StaceyPowers

So, I have never played an “episodic” video game before. I noticed that Episode 1 of Life is Strange was free the other day, so I grabbed it for PS3. My question is … If I play through the whole episode, and then I purchase the full edition of Life is Strange which includes all of the episodes combined, will the progress I made playing the individually-purchased Episode 1 transfer over, or will I be starting over from the beginning when I get the full game? Just want to be aware in advance before I start. I don’t mind repeating sections of a game, but I get irritated if it is unexpected.

@Shagger I think I picked Intelligence, Strength, and ... something else. I will have to update this thread the next time I am playing the game. And more of a warrior-summoner than a straight-up warrior. I heavily rely on conjuration. "Level Endurance as fast as possible" Why does it have to be fast? Is there a long-term consequence if it isn't? Or does it just make it easier earlier on?

There are a number of Skyrim bosses that fall into that category. They taunt you through a three-level dungeon with their irritating echoing voices, and then you get to them at last, and sometimes, they are almost absurdly easy to kill. So much build-up for an anticlimax =D

I think (?) everyone I wanted to nominate got nominated. And thank you for the nominations, @Crazycrab, @LadyDay, @The Blackangel, @Shagger

@Shagger and @Crazycrab, you both wrote amazingly detailed and thoughtful rants/responses on my discussion about Oblivion’s difficulty with regard to levelling. I am very appreciative of the time you took, and I feel I understand a little bit more now. I feel like I would understand the most by looking at the example of my own character. If either of you has some time at some point and is willing to help, could you please give me some advice on how I should be levelling? I am playing a redguard with a custom (probably terribly incorrect) class. I am playing with a single handed weapon, a shield, and conjuration. I wear light armor. What should I have picked as my major skills when I created my class and where should I be putting my points when I level?

For anyone who regularly dreams about video games, what are the weirdest/most elaborate gaming dreams you have had? Last night I dreamt I was the emperor in Elder Scrolls, and that everyone believed I was Talos re-incarnated. I was trying to figure out how to best exploit this belief to try and improve race relationships and decrease religious bigotry across the board before someone assassinated me. @LadyDay tagging you just cause I think you'd find my dream amusing.

@Crazycrab was very kindly helping me to figure out the lockpicking mini-game in Oblivion, which I just didn’t find intuitive. Naturally, struggling with the mini-game made me think about all the other mini-games I’ve encountered in Oblivion, Skyrim, BioShock and other games. On the whole, I think I find mini-games annoying for a couple of reasons. One is that many of them are reflex-based, and, well, I have horrible reflexes. The other reason is that they simply feel like a disruption to me of the main game play and like something I didn’t remember signing up for. Thankfully, they do tend to be optional in most games. I really dislike the mini-game with the pipes in BioShock, but you are only forced to solve one, after which you can just avoid them completely with those auto-hack tools. Though the BioShock 2 hacking mini-game I half-enjoyed, despite it being reflex-based, maybe because it illustrated such a clear, strange principle to me regarding mine. I discovered that if I tried to click just a moment too “early” according to my brain, my hand would get the message and do it just in time. Eventually, I got really good at timing my own reflex delay. By far my least-favorite mini-game ever so far is the persuade wheel in Oblivion. I kind of grasp the concept, but don’t seem to have the “plan ahead” skills to execute it. I gather from posts in various places online that if I did, it wouldn’t be that difficult. But as I don’t, I can’t stand it. Do you like or dislike mini-games? Which mini-games are your favorites? Which are your least favorites?

I am on Windows 7 and my greatest dread is that Quake 3 Arena might not run on Windows 10. Does anyone know if it does? Also, same question about UT 2004. @Alyxx As you seem most likely to know, and @The Blackangel as I think you know some things about Win 10 compatibility with older games.

@Alyxx was reassuring me that the armatures in Mass Effect shouldn't be overly challenging once I have the proper weapon mods. I was relieved, as I had been worrying they were genuinely overpowered. So, here is a question for you all. What are some enemies in video games that really are stupidly overpowered, so that even with an ideal approach, you still are stuck dealing with a ludicrously tedious situation trying to beat them?

