I could find an
active ongoing trial...*sniff*.
--
Nostromo
Justisaur
> Thus spake Justisaur <justis...@gmail.com>, Fri, 6 Nov 2009 06:27:30 -0800
> (PST), Anno Domini:
>
>
>
> >On Nov 5, 5:45 pm, Nostromo <nos...@forme.org> wrote:
> >> Thus spake Justisaur <justis...@gmail.com>, Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:20:38 -0800
> >> (PST), Anno Domini:
>
> >> >After the excited reviews of Borderlands here I purchased it on steam
> >> <snip>
> >> >it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
> >> >with a $50 boat anchor. Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
> >> >little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
>
> >> Thanks for the heads up Justisaur (& Steam as well - didn't realise you
> >> couldn't throttle the d/l b/width, yikes!). I guess that only leaves Fallen
> >> Earth as the last best hope of a Fallout-esque spiritual successor, mmo
> >> though it is.
>
> >I found a way to get 3rd person in Borderlands through the config
> >files, it doesn't work worth shit though as its off to the side and I
> >found myself firing in the wrong direction often.
>
> Heh, drunken-out-of-body-cam? ;)
>
> >If you haven't played FO3 still it's still way better and more Fallout-
> >esque than either.
>
> Hmmm...I don't bite THAT easily! ;-p
Really even to a die hard fallout fan it's far better than most thing
out.
>
> >I've been playing the 14 day trial for days of the dead on Fallen
> >Earth. I like it better than Borderlands so I'm back to it until the
> >trial is up. I haven't decided if I want to sub yet, although if I do
> >it'll probably be after playing some other games, at least finishing
> >Borderlands once and giving them more time to work on it.
>
> WHA??? There's a 14 trial of some sort for FE??? I specifically scoured
> their site for some such. Can you PLEASE point me in the right direction
> dude!?
> Never mind - just Goggled it (didn't realise it's another mmo site).
> mmorpg.com is also part of the offer...bugger. Looks like the trial was from
> Oct 23rd for 15 days only (up until yesterday). BUGGER!!! :(((
> Oh well, better luck next time I guess. I do like the i-Phone app they're
> developing for early next year to do your char management including crafting
> semi-offline, heh.
>
That's where I got mine. My account is still active, you might double
check to see if you can get in on it.
> >It is extremely bugy - It's froze several times. Other issues like not
> >being able to click on stuff, game misreporting skills etc, but
> >relogging your character fixes those kind of problems and is pretty
> >fast - under 30 seconds, and the Devs seem to be fixing things at
> >breakneck pace. The GMs seem to be quite engaged in fixing players
> >issues in game which is quite unusual for an MMO, although I haven't
> >come across anything I've needed them for.
>
> That's what you get from an indy dev you will never get from a
> money-grubbing commercial one: love, passion, commitment, focus, hard work
> above & beyond, etc. It's almost worth supporting FE for this reason alone &
> I would have already if not for having 2 mmo subs already :-/. Sok, AoC runs
> out on 11th :)
>
Yes it's quite tempting just for those reasons. I've only got the
one, CoX, however coming back for the Halloween event I still got
bored within a few hours, and on day 3 kept saying to myself this is
boring, I've done it all, - which is why I checked out FE. I still
think CoX is a far superior MMO in pretty much all respects, but I
have done it all, or all that anyone is doing anymore. 30 month
vetran now, so nothing new to see. I don't find grinding at 50 for
purples very fun, and have tried all the characters I want to. I'm
sure I'll come back again after the new expansion though.
> >The FPS is shit, and I'd rather they didn't go FPS to begin with - I
> >don't know why the hell they added extreme cross-hair shaking when
> >attacking, I guess they figured the normal convention of having the
> >cross hairs expand for recoil wasn't good enough. I can't hit
> >anything at range after the first shot. It doesn't help that the mobs
> >move really fast and intelligent enemies will actually zig-zag at
> >you. A lot of people in game swear by rifles though so it either
> >improves once you have access to scopes or they somehow got used to
> >the FPS. I'd much rather they didn't use FPS at all and had select
> >and activate like Cox and other MMOs I've played and have the game
> >calculate if my character hits.
>
> Doesn't sound like a deal breaker & something they could fix easily. I think
> from what I've read, your char's stats are far more important than the
> player's, so I imagine the shaking & aiming gets better as your skill
> improves (FWIW, this was one thing I *hated* in DX & I do prefer ranged
> chars actually, well, pet classes mostly with ranged support).
