What game are you playing?

[KnightoftheWind]

if this is your first playthrough, you shouldn't have played it with some weapon pack mod.

It's more than just some weapon mod.

Revised gunplay, dynamic weapon bullet spread, smooth recoil, optional non-hitscan bullets.
Enhanced player and visual feedback.
Minor AI tweaks, more reactive and responsive AI, nearly every character blinks.
New and extra weapon animations.
Built in basic chapter selection system.
Touched up weapon models, animated weapon screens and creature eyes.
New arsenal, special weapon functions ( silencers, addons, fire modes ).
Plenty of bug fixes.
VFX re-design ( explosions, bullet impacts, muzzle flashes, monster effects, etc. ).
Minor sound re-design, additional weapon and monster sounds.
Weapon foley sounds for every single weapon.
Restored HEV voice lines.
Slightly enhanced visuals, detail textures.
Visual, atmospheric and pacing related map tweaks and additions ( work in progress ).
Some additions can be toggled in special settings menu.

that's even worse. Should've played without mods at all.

This is considered to be the definitive way to experience Half-Life, so that's why I went with it.

[SDG]

I'm playing a Diablo I mod ‎called Tchernobog

You gonna try Diablo 4 at some point Gregz? I promise it's not as bad as some are saying.

[GhostCow]

I've been playing the hell out of Street Fighter 6. Grinding my *** off in world tournament mode to unlock the second costumes for some characters, mostly. I also spent a few hours in fightcade with @Gastrick last night and was reminded that I really don't know how to play any Street Fighter game that came before SFIV. In the old days I was much more of an SNK guy. I still kick *** at Samurai Shodown and am somewhat competent at the older KOF games.

[Tweed]

Put The Swoocer aside for the moment to play Lathes of Core.

[Gregz]

Put The Witcher aside for the moment to play Caves of Lore.

FTFY.

Reminder that Tweed is a moronic agent of chaos.

[Tweed]

I'm being bullied again.

[Roguey]

Finished Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Very pretty, nice soundtrack (especially Under Cover of Night), combat's just kind of okay. There are some maddeningly frustrating parts eventually that require metagaming, like rocket launcher enemies (if you get up close enough to see that they have a rocket launcher and they fire at you, you're dead) and parts where you're faced with a big horde of enemies but you have no idea whether you're supposed to run past them as quickly as possible or take them all on slowly until you try one approach and it doesn't work. With one particular instance both approaches failed and I just had to keep trying various combinations until one worked.

It has a standard space sci-fi plot, though unlike games like Quake 2 and Unreal and Mass Effect, the lore is presented in an unnecessarily obtuse way. I guess that hooked people like Tim Cain, a huge Halo fan who did not like the changes the tv series made. I bought the entire collection so I'm going to keep at it (playing other games in-between so I don't burn out). I'm aware a lot of people hate both the story and gameplay of 4 and it's only good for sexy Cortana, but we'll see how I'm feeling about it when I've cleared the rest.

[maidenhaver]

Don't let a bunch of faggits pressure you into loving/hating a goddam video game of all things. If you like it, jus own that you're ********.

[BlueMemphis]

Confirmed that Dragon Age origins still holds up VERY well.
Probably not much i can say about it that people don't already think for themselves, but yeah i am never going to understand the origins hate, if you liked baldurs gate and neverwinter nights then it really is the one true descendant of those games (though admittedly spiders and greedfall did come close). And for all the tropey genericness of the story and setting, i still find the whole package charming as it lacks the pretentiousness i've come to associate with modern games trying to be "EPIC".

For my own mental health, it is my head cannon that DA2 and DaI do not exist, DA:O works fine as a stand alone story and setting whose mysteries never get fully explained and it is for the best.

As an aside, if anyone feels tempted to replay it aswell, do highly recommend this mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1406

Basically adds rng gear and with settings you can add more enemies to mobs.
Obviously game balance is skewed so helps if you know the game well enough to know what you're doing, but for my tastes it made the run a blast and i was really sweating for a good portion of the game when a small encounter with maybe 1 elite and 4 darkspawn can become a pitched battle against 3 elites, an ogre and like about 20 rank and file. Who would then drop gear with rng stats that broke the meta in origins of trying to collect full armor sets.

Optionally combines well with:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/577
Mostly because it adds new material tiers (white steel and volcanic) for late game. The rest of the mod adds to the general atmosphere but can also cause ctds due to dragon age exe being 2gb so you'll need to fix that, otherwise just delete the atmosphere stuff but keep the materials folder.

