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usernamenumber) wrote2012-10-04 12:44 pm
usernamenumber) wrote2012-10-04 12:44 pm
Xbox RPG(ish) recs?
M and I have been playing BioWare games together as one of our preferred "ugh, we has no brains tonight" activities for almost as long as we've been dating, and it's been a lot of fun. True they're not two-player games per se, but the stories and character interactions tend to be just interesting enough, and the combat just monotonous enough, that we just periodically hand the controller back and forth, and debate every quest and dialogue option. The fact that we've done this for four longass games (Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Awakenings, Mass Effect, and now Dragon Age II) without murdering one another is, I think, one of the strongest signs about our relationship. :)
That said, we've been thinking of branching out (he says, shortly after ordering a copy of Mass Effect II), so I thought I'd ask for some recs.
I've been thinking about what I look for in a game, and the list I've reached for myself (and I think it's similar for M) is something like...
1) Story-driven. Sandbox games are cool on a technical level, but I'm actually realizing I don't like having too much freedom. I don't want to be railroaded either, but I've found that the quickest way to make me lose interest in a game is to make me forget why I'm doing whatever I'm doing, and why what I'm doing matters.
2) Character/interaction-driven. My biggest complaint about the changes from DA:O vs later BioWare games, is that we lost the ability to have conversations with party members anywhere other than "in camp". One of the things M and I loved about DA:O was the aspect of "Hey, bored fighting monsters in this dungeon? Take a break to flirt with a blood-spattered companion! Have a heart-to-heart with the dwarf! Send your dog to find random things! etc!". Basically, managing inter-character relationships is one of our favorite aspects of these games. ...so maybe what we really want is a dating sim with bonus combat and world-saving. Hmm...
3) Lots of customization. I like tweaking things. Skills, items, whatever. I like it when I by tweaking a character I can both improve stats and alter gameplay. This is a place where M and I differ somewhat. I feel so stereotypical saying so, but it drives me nuts when she picks up Bob The Mighty's Legendary Axe of Floor-Wiping and just chucks it in the backpack without so much as looking at it, let alone equipping it to replace our current weapon, the butter knife we found on a dead gnome three levels ago. Conversely, it drives her nuts when I endlessly futz around comparing equipment stats. We've reached a mostly-workable solution by taking advantage of the fact that she usually falls asleep at some point, so we just pretend there's a mini-game called "Inventory!" that I can spend as much time on as I want when she's not there/conscious for it (same goes for shopping/crafting/enchanting/etc).
4) Tactical(-ish) combat. While I like shooters, bad AI and/or overly monotonous combat kills a game for me. I don't (think I) want an RTS, but I do like it when being able to stop and think about what I'm doing, coordinate attacks among the party, etc, really makes a difference.
I think that covers the basics, and I think for me they're pretty much in priority order, too.
For example, I just played through Halo 3 and, like all the games so far in that series, I loved it despite it only having one thing on the above list. Feeling like I'm playing out a story with stakes that interest me is huge, and the Halo games do a great job of having a strong narrative through all of the missions, so fighting through to the next room feels like turning the page in an action story. Ditto Portal 2, which... oh man, <3 <3 <3ing that game (yes, I'm late to the party).
On the other hand, I grabbed Fallout 3: New Vegas a while back (maybe a mistake having not played Fallout 3?), and have been kinda meh, even though on paper it has all the things on my list. I enjoy the leveling system, but the AIs (at least on the 360) are dumb as rocks, which makes the combat boring, and the only companions I've found so far are a sullen sniper and a mute robot (hint: the robot's more interesting). While I have tons of power to affect the world, most of the NPCs just... don't really grab me enough for me to feel invested in one side or another, and the world is *so* big and open that I find myself forgetting or just not caring about why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's not that it's a bad game, it just... isn't grabbing me.
Soooo... yeah. I guess what I'm saying is: So far, BioWare has come the closest to having the formula right for me, but I'd kind of like to branch out. Any suggestions (needs to be available for the 360)? Games I've been considering include Arkham Asylum (not usually one for beat-em-ups, but the demo was interesting, and made M and I both nostalgic for playing Tenchu back in the day), Skyrim (really, this should be a no-brainer, but I tend to like to wait for games to come down in price, and Oblivion never grabbed me that much), and some other random RPGs that seem to have at least gotten OK reviews, like Kingdoms of Amalur, Two Worlds II, etc.
Whatchathink?
Edit Oh, also totally open to recs for actual co-op games. We've been enjoying Schizoid a lot, though it sometimes takes more brain than we have available in the evenings, and I feel like we should be enjoying Trine 2 more than we have. Probably worth another chance, that one.
That said, we've been thinking of branching out (he says, shortly after ordering a copy of Mass Effect II), so I thought I'd ask for some recs.
I've been thinking about what I look for in a game, and the list I've reached for myself (and I think it's similar for M) is something like...
1) Story-driven. Sandbox games are cool on a technical level, but I'm actually realizing I don't like having too much freedom. I don't want to be railroaded either, but I've found that the quickest way to make me lose interest in a game is to make me forget why I'm doing whatever I'm doing, and why what I'm doing matters.