I don't think they are going to fix it, Working as intended and all
that, but yeah I'd like to see it from a higher level character's
perspective, especially with a scoped rifle.
> >I switched to melee and I found that much more satisfying, I've died
> >more from falling off cliffs when trying to find ways up or down to
> >places or not paying attention than combat with that character. The
> >cross-hairs turn into a circle for melee - and while it still shakes I
> >can still tell where I'm pointed unlike with the ranged cross-hairs.
> >Melee works pretty well in the game, although I've run into a critter
> >that could attack me and I didn't seem able to attack him and I died,
> >it only happened once though. The meaty thunk-thunk of my dual
> >wielding meat tenderizers is quite satisfying.
>
> He, he, sounds like fun. I've tried a melee char in AoC & that was not
> nearly as distasteful as I thought it might be ;).
>
I've "upgraded" to billy clubs as they do about 3x as much damage, but
I just don't find it as satisfying as knowing I'm hitting people with
meat tenderizers. I had to upgrade my hat too, now I'm wearing a
1930's leather football (american version) helmet, which I don't like
as much as my top hat. Ah the sacrifices we make.
> >I'm not sure what the 17+ 'mature' rating is for, I haven't found
> >anything in the game that seemed very 'mature' so far other than my
> >character yells shit or fuck when getting hit occasionally - it might
> >be nice to be able to turn that off if you have kids about, I'm not
> >sure if you can as it isn't an issue for me yet. Oddly you can't
>
> Of our 2 Shih-Tzus, one of them is 15 & almost deaf, the other has heard
> those words plenty of times to know to get out of the way! <G>.
>
> >swear in the chat channels or the GMs come after you. It did lead to
> >a funny moment when I was in a rather nasty fight and my character
> >yelled "Fuck!" when getting hit really hard at exactly the same moment
> >I muttered it. I haven't noticed anything particularly gory either.
>
> Good & bad I guess. AoC is fairly 'mature', but really, it's just fluff if
> the gameplay is shit. Luckily, AoC's gameplay is far better than a lot of
> ppl give it credit for & very addictive, a year on now that they've sorted
> most bugs/issues (haven't some across a single one yet).
AoC felt considerably more 'adult' to me. Although I only played the
one month after it came out. If they've fixed a lot and added higher
level content it might be worth checking out. I'd still recommed it
to anyone just for the early levels which I thought were better than
any other MMO I've played, I and everyone were just disappointed it
petered out at about 10th lv or so.
>
> >For all that, the game is full of RPG goodness. It's a point based
> >skill system, which leaves me feeling very wanting for points to put
> >in everything. You've really got to decide what you want to do with
> >your character, although it's not as complex as CoX or Diablo - you
> >basically pick a few skills you want to focus on and buy those up and
> >their corresponding attributes. There are quests galore in every town
> >and city, and they don't seem to go too far under your level, so you
> >can complete them all if you really want. There's one recently I
> >remember where you can take on teaching some deadbeat gamblers that
> >they can't not pay their debts to the guy who loaned them money. The
> >first one you come across tries to sell you his 2 year old socks to
> >help pay his debt. There's a lot of the typical kill x, collect x,
> >etc. There's also craft buy or find x, and some town events which you
> >can do a variety of things to earn favor or tokens that you can get
> >unique things with.
>
> Sounds ok, typical mmo fair. If the world/immersion level &
> soloing/storyline/exploring/crafting is great it could hold me for quite
> some time. I don't like oppressive atmosphere games though.
Not sure by what you mean by 'oppressive atmosphere' but as I
mentioned it barely feels like a wasteland, more like old-west boom
towns. Only in this case the Indians are crazed mutant clones, and
you've got scorpions the size of a dog to worry about.
> >I normally hate crafting and collecting stuff, but the craft system is
> >the best I've seen in any MMO or possibly any game, so if you like
> >that sort of thing you have to check it out. I've actually been
> >hooked on it. You actually get xp for crafting, and it's required or
> >easier if you do craft for many of the quests, so it might be possible
> >to get all the way to max lv without having ever attacked anything.
>
> You just said the magic words!!!! :)))
It would be a hell of a challenge. You might be able to do it if you
took athletics which improves your sneaking ability. Unfortunately
you come out of sneak either when picking stuff up or after - haven't
quite figured out which. You can run away pretty effectively if
you've got your horse nearby and hop on it though. I definately
wouldn't recommend it on a first character.
