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GloomMouse posted:So on the wiki for Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura it says that Mages should get the spell Pain, but I don't see it on the spell list (at char gen anyway). Did someone mean Harm instead? I edited it to read "Harm" instead of "Pain". Thanks for the heads up.
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Jun 17, 2010 11:58
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HondaCivet posted:How about Metal Gear Solid? Yeah, the first one. There have been way too many good MGS releases/previews out lately, I need to get started on the franchise finally. When they say the back of the box, they mean the physical box in which the game was packaged. Honestly though, there's really nothing you can miss that will make the game too terribly difficult and you can really play it through blind and be fine. Just call people all the time, like when you equip different items, enter different areas, or are fighting different bosses. There's lots of dialogue, and the weird codec conversations are one of the best parts of the series. Are you playing the original for the PS1 or the GC remake? The PS1 has some really cool art design for its time and ever-so-slightly stronger voice acting, but otherwise there is basically nothing that hasn't been improved in the remake.
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Jun 17, 2010 13:17
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Any tips for Hitman: Blood Money? I've never really played any of the Hitman games before and I struggled with this one when I played it last. I got past the first tutorial/mission easy enough as it tells you what to do and how to kill the people you encounter but after that in the next level (some sort of winery?) I was stuck - I guess I'm just not psychopathic enough to figure out ingenious ways of killing people.
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Jun 17, 2010 13:19
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HondaCivet posted:How about Metal Gear Solid? Yeah, the first one. There have been way too many good MGS releases/previews out lately, I need to get started on the franchise finally. Lots of great advice given already, but I thought I'd chime in about claymores. They're the mines that blow up when you walk in front of them. Otacon might cover this, but you can actually pick them up if you crawl over them (with the mine detector equipped, obviously)! They're great for problem-solving later in the game, and especially useful in the fight in the freezer against Vulcan Raven.
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Jun 17, 2010 13:26
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Lucifa posted:Any tips for Hitman: Blood Money? Slow and steady wins the race. Take your time, be patient, be willing to give the mission several playthroughs to memorize guard and target movement patterns, and always be looking for ways to make the death look accidental. Use the environments to your advantage, walk instead of run when you have to, and pretty much never use an unsuppressed weapon unless it's absolutely necessary. It isn't about being psychotic, it's about being surgical. If you're not the "hide in the closet then slit his throat with a knife" kind of player (which I'm not either, so I feel for you there) you can do what I do and play the part of the really patient, really dedicated sniper and just wait for an opening and then exploit it. Almost every mission has at least four or five ways to make the kill, each catering to a different play style.
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Jun 17, 2010 14:44
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Lucifa posted:Any tips for Hitman: Blood Money? You can break the game by using the coin to distract guards. If you don't have any sedatives, then you can grab people as human shields and knock them out that way.
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Jun 17, 2010 15:02
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That Awful Nick posted:If you're not the "hide in the closet then slit his throat with a knife" kind of player. Oh I am that kind of player, but with trying to makes deaths look like accidents I'm not the "hide in the cupboard until a man walks past with a vase then open the door suddenly so he drops the vase which scares the mouse which draws out the cat who knocks over the candle which burns the rope that holds up the piano that happens to be hanging over your targets head" kind of player.
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Jun 17, 2010 15:04
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Little Blue Couch posted:When they say the back of the box, they mean the physical box in which the game was packaged. PS1. I almost got Twin Snakes but the MGS fans talked me out of it. That reminds me, when the Gamecube was still hot (well, as hot as it ever was) I was torn between Twin Snakes and Splinter Cell. I went with the latter. 
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Jun 17, 2010 15:42
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HondaCivet posted:PS1. I almost got Twin Snakes but the MGS fans talked me out of it. How did they talk you out of it? I can understand people 'spergin about how it's too over the top with cutscenes or whatever but it's really worth playing even if you played PS1 MGS (which obviously most people had when GC version was released). The only thing I miss in the GC remake is the "echo" style sound effects and voices everywhere, but everything else that they added makes for a much better game.
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Jun 17, 2010 15:53
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Lucifa posted:Any tips for Hitman: Blood Money? If you intend to kill someone, do not let them see your face or they will track you. Try ducking in front of a wall so you can do a quick kill when you get behind him.
