Lurker > Gall

I've finished the first mission on Char, in which we take the fight to the Zerg and fail horribly. I'm impressed with how much the missions in this game can feel different from each other - the previous mission with the battlecruisers was ploddingly slow destroying generators one by one, while this mission was super fast running all over the map killing masses of Zerg. Next time around I'll take out the Zerg air support and finish the game.

As for Halo, that was a surprisingly non-noble death for poor Kat. I haven't gotten much out of watching this game, but I do like the soundtrack. I knew about the series' use of chorus but I'd never heard it in action, and it works to make things feel epic even when they're not.

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O guru of GotD

Good writeup! The "extended tutorial" description is quite accurate, and it worked well at easing me into the game's strategic complexity. The demands of APM do get stressful sometimes, but I've been enjoying the moments of frantic clicking. However, it's not something that I would want to devote myself to for a long time; I can see why RTSs have remained the domain of the hardcore.

While I'm finishing up Starcraft I'll start watching a Halo playthrough. I have some small Call of Duty experience, but I've never been into Halo, and it should be interesting to compare and contrast the series in what would be the last year of them both being on top.

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O guru of GotD

Been a little busy lately, but I have been playing Starcraft when I get the chance. So far I've finished Tosh's missions and Matt Horner's missions to expose Mengsk. I've had a few learning experiences, often painful ones like "make sure to leave back a few units to defend the base" and "watch out for siege tanks." I do feel like I'm gradually getting better at unit micromanagement, which is nice. As for the macro, I've been sticking with the build-the-new-unit strategy.

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O guru of GotD

When I replayed Galaxy 2 followed by 64, I definitely did notice how much faster 64 is to just pick up and play without the cutscenes for every single level start and death. Another thing that I wasn't a fan of was how many Galaxy 2 levels are dedicated to a non-platforming gimmick (like a transformation or the Fluzzard gliding), or fixed-camera 2D platforming, which seems out of place. But, those really are nitpicks. When Galazy 2 is good, and most of the time it is, it's some of the best 3D platforming out there.

I'll be giving Starcraft 2's campaign a shot. I have very little experience with any kind of strategy game, so this and the others in the contest will be a nice way to expand my horizons.

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O guru of GotD

There are 242 stars in Galaxy 2, but 122 are inaccessible until you've collected the first 120. And the final 2 are in the final super-difficult level which you can only access by collecting the other 240.

In any case, I do recommend getting that Clockwork Ruins medal, since the comet star there is a good one.

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O guru of GotD

I died so many times in that swamp in Boo Moon. Cool use of the gravity system.

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O guru of GotD

And heres my top 10 games Im most looking forward to play:

10. Octopath Traveler
Im interested to see what kind of twists this game has on the traditional Old Square style of RPG. I also like the concept of seeing the world through the stories of multiple characters.
9. Resident Evil 7
Similarly, Im interested to see how this game puts the Resident Evil flavor into the first person horror genre. Southern Gothic horror is something you dont see very often in video games and has the potential to be really creepy.
8. Yakuza 0
What I know about this series is that it combines dramatic storytelling, hand-to-hand combat, and bizarre minigames and side activities. I have to see whats going on in there.
7. Crypt of the Necrodancer
I already played a little of this a while ago but didn't get that deep into it. Its blend of roguelike and rhythm is fun and addictive.
6. Tales of Berseria
I've wanted to get into the Tales series for a while and this one seems like a good starting point. Maybe I will finally understand why people love these characters enough to get like 15 of them into the contests.
5. Cuphead
I'm already a fan of difficult 2D platformers, so the wonderfully-realized art style and soundtrack are the icing on the cake.
4. Obra Dinn
I also loved Papers Please, though in a weird way that makes me a little less excited for this game since I feel like the follow-up just won't be as unique. Regardless I'm sure it will be a great experience.
3. Disco Elysium
I had my eye on this game's development before it came out, and I remember thinking that what the devs were trying to do would either turn out a huge mess or something outstanding. Seems like they actually pulled it off.
2. Baba is You
This is the game that looks like a worthy successor to Papers Please, in the sense that it's a puzzle game with a gimmick that's never been done before, or at least not this well: solving puzzles by changing the rules of the game itself. Ive wanted a game like this for a long time.
1. Trails in the Sky 1 and 2
Two for the price of one! I dont know too many specific details of this seriess gameplay or story, but I do know that whenever Ive seen it mentioned on Board 8 and elsewhere its always been praised to high heaven. Im eager to see what the best of JRPGs has to offer.