>
> >It would be much more difficult as the best resources are guarded. As
> >far as I can tell it is possible to craft stuff without going out and
> >collecting too, although it's very expensive to buy the parts from
> >vendors, and will cost more money than you'll get in return in most
> >cases. Scavanging (or mining, and nature) to collect stuff uses nodes
> >much like I saw in WoW, and there has been some competition for
> >resources, but it somehow feels more right in this game, and hasn't
> >been as irritating as WoW - I guess the 'gold farmers' haven't hit
> >this game yet :/
>
> Heh, shhhhhhhh - you should have munged those words. Their bots have now
> probably descended onto FE in droves after your slip up! ;)
>
I heard on the Embry channel (largest town in the beginning area)
people complaining of crafting for sale to PC stuff being pretty
pointless, and farmers causing havoc with the economy. I was crafting
some ammo to raise my skill for a quest and dumped it on the market, I
found going prices were pretty bad for the seller, at most 2x what I
could get for it at an NPC, and if I understand correctly if I had
make a Charisma character, it would be the same price, and ammo is
one of the most in demand items. I certainly couldn't buy the parts
to make it from the vendors with what I'll make off of it if it
sells.
> >For a wasteland it feels oddly very populated, however if you wander
> >off in a random direction not on a road you can end up in some pretty
> >desolate places. In a way it feels almost more old-west than post-
> >apocalyptic. Everyone has horses, while the higher level characters
> >slumming it have atvs or motorcycles. I miss energy weapons from FO -
> >as far as I can tell there aren't any, except for the ultimate melee
> >weapon which is the tesla hammer - it shocks it's victims as well as
> >smashing them. Although there is an option to go mutant powers, Its
> >apparently not very good until mid levels which I haven't got to yet.
> >I love the way the characters themselves look. Right now my Melee
> >monster looks at bit clockwork orange, dressed in a top hat & monocle
> >while wearing some shoddy torn looking chainmail vest over a padded
> >cammo jacket, and wielding dual meat tenderizers.
>
> So low-tech post-apoc. I can live with that. I'm sure there will be more
> stuff like you mention at higher levels or with expansions. Wise/smart of
> them not to reveal their entire hand from day 1, if that's the case.
I've heard of them adding stuff, so it is happening. One of the items
I got today is new as people were saying that wasn't there when they
did the quest.
- Justisaur
Nostromo
(PST), Anno Domini:
>> WHA??? There's a 14 trial of some sort for FE??? I specifically scoured
>> their site for some such. Can you PLEASE point me in the right direction
>> dude!?
>> Never mind - just Goggled it (didn't realise it's another mmo site).
>> mmorpg.com is also part of the offer...bugger. Looks like the trial was from
>> Oct 23rd for 15 days only (up until yesterday). BUGGER!!! :(((
>> Oh well, better luck next time I guess. I do like the i-Phone app they're
>> developing for early next year to do your char management including crafting
>> semi-offline, heh.
>>
>
>That's where I got mine. My account is still active, you might double
>check to see if you can get in on it.
Looks like it was a limited 15 day Halloween thingy from Oct 23rd only. So
I've just done my dash. Bugger. How did I not notice this??? :(
>> >It is extremely bugy - It's froze several times. Other issues like not
>> >being able to click on stuff, game misreporting skills etc, but
>> >relogging your character fixes those kind of problems and is pretty
>> >fast - under 30 seconds, and the Devs seem to be fixing things at
>> >breakneck pace. �The GMs seem to be quite engaged in fixing players
>> >issues in game which is quite unusual for an MMO, although I haven't
>> >come across anything I've needed them for.
>>
>> That's what you get from an indy dev you will never get from a
>> money-grubbing commercial one: love, passion, commitment, focus, hard work
>> above & beyond, etc. It's almost worth supporting FE for this reason alone &
>> I would have already if not for having 2 mmo subs already :-/. Sok, AoC runs
>> out on 11th :)
>>
>
>Yes it's quite tempting just for those reasons. I've only got the
>one, CoX, however coming back for the Halloween event I still got
>bored within a few hours, and on day 3 kept saying to myself this is
>boring, I've done it all, - which is why I checked out FE. I still
>think CoX is a far superior MMO in pretty much all respects, but I
>have done it all, or all that anyone is doing anymore. 30 month
>vetran now, so nothing new to see. I don't find grinding at 50 for
>purples very fun, and have tried all the characters I want to. I'm
>sure I'll come back again after the new expansion though.
Same here, though I haven't played nearly as much CoX as you by the sounds
of it, I've been back with subs 3 or 4 times since near the start of the
game.