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Jun 17, 2010 15:56
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HondaCivet posted:PS1. I almost got Twin Snakes but the MGS fans talked me out of it. You made the right choice. That game was awful. e: And you can get a Socom pistol in the truck of the Heliport right off the bat. If you miss it, it shows up in the top right room in the Tank Hanger, where the Thermal Goggles would have been. If you don't get that either, you automatically get one after you find the Darpa Chief. Bloodcider fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Jun 17, 2010 |
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Jun 17, 2010 15:56
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Bloodcider posted:You made the right choice. That game was awful. Cinroth posted:How did they talk you out of it? I can understand people 'spergin about how it's too over the top with cutscenes or whatever but it's really worth playing even if you played PS1 MGS (which obviously most people had when GC version was released). The only thing I miss in the GC remake is the "echo" style sound effects and voices everywhere, but everything else that they added makes for a much better game. SEE When I was trying to decide all I could find were pages and pages of this. You people  But really it mostly comes down to the fact that Twin Snakes is really expensive and hard-to-find nowadays and the PS1 version is neither.
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Jun 17, 2010 16:40
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Bloodcider posted:You made the right choice. That game was awful. I have to completely disagree. The stuff they added from MGS2 makes the game much, much more playable. And at this point you're probably playing for the story more than the challenge. I tried to go back to the PS1 version when I bought the trilogy and I just couldn't. The good outweighs the bad in Twin Snakes, by far.
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Jun 17, 2010 16:41
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I'm going to start playing Sword of the Stars (I have all the expansions) for the first time this afternoon. I've watched the videos and played through the tutorial. On my first attempt at a game my human empire was stalled by an alien derelict and now I'm restarting. Bring on the tips!
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Jun 17, 2010 16:45
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HondaCivet posted:SEE I don't know about calling Twin Snakes awful. They messed with the music and some of the cutscenes, but the core gameplay is the same if I remember correctly. In fact, didn't the guards actually have to call in an alert like in mgs2? If so, I'd say it's better in that respect. It looks fantastic also. I have fond memories of both MGS and the Gamecube Remake.
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Jun 17, 2010 16:47
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Happy Hedonist posted:I'm going to start playing Sword of the Stars (I have all the expansions) for the first time this afternoon. I've watched the videos and played through the tutorial. On my first attempt at a game my human empire was stalled by an alien derelict and now I'm restarting. I accidentally read this as "Secret of the Stars" and was wondering if there really was someone other than me who played that lovely Tecmo RPG.
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Jun 17, 2010 16:54
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Lucifa posted:Oh I am that kind of player, but with trying to makes deaths look like accidents I'm not the "hide in the cupboard until a man walks past with a vase then open the door suddenly so he drops the vase which scares the mouse which draws out the cat who knocks over the candle which burns the rope that holds up the piano that happens to be hanging over your targets head" kind of player. 'Accidental' deaths mostly involve dropping heavy things on people (hint, hint) or pushing them over rails when noone is looking. Be observant of different kinds of clothing, certain people, espcially guards of course, can walk around more freely. Always look for opportunities to 'upgrade' your disguise. People walk around and the levels are fairly cramped, so make sure you hide bodies. Explore the levels, you will most likely find clever ways to off people.  Also, the mission set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras is the only one where you fail the mission if you don't complete certain objectives in time.
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Jun 17, 2010 17:14
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Ineffiable posted:I picked up more games on the cheap. I still can't believe I went through the trouble of beating this on the highest difficulty, but I might as well put what I learned to some use and try to make this less painful for you. - Force Throw easily the most powerful tool at your disposal. Only resort to lightsaber combat if your opponents are immune to being thrown and there's nothing to throw at them. You can kill jetpack troopers with throw by slamming them into walls. Everybody else you can throw should be directed to the nearest chasm. - Force Lightning is useful for stunning enemies who can be electrocuted. Using it for damage generally takes way more force power than is worth it though, so just shock someone to stun them and get back to throwing or, if there's nothing to throw, slashing it with your blade. - Never stop moving if there's an enemy with knockdown attacks in range. And seemingly everything in this game other than blaster-wielding stormtroopers has knockdown attacks. Aside from preserving your health, this is important because the Apprentice has no invincibility frames like you might find in better games from this genre. You can get knocked down again while you're in the middle of a recovery animation (and most knockdown attacks are unblockable, so your only defense is to not be where it hits). You can get stunlocked, and a full bar of health will be gone in seconds. - QTEs are not random, and will follow the general pattern of the buttons on your controller (e.g. if the next move involves your lightsaber, you'll use the lightsaber button. Lightning attacks will use the lightning button, etc.) - Offscreen enemies can and will shoot at you. This is infuriating (particularly if they're using a projectile attack that can knock you down), and is all the more reason why you need to be moving at all times.
