Board 8 > the steiner game diary: featuring hundreds of hours of rpgs

(+) Yeah! (+)

just before christmas i started up skyrim which i'm approaching 90 hours on, then in the steam sale i bought myself witcher 3 which is another hundred+ hours. then for christmas i got xenoblade chronicles 2 which is a whole other few hundred hours, plus stardew valley and disgaea pc which account for a whole bunch more time. i did also get night in the woods which... i will probably have more to say about in this topic than any of the other games, and will try to get to after finishing skyrim and before doing anything else. i'm not good at juggling multiple games so i may have to absolutely clear out skyrim before i can move on.
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I don't tend to actually tag topics, but sentimental tag
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current skyrim status: just cleared 100 sneak. shadow warrior is pretty disappointing but at this point it's just great to walk right up in dude's faces to "backstab" them.

few other skills nearing 100 - enchanting, one handed, light armor all in the high 80s.

cleared up near enough every damn quest in the world i could find before progressing the civil war - now about to storm solitude (i joined the stormcloaks, a decision i have come to regret). also completely left the main dragon hunting storyline alone, which i guess is most of what i'll have left to do after the civil war.
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Ew. Stormcloaks.

And to think you were once UotY.
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I haven't played any of these games, but I'll stick around in the hopes that eventually I'll be able to contribute something at some point.
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trdl23 posted...

Ew. Stormcloaks.

And to think you were once UotY.

i'm an elf as well. what a poor decision! i'm just inherently predisposed to siding with a rebellion in any video game setting
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I tried replaying Skyrim recently and didn't get terribly far. I love The Elder Scrolls in theory, but man, in execution it's super-uneven for me. I did jam on an old launch-era file for something close to 210 hours though, which is insane.

Amazing atmosphere in that game though. I don't hate that I dropped another 20 hours on it for PS4 recently even if I barely even started the Thieves Guild questline before losing interest.
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Steiner posted...

trdl23 posted...

Ew. Stormcloaks.

And to think you were once UotY.

i'm an elf as well. what a poor decision! i'm just inherently predisposed to siding with a rebellion in any video game setting

Saaame. (Siding with the Imperials really is the better play here IMO but saaaame.)
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i've tried skyrim twice before and never got super far. i think the difference i'm finding this time is playing with mouse and keyboard makes switching weapons and magics as much you need to to do fun stuff in this game much more palatable.
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That makes sense. The constant inventory switching does suck on controller.
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Steiner posted...

i'm just inherently predisposed to siding with a rebellion in any video game setting

^5
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I'm pretty sure any long-time video game player is conditioned to trust the rebellion over any sort of empire. How many games are there where the empire is good and the rebellion is bad?
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Solitude is liberated. Kind of didn't know what I was doing there for a while, quest arrow was leading me wrong and I'm a dumb gamer who only knows how to follow the arrow.

I just recently started leaving my wife, Jenassa, at home and taking J'zargo out with me. It's nice to have magic support but I thought he might at least heal me. Might take the wife back out just because she has protection now and J'zargo has had a few dumb deaths
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LeonhartFour posted...

I'm pretty sure any long-time video game player is conditioned to trust the rebellion over any sort of empire. How many games are there where the empire is good and the rebellion is bad?

Skyrim's one of the few and even then it's not really about good/bad but shades of grey and just how stupid the Stormcloaks' leader is. In this world, the Aldmeri Dominion, an elven gig, is the real dire threat and the Empire isn't so terrible -- it just does a poor job respecting various cultural aspects for the Nords of Skyrim.

It's unlike me to ever want to proxy into any story as someone who isn't part of the scrappy rebel side, be it a game, book, show, movie, you name it, but man, Skyrim made me cave.
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I like that the people of solitude are still like "great to see you friend!"
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Steiner posted...

I like that the people of solitude are still like "great to see you friend!"

oh Bethesda
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Steiner posted...

I like that the people of solitude are still like "great to see you friend!"

"War is no reason to end a friendship." - Solid Snake
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So you finally stopped playing wow, huh?

Congrats
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pxlated posted...

So you finally stopped playing wow, huh?

Congrats

for now
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Steiner posted...