>> >The FPS is shit, and I'd rather they didn't go FPS to begin with - I
>> >don't know why the hell they added extreme cross-hair shaking when
>> >attacking, I guess they figured the normal convention of having the
>> >cross hairs expand for recoil wasn't good enough. �I can't hit
>> >anything at range after the first shot. �It doesn't help that the mobs
>> >move really fast and intelligent enemies will actually zig-zag at
>> >you. �A lot of people in game swear by rifles though so it either
>> >improves once you have access to scopes or they somehow got used to
>> >the FPS. �I'd much rather they didn't use FPS at all and had select
>> >and activate like Cox and other MMOs I've played and have the game
>> >calculate if my character hits.
>>
>> Doesn't sound like a deal breaker & something they could fix easily. I think
>> from what I've read, your char's stats are far more important than the
>> player's, so I imagine the shaking & aiming gets better as your skill
>> improves (FWIW, this was one thing I *hated* in DX & I do prefer ranged
>> chars actually, well, pet classes mostly with ranged support).
>
>I don't think they are going to fix it, Working as intended and all
>that, but yeah I'd like to see it from a higher level character's
>perspective, especially with a scoped rifle.
Well, get a sub & keep fraggin then! ;)
>> >I switched to melee and I found that much more satisfying, I've died
>> >more from falling off cliffs when trying to find ways up or down to
>> >places or not paying attention than combat with that character. �The
>> >cross-hairs turn into a circle for melee - and while it still shakes I
>> >can still tell where I'm pointed unlike with the ranged cross-hairs.
>> >Melee works pretty well in the game, although I've run into a critter
>> >that could attack me and I didn't seem able to attack him and I died,
>> >it only happened once though. �The meaty thunk-thunk of my dual
>> >wielding meat tenderizers is quite satisfying.
>>
>> He, he, sounds like fun. I've tried a melee char in AoC & that was not
>> nearly as distasteful as I thought it might be ;).
>>
>
>I've "upgraded" to billy clubs as they do about 3x as much damage, but
>I just don't find it as satisfying as knowing I'm hitting people with
>meat tenderizers. I had to upgrade my hat too, now I'm wearing a
>1930's leather football (american version) helmet, which I don't like
>as much as my top hat. Ah the sacrifices we make.
LOL - sounds so whacky it's almost impossible to resist! Ok, US$50 purchase
with 1 mth free, so $35 for the game. Very reasonable given the $AU is
almost 1:1 with the $US right now.
>> >I'm not sure what the 17+ 'mature' rating is for, I haven't found
>> >anything in the game that seemed very 'mature' so far other than my
>> >character yells shit or fuck when getting hit occasionally - it might
>> >be nice to be able to turn that off if you have kids about, I'm not
>> >sure if you can as it isn't an issue for me yet. �Oddly you can't
>>
>> Of our 2 Shih-Tzus, one of them is 15 & almost deaf, the other has heard
>> those words plenty of times to know to get out of the way! <G>.
>>
>> >swear in the chat channels or the GMs come after you. �It did lead to
>> >a funny moment when I was in a rather nasty fight and my character
>> >yelled "Fuck!" when getting hit really hard at exactly the same moment
>> >I muttered it. �I haven't noticed anything particularly gory either.
>>
>> Good & bad I guess. AoC is fairly 'mature', but really, it's just fluff if
>> the gameplay is shit. Luckily, AoC's gameplay is far better than a lot of
>> ppl give it credit for & very addictive, a year on now that they've sorted
>> most bugs/issues (haven't some across a single one yet).
>
>AoC felt considerably more 'adult' to me. Although I only played the
>one month after it came out. If they've fixed a lot and added higher
>level content it might be worth checking out. I'd still recommed it
>to anyone just for the early levels which I thought were better than
>any other MMO I've played, I and everyone were just disappointed it
>petered out at about 10th lv or so.
Still going strong in the mid-20s, though I wish I had more time to play
*sigh*.
>>
>> >For all that, the game is full of RPG goodness. �It's a point based
>> >skill system, which leaves me feeling very wanting for points to put
>> >in everything. �You've really got to decide what you want to do with
>> >your character, although it's not as complex as CoX or Diablo - you
>> >basically pick a few skills you want to focus on and buy those up and
>> >their corresponding attributes. �There are quests galore in every town
>> >and city, and they don't seem to go too far under your level, so you
>> >can complete them all if you really want. �There's one recently I
>> >remember where you can take on teaching some deadbeat gamblers that
>> >they can't not pay their debts to the guy who loaned them money. �The
>> >first one you come across tries to sell you his 2 year old socks to
>> >help pay his debt. �There's a lot of the typical kill x, collect x,
>> >etc. �There's also craft buy or find x, and some town events which you
>> >can do a variety of things to earn favor or tokens that you can get
>> >unique things with.