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Jun 17, 2010 17:38
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McKracken posted:
Alternate solution to this is to destroy the statues in the room.
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Jun 17, 2010 18:28
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HondaCivet posted:Any more general sort of advice? Like, how the heck do you walk quietly? The closest I can get is just tapping the D-pad a lot to make a weird jerky movement. I couldn't find a "walk" button or anything. I know MGS has been gone over a lot, but I didn't see this answered. If I remember rightly, push the analog stick gently off centre, instead of all the way over, and you'll walk. It's an analog stick. Bloodcider posted:You made the right choice. That game was awful.  Re: Jagged Alliance 2 I'm trying to use 1.13, and it's great so far (using the single click installer from here at the moment), but the official forums are a disorganised clusterfuck of presumption and obsfucation. What the hell are HAM3.6, STOMP and Wildfire? Are any of them recommended or even needed? Is the SVN release system the recommended one, or just nightly builds laden with bugs? Is it possible to play in a window without having to drop the desktop down to 16bit colour mode, failing that, is it possible to change the resolution to something better? 1024 is getting a bit long in the tooth. (I found this but the author hasn't updated since a few hundred version increments ago, so the game starts up with a LOT of red error messages. His last post pretty much says "I've done all I have to guys, fix it yourself". Apart from previously mentioned huge scale invasion, and some mentions of SCI-FI mode, both of which I've disabled, are there any other guide-dang-it moments? I've seen some "nobody does X, everyone knows that's broken" warnings on their forums, but it's impossible to know these things beforehand as a newcomer. ha;lp
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Jun 18, 2010 03:33
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Lucifa posted:Any tips for Hitman: Blood Money? Looks like the first tip I need is how to get the drat thing installed on Win 7 64bit, just get a black splash screen running autorun and nothing happens at all with setup.exe. Tried compatibility mode but the only options I have are Vista and 2008 server 
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Jun 18, 2010 07:00
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Khurath posted:- Never stop moving if there's an enemy with knockdown attacks in range. And seemingly everything in this game other than blaster-wielding stormtroopers has knockdown attacks. Aside from preserving your health, this is important because the Apprentice has no invincibility frames like you might find in better games from this genre. You can get knocked down again while you're in the middle of a recovery animation (and most knockdown attacks are unblockable, so your only defense is to not be where it hits). You can get stunlocked, and a full bar of health will be gone in seconds. This, this, loving this. The game is infuriating because it locks you in to combo animations and knockdowns. Better games either have invincibility frames or a chance to block/dodge out of the way, but not here - you have to suffer everything that gets thrown at you. Also be wary of your own combos, you have to finish the animations once they've started, so try not to use the twirly lightsaber poo poo. Past that, force throw is awesome, force lightning will be your best friend, and charged lightning shield destroys the 10 foot tall Purge Troopers, the ones with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.
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Jun 18, 2010 07:18
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Lucifa posted:Looks like the first tip I need is how to get the drat thing installed on Win 7 64bit, just get a black splash screen running autorun and nothing happens at all with setup.exe. Tried compatibility mode but the only options I have are Vista and 2008 server
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Jun 18, 2010 11:10
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Retro-Future Rodent posted:Re: Jagged Alliance 2
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Jun 18, 2010 13:15
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Khurath posted:Super Helpful Tips Thanks for all of this. I might actually be trying the game on the hardest mode too, so this will really help.
