ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:I understand what you mean about not feeling obligated to act the same way in video games as in real life. Obviously it's a fantasy world, and I too don't have a problem with virtual violence. I'm killing people, monsters, aliens, etc. constantly in video games. My comment about Skyrim being vegan-friendly was made half-jokingly. On one hand I enjoy participating in virtual violence, but on the other hand I like to be a similar person in RPGs as I would be in real life. With big important moral decisions in the Mass Effect video games, I tried to make all of the choices as I really would if I were in those situations. Some of those choices in Mass Effect were quite challenging and so I wanted to test myself.Dream Sphere wrote:Also, ever since I've been Vegan. I've, to some people's astonishment, not had a real problem with killing virtual animals in video games. Video games are lands of fiction, where the "consequences" aren't what they may appear to be at face value, obviously, as any action taken against an AI hasn't actually harmed a sentient being. I could understand other Vegans being grossed out in witnessing the hunting and skinning aspects of games like Farcry 3 & 4, just as I may be grossed out by viewing something like that myself as I would be grossed out or repulsed by the viewing of other gory, or saddening things in video games, I may still take those actions in video games if they're a small aspect of the game and I feel it may benefit my progress in the game, as the consequence is seeing something gross with no actual harm done to a sentient being, instead of actually harming a being which is something I wouldn't do.
Yeah, acting relatively like yourself in RPG type video games, while taking in the context of the video game to affect your actions in the game is something I've always found fun and interesting to do as well. I kinda caught a sense that you were semi-joking about it, I just kinda felt like explaining my stance on an issue that had come up for me before in the past, it wasn't to criticize your comment if you got that impression. I definitely agree with it being quite interesting to play like yourself in games, because I find I get more invested in them when my choices are a large factor, and by roleplaying either as myself in those circumstances my character's in, or roleplaying under a set of defined values unlike myself I get to see what the specific and different consequences would be.
I finished the first two Mass Effect games, and got a fair way through the third, but never finished it unfortunately. I can't remember why I stopped it, but my 360's been unhooked from my main TV for a while, and I haven't taken the initiative to hook it up to another one for whatever reason. The games were great, and I think I enjoyed the second one the most as it had better combat mechanics than the first, but a very good story and dialogue options like the first, which I found a little bit lacking in the third game, though not as badly as some people said.
I'm primarily a console gamer too, but I really like strategy games, most of which I've found play best with a keyboard and mouse. One good Turn Based Strategy game I've found that runs well on Xbox 360 is the game XCom: Enemy Unknown, I would recommend checking out a let's play of the game if you aren't familiar with it, and then purchasing it if you think you'd enjoy it, since it is probably one of the best Turn Based Strategy games I've ever played. Many strategy games aren't too demanding, so I can still get away with playing them even with my weak PC.ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:I'm mostly a console gamer so I don't have the PC version of Skyrim, but I've entertained the idea of getting it simply so that I can install the Skywind mod and play Skyrim-style-Morrowind. Unfortunately Skywind's release date is unknown to everyone, and I also might not have a good enough PC for Skyrim anyways...Dream Sphere wrote:I've been interested in playing Skyrim on PC since it has mod support, and some amazing mods at that, but my PC could barely handle it.
I could probably run Skyrim on my PC too, but probably just barely or to undesirable settings. Also, you should take into account that some mods will make the game run a fair bit worse if you're just barely managing to run it unmodified/vanilla version.
What are your PC's specifications?
On Steam's website or their app, you can always check out a game's page on their site to see the minimum and recommended specifications.
Here's Skyrim's page, you just have to scroll down a bit to get to the part that talks about specifications. The heading is "System Requirements." - http://store.steampowered.com/app/72850/
My PC definitely doesn't meet the recommended specs for the GPU, as my GPU only gets about half the rough computing power as the recommended NVidia GeForce GTX 260, but the rest of my specifications meet the recommended level, and my GPU could probably run the game, just not well.