>>
>> Sounds ok, typical mmo fair. If the world/immersion level &
>> soloing/storyline/exploring/crafting is great it could hold me for quite
>> some time. I don't like oppressive atmosphere games though.
>
>Not sure by what you mean by 'oppressive atmosphere' but as I
>mentioned it barely feels like a wasteland, more like old-west boom
>towns. Only in this case the Indians are crazed mutant clones, and
>you've got scorpions the size of a dog to worry about.
He, he, well that's how I felt about Fallout, especially FO2!
>> >I normally hate crafting and collecting stuff, but the craft system is
>> >the best I've seen in any MMO or possibly any game, so if you like
>> >that sort of thing you have to check it out. �I've actually been
>> >hooked on it. You actually get xp for crafting, and it's required or
>> >easier if you do craft for many of the quests, so it might be possible
>> >to get all the way to max lv without having ever attacked anything.
>>
>> You just said the magic words!!!! :)))
>
>It would be a hell of a challenge. You might be able to do it if you
>took athletics which improves your sneaking ability. Unfortunately
>you come out of sneak either when picking stuff up or after - haven't
>quite figured out which. You can run away pretty effectively if
>you've got your horse nearby and hop on it though. I definately
>wouldn't recommend it on a first character.
Crafting is what always grabs me in a mmo at some point when the adventuring
leaves me bored. This sounds like it's very extensive & fun (just read some
reviews earlier on the topic also).
>> >It would be much more difficult as the best resources are guarded. �As
>> >far as I can tell it is possible to craft stuff without going out and
>> >collecting too, although it's very expensive to buy the parts from
>> >vendors, and will cost more money than you'll get in return in most
>> >cases. �Scavanging (or mining, and nature) to collect stuff uses nodes
>> >much like I saw in WoW, and there has been some competition for
>> >resources, but it somehow feels more right in this game, and hasn't
>> >been as irritating as WoW - I guess the 'gold farmers' haven't hit
>> >this game yet :/
>>
>> Heh, shhhhhhhh - you should have munged those words. Their bots have now
>> probably descended onto FE in droves after your slip up! ;)
>>
>
>I heard on the Embry channel (largest town in the beginning area)
>people complaining of crafting for sale to PC stuff being pretty
>pointless, and farmers causing havoc with the economy. I was crafting
>some ammo to raise my skill for a quest and dumped it on the market, I
>found going prices were pretty bad for the seller, at most 2x what I
>could get for it at an NPC, and if I understand correctly if I had
>make a Charisma character, it would be the same price, and ammo is
>one of the most in demand items. I certainly couldn't buy the parts
>to make it from the vendors with what I'll make off of it if it
>sells.
Such a shame some mmo out these still hasn't been able to create a decent
ROI for crafter cost/time, while supporting a hybrid economy (I don't like
pure player ones ala EVE, nor ones like WoW/LOTRO where crafting is there
just for yourself really, as you can hardly make any money off lower level
crafted items across the board, meh).
>> >For a wasteland it feels oddly very populated, however if you wander
>> >off in a random direction not on a road you can end up in some pretty
>> >desolate places. �In a way it feels almost more old-west than post-
>> >apocalyptic. �Everyone has horses, while the higher level characters
>> >slumming it have atvs or motorcycles. �I miss energy weapons from FO -
>> >as far as I can tell there aren't any, except for the ultimate melee
>> >weapon which is the tesla hammer - it shocks it's victims as well as
>> >smashing them. �Although there is an option to go mutant powers, Its
>> >apparently not very good until mid levels which I haven't got to yet.
>> >I love the way the characters themselves look. �Right now my Melee
>> >monster looks at bit clockwork orange, dressed in a top hat & monocle
>> >while wearing some shoddy torn looking chainmail vest over a padded
>> >cammo jacket, and wielding dual meat tenderizers.
>>
>> So low-tech post-apoc. I can live with that. I'm sure there will be more
>> stuff like you mention at higher levels or with expansions. Wise/smart of
>> them not to reveal their entire hand from day 1, if that's the case.
>
>I've heard of them adding stuff, so it is happening. One of the items
>I got today is new as people were saying that wasn't there when they
>did the quest.