J'zargo

Good move
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Uh is there any follow up on the civil war post battle of solitude
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I did not enjoy the civil war stuff very much. I wish there had been a third option where you could have been like lol bitch I'M TAKING OVER I'M THE GODDAMN DOVAHKIN FIGHT ME
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This reflects my game backlog significantly as well
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I enjoyed the civil war more for the meta humor of the imperial higher-ups being voiced by actors from two of my space shows than for anything Bethesda themselves did
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okay i finished skyrim and i was pretty ready for it to end by the end there. i had a lot of fun with how all the different skill systems interact, and the thieves guild and dark brotherhood both gave me a lot of fun ways to experiment with all the systems. in a world like that though i really wish there were more characters who i cared about, or memorable moments or fights. i feel like a lot of the moments i'll remember from the game were moments the gameplay enabled, which is great but i felt there should be more stuff the game makes to be memorable and the major overarching quests are not that,
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i'm gonna try to get night in the woods in before i move on to one of the other huge games
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ok i played like an hour of night in the woods. i really, strongly dislike mae so far. it's got a few laughs out of me so far but i'd currently say it's not quite clicking. will give it more time though.
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Steiner posted...

okay i finished skyrim and i was pretty ready for it to end by the end there. i had a lot of fun with how all the different skill systems interact, and the thieves guild and dark brotherhood both gave me a lot of fun ways to experiment with all the systems. in a world like that though i really wish there were more characters who i cared about, or memorable moments or fights. i feel like a lot of the moments i'll remember from the game were moments the gameplay enabled, which is great but i felt there should be more stuff the game makes to be memorable and the major overarching quests are not that,

yep, kinda why I can't really get into it again.
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Note: just loaded night in the woods and was greeted by gregg "got cups on my ears." and realise I've probably been hasty
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just got to part 2 of night in the woods. boy the dream thing was no fun. i smashed everything i could find, did i just need to smash the ... boss? at the end or what? party was pretty fun though and there's been some relatable stuff from mae ("Just because that online test said that your best chance at being happy is a situation where everyone already likes you, but they mostly leave you alone except when they're delivering food to you . . . that doesn't mean you can hide in your room and wait for that to happen" - mae's internal monologue)
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i'm liking mae more. i hung out with bea twice because i felt like gregg liked me enough and i wanted to crack her cold exterior. stealing stuff with her in the mall was pretty fun
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Mae and Gregg are both great

crimes

I think for that dream you just need to smash the thing at the end, but I smashed most things anyway because it was fun

Steiner posted...

okay i finished skyrim and i was pretty ready for it to end by the end there. i had a lot of fun with how all the different skill systems interact, and the thieves guild and dark brotherhood both gave me a lot of fun ways to experiment with all the systems. in a world like that though i really wish there were more characters who i cared about, or memorable moments or fights. i feel like a lot of the moments i'll remember from the game were moments the gameplay enabled, which is great but i felt there should be more stuff the game makes to be memorable and the major overarching quests are not that,

this is basically how I feel about Elder Scrolls games in general. it's a big beautiful sandbox that gives me no reason to care about anything. I played a ton of Morrowind and Oblivion and enjoyed them, but by the time Skyrim came out, the novelty of a huge world with a ton of quests had worn off, and I couldn't get into it at all.
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i was surprised to find an rpg where the gameplay is clearly more developed than any of the story or characters. even in other western rpgs i've never found that to be the case.
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Steiner posted...

i was surprised to find an rpg where the gameplay is clearly more developed than any of the story or characters. even in other western rpgs i've never found that to be the case.

which is sad because the gameplay kind of sucks
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excuse me I will not allow this assault on skyrim, aka one of the greatest games of all time, to continue
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i mean, in ways, but altogether i'd say the gameplay did make my time with it overall excellent.
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The Mana Sword posted...

excuse me I will not allow this assault on skyrim, aka one of the greatest games of all time, to continue

You're supposed to say "You've committed crimes against Skyrim and her people. What say you in her defense?"
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I thought the combat system get real old quick. Sneaking is fun, but actual fights were usually either easy, tedious or impossible, and destruction magic gets worthless fast.
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i'll admit i did turn difficulty down toward the end of the game but i think that was more on my own patience - boy sneaking is a lot of fun though.
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I think turning down the difficulty is the way to go. Theres a point where the game becomes a lot more fun when you can just dick around and mow guys down without worrying about consequences
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today my brain hurts
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Just got to the end of chapter 1 of xenoblade. Stuff just got nuts I guess. That cut scene had some badass music
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ok i can't handle the levels of anime bullshit this game is throwing at me i'm done for today
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just finished night in the woods. wish i'd spent more time with gregg but i'm not about to replay that game. it made me feel some things and i enjoyed spending time with the characters but all of the parts that are playing a game felt bad. i'm glad i played it though it's a fun experience.
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xenoblade is hell to navigate
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are there meant to be so many monsters around i can't defeat or am i bad
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Steiner posted...

i bad

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Steiner posted...

just finished night in the woods. wish i'd spent more time with gregg but i'm not about to replay that game. it made me feel some things and i enjoyed spending time with the characters but all of the parts that are playing a game felt bad.

the dream sequences were annoying (I literally used a guide for one of them because there's this invisible downward path that I didn't find because I jump everywhere)

but I thought everything else was good
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i played some witcher today but i'm really struggling with controlling it so far. was just getting into doing some quests and realized it was past midnight cause i started late. maybe will play more this weekend
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