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Jun 18, 2010 14:55
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Regarding JA2 - just get the single 1.13 one-click installer from the thread onionradish linked. That's all you want for your first play-through. Don't bother with HAM/Wildfire/UB/etc until you are familiar with the game. Patusco's Jagged Alliance 2 Strategy Guide (available as a PDF if you google for it) is a great source if you get stuck. But I wouldn't recommend reading up too much beforehand - a lot of the fun of JA2 comes from those moments when you discover "wow I didn't know that could happen!"
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Jun 18, 2010 18:17
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A few questions on Arcanum that I don't think have been fully answered over this thread. Real time or turn based? Is there anything to discourage robbing shops blind in the middle of the night and selling their inventory back to them in the morning? I've started this but my alignment hasn't changed at all. Everyone has said to get Harm and Teleport if you're going magic, but there's like a dozen trees. Is there anything else important in those, or useful overall?
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Jun 18, 2010 18:57
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Gils posted:A few questions on Arcanum that I don't think have been fully answered over this thread. You generally want to use turn based, but you can use real time if you want to beat down a bunch of weak enemies in a hurry. As for the second question, not really, at least I don't think so. Get Black Necro up to Harm and use it on single targets. Three into Fire for Fireflash or whatever the hell its called, use that on multiple targets. Max Force, the last spell literally kills enemies instantly, and the first spell is a shield that massively reduces damage taken from everything. Max Temporal too, there are two really good haste buffs in there. Teleport is nice but it's up to you if you want to spend the points in it, especially since the rest of the tree is pretty crappy. Oh, and you probably want to max White Necro as well for healing and resurrection. You can probably do without it if you are going to use Virgil or Perriman Smythe, since they both have White Necro anyway.
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Jun 18, 2010 19:07
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Gils posted:A few questions on Arcanum that I don't think have been fully answered over this thread. Depends on a couple things. In real-time with a larger party, you can run away from a strong enemy while your party beats it to death. In turn-based, that enemy will probably run up and kill you before your party can kill it, just due to the turn-based mechanics. If you can put enough distance between you and the enemy, you can even switch between the two to great effect (i.e., cast spells in turn-based then switch to real-time to run away from the enemy until your fatigue regenerates, then switch back to turn-based to cast the spell without being interrupted). Just remember that the enemy will usually get to move first when you do this, so you need to be far enough away that they can't move and attack you in one turn. Generally, real-time is better for melee and ranged combat because you can attack faster. Turn-based is better for spellcasting because your spells can't be interrupted by an attack. Just remember that if you're using a ranged attack in real-time, you can hold down Shift to keep the character still while they fire their weapon. Gils posted:Is there anything to discourage robbing shops blind in the middle of the night and selling their inventory back to them in the morning? I've started this but my alignment hasn't changed at all. Nope. Game doesn't recognize it as criminal unless you get seen or caught. It's honestly the best way to play Arcanum. If there are some shops you can't get into at night (due to guards posted or unpickable locks), then wait around until the owners go to bed. You'll have about 10-15 seconds to follow them through the door to their bedroom where you can just wait until they fall asleep, open their merchandise chests and rob them and then walk out the front door. Gils posted:Everyone has said to get Harm and Teleport if you're going magic, but there's like a dozen trees. Is there anything else important in those, or useful overall? I also don't advise taking teleport. Traveling is not that difficult, and you miss out on a lot of experience from random encounters if you skip it. And Selane's right, the rest of the tree is worthless. The trees I always go for are: - Force. A good offensive school, with a lot of variety. - Phantasm. Good choice if you're playing as a thief, since it has Invisibility. Blur Sight and Phantasmal Fiend are also pretty good, but on the whole this isn't a great one for fighter/mages. - Summoning. Another good offensive school, but I always find myself investing in another offensive tree as back up in case the enemy breaks through my summons. - Temporal. Works best with a mid- to large-sized party, but the slow effects are great. Also, don't bother with the cantrip spell, just train your lockpick ability up. Cantrip makes a lot of noise, so you can't steal from merchants at night because they'll wake up, even if you're prowling. Oh, and collect all the Scrolls of Exit and Divine Magic that you come across. You never want to go into a dungeon without a scroll of exit.