So you're still playing the trial or you've subbed now? Which
server/charname dude? I might ping you in-game soon ;). Tx again!
--
Nostromo
Justisaur
> Thus spake Justisaur <justis...@gmail.com>, Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:12:49 -0800
> (PST), Anno Domini:
> >I heard on the Embry channel (largest town in the beginning area)
> >people complaining of crafting for sale to PC stuff being pretty
> >pointless, and farmers causing havoc with the economy. I was crafting
> >some ammo to raise my skill for a quest and dumped it on the market, I
> >found going prices were pretty bad for the seller, at most 2x what I
> >could get for it at an NPC, and if I understand correctly if I had
> >make a Charisma character, it would be the same price, and ammo is
> >one of the most in demand items. I certainly couldn't buy the parts
> >to make it from the vendors with what I'll make off of it if it
> >sells.
>
> Such a shame some mmo out these still hasn't been able to create a decent
> ROI for crafter cost/time, while supporting a hybrid economy (I don't like
> pure player ones ala EVE, nor ones like WoW/LOTRO where crafting is there
> just for yourself really, as you can hardly make any money off lower level
> crafted items across the board, meh).
Yea I think that's the way it is, but you can have a craft specific
character and just email your other characters stuff. The biggest
problem with crafting I've found is the lack of space to put stuff.
Crafting is a nice sideline though as you can convert mats (the local
jargon for raw materials) you've collected into things that are worth
more. I haven't really looked at the supply side of materials yet to
see how it compares in the AH (auction house). You can do that early
on well enough with any character as you don't need to spend points in
crafting to begin with, and you get a small boost just from level.
One of the main reasons I'm interested in crafting I think is there's
some nice stuff that hasn't made it to the AH, like the top hat I had,
and there's no online database (at least that I can find) of craftable
items so if you really want to know what's available you have to be a
crafter.
>
> >> >For a wasteland it feels oddly very populated, however if you wander
> >> >off in a random direction not on a road you can end up in some pretty
> >> >desolate places. In a way it feels almost more old-west than post-
> >> >apocalyptic. Everyone has horses, while the higher level characters
> >> >slumming it have atvs or motorcycles. I miss energy weapons from FO -
> >> >as far as I can tell there aren't any, except for the ultimate melee
> >> >weapon which is the tesla hammer - it shocks it's victims as well as
> >> >smashing them. Although there is an option to go mutant powers, Its
> >> >apparently not very good until mid levels which I haven't got to yet.
> >> >I love the way the characters themselves look. Right now my Melee
> >> >monster looks at bit clockwork orange, dressed in a top hat & monocle
> >> >while wearing some shoddy torn looking chainmail vest over a padded
> >> >cammo jacket, and wielding dual meat tenderizers.
>
> >> So low-tech post-apoc. I can live with that. I'm sure there will be more
> >> stuff like you mention at higher levels or with expansions. Wise/smart of
> >> them not to reveal their entire hand from day 1, if that's the case.
>
> >I've heard of them adding stuff, so it is happening. One of the items
> >I got today is new as people were saying that wasn't there when they
> >did the quest.
>
> So you're still playing the trial or you've subbed now? Which
> server/charname dude? I might ping you in-game soon ;). Tx again!
>
Still playing the trial. There is only one server as far as I can
tell and you are limited to 3 characters. Sondra Rayne is the one I'm
mainly playing.
I tried making a dedicated crafter, Momma Upra, with only pistols and
no defenses, but I found it too hard/not fun dying a lot so I'm
branching out to crafting more with Sondra and hoping I have enough AP
to keep it all up. There's so many different paths I'd like to try,
but you are pretty limited with one character. You seem to get about
4 total skill focuses you can do, 1 is used up by your chosen attack
melee/pistols/riffle and 2 by defenses: armor use & dodge so that only
leaves one other to try out with each character if you don't want to
be gimped in combat - and I started down the mutation path already,
but I think I might be early enough to stop going down that and go
crafting instead. I'd really like to get athletics too as that gives
speed boosts, and I like speed. I always play characters with super
speed CoX. Then there's Social too which gives discounts & increases
sell prices at vendors, and it seems a waste to do crafting without
that too, but I can't take either of those with crafting and not be
gimped in combat.
- Justisaur
Werner Punz
> Thanks for the heads up Justisaur (& Steam as well - didn't realise you
> couldn't throttle the d/l b/width, yikes!). I guess that only leaves Fallen
> Earth as the last best hope of a Fallout-esque spiritual successor, mmo
> though it is.