This is quite honestly my worst addiction.

What achievement are you most proud of for 2019?

@Crazycrab First average lock picked successfully :) Great things are in my future =D Thanks again!

I've screwed up levelling in multiple games. A simple example would be my first Skyrim playthrough, where I didn't know what skills i liked and didn't, and so, to play it safe, I was picking perks all across the skills pretty evenly. I wound up with lots of wasted perks in skills I eventually stopped using altogether.

@Crazycrab @Shagger Thank you very much for your detailed comments on all of this. The very fact I am going to have to re-read both of your posts multiple times to grok the levelling system tells me how convoluted they made it ... I screwed up levelling in Skyrim on my first playthrough but easily figured out what went wrong and how to fix it next time. And I am now almost positive I have levelled badly so far in Oblivion.

Maybe I've been misunderstanding the timing of when to hit the button--I'm going to give it a try now ... and if that fails, it's off to the shrine. Thank you for all this detail.

I feel like the isometric view (not first person) would make me feel detached on Hatred. What you say about gore rings true with me too though. If things don't bleed a lot on the screen, I feel cheated, lol.

I can pick the easy locks in Oblivion, but for some reason, I can’t pick Average locks? I don’t understand this mini-game. When I push up on one of the tumblers, it literally doesn’t let me move to the next one until it comes back down. There seems to be no physical way to open the lock. What am I doing wrong/missing? Any recommendations anyone can give me for beating this mini-game or avoiding it completely would be awesome. On that note, I can’t find lockpicks for sale anywhere. I have been playing for weeks and have only four. @DylanC

I’ve been playing Oblivion for weeks, and while I like it, I swear it is so much more challenging than Skyrim, even with the difficulty down. -I notched the combat down quite a bit, and it is still harder than playing at Expert level on Skyrim. -I somehow only have four lockpicks? After playing Skyrim for the same length of time, I had dozens. -The mini-games for lockpicking and persuasion are confusing to me. In fact, I can’t figure out the latter at all, to the point where my sole mission right now is just to get entry to the mage’s college place so that I can make an uber charm spell and persuade people that way. -Enemies in this game will chase you to the edge of Tamriel, lol. They’ll even clamber up mountains to chase you. So, running away is even difficult. Who else finds Oblivion to be much harder than Skyrim? @DylanC @LadyDay

Thank you :)

What games do you play to channel your aggression? I’m not talking about games making you more aggressive—I’m talking about games that help you burn off extra adrenaline when you are already feeling aggressive and need to take it out on something, even if it is made of pixels. @The Blackangel Tagging you because I figure you have input here =D

@Shagger was talking about self-imposed challenges in video games, i.e. (Shagger’s example) trying to beat TLOU using nothing other than bricks and bottles. I can’t imagine trying to do that, lol. My current self-imposed challenge is to play my new Skyrim character doing nothing but destruction magic and conjuration, no weapons. It’d be a lot harder without the conjuration, but conjuration is just too fun for me to give up. What self-imposed challenges have you taken on in video games? Which were you successful with? Were there any you gave up on? Which do you think you might try in the future?

I totally agree! I miss when I temporarily had enough astronomy knowledge in college to look up at the sky and get what was going on, and I feel like a game could somehow make it easier to do that again, especially if it somehow incorporated real-time RL astronomy events.

@Crazycrab was talking about isometric games on another thread and saying that on console they feel cumbersome compared to on PC. I feel like I agree with this, though I can't quite explain why. Though in general, I find isometric games cumbersome. Don't get me wrong--I do like them. The first time I saw an isometric game was Solstice on NES, and as a kid, it blew my mind and was my instant favourite game. But I always sucked at it. I think it is because everything on the screen is tilted at an angle. I remember trying to tilt my NES controller thinking that would help me move correctly, but it didn't. Do you like isometric games or dislike them? Does anyone have any tips for getting better at them?

You have to inhabit the world of any dystopian novel. Which do you choose, and why?

I am so quoting that. Favourite movie of all time, and why?