Zeo Punctuation on Mass Effect

[muds_animal_friend]

a good portion of all the memorable characters in CRPGs come from BIO[ware] games

An experience may be "memorable" but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's positive. I'd happily swap Bioware's irritating one-trick pony NPCs for an Icewind Dale or Wizardy 8 style player generated party.

 

[dragonfk]

I'd happily swap Bioware's irritating one-trick pony NPCs for an Icewind Dale or Wizardy 8 style player generated party.

Never.

 

[dolio]

An experience may be "memorable" but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's positive. I'd happily swap Bioware's irritating one-trick pony NPCs for an Icewind Dale or Wizardy 8 style player generated party.

Well, you can do that by starting a game in multiplayer mode, and subsequently copying the save game into the single player folder so that you don't have to go through all the multiplayer BS (and so that quickload works). At least, that works in BG2. I don't have the original.

Of course, then you lose out on soloing up to level 13 or whatever and getting all your party members with however much free experience it'd take to get them up to 1.2 million. But that might be a small price to pay. Minsc alone is responsible for my quitting half way through the opening dungeon the first two or three times I tried to play it.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

An experience may be "memorable" but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's positive. I'd happily swap Bioware's irritating one-trick pony NPCs for an Icewind Dale or Wizardy 8 style player generated party.

Well, you can do that by starting a game in multiplayer mode, and subsequently copying the save game into the single player folder so that you don't have to go through all the multiplayer BS (and so that quickload works). At least, that works in BG2. I don't have the original.

So... I'm completely ignorant on how this works. Does the above mean I'd be playing BG 2 singleton or I can 'import' other characters I've generated as party members? I'd love to replay BG 2 with a tailor-made party.

 

[DefJam101]

Don't be retarded. It just embarasses you. At least know what you are talking about first.

You seem to sum up your amazingly complex logic in the last sentence of your post, why bother posting the rest? It wastes valuable typing and reading time.

 

[Volourn]

"So... I'm completely ignorant on how this works. Does the above mean I'd be playing BG 2 singleton or I can 'import' other characters I've generated as party members? I'd love to replay BG 2 with a tailor-made party."

Start a MP game. Create all 6 characters. Go into the save files, and transfer the MP save to the SP save section. Voila. You can now play SP with 6 self created characters no problem. It works for both BGs.

 

[cardtrick]

But it's stupidly overpowered if you're decent at building characters. Be prepared to be bored.

EDIT: Or, take a small party of uber characters. That can be pretty fun. Ranger/cleric multi, kensai dualed to thief, and sorceror would be choice.

 

[Jasede]

Or just go solo wizard, the only real way to play BG anyway.

 

[Texas Red]

Why is pure sorcerer considered the shit? I mostly used mages for protection and enchantments and I can't see them going in to a room and destroying everything.

BTW, a pure cleric with all of the buffs on can beat anything on his own. *He* can enter the mindflayer city and pwn them all. And the point is, its not a powerbuild.

And since we're on the subject of BG, why do people bash ToB? I played only a little and the concept of a sort of war between the Bhaal spawn was interesting, meeting them all and the like. I only disliked the immershun breaking piles of generic +5 swords lying around and high level guards.

 

[Dark Matter]

So I'm assuming he got the game to review as an assignment from the horrible mr. Pitts, and had to do something with it. Given those limitations, he did the best he could with hilarious results. I liked it.

I think it's hilarious how some of the people here keep making all kinds of silly assumptions to defend their good buddy, Yahtzee.

At its very core, his criticism of Mass Effect is that this focus on extensive narrative isn't adequately compensated with gameplay - which is fine for people who like that sort of shit.

Right, it's fine because it's Yahtzee and a Bioware game. But when your average gamer complains about Torment for that exact same reason, they're just a dumb mainstream console n00b. Amirite?

 

[cardtrick]

And since we're on the subject of BG, why do people bash ToB? I played only a little and the concept of a sort of war between the Bhaal spawn was interesting, meeting them all and the like. I only disliked the immershun breaking piles of generic +5 swords lying around and high level guards.

I like ToB. With Ascension and the Harder Boss Battles (or whatever it's called) mods installed, I think it's definitely the best part of the series. Ascension provides a satisfying ending, and the other mod helps ensure that combat is pretty tactical and reasonably challenging. Sarevok is a cool character, considerably more fleshed out than most of the BG2 NPCs. The epilogues are well done.

 

[Brother None]

I think it's hilarious how some of the people here keep making all kinds of silly assumptions to defend their good buddy, Yahtzee.

I have no idea why, but Yahtzee has some kind of iconic status amongst many people, despite the fact that's he's just a really funny but very mediocre reviewer who only highlights games from one side (the negative side).

I'm thinking it'll get old at some point too, especially if he keeps pulling obviously stupid stuff like this.

But whatever. Lots of laughs.

 

[Jeff Graw]

I have no idea why, but Yahtzee has some kind of iconic status amongst many people, despite the fact that's he's just a really funny but very mediocre reviewer who only highlights games from one side (the negative side).

The freeware horror-adventure games he makes also contribute to his status.