>
Not really the original Fallout team (Obsidian) now works for Bethestha
on another Fallout.
I hope Obsidian gets the mix better than Bethestha did, I really had my
problems with Fallout 3 after the glimmer wore off, I missed the humor,
the setting was ok, but most of the NPCs simply were boring.
Fallout3 was simply not really Fallout to me, I dont know why, they got
most of the elements right, but something was missing, it must be the
humor, I guess.
Werner Punz
> Comcast, Not dial up. the D/L was pretty fast, about 2 hours - I just
> couldn't do hardly anything, even regular surfing slowed to a crawl.
>
> - Justisaur
Mhh bad traffic shaping in place I guess or your computer the steam
client takes its toll on the processor load, not much but on older
machines it can become a problem. It is either that or you have traffic
shaping disabled.
Ross Ridge
> Comcast, Not dial up. the D/L was pretty fast, about 2 hours - I just
> couldn't do hardly anything, even regular surfing slowed to a crawl.
Werner Punz <we...@gmx.at> wrote:
>Mhh bad traffic shaping in place I guess or your computer the steam
>client takes its toll on the processor load, not much but on older
>machines it can become a problem. It is either that or you have traffic
>shaping disabled.
It sounds like Justisaur's download link was simply saturated, nothing
more complex than that.
Ross Ridge
--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/
db //
Justisaur
There was some humor in there, I *loved* Harold. That really felt
Fallout to me. There were other bits, but nothing timely, and
everything felt blandified as if for fear of some person getting upset
somewhere. Definately lacking.
On the other side of the coin, not looking at it as a sequel to
Fallout, but just as a Post-apocalyptic RPG, it's better than anything
else since Fallout Tactics, and nothing else that's come since is
equal. I'd much rather have it than have had nothing.
- Justisaur
Justisaur
My machine is fairly new. I've got no problems running most games on
max. Comcast is biotch though, I can't use bittorrent much or they
drop my connection repeatedly, It wouldn't surprise me if it had
something to do with them.
- Justisaur
EMan
>
> My machine is fairly new. I've got no problems running most games on
> max. Comcast is biotch though, I can't use bittorrent much or they
> drop my connection repeatedly, It wouldn't surprise me if it had
> something to do with them.
>
> - Justisaur
You might want to try throttling your download speeds or your number
of connections. I get similar issues if I allow more than 100
connections per torrent.
Lithitor
<just...@gmail.com> wrote:
>After the excited reviews of Borderlands here I purchased it on steam
>- first thing I've ever purchased on steam and I was rather
>disappointed with the service, there's no way to throttle the
>download, so I couldn't do anything else online while it was
>downloading. I did some searches on this issue, and people have been
>complaining about it for more than 3 years. Unforgivable, and I won't
>be purchasing anything else through them, unless I hear they've fixed
>this issue, even then it's unlikely.
What a whiney little bedwetter you are.
Nostromo
Domini:
Nice try, nym-rod. 1/10.
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Nostromo
Justisaur
Some updates after 1st playthrough and level 39 of 50. In general I
feel the same about it, but slightly better.
> The vehicle control is extremely awkward as you point the cross-hairs
> the direction you want to go, basically with mouselook while you are
> in a 3rd person view.
I'm used to the vehicle controls now, not too bad actually. Vehicles
are pretty overpowered on the first playthrough, just run over
anything and it dies, at least half the areas you can't get vehicles
into though, and only one boss I can think of, who also has a
vehicle. They aren't so good on the second playthroug, a few enemies
can usually do enough damage to blow it up, and you get to die with it
even if you are a tricked out super-tough berserker. Fortunately you
don't have to use a vehicle at all if you don't want to, but it is
still handy for getting around.
> The RPG elements are very limited, laughable even, you can choose some
> effects and modifications, but I don't see characters being all that
> different. it doesn't feel like much choice, I had far more choice in
> God of War (PS2 game) and way more in Diablo 2. All weapons improve
> mostly through use, although some character points can affect them.
> As far as I can tell in the actual R of the RPG is totally non-
> existant, it's pretty linear and you have no choice in dialogs.
It's a bit more complicated than I first thought. Abilities do get
better and are possibly more important than the gun you have, and
there are some real differences. It does feel like a bit like a
simplified diablo II skill tree.
> It has typical small confined areas found in console games, making it
> feel not at all like a wasteland, and in general feels very
> consoleish, other than the FPS controls being average to good.