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O guru of GotD

A few final thoughts on Red Dead:

I think the story couldve had better emotional investment if there was more focus on how Marston was affected by having to hunt down his former friends - his interactions with Dutch do have some of that, but by that point it felt like too little too late. They probably shouldve introduced Dutch at the beginning and had fewer villains overall. Its still weird to me how Javier just dies as soon as you meet him.

It wouldve made the last chapter even better, since that shows the other side of things: what Marston was fighting for the whole time. His interactions with his son do a good job at conveying his conflicting desires to train him into a strong man and to have him avoid going down another path of self-destruction. Abigail is just a lot of fun, and their genuinely loving interactions are an effective contrast with the cynicism of the rest of the game. I think she couldve easily been the kind of emotional anchor character you wanted if only shed been in the game more.

From what I know about Red Dead 2, it goes into the backstory of Marstons gang and what caused them to break up, and has Abigail in a more prominent role. Not that it excuses this game skimping on the details, but I am eager to see that when the time comes. 2018 seems so far away

As for the gameplay, it seems like I didnt miss much. I know what the thread title is, but I doubt anyone would mind if you elected to just watch through some of the more story-focused games to come. I plan to do so fairly regularly.

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O guru of GotD

There are a few non-awful characters, but they're all pretty underused. See: Nastas getting killed halfway through the chapter (by his own people no less.)

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O guru of GotD

I think the main reason I didn't like the Mexico arc is how emotionally disconnected it is. The conflict feels pointless since both sides are portrayed so negatively, and even Marston himself seems to just want to get the whole thing over with. In the Fort Mercer arc you were building up a posse and witnessing the effect Williamson's gang had on the people, but here Javier Escuela just shows up at the end and immediately dies. And did I miss something, or did Landon disappear from the plot after the first few missions? I would've liked more of him.

On a more positive note, I can definitely vouch for Rayman Legends and Stanley Parable. I'll post my own excitement list later.

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O guru of GotD

The mission is unlocked after completing the main story. It'll be obvious when you see it.

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O guru of GotD

Finished Red Dead. Quick non-spoiler thoughts:

1. The middle isn't as good and drags on for a while, but the last act is worth it.
2. The stranger missions don't get any more interesting, and I'd say that they're not worth finishing except for the very last one.

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O guru of GotD

I'm up to 3 hours through the cutscenes (which is up to midway through the Mexico arc) and I've been enjoying the story so far. The NPC escort dialogue is much easier to appreciate when you can just move on to the next story beat right after it's done. It also helps that I like Marston's personality, he's thankfully not as dour as most AAA game protagonists but he's not too quippy either. So far the game has mostly followed the Rockstar structure of having you do odd jobs for a bunch of different quirky characters, but the Fort Mercer mission tied it together well with having them all show up as part of your posse. So I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

It's too bad that the gameplay isn't as engaging. The bullet time mechanic looks pretty fun but I guess it's not.

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O guru of GotD

Okay, I realized pretty fast that that video was cutting out too many NPC walkaround parts, so I have swapped to this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFP9epOX0jw

Which is close to 6 hours long, which is close to half the average runtime of a full walkthrough video. So if I miss anything now, it can't be that important.

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O guru of GotD

That analysis pretty well sums up why Pokemon has never clicked with me. Still, reading through the game with your writeups has been very entertaining. A bittersweet end to Dylan's journey, as he beats the strongest trainer and finds no one left to battle.

Because Red Dead 1 still isn't on PC, I will be watching a video of all the cutscenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVesOi1arI4
Not only am I going in blind (except for the ending), I've never seen an actual western film before.

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O guru of GotD

It's like the greatest hits of Kanto. Which worked so well that they put the greatest hits of Kanto into every new game.

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O guru of GotD

So, how many times have you been to Kanto now? And how does this version compare?

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O guru of GotD

Is this the end for our hero?!

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O guru of GotD

I can see why they started making the legendary on the cover actually relevant to the plot in later games. It's pretty weird that you get Ho-oh by having it randomly summoned by some magical Eevee girls. Though most of what's happened so far has also been pretty weird.

