Baal_Sagoth

@Video_Game_King said:

Plus they're not very good at it, and so much has been said about the game already that it's doubtful that there's anything left to be said.

You could level that argument against the entire site. It's not like there absolutely needs to be another fucking website about videogames. It's just that giantbomb happens to the best one of those in my humble opinion that enough other people seem to share so far. Stating that GB sucks at doing anything in a matter of fact way is just nonsense and nothing but your personal perspective - that you're entitled to of course. Don't like their ER? Watch one of the hundreds of Let's Plays that have to be out there, I'm sure. Don't like their unique take on gaming coverage? Go to one of the hundreds or thousands of sites that tackle the same subject from a different angle. I personally don't manage to catch every piece of video game coverage out there or play every fucking game since the existence of videogames so I pick and choose content I enjoy. More often than not that is stuff I find on GB due to my personal bias and opinions on games.

I have neither played Chrono Trigger nor have I heard much about it other than the amazing nostalgia and hype people still have for it. I don't feel like GB has ever been about the "hottest", "hippest" or "newest" topics - to me it's about a couple of dudes with very cool personalities that enjoy playing games and are good at communicating their views to my kind of nerdy view. Your point seems really ineffective and nitpicky - GB content never seemed to be about the most "hardcore" or "pro" coverage. I personally don't care how many damn nerds voiced their opinions on CT, I want to hear what Ryan and Patrick have to say about it. It's all I ever wanted out of GB.

Maybe I miss an essential point here, but none of the CT ER haters seem to do anything else but run-off-the-mill whining and bitching so far. We'll see but the first episode seemed pretty damn cool to me.

@StaticFalconar: Amazing post, I enjoyed reading that very much. For all the laughs and giggles I got out of this topic the lone wanderer part with his mind set on destruction and ruthless killing actually got me thinking for a moment.

I actually found that exact fort or another one dedicated to pit dog fights and really liked the scenario and presentation. Later I actually found the appropriate "karma's a bitch" scenario on the overworld where a bandit was torn apart by wolves and pit dogs, carrying a written order to capture more animals for the fights. So calm down, OP, Bethesda just does a pretty good job presenting a very rough and fucked up universe that includes countless cruelties like many others pointed out. I, for one, enjoy that in a video game.

Oh man, this has to be the funniest Skyrim thread in existence. Skooma and moon sugar - I love the stuff since I laid eyes upon the magnificent drug labs near Vivec!

Great work dude! At least your "wife" isn't real, that's what I hope.

Like everyone said: if you're keen on it absolutely play Oblivion first but do consider to dive right into Skyrim. Because that could easily last dozens if not hundreds of hours on its own should you so desire. Don't worry about story contingency and all that either. Apart from being a cohesive world throughout every TES episode they're pretty self-contained games with references to each other and little more.

@Babylonian: Hm, I guess the level-based spell description is not a thing we'll agree about. It being less than ideal or not your thing or slightly more effort than you're willing to invest is obviously a matter of opinion and perspective. Calling it dumb is just plain wrong in my opinion. It gives you more information than you care to try to understand when playing a game. Other options would be: cut the entire mechanic (which would be OK for me, but why would you really?), don't give levels but less transparent and easier to understand descriptions like "weak", "medium" or "strong enemies" or make the spell always work but for varying periods of time. The latter would probably be the most newbie-friendly option but, again, take away transparancy since it would be possibly very hard to figure out how well the spell still works when the game is afraid to tell you, you failed, in order to not hurt your feelings or power fantasy.

The things you vaguely describe as "un-modern" (what the fuck is that even supposed to mean precisely?) are the things I always loved and still love about these games. I just hate it when "modern" players feel entitled to have hand-holding and barely a challenge in every fucking game ever. I don't buy mainstreamy games all the time and then go ahead and shit all over the things people like about them either. There is so much more than one approach to game design, it's fine to sometimes just ignore games that aren't for you at all anyway. No need to streamline every game to the extent that they all feel exactly the same like the plethora of action(-adventure) games that barely even dare to introduce different mechanics.

But it's not like I haven't heard this shit a million times by now and it's not really worth fighting about of course. I just hope in the end there will still be the occasional complex game that isn't afraid to be opaque to lazy players.

@Babylonian: Yeah, how would you possibly be able to know what all this "levelling" nonsense is about and what general strength to expect in relation to a certain level range. I mean it's not like your own character works like that and has these weird "levels" everyone is babbling about. You can estimate enemies' levels by a variety of tells like the type of armor/ spells/ weapons etc. they're using, at least in a rough fashion. And I think it is a very conscious design choice to not give you exact information about that so you have to experiment with different tactics all the time. Of course that doesn't mean you have to like that system and these spell descriptions can be somewhat confusing if you have no experience with a certain school of magic at all but TES games are about exploring and experimenting in a creative fashion - that is one of their great strenghts.

I think the fact that every NPC, every enemy, every monster works with the same leveling system that your character uses has more advantages than disadvantages and I really like it. Not really trying the system out and then calling it "stupid" is, well, sorta stupid. Even if it doesn't match your tastes there's so much different options that help you avoid anything giving you level ranges in a description entirely since it is only a very small part of the magic system.

@bitterninja said:

the mage light spell you fire at walls

I don't have much experience with using Clairvoyance yet but this still is true! And I barely used my low-level Candlelight since even that is barely relevant even without brightness adjustment. I see just about everything just fine with the default settings most of the time.

@Phoenix778m: Yep, I loved that in Morrowind. Always made a light/ nightvision spell as soon as possible to get rid of torches and nonsense like that. I enjoy it for atmospheric reasons, but it probably is too much of a hassle for a lot of gamers, which is fine too.

@nabbs:Oh man, thanks dude! That's very helpful. Coming into this thread I thought I figured 'em all out for myself pretty much but boy was i wrong about that. I haven't even encountered a handful of these ever in my 60 hours of play. Most of them are reasonably distinctive and self-explanatory though so I don't think shrouding the symbols in a bit of mystery is a big deal.

@Ares42: Are you guys sure this is the case? The Gauldur sidequest and some other similar locations have tombs marked with the claw/ crown/ whatever symbol and I don't recall finding a word of power there for the life of me. Am I going crazy? Or maybe I managed to run past the wall? Mixing things up? In any case, you're at the very least right about them mostly having word walls even if my exceptions are correct.

Really shady story. If they want the community to give feedback they should go to them, not invite random people from fucking NeoGAF. Being a good little bitch and not stepping on anyone's toes does not equal real knowledge about problems with video games. Eloquence is a nice to have feature not a tell-tale sign of being smart, helpful or anything like that. They want to seem like they are being 'democratic' about their balancing process (which is a silly idea to begin with) and try to prove it by giving four random internet forum nerds a tour of the studio - it seems like exceptionally dumb viral marketing.

Then again, what do I know, I'm not even that interested in Uncharted and always hated the shooting parts. I just really hope this nonsense doesn't spread and not many developers start listening to a crowd that is as anonymous, diverse and random as the legions of fans of mainstream bestsellers. BAD fucking Gothic 3 flashback, a case where the developer also used starstruck random fanboys to keep up the illusion they were giving a fuck about their customers a little longer. You already fucked up your game despite obscene financial success and budget Naughty Dog, get over it and try again.