There's some more open areas later in the game, actually more the
middle of the game, but they are mostly to ride your vehicle around
in. It's not quite as confined as it first felt like, but it's still
pretty confined if you compare it to any mmo, or bethesda game.
> I will give it a couple points however - Kill/Crits are way over the
> top, they almost come close to the original fallout in satisfaction.
> Popping people's heads off and
> fountains of blood, lighting people on fire while they scream etc.
> The problem is they are very short, so it's hard to catch them.
The elemental deaths are a lot longer. I love the electrical death,
which is probably the longest. They do the jolt dance and their skull
pops off reveling their exposed brains and eyes as they die, at least
on humanoids.
> The
> other point, is I absolutely love
> Berserk. The Berserker really goes nuts, muttering, laughing
> maniacally and growling for "Mooooreee!" to kill while berserk.
> Unfortunately the berzerker isn't very good character, running up into
> the midst of things is good way to get killed. The other characters
> I've tried seem to be much more survivable.
A lot of the abilities he gets later help a lot with that. I really
love the second wind ability too. Basically when you die, you have a
few seconds on your knees to kill something, and if you do you come
back with a little health and full shields. If you are playing
multiplayer someone can revive you during this period too. The
berserker has the longest 'dying' period, and can take points in die
hard which increases the time and the amount of health he gets back
when he comes back. So while he seems to go down more often than the
other characters, at least when using his berserk, he gets back up a
lot more often, and it's fairly rare to actually die. He could easily
be the toughest character if you chose to focus on his ranged
abilities more and stay out of melee, but I just don't see that as
being very fun.
> So I'd say it's a good game if you want to play a console FPS, however
> that isn't really my thing. Don't expect it to feel even like a
> console RPG, Fallout 3 was 1000x more of an RPG than this. Don't
> expect it to feel like a post apocalyptic game, it isn't. As I found
> out early - you've come to the planet from offworld to look for this
> 'vault' of treasure.
It almost feels more like Wall-E in a way, the planet is filled up
with trash, in half the areas it is trash everywhere you look, and
most of the buildings are made out of trash.
The ending is crap. It feels very unfinished. I have to wonder if they
were holding back deliberately for expansions/sequels. It feels long,
dragging on, but it's actually fairly short, not a good combination.
It looks like this game could be a lot more fun multiplayer. I've
tried to get in on some/host games, but it hasn't worked out very
well. It's just enough to give me a taste. The multiplayer setup is
horrid. You can have 4 people in a game, like diablo II, however it's
peer-to-peer instead of centrally hosted servers, setup through
gamespy (have to have a gamespy account). So if you connect to
someone's game halfway around the world you'll have really bad lag,
and probably get kicked if you can even connect to begin with. To
make it worse the only information you get on a game is whatever title
the host decided on, their level when they started the game and what
quest they were doing when they started it. You get no information on
what their current level is (I joined a game that said lv 3 and
everyone was 25+). You get no information on where they are, so it's
a crap shoot, you could end up joining someone in Siberia or Hawaii,
no way to tell, fortunately some people are smart enough to put
location in the title. The list of games is awfully short, I assume
there's some sort of filtering Gamespy does, as the most I've seen is
about 20, and the least 3, this makes finding a game that can just fit
the necessary criteria of near your level very difficult.
Unlike Diablo II you can't be in a different area than everyone else,
everyone gets transported to the next area if someone hits the
transition, so no point in joining a game of differing level and going
off and doing your own thing, unfortunately loot rarity is tied to the
number of players in the game so getting any good weapons is going to
be nearly impossible if you don't.
It does have a friend's list, but I haven't been able to con any of my
local friends into getting this game, so I haven't been able to try it
out. If you have a small group of local friends who can all play at
the same time it might be worth it.
Because it's peer-to-peer I'd expect cheats galore at some point, but
I haven't seen any evidence so far in what little I've tried and been
discouraged with.
> I really can't think this game is worth the $50
> price tag even if you like what it is. It's maybe a $35 equivalent to
> ratchet & clank, if that. Which brings me back to disliking Steam -
> if I'd bought the game at a retail store I could have at least given
> it to a friend who might like this kind of game, as it is, I'm stuck
> with a $50 boat anchor. Oh I'll probably play it and enjoy it a
> little, but it's not that great, and I feel cheated.
It's a little better than I originally thought, there are some real
gems in there, but I still don't think it's worth more than $35,
actually I'd put it more like $30, and there's a hell of a lot I'd
recommend before this game, at least of older fare. Current stuff,
not much though.
- Justisaur