Related, using these mods somewhat reminds me of the randomiser mods i'd use for Baldur Gates 2 in that it made replays feel fresh. Imo one of the biggest problems when you know an rpg too well is that you know what item drops where and you can speedrun towards the best gear as well as the optimum order in how to tackle questlines, it takes a lot out of the exploration process and scavenging for gear and whether consciously, or unconsciously, it affects how you play. Randomiser mods really help in this regard.

[Acrux]

I dont hate DAO. I'm just bored by it now. I pull it up every once in a while and I'm bored by the time I leave Lothering.

[BlueMemphis]

Ooof, yeah if you are bored by the time you leave Lothering, aka when actual game starts, then no mod on earth can fix that particular problem.

[Lich]

Cataclysm: Bright Nights with Magiclysm and Arcana

[General Reign]

Confirmed that Dragon Age origins still holds up VERY well.
Probably not much i can say about it that people don't already think for themselves, but yeah i am never going to understand the origins hate, if you liked baldurs gate and neverwinter nights then it really is the one true descendant of those games (though admittedly spiders and greedfall did come close). And for all the tropey genericness of the story and setting, i still find the whole package charming as it lacks the pretentiousness i've come to associate with modern games trying to be "EPIC".

For my own mental health, it is my head cannon that DA2 and DaI do not exist, DA:O works fine as a stand alone story and setting whose mysteries never get fully explained and it is for the best.

As an aside, if anyone feels tempted to replay it aswell, do highly recommend this mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1406

Basically adds rng gear and with settings you can add more enemies to mobs.
Obviously game balance is skewed so helps if you know the game well enough to know what you're doing, but for my tastes it made the run a blast and i was really sweating for a good portion of the game when a small encounter with maybe 1 elite and 4 darkspawn can become a pitched battle against 3 elites, an ogre and like about 20 rank and file. Who would then drop gear with rng stats that broke the meta in origins of trying to collect full armor sets.

Optionally combines well with:
https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/577
Mostly because it adds new material tiers (white steel and volcanic) for late game. The rest of the mod adds to the general atmosphere but can also cause ctds due to dragon age exe being 2gb so you'll need to fix that, otherwise just delete the atmosphere stuff but keep the materials folder.

Related, using these mods somewhat reminds me of the randomiser mods i'd use for Baldur Gates 2 in that it made replays feel fresh. Imo one of the biggest problems when you know an rpg too well is that you know what item drops where and you can speedrun towards the best gear as well as the optimum order in how to tackle questlines, it takes a lot out of the exploration process and scavenging for gear and whether consciously, or unconsciously, it affects how you play. Randomiser mods really help in this regard.

What if I am playing it for the first time?

[rusty_shackleford]

What if I am playing it for the first time?

• Combat is a good implementation of actual RTwP rather than some bastardized phase-based frankenstein masquerading as real-time.
• Story is serviceable enough and actually decent at some points, hamburger helper was a much better writer than the millennials that came after her.
• UI didn't age well. It's one of those awkward middle/late 00s games that have a higher definition UI than old titles but still aren't resolution independent.
• The mechanics/systems are kinda boring and simplistic.
• You get a dog.

It's decent enough. Also has pretty good DLC. I like how some of them were done as if they're separate modules involving your character rather than a continuation of existing storylines.

[Acrux]

Story is serviceable enough and actually decent at some points, hamburger helper was a much better writer than the snake people that came after her.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Burger Becky and I was going to mock you for saying "her". But then I realized Gay-dar was the writer for DAO so I'm curious who you're referring to.

[Klerik]

[rusty_shackleford]

Story is serviceable enough and actually decent at some points, hamburger helper was a much better writer than the snake people that came after her.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Burger Becky and I was going to mock you for saying "her". But then I realized Gay-dar was the writer for DAO so I'm curious who you're referring to.

The fat woman who did a large part of the writing. @Roguey

[maidenhaver]

Roguey's a man.

[wndrbr]

Story is serviceable enough and actually decent at some points, hamburger helper was a much better writer than the snake people that came after her.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Burger Becky and I was going to mock you for saying "her". But then I realized Gay-dar was the writer for DAO so I'm curious who you're referring to.

The fat woman who did a large part of the writing. @Roguey

I thought Hepler only became a major writer on DA2.

[Roguey]

Story is serviceable enough and actually decent at some points, hamburger helper was a much better writer than the snake people that came after her.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Burger Becky and I was going to mock you for saying "her". But then I realized Gay-dar was the writer for DAO so I'm curious who you're referring to.

