Aristotled

@flasaltine: Its an industry developer conference and these are developers nominating and voting on their peers. Not sure who all qualifies as a vote.B

@fredchuckdave: In the early bracket everything is no higher than lvl 5 and on top of that it is laughable any way you cut it. I'm just saying Reaver does not last long as a good class if you want to play as an actual Reaver. The multiplayer is weird...makes for good podcast game I suppose

@fredchuckdave: Not sure its wise to counted a video where you heavily out level the easiest multiplayer difficulty

I completed the game with almost all side content minus some rifts and skulls in Hissing Wastes in 70 hours. Now I simply wonder why I even did it, because the majority of the game is not fun like past games. It is simply a chore, 90% of the game is disconnected filler. Sorta like Kingdoms of Amalur, but at least that game had engaging combat and it was far shorter.

I completed the game earlier today, as in everything minus some rifts and skulls are not done in the hissing wastes. I have to say this game is a real disappointment. I feel like I know what playing Destiny is like. Most of the game is just useless fluff and everything that is good about the game is just in far too small amounts.

The main story-line is too short and too disconnected from the zones you go to. All of the companion characters have a single major companion quest which sets them up for some interesting character exposition but the game never does anything with it.

Seeing Ironbull and Blackwall deal with their identity problems could be very interesting but not much of interest comes of it after they set up those situations. Cullen's is of note as well, addiction is not easy to beat, but you never see him struggle after you tell him yes or no it is just magically fixed. Varric and his relationship to Bianca could be fleshed out as well, but it simply isn't. Sera doesn't really have one. Cole being more human and less spirit needs some serious exposition. How does Dorian get along with his father? Does Vivienne really enjoy being a political bitch with no soul?

My only remarks are that

A) Water cooling is highly over-rated and I would recommend that you get a Noctua NH-D14 heat sink, you plan on getting a Haf X which is the case I use and it is plenty of space for the massive dual fan heat sink

B) The PSU is overkill however I can't really talk because I have an 850 Supernova in my new rig even though I could likely have gotten away with my old 650 builder series

C) Gskills Ram is generally better than corsair and it also has better heat dispersion

Also don't let anyone tell you not to get a 4790k the improved thermals and lower power consumption are worth it alone even if currently it isn't the most efficient performance increase per dollar when it comes to gaming. Also if you plan on doing any sort of editing of video capture its great

@mb: See I haven't had it that way, I'm almost 100% on the game fighting P20 captains and I was downed 3 times in maybe 45 seconds , and on the 3rd down it was then that I didn't get the mini-game. I probably have only died maybe 6-7 times from Uruks twice from No Chance enemies one of which was a Warchief, I died way more to random Caragors than anything.

I guess I just had a far easier time with the game, once I was in the second area I was just knocking on the front door of every stronghold with little concern of death

I think it would benefit heavily from the removal of the last chance mini-game. The nemesis system feeds heavily off of you dying, and last chance lessens the impact of the Nemesis System on you because it is seriously hard to screw it up. Also Pin-Shot being removed would be good as well. It makes catching running orcs far to easy and I feel like the game should do more to slow you down in your pursuit. Like maybe grunt orcs chasing after and tackling you to the ground to allow the Captain to make space. This would also present an opportunity for whomever successfully prevents you from chasing a Captain to enter Saurons Army as one of the replacement Captains

Branding needs some serious tuning. I find it far too powerful. They should have made it so you can't brand Warchiefs and can only have one Captain branded until he becomes Warchief then you can Brand two Captains not including your current Warchief that you help'd raise through the ranks. So the basic formula for Branded Captains/Warchiefs should be # of Warchiefs + 1, because it currently trivializes the whole game. Add an additional formula to allow more Captains after all Warchiefs are under control for people who want to brand the whole Army, but frankly I don't find that any fun.

Personally the game does too much to help you succeed which minimizes the impact of the games greatest feature, the game should be slightly more punishing to force the player to learn from their mistakes and play smarter. If they add a new difficulty setting with these tweaks I would likely play through the game again. Self-restrictions to make the game more enjoyable just aren't my thing

Hearing how events could play out, it definitely strikes me that the path of choices I took made for a more satisfying ending. It should also be noted I played all 5 episodes over the course of 2 days finishing episode 5 Tuesday.

To me it seemed entirely obvious that following in Jane's footsteps is to some degree what Telltale wants you to do, or maybe it just feels the most logical. At no point are Jane's actions surprising. Her return was clearly foreshadowed by her regret of letting her sister die and seeing in Clem everything her sister wasn't capable of being. She clearly hadn't killed the baby because she was never portrayed to be so heartless, self-serving perhaps, but her development made it clear that she would only let others go when they proved themselves to be useless or a hindrance to her own survival.

The entire final confrontation paints Kenny as the clear enemy. A man who was trying to do his best falling astray, to blinded by loss to accept another failure, to thirsty for revenge on those that would hurt those he cared about to the point where he puts himself in harms way (as noted in Episode 4 when he beats the shit outa that Walker when it is clearly already dead and other walkers get dangerously close to him). Jane sheathes her knife and Kenny continues his assault in a blind rage partially because he doesn't know or understand Jane like Clem does. What is suppose to be a simple confrontation explodes into a life or death situation.

Assuming the player takes the time to get to know Jane, the only clear choice is to kill Kenny. He has outlived his usefulness and if you don't kill or leave him he could clearly become a threat to you. Even though he would likely do anything for Clem he is more likely to get you killed than help you survive.

After the confrontation is over is where I draw some of the biggest issues with the ending. The game acts like the baby being hidden is some big secret when it was very clear (at least to me) that Jane had done nothing to endanger the kid. I was expecting the Baby to be inside one of the Rest Stop restrooms, but I was wrong on that count. So the game acts like Clem (you) are stupid and you are given no option that indicates you understood what was going on the whole time. Then the small epilogue scene where you are back at the Hardware store and you confront the family similarly makes you take a black and white choice.

Either be cold and cruel, or foolish and welcoming. The man clearly has a gun on him and seems ready to draw. When the entire point of Season 2 is to understand how to survive while following some kind of moral compass you are not given that option. You can't tell him to put the gun down and you will let them in.I just pointed my gun at him and told him to fuck off.

And that feels entirely wrong, Clem is not being shaped by the events that have happened around her. She is following the two examples she has seen instead of being a mix of the two. Jane should be hardening Clem, but not the point where Clem is Jane. Conversely you should not foolishly welcome them like Clem would have done at the beginning of the season.

I can only hope that with Season 3 that the "Canon" is you and Jane going it together. There is a certain strength in the surrogate sister relationship and the growth of those two could be huge. Clem could soften Jane while Jane could strengthen Clem.

For a series that has done a good job of not making things seem black and white the ending of Season 2 is just that. Black and White.

Also I disagree about Arvo, I stole his Meds, got his entire group and remaining family killed, I tried to protect him from Kenny but ultimately failed. I can understand why he would shoot me. I was the cause of all of his problems. The lack of development with Mike and Bonnie was also pretty bad.

I'm getting the the point where the only things I consume from Giantbomb are Jartime and Bombcasts. I don't think I've watched a QL for more than 10 minutes in the last 6-9 months, I don't watch the livestreams really, at least the regular ones.