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Jun 18, 2010 20:17
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Astfgl posted:
You know way more about this game than I do, but having teleport on a first playthrough was really nice because I had no idea what to do or where to go. I eventually ended up walking all over the map anyway to try and find hidden poo poo but teleport was great for having to go between towns like 10 times in a row. I would only get it playing as a harm mage though, since not too many skill points are needed for that build. e: grammars
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Jun 18, 2010 21:00
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NicktheBishop posted:You know way more about this game than I do, but having teleport on a first playthrough was really nice because I had no idea what to do or where to go. I eventually ended up walking all over the map anyway to try and find hidden poo poo but teleport was great for having to go between towns like 10 times in a row. Yeah, that's fair. Once you hit Caladon, there will be a fair amount of running back and forth between cities. You can also eventually buy your own ship that'll take you to any coastal city on the map.
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Jun 18, 2010 21:11
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Astfgl posted:I also don't advise taking teleport. Traveling is not that difficult, and you miss out on a lot of experience from random encounters if you skip it. And Selane's right, the rest of the tree is worthless. Also, you people are recommending way too many mage schools. Take all that, and you won't have the points to pump dexterity and willpower, much less any skills.
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Jun 18, 2010 21:31
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So what about TWO WORLDS? I just got it for XBOX and its a delightful mess so far. Is magic a viable method of creating chaos or should I just Conan the hillsides?
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Jun 19, 2010 01:11
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Okay, I am about to get back into Morrowind again. What is the best way to run faster? Because my god, my character runs so slow. Is there a way I can level up athletics really fast? How do I get more fatigue (stamina)?
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Jun 19, 2010 01:14
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Oh yeah, I had a couple more questions about Metal Gear Solid: 1) Is there any way to know what parts of the game are checkpoints? 2) Is this game really loving hard? I'm playing on Normal, I'm still at the beginning of the game and I've gotten killed a few times (mostly from dumb mistakes but still). Does it get tons harder from here? Or am I just too used to modern games that baby you for the first half of the game?
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Jun 19, 2010 02:26
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blackguy32 posted:Okay, I am about to get back into Morrowind again. Try to find an athletic trainer and run everywhere. Boost Strength at level up for more Fatigue. You're weak as poo poo when you start out unless you cheese character creation to the max, and even then, you'll just be decent, so just keep training at all the skills you want to use.
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Jun 19, 2010 02:30
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HondaCivet posted:Oh yeah, I had a couple more questions about Metal Gear Solid: It pretty much only gets harder from here, although for every boss you kill up to a point your health bar increases permanently in size. Avoiding fights is the name of the game, as unlike MGS2 you don't have easy aiming or stun weapons. Prepare for hell when you have to ascend the tower.
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Jun 19, 2010 02:30
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Barudak posted:It pretty much only gets harder from here, although for every boss you kill up to a point your health bar increases permanently in size. Avoiding fights is the name of the game, as unlike MGS2 you don't have easy aiming or stun weapons. Prepare for hell when you have to ascend the tower. Should I just play it on Easy or does that take all the fun out of it? I mostly want to play it so I can enjoy the later games more. PS I found the thermal goggles!
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Jun 19, 2010 02:34
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HondaCivet posted:Should I just play it on Easy or does that take all the fun out of it? I mostly want to play it so I can enjoy the later games more. Speaking as a person who enjoys the bejesus out of the series; if you are playing it to enjoy the series, and you already got a taste for its difficulty on normal, switch to easy. The plot won't change (cannon ending btw is you not submitting to torture, as difficult as that may seem when you get there) and the game still maintains a decent enough difficulty. Granted, a lot of that difficulty is the damage of the enemies, the lack of more modern concessions to the player, and not knowing the massive lists of tricks to bypass some of the difficulty.
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Jun 19, 2010 02:50
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blackguy32 posted:Okay, I am about to get back into Morrowind again. In general, when starting Morrowind your character is pretty terrible overall. You can't hit poo poo, you run really slow and get tired easily, and nothing seems to work. Join a couple factions for some cheap services like training, and just dick around in the wild for a few hours. Around level 6 or 7 things start to pick up, just hang with it. You can do the first main quest mission at level 1 with good enough equipment but running around doing odd jobs and discovering stuff is the best part of the game. My first time through the game, at level 10 I stumbled upon a cave that has the Chrysamere, one of the best swords in the game that's also part of the last quest for one of the factions. It owned, but being able to do something like that owned even more.
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Jun 19, 2010 02:52
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