2) Character/interaction-driven. My biggest complaint about the changes from DA:O vs later BioWare games, is that we lost the ability to have conversations with party members anywhere other than "in camp". One of the things M and I loved about DA:O was the aspect of "Hey, bored fighting monsters in this dungeon? Take a break to flirt with a blood-spattered companion! Have a heart-to-heart with the dwarf! Send your dog to find random things! etc!". Basically, managing inter-character relationships is one of our favorite aspects of these games. ...so maybe what we really want is a dating sim with bonus combat and world-saving. Hmm...
3) Lots of customization. I like tweaking things. Skills, items, whatever. I like it when I by tweaking a character I can both improve stats and alter gameplay. This is a place where M and I differ somewhat. I feel so stereotypical saying so, but it drives me nuts when she picks up Bob The Mighty's Legendary Axe of Floor-Wiping and just chucks it in the backpack without so much as looking at it, let alone equipping it to replace our current weapon, the butter knife we found on a dead gnome three levels ago. Conversely, it drives her nuts when I endlessly futz around comparing equipment stats. We've reached a mostly-workable solution by taking advantage of the fact that she usually falls asleep at some point, so we just pretend there's a mini-game called "Inventory!" that I can spend as much time on as I want when she's not there/conscious for it (same goes for shopping/crafting/enchanting/etc).
4) Tactical(-ish) combat. While I like shooters, bad AI and/or overly monotonous combat kills a game for me. I don't (think I) want an RTS, but I do like it when being able to stop and think about what I'm doing, coordinate attacks among the party, etc, really makes a difference.
I think that covers the basics, and I think for me they're pretty much in priority order, too.
For example, I just played through Halo 3 and, like all the games so far in that series, I loved it despite it only having one thing on the above list. Feeling like I'm playing out a story with stakes that interest me is huge, and the Halo games do a great job of having a strong narrative through all of the missions, so fighting through to the next room feels like turning the page in an action story. Ditto Portal 2, which... oh man, <3 <3 <3ing that game (yes, I'm late to the party).
On the other hand, I grabbed Fallout 3: New Vegas a while back (maybe a mistake having not played Fallout 3?), and have been kinda meh, even though on paper it has all the things on my list. I enjoy the leveling system, but the AIs (at least on the 360) are dumb as rocks, which makes the combat boring, and the only companions I've found so far are a sullen sniper and a mute robot (hint: the robot's more interesting). While I have tons of power to affect the world, most of the NPCs just... don't really grab me enough for me to feel invested in one side or another, and the world is *so* big and open that I find myself forgetting or just not caring about why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's not that it's a bad game, it just... isn't grabbing me.
Soooo... yeah. I guess what I'm saying is: So far, BioWare has come the closest to having the formula right for me, but I'd kind of like to branch out. Any suggestions (needs to be available for the 360)? Games I've been considering include Arkham Asylum (not usually one for beat-em-ups, but the demo was interesting, and made M and I both nostalgic for playing Tenchu back in the day), Skyrim (really, this should be a no-brainer, but I tend to like to wait for games to come down in price, and Oblivion never grabbed me that much), and some other random RPGs that seem to have at least gotten OK reviews, like Kingdoms of Amalur, Two Worlds II, etc.
Whatchathink?
Edit Oh, also totally open to recs for actual co-op games. We've been enjoying Schizoid a lot, though it sometimes takes more brain than we have available in the evenings, and I feel like we should be enjoying Trine 2 more than we have. Probably worth another chance, that one.
no subject
I've also actually played several of the games you recommend (KoTOR, Fable, Deus Ex, Jade Empire, and a couple of Black Isle games like Fallout 2, and (most of) Chrono Trigger), and agree with you on all of them, which gives me reason to believe I'll agree with you on the others! :)
Fun Fact: an earlier draft of my post cited KoTOR's combat system, where you could queue up the next three actions of each companion, as my favorite from all of Bioware's games. There's a Mac port available for $20 and I've been thinking about trying to talk M into playing through it next.
I also think Jade Empire didn't get the credit it deserved for doing a way, way better job of creating a real-time martial arts combat RPG than I'd have thought would be possible. My biggest complaint about both KoTOR and JE is that for a while Bioware games had a formula: 1) Play a light-side (or equivalent) character. 2) Work up to the high-level stun ability that all light-side (or equivalent) characters can get in Bioware games. 3) Become completely unstoppable to anything short of a major boss. ;)
Oddly, I was never able to get into KoTOR2. Ditto Fable2 (or did I skip to 3?...) Should really give it another try, I guess.
Finally, Deus Ex is absolutely one of my all-time favorite shooters (along with the Half Life series and System Shock 2-- if you haven't played SS2, do so!), and probably one of my all-time favorite games period as well. Oddly, like KoTOR2, the beginning of Human Revolution didn't grab me, but I've heard enough good stuff about it (except that the supposed dilemma between the two factions is pretty one-sided, the way everyone seems to tell it) that I'm willing to give it another try too.
Anyway thanks for the recs! We've got a dusty old PS2 here and a copy of one of the MG Solid games, so maybe I'll give that a try the net time I'm feeling retro. :)
no subject
I'll point out, then, that Lost Odyssey and Indigo Prophecy are both XBox games. Also, that they're definitely making a Linux version of Project Eternity.
Since you loved Deus Ex, I'll mention Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines is considered a spiritual successor to that game.
I also agree with you re: Jade Empire. I'd really like to see another wuxia cRPG come out sometime. I think there's great potential and an untapped market there.
SS2 is definitely a game I've wanted to play for a long time, but haven't gotten around to.