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O guru of GotD

Finished my Galaxy 2 replay. I did a challenge run to make it more interesting, and it worked pretty well. I'll wait until it's time to share the full story though.

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O guru of GotD

Looked up more Legion stuff. Someone at Bioware really likes the intelligent guy deadpans snappy comebacks trope, but they do pull it off well. Okay, time to finish off Mass Effect 2.

Okay Tier
Miranda (1/2): A strange personage, to be sure. Shes genetically engineered to be perfect but feels angsty about it, which has always been a weird trope. There are a few hints of her crafting her own schemes, but it never develops into anything (Mass Effect 3?) I like that her loyalty mission fleshes out her backstory, but its very disappointing that Niket still dies even if you talk him down.

Samara (2/2): Your first impression of her is watching her throw some poor sap through a window, brutally beat and murder them, and have her justify it as part of her code. Naturally, this creates the expectation that she will eventually face consequences for her actions and reflect on her morality. Then that never happens. Then you seduce her daughter so she can murder her. Pretty messed up, NGL. The reason shes still Okay instead of outright Bad is that she does occasionally express remorse for her actions, and her circumstances are conceptually interesting even if they are pretty messed up.

Its obvious to me that Biowares greatest strength is not their storytelling, worldbuilding, or certainly not their gameplay, but their character writing. No squadmate is truly bad, most are a cut above the average video game character, and a few are excellent. I wonder about a Bioware of an alternate dimension that devoted their writing talent not to video games, but television. They may have bitten off more than they could chew in trying to create an entire world that youre meant to explore and impact, but it seems like they could have excelled in an episodic structure in which they could focus on a few character or plot arcs at a time. Most of the loyalty missions already feel like episodes of Star Trek, with the team landing on a planet, encountering a moral dilemma that they each have differing views on, and talking out a resolution. For all I know, maybe some Bioware writers did work on television, or do now. Either way, I do understand the love people have for Mass Effect. I just think it exists in the wrong medium.

Now I know Im early but I feel like playing an entirely different space-based sequel from 2010.

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O guru of GotD

I like your description of the Pokemon world. It's dreamlike, full of weird little occurrences.

Mass Effect 2 has a lot of good squadmates.

Good Tier
Jacob (1/5): Whenever theres a cast of quirky characters, I often find that I have an affinity for the normal one. I like having someone with a more close-to-home perspective, both for Cerberus and for the galaxy at large. His loyalty mission was quite shockingly grim, but now that I think about it maybe that was the point: an optimistic guy encounters a situation that is unambiguously the result of horrifying evil, perpetrated by his father no less. Really made me feel bad for him though.

Tali (2/5): Yeah, shes nice. It felt like her/the quarians story should have been given more importance than it got, its not really in this game other than her two missions. I like her accent. No complaints.

Garrus (3/5): Yeah, hes cool. Its a bit of a copout that his pressing guilt over the death of his old squad is totally assuaged just by killing that guy. Still, the loyalty mission was fun and he and Shepard had good banter. I understand why hes popular but IMO he lacks depth.

Jack (4/5): I was definitely not a fan at first, but her loyalty mission really turned me around. Watching her struggle to come to grips with what really happened to her as a child was very interesting, and while going from I have to kill everyone to I guess I wont kill this guy is a pretty obvious method of character development, it works well enough. Her design is still ridiculous though.

Legion (5/5): Unfortunately I missed out on a lot of time with it thanks to recruiting it right before the end, and the geth-quarian conflict is underdeveloped, but I cant complain about what I saw of Legions character. I always like a good self-aware AI story and this ticks the boxes.

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O guru of GotD

More squadmates, not on Thane's level but still great.

Great Tier
Grunt (1/2): Did I mention that I love krogans? Because I do. Its an old trope to have a member of a normally violent race get adopted and raised by a more peaceful one (Worf is a major example), but having you be the father is a fun twist. I loved being a good example for my krogan son and helping him through puberty by killing a giant monster. Plus, I didnt exactly test it but Im pretty sure hes the best squadmate in battle.

Mordin (2/2): Perhaps surprising considering my labeling him as a coward and hypocrite, but the thing is I like my characters flawed. Mordin isnt a monster, but hes done a horrible thing and has difficulty reckoning with himself about it, and that makes for a good, complex character. That aside, his personality and manner of speaking are quite entertaining.

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O guru of GotD

Going to start wrapping up Mass Effect 2 with the squadmate tierlist, starting from the top.

