project343

Tales from the Borderlands--something that seemed like such a cash-grab association with a shitball of a company (Gearbox)--ends up loaded to the brim with heart and soul in a way that few narrative games can touch. Tales from the Borderlands clearly had some real writing talent from the start, and then the rest of the staff fell in love with the end product. The result is a series that started great and has only gotten better as the team has become mesmerized by their own accomplishments. They're trying to one-up themselves every episode, and you can feel it from a mile away.

Those title sequences are exemplary of this. And then you compare it to the awful title sequences from their other currently-running series... night and fucking day.

@poobumbutt:The Deathstroke stuff was actually some of my favourite parts of Origins (granted, I never actually finished the game--felt way too samey for me). A cutthroat battle of reflexes is actually how the whole Batman vs. Deathstroke thing should go.

Manbat, for me, was a huge letdown. It was such an easy objective. Introducing him the way that they did was pretty novel, but then he just sort of casually flaps away. The video footage at the lab works pretty well as origin material, but boy does it feel convoluted and forced. What are the odds that this extremely thorough footage of the Manbat origin was playing on loop in his laboratory? It's the sort of side mission that really gives you the impression that they were short of time. They wanted to desperately include him in the game, but didn't have the time to flesh out even partially developed encounters with him.

Fox is Missing/Friend in Need was one of those neat little moments that felt on-par with the main campaign. They had a cool idea, executed it well, and the payoff worked out great. The only problem is something that you mentioned: it was way too short. There was little for the player to actually do with this one. It was a quick, 5 minute scripted narrative sequence. Again, it sort of feels like their ambitions got the better of their development time. Hush deserves a little better than a quick exchange like that; I sort of wish that there was a prolonged, gadgetless infiltration of Wayne Tower with some subtle hints along the way.

The game fucking rocks. Totally on my GOTY list. I'm just making the argument that a lot of the side content is a bit half-baked, and doesn't respect one of the most important aspects of Batman: his incredible and varied cast of accompanying villains. It sort of makes the game feel like Assassin's Creed: Gotham sometimes.

It seems like a functional PC port, but honestly, it really is a lesser experience. Numerous characters are at a severe disadvantage due to the control scheme (Scylla and Rama's ultimates come to mind). Any characters who rely on precise aiming just naturally feel at a disadvantage, and it sort of muddies the balance of the game. Rama's ult should hit harder on console because it's even more difficult to use reliably.

I also find that the less-than-60 framerate makes the game feel way too sluggish. Having played well over 500 hours of Smite on PC, this could just be an awkward transition thing, but the whole experience just doesn't "feel" right. And I consider myself a console gamer at heart.

The best mission from each game:

• The Silent Cartographer (Halo: Combat Evolved)
• Outskirts (Halo 2)
• The Ark (Halo 3)
• Coastal Highway (Halo 3: ODST)
• Reclaimer (Halo 4)

Having just replayed the entire Master Chief Collection, these were the standouts for me.

Honorable mentions go to The Covenant (Halo 3), Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved), and Kikowani Station (Halo 3: ODST).

Oblivion. It came out at the perfect time in my life.

Fallout 3 was way too directed for my liking; I'm part of the New Vegas camp of Fallout fans: that game is totally way better.

Skyrim certainly moved the series forward in a few notable ways (aesthetics and combat in particular). But it also dropped the ball in too many ways; they completely stripped the soul away from two of my favourite things about Oblivion: potion crafting and spellcrafting. More than that, it completely fucked up guilds. They were both severely derivative and wholly worse than in their predecessor. The civil war stuff was also one of the most underwhelming quest chains in the series.

This is my list (I've finished every game, with well over 60-80 hours in each):

1. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2. Fallout: New Vegas (not technically a Bethesda RPG though)
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
4. Fallout 3

Here I thought that this was a thread about 'Press X to Pay Your Respects.' Talk about one of the most jarring, tone-deaf references that I've experienced recently. It completely took me out of one of the most integral sequences in the game.

Harley's animation work was great and tons of fun. As mentioned, her HUD was also clever. But other than those two notably positive points, the DLC was extremely underwhelming. I hope their follow-up Gotham City Stories deliver more meaningful content.

A lot of recent JRPGs. Bravely Default sort of takes the cake for me.

Pros

• Lots of content
• Big, open environments that span many different locations
• Great cast of characters
• Romance arcs that amount to much more than a single 'payoff' scene. They're woven into the entire main story thread.
• Occasional moments of narrative brilliance.
• Subjectively speaking, I really like the art direction and tarot card aesthetic.

Cons

• Too much content. The whole thing feels terribly padded.
• "Content" is almost always combat. The prior two games (especially the first one) perfectly blended and balanced combat, dialogue, exploration, and puzzle solving.
• The combat is significantly less responsive than the previous game (DAII). Sure, there's a tactical mode, but engaging in the mode moves combat forward a second or two. Then navigating the tactical mode is a goddamn nightmare. Everything feels clunky and just unresponsive enough to leave you praying that everything plays out as you had set up.
• The RPG mechanics are a mess. Crafting, resource-gathering, the skill trees... they all feel very unrefined. Gathering is too grindy, crafting is too archaic, and the skill trees severely lack balance and cohesion.
• The "loop" is not streamlined enough, especially with regard to Skyhold. Having to go out into the field, mark stuff, then come back to the war table to "clear" obstacles feels shitty. Having to wait hours (real-time) for stuff to get done via the war table is not at all fun either. Why does an in-depth, hardcore RPG franchise need to be mobile-gamed? Find a new resource and want to see what it does in a crafted recipe? Well, you've got to sift through at least three loading screens.
• The main story arc, particularly the second half, is awful. Filled to the brim with fantasy cliches and predictable plot motions. The whole thing ends so abruptly and unsatisfactorily.

I enjoyed the first two games more. By the end of my 76-hour run, I was dying for the experience to be over, and I never want to touch that game again. Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II? I replay those all the time.

I hated the half-season of The Wire that I watched. It just felt cheap, and not in terms of production values. A lot of the writing was just lazy shock-value and disgustingly-forced 'edgy' swearing. I adore modern day big-budget TV dramas, and I don't think that The Wire fits in with most of the great television out there today.