Be Excellent To Each Other

It's kindam too easy on easy. I might turn it up a notch.


Song Of the Dragon Born- Top words are in dragon, Bottom words are tranlations to english. Dovahkiin Song-Link

I played the first mass effect on easy and enjoyed it far more for it. Glad you're enjoying it Cookie, I'm just amazed you managed it in such a short(! For Skyrim at least) time. I am putting off main quest missions though so I suppose I am taking a much longer route through it.
Anyway, i'll be at your house on Saturday so I'm looking forward to seeing if it looks much different on PC

Odd, I played Mass Effect 2 straight on hardcore and enjoyed it far more for it.

My favourite companion so far is



She's an absolute tank, blasting out spells all over the shop. Happy to wear dragonscale armour, too.

Does she nudge you while sneaking and aiming an arrow? Does she attract radar? Do her menstruations attract bears?

Only problem with this game is that someone who hasn't played Morrowind, Oblivion etc, the sheer options are pretty overwhelming. Which armour is best for sneaking around? Do I build skills by doing quest stuff or just repetitively doing the same thing? Which of the ten zillion skill perks is a good path to follow or will I end up with all of them anyway.

Aside from that, I must have played five hours worth. Killed a dragon, did a dungeon, got a companion. Might head out to Redorans Retreat and then Swindlers Den to clear them before going up a flight of stairs.

Also do the bad guys level up with you? Hate that.

Skill perks are new, so you're in the same boat with everyone on that. Sneaking armour? Anything. Levelling sneak allows you to negate the impact of heavy armour noise. You level stuff that you use most by using them. So just flow with it.

I'm pretty certain there's some amount of autolevelling going on, but it doesn't seem to be quite as intrusive as it was in Oblivion. It seems to be very patchily applied as well - it's very noticeable in bandits, but with other enemies like Draugrs I've barely noticed it at all.

I don't think it autolevels the bad guys so much as autolevels which type of bad guys you'll face in a given dungeon.

When you first go around barrows etc you'll find simple Draugrs. A few levels later, Restless Draugrs. Then a few more levels, Draugr Wights. Then Draugr Deathlords. And at around level 50 I'm finding the majority are filled with Draugr Over Deathlords. Their weapons get bigger and hurtier, they start using Shouts at you and more magic. Not finding them overly trouble to deal with as my sneaky arrow bastard whacks them with a x3 sneak attack that removes >80% of their health on the first arrow.

Out in the wilds I don't see much difference, really. The draggins that swoop on you have moved up to Ancient Draggins (through Frost, Blood, Elder) but get battered quite nicely with one storyline based Shout you learn.

People in 'enjoying different gaming experience' shocker.

Are you just cynical now?

Bear in mind that the auto-level stuff also levels up the loot in chests etc. One trawl through a barrow can net me 15-20 flawless diamonds, 30-40 flawless garnets, plus 30-40 rubies/emeralds/sapphires.

I have graphics set to Ultra

No. For some people reaching the destination is the goal, others want to enjoy the journey. You shouldn't look down your nose at people who enjoy things in a different way to you.

I just thought you and the Doc were being a bit snooty about what is essentially a computer game, so called you out on it. Last time I checked this was a discussion forum - I must've missed the memo where we were told we all had to have the same opinion on things.

I disagree.

I think we can all agree that Dark Souls is a much more manly game.

Dark souls.

Why the hell would I do that? You accuse me of arrogance that's not in my DNA.

In that case, I apologise for the way I perceived your comments.

-edit- also, I'm one of the least cynical people I know, just so you know too.

I simply don't get why you'd remove the gaming part of playing a game. Not playing on hardest, fine. But down to the easiest setting? Honestly you might as well read a book or watch a film for the amount of interactivity you're getting. Thinking of Skyrim in particular, I can't think of any other way of ruining the joy of tactical combat than realising they can't really hurt you and just wading in and flailing around until they fall over. Racing over traps because they can't hurt you. Never seeing a challenge so you don't level up and see the hurtier men. Just play Progress Quest instead.

It all depends on the person, but a good challenge to you would seem frustrating to others. I guess that's why they have difficulty levels, to appeal to all types of gamer.

I have to play MW2 on easy, otherwise I can't get past the Favela section. Literally spent over an hour on that level once and couldn't do it. I'm sure that many on here would consider playing it on easy to be barely a challenge, but playing it above that for me was frustrating to the point of absolute lack of enjoyment. In fact more whatever the opposite of enjoyment is. On easy, however, I coudl get past it and was able to shoot people in the face which is the fun of it.

On the other hand, there are other games that I find annoyingly piss easy if I dont put the difficulty level up. e.g. Fallout 3/NV.

Horses for courses and that.

Yeah, you set the difficulty to where you keep dying but not so much it prevents progress. I agree with Dimrill though, if you make it so easy that nothing in the world poses any real threat then where does the excitement come from? If there's no sense of risk then where is the reward? I guess there's still a feeling of exploration but it's supposed to be like exploring somewhere that is at least a bit dangerous. But still, to each his own, if someone still enjoys playing a game then they are doing it right.

Yeah, definitely agee with you and Dimrill on that.

