+5 against Justin Beiber

I always feel bad when I play video games and there is the one thing I don't use. During the two playthroughs of Dragon Age: Origins, I may have used the Trap making system once, but I don't recall ever actually using the said trap that I had just constructed. It may have been a fire trap, one of the most basic of medieval fantasy security systems (What better way to keep thieves out of your goods than to set everything on fire? You only live in a wooden building). I also didn't feel much need to brew my own potions considering by midgame, I was literally swimming in health potions dropped by my fallen foes.
The game had presented me with options to use, but my simple brain saw no point.

Across the board though, I have always rolled my eyes at items that temporarily boost a stat or defense. I mean, what are the chances that you'll drink one of these and then getting hit by the choice element? Granted- in most games I've played, enemy magic users never use spells that can actually hurt you. They tend to stick to one or two spells, none of which are necessarily painful while you close the gap and slice them up, or nuke them with a more powerful spell.

I want to know where the special defense potions are for cheap boss attacks? I'm not really interested in a potion that grants me a +5 to my Lightening Resistance. I'm more interested in the one that offers at least a +1 to my resistance against Demonic Cheap Bullshit Attack. I've taken issue with those a LOT more.

Two Worlds 2- The Mid-Play Post

I'm not hating it. In fact I like it.



I'm a little disappointed. I was really expecting this game to suck so far. I was expecting to get frustrated with it within the first three hours because the clunky combat killed me or something akin to it.

But no. Been playing it pretty consistently since Wednesday, and I have to say...I like this game.

Granted, I could probably stand to take a bit of time to experiment with some of the magic and the use of potions that I can brew rather than just doing my usual and running like a wild animal into an altercation and spamming the Right Trigger to hit things. The problem being, I really enjoying in-your-face combat and sometimes on the fly, I just don't have the patience for spell casting, and three occasions, I've been bum rushed while trying to cast magic in this game, and for some reason it not responding. Spell interuption I guess.



I also like how the main character is kind of a smarmy ass while maintaining some sort of moral uprightness. He doesn't enjoy doing other peoples dirty work, but he does appreciate the results of helping people, even refusing payment for certain jobs. And he speaks for himself rather than me having to pick every speech option for him. Yeah, I can see how that is limiting in shaping how I would want the character to be, but it also makes him more of a character in his own right in the story than just an Avatar of my decisions.

I like the guy. He's an asshole, but he's one of those endearing assholes.



As for the story, I can't say I've been too dedicated to the main questline as I've been dealing with everything along the way, and my quest log is set to burst.

Two Worlds 2- The Pre-Play Post

My copy of Two Worlds 2 is sitting on my kitchen counter right this very minute, mere minutes after purchasing it, and I'm not sure if this feeling in my gut is deep seeded dread or deep rooted giddiness about the experience I'm about to have.
The first Two Worlds, to me, is best compared to a bad relationship that ended on friendly terms. We both gave it a shot, we both promised to get better, and we made good ground, but ultimately we both decided to see other people. When I say that, I mean, trade the game in for a fraction of what I paid for it towards another game.
So when Two World 2 came out I was actually anticipating this game to get roaringly terrible reviews, but instead, I'm seeing reviews that seem to beg gamers to be merciful, a concept most Gamers with an internet connection have no concept of.

So I am being asked by some reviewers that I respect to be merciful, while standing at the door of a gaming experience I am not expecting to walk away from unscathed. In fact, I do believe I am excited, but I am making the decision here and now as I type this, that I am not going to take it's potentially dark narrative seriously. I am going to go into like you see most LP artists do-- like a complete jerk. Let's see if this game is man enough to handle a main character who just don't give a damn.

If I hear the word "useless" one more time...

Me and Jo recently have been butting heads over some things in my flagship DnD 4.0 game. Mainly the topic of usefullness, and what constituted a useful player. Apparently by her definition of Useless, if you are anything of small size and are not the living personification, an Avatar even, of one if not all the Core Classifications of a RPG Party team lineup (Melee, Magic, Stealth, Diplomacy), you have no business being there. It's the cool kids table, and only tall badasses get to sit at the cool kids table.