Top Tier
Thane: Everything about this guy is great. Being the only member of his race in the game, he has a uniquely appealing reptilian design and gimmick with his flashbacks. The battle-weary, repentant assassin is an old trope, but tying it to his religion and terminal illness is an interesting new spin. His loyalty mission is the best part of the whole game: it involves multiple characters with conflicting interests, family drama, political intrigue, worldbuilding, and a really cool role-playing scenario in the interrogation scene. AND his voice acting is excellent.

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O guru of GotD

For me Beyond strikes the perfect balance of absurd and infuriating for maximum comedic value. Omikron was too absurd and Detroit too infuriating.

And full disclosure, I've only watched LPs of all of them. I usually do that for story-focused games anyway, and for David Cage in particular I think the best way to experience his games is with the Best Friends laughing over it. I kind of want to watch Indigo Prophecy but I feel like I've already had the best parts spoiled.

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O guru of GotD

Finally finished Heavy Rain.

• Disappointingly, the story never gets quite as goofy as David Cage's other stuff. There are some fun elements like Jayden's stupid-looking VR glasses, Ethan's ridiculously high tolerance for pain, and Madison ripping off Indiana Jones, but nothing that compares to the likes of ghost armies and helicopter kicks.
• So most of the entertainment value comes from the uncanny 3D models (especially the kids), the bizarre accents (especially the kids), and the overly long QTE-riddled action scenes.
• One thing that really jumps out at me, and that has already been mentioned in this thread, is how David Cage just loves making "scenes" but has no idea how to coherently put them together. Whenever they're not interacting with another main character, you could rearrange all the Jayden, Shelby, and Madison segments and they would make about as much sense.
• Overall, given how much this game dragged on and how repetitive it was, I wouldn't even recommend it on a so-bad-it's-funny level. Beyond Two Souls > Omikron > Detroit > Heavy Rain.

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O guru of GotD

Hmm, my Fallout experience is limited, but Mass Effect definitely puts a lot more focus on characters than Fallout does, especially with giving them their individual arcs. Fallout I think is more about exploring the world and discovering weird locations and lore.

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O guru of GotD

(cont'd)
Quitting ranting for a second, I should mention that I really liked the suicide mission. Its the only time where you actually get to see all your squadmates together, and it gives the various members a decent amount of lines to make it feel like theyre all contributing. In fact its a better execution of your choices mattering than most of the rest of the game: you pick a squadmate for a task, they do it alongside you. Simple and effective. The cutscenes were put together well enough to make me unsure as to whether my squadmates would survive, particularly the one at the end of the biotic segment where I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen to Thane. I think its good that characters can die even if youve done all the obvious stuff like loyalty missions and upgrades, since the finale should be high-stakes and not solvable before its even begun.

Last thing: there are two major plot twists and neither are handled well. The first is that the Collectors used to be Protheans. So what? The Collectors are so undefined as an enemy force already, and the Protheans are barely in the game at all, that, as Shepard literally says himself, it changes nothing. Then theres the big endgame twist that the Collectors are creating a Reaper made out of people. First of all, theres no emotional reason to have the twist considering weve already seen the Collectors terrorizing innocent people (including our crew) and therefore have plenty of reason to want to stop them. But from a narrative perspective, it makes even less sense. The given explanation for this twist is that each new generation needs to make new Reapers out of whatever the current species is. But the entire point of this series is to stop the already extant threat of the Reapers. Why are the Collectors working to build a new version of something they already have a million of? It seems the only reason this twist is there is to have a crazy final boss, which wasnt even fun to fight anyway.

Phew that's done. Part 2 will be more fun since it covers the single best aspect of the game: the characters. Ill tier squadmates, go over their loyalty missions, and speculate on a Bioware of an alternate dimension.

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O guru of GotD

Aaaaahhh I've been so busy getting angry at Mass Effect 2 I've fallen behind on Heavy Rain. It's fine though, I'll catch up. I'm about halfway through the playlist now.

So here is part 1 of my final thoughts on Mass Effect 2. This part covers all the negative aspects of the game, which is a lot of stuff. I promise part 2 will be more positive.

Gameplay
Hide behind cover, shoot, wait for shields/health to recharge, keep shooting until all enemies dead. Use a power whenever its off cooldown and as long as it matches the healthbar. I played mostly on normal and switched to veteran near the end, which just made the enemies more bullet-spongey.