If you would be looking to run lots of mods or have the game at high settings, or play a specific mod that's very demanding, and you don't have a moderately powerful PC, (I'm talking about something like one of the higher-end Intel i5 CPUs, and a GTX 750 at least) I'd recommend holding off on getting it on PC since the experience wouldn't be much better if your PC actually was weaker or barely more powerful compared to your Xbox 360.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor technically is available on both Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as the 8th gen consoles and PC, but I've heard that the experience is very watered down from the 8th gen console experience, and the PC version is pretty demanding supposedly.ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:I don't have an Xbox One or PS4. Are those the only consoles which Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor plays on? I've had my eye on that game for a while, since it's open-world, and I'm a major LOTR & Hobbit fan. I've also been considering buying either the Xbox One or PS4 so that I can play Elder Scrolls Online.Dream Sphere wrote:If you have a PS4 or Xbox One (I've heard the 7th Gen versions of the game are poor, and unless you have a high end PC I've heard people tend to be disappointed by the performance of this game on that platform.) I'd highly recommend Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. It's a great open-world action hack 'n' slash fantasy game. Though it doesn't have the explore-ability/item gathering or choice making/choose your own adventurism of Skyrim, it has excellent combat, and great traversal options similar to Assassins Creed. It also has a cool Nemesis system that creates a particular type of rivalry between the player character and enemy AI possibly not yet seen before in video games. The graphics, atmosphere and setting are pretty good too, and would probably be satisfying for someone interested in a Mordor themed fantasy land.
I don't own a PS4, but I do have an Xbox One. I chose to get the One first because some exclusives to the console had at the time interested me more than the PS4's, but the PS4 generally gets better performance in games, so you may want that if you want on average the console with the best performance of the 8th generation. Some games perform very similarly between the Xbox One and PS4, so if you're not planning on getting both, then see which platforms' exclusives interest you more as well as the 3rd party multiplatform games you're interested in which perform better on a certain platform if it looks like the performance difference would be desirable on the better performing platform.
I'd say Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor performs satisfactorily on the One, I haven't checked out the PS4 version but it probably runs better, though I'm unsure of it.
I would highly recommend to withhold from purchasing ME: SoM on a 7th gen console due to it being watered down, but you could always youtube the different versions yourself to see how differently they perform, and get whatever is good enough for you. Though it seems the 7th gen consoles sacrificed quite a bit more than just visual aesthetics as it seems some large features like large portions of the Nemesis system had been left out of the 7th gen versions. Which would make the game not even close to being as fun, imo.
The Witcher 3 may be a hype-train to disappointments-ville, but I'm hoping it's not as a lot of great things have been said by the dev about the game. The game's developer has also acknowledged how the combat system in the first two Witcher games was quite lacking, and how they hope to immensely improve the combat and make it feel much more fluid and exciting than before. They've also touted how they built a new engine just for this game that (paraphrased) "enables great storytelling and the ability to make various choices that affect the world around you in different branching ways, in an open-world setting." They talked about how it enables the kinda story changing choices like Mass Effect in an open-world setting like Skyrim, basically. They also said that the world's size would be 20% larger than Skyrim. So, it really sounds promising, and the graphics in some game trailers of it look very good too, but this could all just be overly-hyped and not really deliver on what they said, but here's to hoping it can be all of what they've said and more.ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:I started playing The Witcher 2 a few weeks ago, but only for a few days, and I didn't get very far. It seems good, but not outstanding. As far as I can tell it's not open-world. It seems rather hallway-game-ish. Is The Witcher 3 an open-world game?Dream Sphere wrote:Be on the look out for The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, I haven't kept close track of it in the past few months, but it seems to be touting the best of Skyrim, with good combat, and an interesting story with good dialogue and choice making, a la Mass Effect which is a trilogy I also loved.
Also, a couple good games that perform pretty well on Xbox 360 (if you have it connected to the internet to download the almost necessary patches) is Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda the same company which developed Skyrim, and New Vegas was made by the company that originally made Fallout, but I like both NV and 3 about equally. They are post-Apocalyptic RPGs set in an alternate reality in a world some hundred years into the future, but which went MAD in the 1950's which resulted in radio active wastelands being the prevalent environments throughout the world due to all those nukes dropping and such.
A lot of the atmosphere is influenced by 1950's/1940's pop-culture but also has a kinda post-apocalyptic lonesome wasteland wanderer type of feel. There are guns and bombs in the game unlike Skyrim, but also some melee weapons, though projectile weapons are pretty much essential if you don't have some really high-end over powered melee weapon. There are radioactive enemies and such, but I'll stop now since I don't want to spoil the types of things you'll come across too much if you aren't familiar with the game.
Fallout 3 and NV are both excellent games, but they're pretty buggy even with the patches, but they're at least playable when you've downloaded all the patches Bethesda made to their coding of the game. So I'd only recommend getting the games (both of which can be downloaded from Xbox Live if I remember correctly) if you can download the patches for them.
The main draw of them is the exploration of the land and the interaction with its character and roleplaying potential. I've often heard people say how they don't care for Fallout 3 or NV's combat, but I've been able to enjoy it, especially NV's. The combat isn't the best, but I would guess it could be enjoyable for you. One aspect I like is how conserving ammunition is a big part of the game, and how that adds to the post-apocalyptic scavenger sort of feel. So it probably should still be able to appeal to you, despite what I've heard some say.