Then again - people happily play games using god mode all the way through. They must derive some enjoyment from it otherwise why bother? Granted, their enjoyment glands must be shrivelled, horrible things, much like walnuts that have been marinated in dog urine.

It's up to you how you play the games you bought. I couldn't give a toss. But if you start asking if you've missed anything while racing through on easy, don't be surprised if I tell you.

For some people the game's not about the combat, it's about wandering around and seeing what's over the next hill and getting lost in a big, gorgeous fantasy world. For those people, the constant risk of getting your face eaten off by a bear doesn't add to the fun, it's an impediment. I see what you're saying and I largely agree but you know, Gary Coleman for different folks.

Surely this viewpoint assumes that the only reason for playing games is challenge, specifically in combat in this case. The only game type I can think of where that it actually true is your one-one-one fighting games like Street Fighter where all there is to the game is combat. In every other game type I can think of there's a plot, there's level design, there's potentially new mechanics to play around with etc; there's basically a lot more going on than combat. Indeed especially in a game like Skyrim that's got (I assume!) a plot and character progression and exploration and impressive set pieces and all that jazz it seems weird to adopt a position where you can't think of any enjoyment that could be had from it if you're not getting your ass kicked now and again.

ETA: What Rodofwa said basically as he's put it better than me.

I usually start on 'Normal' and scale down if I'm struggling. I'm not one to go for 'Hardcore' though.

Spacky hands, y'see.

When I play Doom I stick godmode on and race to the exit of the first level as fast as I can. Then I just keep playing the first level over and over again. I don't want to see the bigger baddies on the later levels and I don't care about the secrets. Did I miss anything?

Not it doesn't. A sense of peril is part of what makes exploration interesting and fun, not knowing what is around the next corner in a dark cave is not going to be at all nerve-jangling if you know for a fact that whatever it else it might be it will be harmless. I think that to play the game that way is to miss out on most of what the designers intended you to feel whilst playing.

There's only one level in Doom. And the Pinkies are as bad as it gets. You missed nothing.

As this doesn't bear much resemblance to the position of anyone in the actual discussion it's a bit difficult to work out what exactly you're missing.

Yes, exactly, it's part of what make it interesting and fun, but not all that's required. Which means it's entirely possible for people to enjoy doing something with less of a challenge form the combat. And, as the entire point of playing games the last time I checke was to enjoy the experience, then surely that still means they're doing it right (for a specific value of 'right' that's unique to the individual)? Which is really all I think anyone's trying to say.

I really need to draw a "tearing out you own hair" dimlie.

Yes, but to race through Skyrim as fast as possible is to miss out on nearly everything the game has to offer. But you know some people spectacularly miss the point in all sorts of games. A colleague at work bought F1 2010, after I had managed about two GPs where I had managed to scrape a hard-earned 10th and 14th place and enjoyed every minute of doing so he had finished three seasons winning every race and the championships by turning the difficulty down so that every race was a pointless, hurried few laps to victory. He'd got all the PS3 trophies he could be bothered with and never played it again. Obviously I don't really care that he did this, I just know to never listen to a word he says when he is opining on racing games.

Heh, off-topic, but I'm currently on my second season, doing 40% race distance with full race weekends.

There's a difference though between 'racing through' a game so you're actually missing content and just playing through it with the combat difficulty turned down though. I fully agree that the former is pointless but I propose that someone could still enjoy the latter even with the attendant lessening of combat challenge. Indeed it's possible to 'race through' the main game and then do a second playthrough where you purposely seek out all the side content and still get your money's worth, and there was a slight implication from Cooke that this was his intention.



Oh yeah, I fully agree that your colleague's a total tit in this scenario because racing games, like my Street Fighter example earlier, are games where the entire game is the core mechanic; there's literally nothing else to it so no real justification for doing it all on the easiest setting (unless your skills are such that you're challenged even at that level of course).

What we needed was some kind of car analogy, so I'm glad we shoehorned that in somewhere for Dimmers.

Apologies if I'm somehow missing your point and causing you frustration. These kind of indirect swipes are a pretty shite way of dealing with that though.

Dark souls.

On easy.

Apologies i've not read all the posts on here (lack of time this week) but has anyone pointed out that cookie is not actually old enough to have bought the game and his running through it like that might be more to do with his age than anything more around his choice of difficulty ?

I thought it was pretty direct.

He's old enough to get what games are about. I blame the cheevo culture, it's just another symptom of Broken Britain.

Like I've said, completely up to him how he plays his game.

It wasn't. Here, I'll show you how it's done:

Your simile didn't represent the position of anyone actually discussing anything in the thread (including yourself) therefore made absolutely no sense at all and was impossible to meaningfully respond to. No one's purposefully misrepresenting you; you're just a lot shitter at communicating that you think you are. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, hence my polite reply and apology, but from this last post here and your childish bitching on Twitter you're obviously not interested in anything but blaming me for your own needless obfuscation so I invite you to go fuck yourself.

Okay. I see that talking to friends = childish bitching now. Excellent. Love this place.

Sorry, I only read and respond to threads in hard mode. Sorry if my convoluted language means you have to work a bit harder to get what I mean. I shall continue bitching elsewhere about how everyone should play games exactly how I do, because that's what I obviously mean.

Oh. I so I didn't get the option. Maybe I chose poorly, then.