There were 2 times in the game when this pattern got shaken up. The first was the derelict Reaper with oodles of husks constantly spawning from the floor and charging at you. While this was a different experience I wouldnt call it a fun one. The second was the first leg of the suicide mission where you have to disable blockages in the vents before your hacker dies. I liked this because it makes you stop turtling and play more aggressively, albeit inelegantly by just giving you a very short time limit. To put on my armchair designer hat, what the game needed was common enemies that forced you out of cover, maybe with grenades, the Shockwave power, or teleporting like that DLC boss. Basically anything that would require you to move around and prioritize targets instead of hunkering down and shooting the closest guy.

What makes the monotony worse is that the only diversions from the shooting are 2 hacking minigames, one of which, the match-the-symbols one, I got very sick of near the end from how often it came up. The find-the-segment game was pretty fun though, didnt get sick of that.

World
Tiny hubs wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing if they were densely packed with interesting stuff, but they really arent. For every 2 NPCs with actual depth of personality, for example Captain Bailey or the asari matriarch bartender on Illium, there are 20 who exist solely for the purpose of dispensing a fetch quest or providing you with a binary moral choice that you sometimes cant even select if you havent gone through enough binary moral choices already.

Speaking of which, Mass Effect 2s choices have a lot of problems more than just the paragon/renegade system, but I may as well get into that first. Its not that the system is too simplistic, but that it has more weight placed on it than it should given how simple it is. By way of example, Ill refer to something in the game that really disappointed me: the part where you unfreeze the krogan and he attacks you. This is a setup for a really interesting role-playing opportunity: your goals are to convince this krogan not to kill you, to inform him of where he is and what happened to his creator, and to convince him to join your team. There are multiple dialogue options with multiple approaches, but all it takes is picking the one blue (or red) one. The experience of navigating through a tricky interpersonal conflict and deciding how you want to handle it is removed, because the way to succeed is simple and obvious. There were far too many moments like this in the game, where I was intrigued by a choices premise but defaulted to the highlighted option because I knew it would be correct.

The other major problem with the choices, one that makes the small worlds feel even smaller, is how compartmentalized everything is. That is, even the choices you make that matter dont matter outside of the immediate area in which you make them. One of the biggest failures in this regard is how your squadmates barely react to the decisions you make, which is partly due to the large amount of permutations that you could bring with you, but even their dialogue trees aboard the Normandy barely change over the course of the game. In fact, they barely change after their own loyalty missions, which makes no sense to me since youd think that would be an obvious trigger to unlock new dialogue. The points of interest where you can talk to specific squadmates are good, but theyre usually just a few lines long. And aside from your squadmates, the rest of the world doesnt really react to your choices either. The quests you do and the people you help are forgotten about the moment you leave their planet. I wont belabor this point too much since the your choices dont matter line is done to death now, but I will say that its pretty bad that the biggest way you see your choices shape the world is from emails at your private terminal.

Story
The plot structure is surprisingly simple: find out where the Collectors are coming from, find a way to get there, go there and stop them. In between, build up your team. This is where I would say simple isnt necessarily a bad thing, which it isnt, but I confess that I was slightly disappointed by how simple it ended up. I think the reason for my disappointment is that the intro to the game promises more intrigue than it ends up delivering. Shepard allying with Cerberus seems like it should make him have to work as a fugitive behind the scenes, juggling various factional allegiances while slowly building up a loyal force. Well, for how often it matters that Cerberus is seen as a dangerous terrorist organization, Shepard might as well still be in the Alliance. He just sets down on a planet, chats up the locals, helps them out with their problems and leaves to do the same in the next star system. The only time in the game you working with Cerberus ever has actual consequences is when Ashley/Kaidan shows up, and that is one brief scene that amounts to nothing.

And speaking of setups without payoffs, what about the council? Its the one of the first things youre directed to, but it never comes up again after that, not even in passing. What are they doing against the Collectors? Against Cerberus? What does Udina have against Shepard? What is Anderson trying to do? Political intrigue is the bread and butter of RPG worldbuilding, and theres a huge missed opportunity for it here. And speaking of political intrigue, it seemed like there was something weird going on with Miranda, with her executing that guy in the facility at the start of the game and tipping off Jacob about his father, but that didnt turn out to be anything either. Maybe I was reading too much into that but it seemed weird.

