Best video games of 2012?

[Mithrandylan]

Well, imagine a Legolas sort of character.  If you can do that, human noble rogue works out just fine. 

Have you ever done a full playthrough with Zevrian?  I think that on my very first playthrough (which would have been probably two years ago now) I brought him into the party but eventually kicked him out and dont' remember anything about it.  I think I invariably kill the scum.  It's a just punishment for attempted assasination of a grey warden and Teyrn of Hieghever, don't you think?

Have you played Kingdom of Amalur: (sp?) Reckoning?  My preference in video games, like yours, are single player RPG's and I was reading a bit about this game last night.  I'm on ps3 so I don't have all the options that you PC gamers do.

[The Harlequin King]

Yeah, I've never offed Zevran, though I suppose I wouldn't feel bad if I did. I think of NPC's as resources if nothing else, so I'd never remove one from my party voluntarily. I've even done a playthrough with Loghain once. That was interesting. Anyway, as for Zevran, the optimal playthrough in my opinion is to recruit him, do his quest, help him break free from the Crows and help him convert to being a "good guy".

Kingdoms of Amalur sucked so bad. I was bored from the start and couldn't play more than an hour of it.

[Mithrandylan]

I have a few saves right before the landsmeet, maybe I'll load one up one of these days and bring Loghain into the party.  Alistair leaves if you bring him, right?

Really, Kingdoms of Alamur was that bad?  I read good reviews on it, though admittedly IGN's 9/10 doesn't seem as prestigious as it used to.  I've played a few of their 9/10 games that were more like a 6/10 for me.  Any reccomendations for a single player RPG on ps3?  Dishonered isn't an RPG, is it?  I suppose the new Deus Ex is... which I haven't played.  I actually rented it once and by PS3 died the same night and never got around to doing much in it.

One thing I read about KoA that I wasn't too keen on was that since your character doesn't have a destinty, so to speak, you can pay certain NPC's to wipe your stats clean and re-assign them.  So you could start out as a warrior and finish the game as a mage.  While I like a fair amount of flexibility, that takes way too much of the impact of my decisions out of the game.  Didn't plan your character because you were lazy or suck at RPG's?  Never fear, pay someone to start over!

[The Harlequin King]

Correct, you can't have both Alistair and Loghain. Keeping Loghain to me makes the most sense if you're gonna be a Human Noble who marries Anora, since you'd end up killing your father-in-law if you off him. But, you can still keep Alistair as king (though not in your party) if you've both hardened him after that quest with his half-sister, as well as nominated him for the kingship in the Landsmeet.

Yeah, Kingdoms of Amalur was that bad. If IGN rated it 9 out of 10, it's because they were bought out. My recommendation for Deus Ex stands. It's definitely an RPG. Dishonored is also good, but very light on RPG elements. There are some moral decision-making moments, but not too much character customization. Dishonored is also a much shorter game. Of the two, I would most definitely do Deus Ex. You might also try picking up the original Deus Ex for your computer. It came out in 2000, man, so even your machine would probably run it.

[Mithrandylan]

Well, I went ahead and bought the new Deus Ex last night.  Played a few hours last night, loving it so far.  I have played the first one (though not the second).  It's probably one of my favorite games ever.  Mechs, Illuminati, what's not to love? 

Thanks for the rec! 

[The Harlequin King]

Well, I went ahead and bought the new Deus Ex last night.  Played a few hours last night, loving it so far.  I have played the first one (though not the second).  It's probably one of my favorite games ever.  Mechs, Illuminati, what's not to love? 

Thanks for the rec!

No prob. The original is also one of my all-time favs. It's where I first learned about G.K. Chesterton, via the random clippings of The Man Who Was Thursday strewn about. If you were referring to the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, don't bother. It's total crap and has zero relevance to Human Revolution.

[Spooky]

The Walking Dead I watched Tobygames play this and it's awesome. Made me want to buy it myself but my comp is too lame to handle it.

Part 1:

[The Harlequin King]

The Walking Dead I watched Tobygames play this and it's awesome. Made me want to buy it myself but my comp is too lame to handle it.

My roommate plays that. He was also a big fan of the series even before it was on TV (via the comics). I'm personally not into the zombie genre at all, with the exception of Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War. I don't even like the rest of the CoD franchise.

If you ever find yourself with some disposable income, I'll help you build a gaming PC.

[Spooky]

Well, it looks like my comp might be on it's last legs. What are your recommendations for say, under $400? (probably not much lol). I'm eyeballing this one:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavilion-p6-2313W-Desktop-PC-with-AMD-A4-3420-Accelerated-Processor-6GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8-Monitor-Not-Included/21984277

[The Harlequin King]

Well, it looks like my comp might be on it's last legs. What are your recommendations for say, under $400? (probably not much lol). I'm eyeballing this one:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavilion-p6-2313W-Desktop-PC-with-AMD-A4-3420-Accelerated-Processor-6GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8-Monitor-Not-Included/21984277

Yeah, $400 is stretching it. Let me get back to you on it.