 

[Jasede]

cardtrick, do you mean, with Harder Boss Battles, the mods by dgaider? Or is that a seperate one? Because I do think there'd be no need for a seperate one. dgaider's demogorgon is the shit.

TWD, solo-wizards/sorcerers are fun because they can do just that: walk into a room and kill everything, easily. Nobody said clerics can't do the same, solo.

 

[Raapys]

Solo-sorcerer is unbeatable and massive fun in BG2. Way too many great spells, especially with ToB installed.

I haven't tried solo-cleric myself, but I'm not sure such a character would be able to finish the final battle in Watcher's Keep?

 

[Brother None]

The freeware horror-adventure games he makes also contribute to his status.

I tried one of those, it was fun but not exactly freeware-game-of-the-year material.

 

[Gambler]

I did my usual cursory glance over notable forum threads to get my feedback and it seems some people on one forum that shall remain nameless have been calling me a hypocrite for apparently liking Planescape Torment despite it, too, being a monstrously wordy game. My response: where the hell did you get the impression that I liked Planescape Torment? That, too, I found boring and couldn't get further than the first world.

He is a true next-gen reviewer. Who needs boring text reviews that try to describe games when you can have flash videos made entirely for lulz?

 

[dolio]

Why is pure sorcerer considered the shit? I mostly used mages for protection and enchantments and I can't see them going in to a room and destroying everything.

Sorcerers have two main advantages.

1) They get more spells-per-day than mages, which is handy.

2) They can use their spells-per-day on any spell of the given level.

Those two together get ridiculous with the really high level spells. All the level 9 and 10 spells share slots, so a mage has to be choosy, and a sorcerer can just cast them all in any combination he wants. He could cast 6 wishes a day if he wanted/had to, but a mage would be, roughly speaking, gimping himself to spend all his high level slots on one spell.

And, strictly speaking, there aren't that many spells that are necessary to cover all the situations needed to complete the game. So, the added versatility of the mage doesn't help that much (in BG2). And going solo lets you level up really fast, so you can throw around horrid wiltings and the like much earlier than if you were playing in a party.

BTW, a pure cleric with all of the buffs on can beat anything on his own. *He* can enter the mindflayer city and pwn them all. And the point is, its not a powerbuild.

Yeah, a cleric can buff up and whack stuff. And he can protect himself from charming and such. But he can't set up ridiculous chain contingencies to blow up groups of enemies on sight. And he can't stop time, turn into a mindflayer, and auto-hit enemies to death. And he can't become totally invulnerable to melee (mirror image/stoneskin/protection from magical weapons/... unless your a cleric/ranger for iron skin) and various energy types (protection from magic energy/elements/...). And he can't wear the robe of Vecna and amulet of power, and use improved alacrity to cast N spells per round. Etc.

 

[cardtrick]

cardtrick, do you mean, with Harder Boss Battles, the mods by dgaider? Or is that a seperate one? Because I do think there'd be no need for a seperate one. dgaider's demogorgon is the shit.

Yeah, you're right, I forgot that the Tougher battles were included with Weidu Ascension. They're an optional install, though.

If I remember correctly, though, he didn't do Tougher versions of all the Bhaalspawn, and I had to install separate mods to do that. Could be wrong though.

 

[sabishii]

I finished SoA a year or two ago and then stopped playing, but was planning to continue on to ToB. Then last year I formatted my computer... and forgot to backup that save game. I'm still so pissed.

 

[Astromarine]

So I'm assuming he got the game to review as an assignment from the horrible mr. Pitts, and had to do something with it. Given those limitations, he did the best he could with hilarious results. I liked it.

I think it's hilarious how some of the people here keep making all kinds of silly assumptions to defend their good buddy, Yahtzee.

Let me clarify something to a certain kind of person who sends certain kinds of mail. The games I review are usually chosen for me by my editor or worked out between him and me beforehand because I want to cover them. The schedule can often be worked out some weeks in advance. My point is, if you suggest or even demand that I review a certain game, the odds are heavily against me complying. Even if you suggest a game that I later review it was probably just a coincidence. So stop your nagging, you cunts.

Okay, I did Mass Effect, can I go back to indulging myself now?

My god, I really went out on a logic leap there, didn't I? Try your righteousness on someone dumber, dipshit.

 

[Jeff Graw]

Come on, Astro. Since when did we let the fact that a lot of reviewers don't get to choose what they cover stop us from making fun of them when they act like retards?

 

[Top Hat]

who only highlights games from one side (the negative side).

Usually, yes. But not for Psychonauts.

But whatever. Lots of laughs.

Exactly. Aren't pretty much all modern reviews done just for the lulz anyway?

 

[Imbecile]

Yeah, usually people have decided whether they are going to buy a game (or not) before its even released.

 

[Astromarine]

Come on, Astro. Since when did we let the fact that a lot of reviewers don't get to choose what they cover stop us from making fun of them when they act like retards?

I don't think he did. he's quite open about the fact he doesn't care for RPGs, so I don't have the same standard for him than I would for someone who claimed that they loved RPGs and OMG Oblivion is teh best evah!!!

Plus, having not played the game, I don't know how accurate he is. He might have a problem with boring exposition in a game, rather than word count alone. If that's his gripe, I share it, and have since I tried playing a Metal Gear Solid.