And speaking of machinations within your squad, interpersonal conflicts between squadmates come up randomly and have no more significance than raising or lowering your loyalty values. Why does Jacob only distrust Thane one time before it never comes up again? Why isnt anyone other than Miranda concerned that Jack could be unstable? Why does Grunt have literally nothing to say to Mordin on his loyalty mission? It feels like everyone in the galaxy exists only in relation to you, Shepard. And speaking of which, whats the deal with Harbinger? What does he have against you, Shepard, specifically? Why is he the only Collector that talks? Whats the point of him surviving into Mass Effect 3 when he did nothing of importance in this game?
(cont'd)

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O guru of GotD

Jack being bad in the distraction squad kind of makes sense if you assume that she would try to kill as many enemies as she could and neglect defending the team. That's why I didn't trust her with the biotic field, anyway.

I will be watching a Heavy Rain let's play by the Two Best Friends:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL57hJfweW_2t7KX-BKMwVbXfPWPBGy3ut
They're what you might call David Cage enthusiasts, and I've seen their Omikron, Beyond Two Souls, and Detroit playthoughs, but not this one yet. I'm excited.

Still working on my Mass Effect 2 final thoughts. I'll probably split it into 2 parts with what I liked and what I didn't.

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O guru of GotD

If your biotic is bad they won't die but one of your squadmates will, in my case Legion. I hardly knew ye.

I figured it would be much safer to go to the final boss with me than be on the distraction squad, so I took Mordin (because he seemed the most likely to die unsupervised) and Thane (because he was the one I really didn't want to die.) Funny that Jack is bad there, since she was the one who replied to me after the final boss and she seemed to be doing fine.

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O guru of GotD

I should replay the Bayonettas. That first playthrough is pretty frustrating but I'm sure it's more fun once you know what you're doing.

Now that I think of it, there are parallels between Thane and Samara too. Both of them are mercenaries with a moral code, but Thane uses a religious code to absolve himself from his murders while Samara uses a militaristic code to justify her brutal methods.

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O guru of GotD

What happens in the paragon choice for Tali's loyalty mission? I didn't have enough points so I withheld the information since I figured she'd be fine with getting exiled, which turned out to be right.

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O guru of GotD

If anyone's interested in a playthrough of every game in the contest, check out Exdeath's topic:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78693589

Right now he's up to Mass Effect 2, which just so happened to make top 8!

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O guru of GotD

Final Fantasy VIII - The Legendary Beast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbmJosFyG6k

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O guru of GotD

My favorite 3D platformer ever, Banjo-Tooie

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O guru of GotD

In Mass Effect 2 news, the suicide mission is complete.

Roles:
Tali hacked the door.
Thane created the biotic field.
Jacob escorted the survivors.
Garrus led both fire teams.
Grunt and Legion were with me for the first two legs, then Thane and Mordin for the last.

Results:
Legion died holding off the last wave of the seeker swarms.
Everyone else survived, even Harbinger somehow. Thane gave me a scare twice, from the strain of the biotic field and from almost falling off the platform after the final boss, but he made it.
I let the Illusive Man have the base. I don't intend to play Mass Effect 3 to see what he does with it.

I'll post more detailed thoughts later after you're done, but suffice to say this game did not live up to the hype.

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O guru of GotD

I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here considering I haven't actually played most of these, but going from what I know:

• May I ask why you don't want to play Dead Space 1? It's fairly short and Dead Space 2 is a direct sequel.
• Frankly, the FFXV storyline confuses and confounds me. Apparently it's less of a "summary" and more of "footage from the movie inserted into the game." In fact, I will paste this post I just found:

IMO if you wanna get the whole experience in the right order you should do this:
- Play the game till you have to sleep in Galdin Quay due to a main story quest(just before the end of Chapter 1). IMPORTANT NOTE: don't watch/read any game dialog/scene after sleep or you're gonna spoil the movie
- Watch Kingslaive
- Read the novel (very short, aprox 15 minutes reading)
- Play the game till you have the quest to go to Caem
- Watch the anime series (short too aprox 1hour to see all chapters)
- Continue playing the game.
As for DLC just google when to play it because i don't remember exaclty when but i think its:
- Gladio DLC in chapter 7
- Prompto DLC at 12 (not pretty sure about this one)
- Ignis DLC when you finish the main story
- Comrades DLC after Ignis

In light of all that I recommend just playing FFXV completely blind and puzzling it out yourself. That would probably be more entertaining anyway.