[LouisIX]

I really haven't played very many in 2012, but I thought the new Hitman was pretty good.

[Mithrandylan]

HK: I finished Deus Ex Human Revolution two nights ago.

This post contains SPOILERS!!!!!!

So, my impressions-- I thought the gameplay was great.  I love stealth games.  Really, no complaints here, except for one thing.  The inability to do stealth takedowns from behind cover.  I thought that was lame.  Also, I thought some of the stealth takedowns were a little overkill.  I don't want to tap someone on the shoulder, have them turn around and then punch them five feet forward, because they might be seen at that point.  I I had a CHOICE which takedown to use, that might be different, but when I time my attack just right and end up being detected because I got the wrong animation, I'm not too happy.  Let's see... The fact that ammo was scarce was good.  I think I probably killed 5-10 percent of the enemies I encountered.  Probably even less.  The stun gun and tranq rifle are actually preferable because they're one-shot and down. 

The augs were quite fun, and it kept telling me to choose wisely because I wouldn't be able to get them all.  That didn't really matter, since I had laser sights which took away any aiming penalties, and who needs dermal armor in the game anyways?  The real way to play that game is unseen, if you need dermal armor you're not playing the game right.  The fact that you couldn't get "all" of the augs really wasn't a letdown, except that it took away from the RPG experience, although barely-- and I don't really play Deus Ex for an RPG experience anyways, so no biggie.

The bosses were actually very easy if you used grenades.  I only had a little problem with the last one, and that's mainly because my HUD was all messed up.  Otherwise, three grenades to any of the bosses and that about does it.

My main complaints were with the story.  It's not really believable, I think.  I know it's sci-fi, so I'm not talking about that.  The first game (it's been AT LEAST five years since I've played it, so I'll say "IIRC") had you so involved with all the characters and made the conspiracy with Illuminati, NSF, Knights Templar, M12 seem very real and plausible.  Though they were secret societies, they were very real and the game made them so.  In Human Revolution, the Illuminati isn't even mentioned until near the very end and Adam is first like "lolwut" and then he's convinced that they're behind everything-- with no names, no contact, anything.  All of a sudden the illuminati is this vague villain that we know nothing about.

Now, in real life that may be true, but for purposes of the game we need more to go on and more involvement.  It's almost as if the game is making fun of itself by just vaguely referring to the illuminati conspiracy. 

Darrow was a joke.  It turns out that he killed all those people because... he was angry his biology wouldn't accept augs.  I take this about as seriously as when someone says Hitler killed Jews because he had Jewish blood.  That was a serious letdown to get to the end and have Darrow flip out and be like "I can't get the technology, so screw them... oh no, what have I done?!"  That was just pathetic.  Very disappointing. 

I knew Dr Reed was going to be alive.  I don't think they did a very good job with that.  Maybe that's just me.  I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the game much more than the last quarter. 

It also seemed silly that Adam's like "we're going to Montreal to find Eliza."  When Malike was like lolwut "that's a long shot, dontcha think?"  I was thinking the same thing.  There was like no causation and barely even any correlation.  Of course, it turned out to be the right thing to do but still. 

Oh, and when I went through the harvesters hideout and found malik, I wanted an option to say something like "don't touch her" to Tong or something... no such luck.  That was stupid, I should have been able to be pissed about that.

The side quests were very fun.  And over all, I'd give it 7 or 8 out of ten justbecause most of it was awesome.  I think that about covers it.

[The Harlequin King]

Haha, that didn't take long. Also a pretty good assessment of the story problems, except I don't think Hugh Darrow's motives were that unrealistic. The Illuminati was probably glossed over because to build it up would be to rehash old territory from the first game, though I agree it could have been handled better.

I never got detected for Adam using the wrong steal animation, though.

[Mithrandylan]

I'm not saying they were unrealistic (though I think they were a little) but that they were uncompelling and stupid.  I like my villains to be bent on global domination or destruction.  Not whiny bitches who can't have a machine leg.  That's just comical.

Except for people like you and me and older, I doubt many people have played the first deus ex who played this one.  It's an "old" game.  I'm almost tempted to get it from gamefly and see if my pc will run it. 

As far as being detected, when you do that animation where he punches the target, the target flies three or five feet backwards from the point of attack, and sometimes falls right into another guards cone of vision.  and then you have to go grab him and drag him.  Sometimes just a second can make the difference.

Can I ask, what ending did you choose?

[The Harlequin King]

Can I ask, what ending did you choose?

Not that the endings really mattered, but my first instinct was the default Darrow video, even though I unlocked the possibility for the others. I chose it because it was the most truthful answer, being without any editing tricks or ulterior motive.