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Antigravitas posted:D&D with Larian writing is probably the single worst combination I can imagine. I found Larian's writing so far oscillates between forgettable and loathsome, but always being very lolrandom with the sense that their definition of "mature" hasn't finished puberty yet.  Larian was so much more appealing to me twenty years ago, when I was still in an age group where I could enjoy that kind of juvenile humor. Larian games always feel like they're still being written by the same guy who wrote Divine Divinity and was then somehow cryogenically frozen.
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Oct 7, 2020 09:51
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exquisite tea posted:Larian is good. Larian are very average-good and are given far more praise than they really deserve.
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Oct 7, 2020 09:57
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Fortunately, no one will ever make the same mistake of your posting!
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Oct 7, 2020 10:01
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exquisite tea posted:Fortunately, no one will ever make the same mistake of your posting! Turn off your monitor!
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Oct 7, 2020 10:07
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I like Larian games. They're like a weird half-step between the traditional American CRPG and a British CRPG where it's simultaneously wryly anti-humourous but also so intensely pedestrian that it never transcends itself.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:22
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Ragequit posted:Anyone picking up Baldur's Gate III tomorrow? Looks like it's releasing as early access. This apparently means just one act out of three to start, with the other two acts releasing in a year or so. Who knows how long it'll actually take with current work environments. Supposedly act 1 is around 25 hours worth of content. Another opinion: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/10/baldurs-gate-3-early-access-mediocre-rpg-amazing-rendering-engine/
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Oct 7, 2020 10:25
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quote:The above image gallery serves to make one thing clear: Lae'zel's loathing for your hero character is not a one-off in Baldur's Gate 3. The next recruitable character you find is an evil cleric, who all but accuses you of being a creepy incel stalker. After that, you meet a vampire spawn rogue who introduces himself by way of attempted murder—after a spirited round of the old "hey, what's that in the bushes?" game, he tries to put a knife in your back.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:28
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Cardiovorax posted:Wow, that sounds godawful. Why?
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Oct 7, 2020 10:33
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That... sounds fine to me? Besides being a negatively colored portrayal of events from some dude who clearly didn't like it, they sound like your typical sort of CRPG encounter.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:34
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I don't know, to me, that description sounds like an unsatisfying series of hostile encounters that would just leave me wishing I had never met any of these people. It's really not what I want from a game these days.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:36
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The last one seems okay, but the former two examples already sound really immersion breaking to me. Why are you letting those kind of people stay in your party instead of giving them the boot, again? Down a cliff, preferably.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:40
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I just want another Tyranny, is that too much to ask for?
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Oct 7, 2020 10:44
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To expand on that encounter, it apparently continues with an Intelligence check that will instantly kill you if you succeed at it, unless you also succeed at a Wisdom check right after. That just seems like bad design to me.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:45
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Yami Fenrir posted:The last one seems okay, but the former two examples already sound really immersion breaking to me. Cardiovorax posted:To expand on that encounter, it apparently continues with an Intelligence check that will instantly kill you if you succeed at it, unless you also succeed at a Wisdom check right after. That just seems like bad design to me. review posted:Unfortunately, this turned out to be a trap—failing the Intelligence check is a perfectly fine outcome, and leads to either killing the mind flayer, or leaving it to die on its own. But passing the check means that the monster gets its hooks into the hero's brain—who must then pass a much more difficult Wisdom check to avoid being gruesomely murdered. I dunno, revealing your intelligence to a creature known for *checks wiki* mind-enslaving intelligent creatures seems like it might have negative outcomes if you think about it. tight aspirations fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 10:47
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I wasn't really a fan of the writing in any of the Divinity games though Dragon Commander got points for letting you romance a skeleton
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Oct 7, 2020 10:49
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tight aspirations posted:Not having played the game, but I'm guessing you don't have to recruit them, going by the "recruitable" descriptor, and anyway, they did a decent job of inter-party conflict in DOS2. I am really pro-Larian, mind. I mean yes but there's a difference between teammates that are evil and complex but you can still sort of agree with even if it's wrong and then there's people who deserve a knife to the face those recruitables sound firmly in the latter camp? Like you can have inter party conflict without making them be people that should never have been in the party in the first place?
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Oct 7, 2020 10:50
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Viconia DeVir was an evil party member from the original Baldur's Gate 2 who had a degree of respect for you and who you could work with even if she didn't agree with everything you did, so I would say so.tight aspirations posted:I dunno, revealing your intelligence to a creature known for *checks wiki* mind-enslaving intelligent creatures seems like it might have negative outcomes if you think about it. VVV According to the article, these are the first two recruitable characters you meet and you are otherwise stuck doing stuff with an incomplete group for a long time, which is especially harsh if you're one of the squishier classes. Cardiovorax fucked around with this message at 11:06 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 10:52
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Yami Fenrir posted:Like you can have inter party conflict without making them be people that should never have been in the party in the first place? Don't recruit them then? I mean it's a role-playing game, you kinda are responsible for your actions. Or at least should be.