I always was of the mind that usefullness and uselessness were all situational rather than being a racial/class thing.
A rogue with a low lockpicking skill can be considered useless.
A fighter in a lineup of five other fighters of all possible builds can be perceived as useless.
The cleric that doesn't heal his companions during combat is definitely useless.
An Evil Aligned character in a group of Good and Lawful Good characters is useless for anything except getting everyone else in trouble.
A character with low strength but high dex who insists on going melee is useless.
The character who insists on being the diplomat and has shit for charisma is useless.
A Dwarf that doesn't drink isn't useless per se, but is just really really wrong.

I'm not too sure if I'm the only one with a group where the sudden desire to be "useful" and "needed" has become such necessary terms of character creation. I know where it began, for sure. During a Star Wars game set in a military setting, one of my players wanted to play the role of Medic, which started a discussion over what role each player served. This stuck, so now instead of character they want to play, they roll the character they feel they should play. And I find it annoying.
Granted, I don't accept every character idea that hits my desk. However if someone comes to me and says "This is the character I want to play", I will certainly listen, and suggest on how best to make it work. Even if it's the Corgi Race and stats I put up on my facebook, or a Frogman warrior. I don't look for usefullness as a DM, I look for creativity.

Maybe that's where I fail?

This is how we do.

Despite our nearly Brother/Sister relationship, me and Jo simply cannot discuss certain things civily. For instance, she can't even mention a combination of the words "Final Fantasy" and "13" without fire coming out of my ears, just as I can't bring up Dungeons and Dragons around Jo without her erupting into a font of rage over what 4th edition ultimately did to a ruleset she holds so very deep to her bosom, likewise she can't express her displeasure without me calling her an old fashioned, behindthetimes Ludite. Then Jade throws things at our heads and tells us to stop acting like children.

There is a small list, and it gets added to at least twice a year.

Was I going somewhere with this?

I've never been overly fascinated with Zombies, unlike certain people I know that actually have a contingency plan if and when the Zombie Apocalypse should occur. I find the whole concept silly and illogical, and silly and illogical is my bread and butter, I just never got on the whole World War Z thing.
To me, Zombies have always been one of the lowest threats possible should things go bad. Zombies are usually one of the first enemies you encounter in an RPG, and are easily dispatched due to low intelligence and predictable nature.

In other news, had to do a little cleanup of my Twitter account since either Twitter was using it itself for advertising purposes or someone got ahold of my password, so had to go in there and do som'bout'it.

Just realized I've been going on and on about essentially nothing at all.
...
Par for the course.

Shepard, Thorton is not.

I've made it a habit to keep a bottle of water by my bedside these days, to stave off the effects of early morning pickle mouth. If I wake up in the middle of the night and my mouth is all dry and tastes like the very bottom of a whiskey barrel, you can't just nod off from that. My mouth demands to remain moist.

So not long ago, I gave Alpha Protocol a tour of duty at a discount price, despite the foamy mouthed negative reviews. It was one of those games where I "had to see it for myself". I wanted to see the trainwreck.
The end result was...not unenjoyable. I definately felt I was playing a poor mans Mass Effect with only one squad member, and the main character not being quite as Badass. In fact, the main character, Michael Thorton, is kind of a dick.
The game also suffers from being relatively short, and as soon as you meet some relatively interesting characters, you're already waving them goodbye as you move on to the next chapter. It almost begs to be played at least twice to test out different approaches to situations. I can name at least three places where I would have preferred a different course, or wasn't paying attention and did something I didn't want to.
It's at the very least a 3 out of 5 game. In the very least.

The next game in my queu is Eternal Sonata, a game I've been meaning to get under my belt for some time now. The voice acting and story are on par with what you would expect from a Japanese RPG. That is, very campy, possibly cheesy, and the story makes no sense from a standard, logical point of view.