The fat woman who did a large part of the writing. @Roguey

Jennifer Hepler. She wrote the dwarf commoner origin and Orzammar. https://blog.bioware.com/2012/06/11/int ... er-hepler/

My name is Jennifer Hepler and I’m a senior writer on the Dragon Age franchise. I wrote the Dwarf Commoner, Orzammar and the Deep Roads for Dragon Age: Origins; Anders, Sebastian, Bethany and most of the mage-Templar plots for Dragon Age II; and the Act 2 and3 Smuggler and a whole ton of Taris, Tatooine, Nar Shaadda, Balmorra, and Alderaan world quests for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

[Emphyrio]

For a moment I thought you were talking about Burger Becky and I was going to mock you for saying "her". But then I realized Gay-dar was the writer for DAO so I'm curious who you're referring to.

The fat woman who did a large part of the writing. @Roguey

Jennifer Hepler. She wrote the dwarf commoner origin and Orzammar. https://blog.bioware.com/2012/06/11/int ... er-hepler/

My name is Jennifer Hepler and I’m a senior writer on the Dragon Age franchise. I wrote the Dwarf Commoner, Orzammar and the Deep Roads for Dragon Age: Origins; Anders, Sebastian, Bethany and most of the mage-Templar plots for Dragon Age II; and the Act 2 and3 Smuggler and a whole ton of Taris, Tatooine, Nar Shaadda, Balmorra, and Alderaan world quests for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Orzammar and dwarf commoner weren't bad. She probably got unfair hate because she admitted that she's not good at video games, and being fat.

[rusty_shackleford]

Compared to those that came after she's easily one of the better RPG writers based on the dwarf area of DAO alone.

[Emphyrio]

I played Maneater, the self-described shARkPG. Beautiful game. The combat kind of sucks though. Against humans you have to dodge just about every second to avoid getting shot, and diving doesn't help much. Predator fish are really easy to fight above your level but for some reason alligators keep kicking my ***. There's a lot of boring ubi style collection sidequests. Quests are either "kill the alligator that's ten levels higher than you" or "eat ten fish while a bunch of alligators are biting your ***".

[Roguey]

She probably got unfair hate because she admitted that she's not good at video games, and being fat.

Right the "you should be able to skip combat" got her a lot of hate. As well as describing the romance options in DA 2 as "From virginal girl next door, to crazy up against the wall, let's have it on right here" which a lot of people thought as cringe (also not really accurate; I wouldn't describe demon-bargaining blood magic-using Merrill as 'virginal girl next door' though she does have her head in the clouds). People also accused her of being a fujoshi because Anders went canon bi in DA2 (though this wasn't her call to make, a lot of people assumed so because she was in charge of writing him and aren't particularly aware of the hierarchy involved in how these decisions are made). And of course the harassment campaign that happened when she thoughtlessly wrote a tweet to a fan suggesting that her haters were just jealous that she had a vagina and a game dev job (best not to publicly respond to criticism at all when it's not your job unless you really enjoy flame wars and the company doesn't mind [and they probably will]).

[MadPreacher]

She probably got unfair hate because she admitted that she's not good at video games, and being fat.

Right the "you should be able to skip combat" got her a lot of hate. As well as describing the romance options in DA 2 as "From virginal girl next door, to crazy up against the wall, let's have it on right here" which a lot of people thought as cringe (also not really accurate; I wouldn't describe demon-bargaining blood magic-using Merrill as 'virginal girl next door' though she does have her head in the clouds). People also accused her of being a fujoshi because Anders went canon bi in DA2 (though this wasn't her call to make, a lot of people assumed so because she was in charge of writing him and aren't particularly aware of the hierarchy involved in how these decisions are made). And of course the harassment campaign that happened when she thoughtlessly wrote a tweet to a fan suggesting that her haters were just jealous that she had a vagina and a game dev job (best not to publicly respond to criticism at all when it's not your job unless you really enjoy flame wars and the company doesn't mind [and they probably will]).

She's a prime example of why women shouldn't be allowed in the workplace. They can't handle any criticism and have to run to their white knights.

[maidenhaver]

I'm playing Skyrim.

[Gregz]

Just finished a Jupiter Hell playthrough. Managed to find Love and Death as a marine, it was total gunslinger ownage.

[rusty_shackleford]

Just finished a Jupiter Hell playthrough. Managed to find Love and Death as a marine, it was total gunslinger ownage.

Did you cheat this time?

[KnightoftheWind]

Finally got around to playing "Painkiller". It has a very cool aesthetic and the gameplay is enjoyable enough, with one of the best melee weapons in any game period, however for some reason the devs insisted on adding an unnecessary blur/screen shake effect that happens every time you fire your weapon or get hit by an enemy. It's fatiguing, and as far as I know there's no method of turning it off which is a shame.

Haven't yet completed the game, I'm currently stuck on a giant boss that's rather difficult to take down.

[Suissant]

Playing Icewind Dale because it's the comfiest game.