Hello The People I Pretend Read This:
Logged many a hour of afterwork vicarious violence on the vidja game front lately. I have come to certain conclusions lately.
After showing a gamer friend the joys of loot farming on Borderlands 2, I realized that somebody at Gearbox is a damn troll. As part of their Loot Hunt contest, they periodically altered certain loot drops from certain bosses, sometimes altering drop rates, sometimes adding a new rare drop. Unfortunately for me and my friend, the drop altered yesterday was the legendary drop for the Warrior. Some humorous soul decided that the guaranteed drop should be a Flakker, a nice--but situational--shotgun. I would be ok with this, if this wasn't the Warrior, the home drop for the Conference Call! This is arguably the best gun in the game, and has extra appeal for me personally since it's a shotgun that shreds things and therefore appeals to my redneck blood (GRARG! *banjo music* BAMBI SAUSAGE TIME!) and does cool tricks to appeal to my nerdy brain (GRARG! *Nightwish song* EPIC GUN TIME!). The Flakker is close but is still no substitute. In practice, this means that you got lots of Flakkers but no other legendaries at all from the Warrior. May whoever came up with this nasty little trick be made to write Gungan-oriented fanfics forevermore!
On the cheerier front, I did some more randomness on Dragon's Dogma, and I still really like the game. I want to babble on about the Dark Arisen expansion they came up with.
First, random comments on Bitterblack Island establish that the world of DD has a moon and pawns know what a moon and moonlight is. This means that the main area of Gransys is either stuck in a perpetual new moon or even all-out lunar eclipse. Whether this is a sign or part of the game's events, I don't know.
Second, somebody at Capcom Europe wants to do a modern Ghosts 'N' Goblins really badly, and came up with Dark Arisen as a DD take on the whole thing. The entire quest is a macabre romp through spooky places with really nasty enemies (especially for low-level characters) that isn't truly finished until you complete the dungeon twice, with the second playthrough being even tougher. There are some little touches here and there that also point to this, with others being nods to other franchises like Dark Souls and Castlevania.
Finally, the hilarity of setting a bigass zombie dragon on fire with a delayed action incendiary RPG never gets old.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Laying Siege To Houses
Hello The Twenty-Five People The Webernets Claim Read This:
(That's 26 more than I expected.)
I've been tearing about in the grim dungeons of Sanctuary and shooting up the denizens of Pandora for a good bit of time now. Whoever came up with procedurally generated loot deserves a statue. A really nerdy statue, made from melted and recast Red Bull cans, holding up a kickass gun and kickass melee weapon and the heads of Wizkids' Mage Knight killers piled up at their feet.
Some random observations I'd like to make about all this:
The legendary drops in Diablo III's console version are much more numerous than Borderlands 2; also typically a lot more useful. Tearing about and farming enough to require finding a agro-combine should result in more than one--ONE--legendary a month, especially when a number of these legendaries are situational or outright inferior to vanilla gear. Yes, they're supposed to be rare and special and make you feel like you accomplished something. But, honestly, I kinda have a job for mindless grinding for cash and maddeningly elusive rewards. I don't really need a game for that. And since I have a job, an honest full-time paying job, I don't have the time and inclination to spend 12 hours or more to get a nice +10/7/7 Submachine Gun of Burninating Morons to drop. So kudos to Blizzard's console team for giving me my fix more often. Maybe the drops in B2 will get a bit tweaked.
We need some more 'happy' RPGs these days. I like grim and gritty stuff too, and dark comedy has a very special and evil place in my li'l nerdy heart. But I miss some of the cheerful stuff that used to be churned out, and the colorful palettes and music. I grew up on things like Secret of Mana (and later Legend of Mana), Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean 2, SaGa Frontier 2, and Mario RP-Original-G. I had darker stuff around (Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, and Tactics, Ogre Battle, Legend of Dragoon) and even the light-hearted games had some deep themes and grim sides. Hell, SaGa Frontier 2 was both quite light and kiddie in graphics and tone, but had some really gritty elements present, and there's always Chrono Cross for the Prettiest Dark Game Ever Award nominations. But these days it seems that games have gotten so damn grim overall that I keep expecting the Emperor's Holy Inquisition to show up and declare my dudes heretics and absolution can only be found in fighting the Flood at Thermopylae while wearing sackcloth made from tortured puppies and eating Pinkie's special cupcakes. Maybe I just picked the wrong damn console after all.
Dragon's Dogma is still frickin' awesome. Go play it.
Anyway, I need to wander off. Expect some more mad babbling in the days to come, plus my first real Wreckonomics post, where I'll be going on about the deepest Item Crafting System you've never used in Legend of Mana,
(That's 26 more than I expected.)
I've been tearing about in the grim dungeons of Sanctuary and shooting up the denizens of Pandora for a good bit of time now. Whoever came up with procedurally generated loot deserves a statue. A really nerdy statue, made from melted and recast Red Bull cans, holding up a kickass gun and kickass melee weapon and the heads of Wizkids' Mage Knight killers piled up at their feet.
Some random observations I'd like to make about all this:
The legendary drops in Diablo III's console version are much more numerous than Borderlands 2; also typically a lot more useful. Tearing about and farming enough to require finding a agro-combine should result in more than one--ONE--legendary a month, especially when a number of these legendaries are situational or outright inferior to vanilla gear. Yes, they're supposed to be rare and special and make you feel like you accomplished something. But, honestly, I kinda have a job for mindless grinding for cash and maddeningly elusive rewards. I don't really need a game for that. And since I have a job, an honest full-time paying job, I don't have the time and inclination to spend 12 hours or more to get a nice +10/7/7 Submachine Gun of Burninating Morons to drop. So kudos to Blizzard's console team for giving me my fix more often. Maybe the drops in B2 will get a bit tweaked.
We need some more 'happy' RPGs these days. I like grim and gritty stuff too, and dark comedy has a very special and evil place in my li'l nerdy heart. But I miss some of the cheerful stuff that used to be churned out, and the colorful palettes and music. I grew up on things like Secret of Mana (and later Legend of Mana), Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean 2, SaGa Frontier 2, and Mario RP-Original-G. I had darker stuff around (Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, and Tactics, Ogre Battle, Legend of Dragoon) and even the light-hearted games had some deep themes and grim sides. Hell, SaGa Frontier 2 was both quite light and kiddie in graphics and tone, but had some really gritty elements present, and there's always Chrono Cross for the Prettiest Dark Game Ever Award nominations. But these days it seems that games have gotten so damn grim overall that I keep expecting the Emperor's Holy Inquisition to show up and declare my dudes heretics and absolution can only be found in fighting the Flood at Thermopylae while wearing sackcloth made from tortured puppies and eating Pinkie's special cupcakes. Maybe I just picked the wrong damn console after all.
Dragon's Dogma is still frickin' awesome. Go play it.
Anyway, I need to wander off. Expect some more mad babbling in the days to come, plus my first real Wreckonomics post, where I'll be going on about the deepest Item Crafting System you've never used in Legend of Mana,
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