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Oct 7, 2020 10:56
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tight aspirations posted:Don't recruit them then? I mean it's a role-playing game, you kinda are responsible for your actions. Or at least should be. "Just don't do it" is a lovely response to bad writing and/or mechanics. There is no reason to defend those kind of things as a player. I shouldn't have to deliberately ignore things like that and potentially cripple myself partywise (as just stated) just to keep up my suspension of disbelief.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:01
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"just don't do it" remains the best possible option re: playing 5e
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Oct 7, 2020 11:03
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That guy sounds like he plays in a thoughtless "it has a check for it so it must be the right answer!" way.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:06
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Yami Fenrir posted:"Just don't do it" is a lovely response to bad writing and/or mechanics. There is no reason to defend those kind of things as a player. Well, unless you've played it, you've not encountered the writing or mechanics except through the lens of a games journo, and if you don't think you'll like a character, or their archetypes or whatever, not recruiting them is a perfectly valid choice, isn't it? Having inter-party conflict is a valid RPG design choice, but if you don't want to encounter it, it sounds like you don't have to. e: Missed your edit of the second line, but who says you're crippling yourself through party choice? I'm sure there's other characters. No offence, but you seem to be making a whole bunch of assumptions based on little evidence. tight aspirations fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 11:09
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Det_no posted:That guy sounds like he plays in a thoughtless "it has a check for it so it must be the right answer!" way.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:10
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"Don't recruit party members in the intro" is such a terrible cop-out. All the party members you recruit in Tyranny are terrible people, but the writers were good enough to actually do something with this conflict both in gameplay and in story. They are there for a reason and they act in their own rational self-interest and in service of the narrative.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:13
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stat-gated dialogue choices are the better option in literally every other videogame ever made but sure that guy's to blame for making baseless assumptions lol
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Oct 7, 2020 11:14
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Cardiovorax posted:To expand on that encounter, it apparently continues with an Intelligence check that will instantly kill you if you succeed at it, unless you also succeed at a Wisdom check right after. That just seems like bad design to me. Serves you right for pumping int AND wis.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:15
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Antigravitas posted:"Don't recruit party members in the intro" is such a terrible cop-out. I was more saying "Don't recruit those who you don't want or feel wouldn't fit in your party", really.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:16
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To be fair that reviewer sounds angry and bitter about the entire game. So I'm taking it with a grain of salt
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Oct 7, 2020 11:19
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tight aspirations posted:I was more saying "Don't recruit those who you don't want or feel wouldn't fit in your party", really. Jarvisi posted:To be fair that reviewer sounds angry and bitter about the entire game. So I'm taking it with a grain of salt
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Oct 7, 2020 11:21
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Cardiovorax posted:If, during a tabletop game, I was given the option of making a search check and the result was 'you succeed at finding a terribly poisonous spider, it bites you and you die' then I think I would just straight-up leave the group, because that's adversarial GMing at its worst and really just kind of bullshit.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:26
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Cardiovorax posted:As I explained a little further up, the author of the article says that at this point in the game, these are the only recruitable characters available to you and you either have the choice of taking them or working with an incomplete party for a fairly long time, which is not always feasible depending on your character build. I can't speak to how correct that is, but if it is, then I think it's pretty justified to say that 'so don't use them' isn't a fair response here. You shouldn't be punished mechanically for disliking the character writing that is presented to you. Ah, ok, I didn't realise that. That's completely fair criticism, then.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:26
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Thankfully I remembered to buy spelunky 2 last night before the 10% discount ended. Anxious to start it tonight, I adored spelunky 1... one of the few games i really want to just discover things at my own pace!
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Oct 7, 2020 11:26
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quote:
Okay, so I've just played this part and I have no idea what the gently caress this writer is talking about. Minor spoilers ahead: Lae'zel doesn't show any particular loathing, the worst you can say about her is she's the rather typical warrior-orc hotheaded character, but she doesn't show any particular disdain at the beginning, other than "Hey, stop loving around and let's get the gently caress out of here." The evil cleric doesn't accuse you of being a creepy incel stalker. I have no idea where he is getting this from. Potentially a class/race choice? The rogue scene isn't that threatening, and his explanation and resolution is fine. Also you can, at any point with all of these choices, tell them you don't want them to join your party. The writing for the child scene isn't that bad. It's again not very subtle, but it's certainly not as bad as the writer makes it out to be. tldr the writer has a bee in his bonnet and seems to be straight up lying in certain sections of his article.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:55
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Thanks for sharing your own experience there. Could you get back to us about how long it takes to get the next recruitable character after that, once you get there? Because I really want to know how accurate that part was. The idea of having to either deal with assholes or play as a near-solo character until who knows when is what bothered me the most about that.
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Oct 7, 2020 12:00
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Cardiovorax posted:Thanks for sharing your own experience there. Could you get back to us about how long it takes to get the next recruitable character after that, once you get there? Because I really want to know how accurate that part was. The idea of having to either deal with assholes or play as a near-solo character until who knows when is what bothered me the most about that. You pretty much get a full party within the first 15 minutes of playing after the intro sequence
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Oct 7, 2020 12:01
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Thanks. Well, that deals with that question. God knows what the guy was even going on about, then.
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Oct 7, 2020 12:02
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He probably just hates 5e
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Oct 7, 2020 12:07
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I mean so do I so you probably shouldn't let me review Baldur's Gate 3 I'll come up with all sorts of dumb bullshit about why I would rather be playing Fragged Empire Which I guess means XCOM
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Oct 7, 2020 12:08
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Hating on 5e is both fine and absolutely correct, FWIW.
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Oct 7, 2020 12:22
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Seems like Mike Mearls, abuse enabler and general shitstain, is involved in BG3, so that's put me off even more than Larian's writing would have (not saying they're bad, just not a fan).
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Oct 7, 2020 12:28
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