• The 2018 God of War is indeed a soft reboot but it relies on the characterization of Kratos established in the previous games. You probably don't have to play the three prequels (they just flesh out Kratos's backstory more) but I would say the numbered trilogy is required.
• You're right about the Nier stories not being very connected, but there are several important characters that carry over and reference Nier 1's events. Also, in my opinion Nier 1's story is even better than Automata's and worth experiencing regardless.
• I would be quite interested in reading about a first playthrough of Portal.
• Definitely do play Danganronpa 1 instead of reading a synopsis. The second game is much better if you've played the first one. Avoid spoilers for the series as best you can.
• I plan to finally do a first playthrough of Dragon Age 1 myself when it gets to that point. I've heard that 2 is bad though.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

I got the complete opposite impression of Mordin from that mission. You can straight-up ask him and he'll claim to be okay with the prospect of a united krogan empire, but when he finds Maelon trying to actually cure the genophage he freaks out, says the krogan are too dangerous, and even tries to kill Maelon and delete the cure data if you don't stop him. To me he seems like a coward and a hypocrite.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

I love the krogan. They're cliche, but it's a good cliche.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

I've culled my list down to series where the story is (in my view at least) important enough to matter. Use it as you will.

Starcraft 1
Fallout 2
Dead Space 1
Portal 1
Arkham Asylum
999
Bioshock 1
Danganronpa 1
Dragon Age 1 and 2
Witcher 1 and 2
MGS 3, Peace Walker, and Ground Zeroes
Trails 1
Uncharted 1-3
Kingsglaive FFXV
Nier 1
Ys 1-5
God of War full series
Kingdom Hearts full series

In Mass Effect 2 news, I've reached what seems to be the endgame and am busy going through the loyalty missions and sidequests. Anything I should make sure not to miss?

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

Question: have you decided which "additional" games (like Mass Effect 1 and Trails 1) you are going to play? Because I've been trying to compile a list, but it kept getting longer and more ridiculous. Like apparently all 7 Tekken games are part of a linear, continuous storyline.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

Even in the absence of interesting combat, I like the enemy variety in this game. Random enemies on the battlefield getting possessed and powering up is a cool idea that more games should use.

Ashley didn't even join my squad after chewing me out. I assume they join only if you actually played the first game and got them to trust you.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

GLaDOS: 12-4
The Boss: 8-4
SHODAN: 7-1
Athena: 4-1
Sniper Wolf: 4-2
Monika: 4-3
Yunalesca, Sylvia Christel, Sarah Kerrigan, Victoria Chase, Dahlia Hawthorne, and Franziska von Karma: 2-1
Gruntilda: 2-2
Carmen Sandiego, Irene Engel, Origami Peach, Beatrix, Darth Traya, Vita Clotilde, and Belleza: 1-1
Ultimecia and Wendy O. Koopa: 1-2
Flemeth: 1-3
Rouge, Bad Girl, Tron Bonne, Ada Wong, Shadow Sae, Succubus, Claudia Wolf, I-No, Alexia Ashford, Sofia Lamb, Beatrice, Lusamine, Tyreen Calypso, Flea, Android 21, Eveline, Katherine Marlowe, Susie Sumner, Samantha Strand, Erika Furudo, Zeal, Zhael, Elizabeth, and Harley Quinn: 0-1
Junko Enoshima: 0-2

Its been both an honor and a pleasure participating in BFVQE. It had it all: close matches, wacky upsets, an unexpected deep run, and a winner I actually like. Now lets quit this meme while were ahead.

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

Thanks man. Bad robot ladies are cool and so is this final. Maybe at some point I'll do a review of every Gruntilda rhyme to figure out which ones could've been champions.

"Immortal Machine" -SHODAN

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

"Immortal Machine" -SHODAN

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

"Monster" -Athena

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

This is the first time I've thought about this matchup because I had the Bomberman quote making it this far for some reason. These are both really good though.

"Scar" -Boss

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

Android 21 is an android.

"Immortal Machine" -SHODAN

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD

Argh I missed yesterday, please adjust "My life" to 6 votes in the final x-stats, thanks.

"Monster" -Athena

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Toss a win to your azuarc
O guru of GotD