Your GOTY 2011 (poll added)

My game of the year 2011 is...

  • Portal 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Batman: Arkham City

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dark Souls

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Saints Row 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Witcher 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Catherine

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Serious Sam 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Frozen Synapse

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    162
I have read the first article, and I agree with some of your points. Games like PAYDAY, Battlefield, Killing Floor are just a treadmill for experience - you have no choices to distinguish your character from others that have played the game, other than what "skills" to grind first. I wouldn't really consider these RPGs - but like MCA - I appreciate the nod towards the genre. While games like Diablo, Borderlands and various MMOs are a little more complex - since there are many builds to be had - grinding is the point of those games. Hack 'n slash RPGs were never about giving your character personality - It's about being the baddest son of a bitch on the battlefield. If you don't like that type of game, cool, but those games are focused on competitiveness generally.
It's unfair, in my opinion, to disregard the leveling system in games like Deus Ex: HR and Fallout 3 in a similar fashion. You are building a personality for your character throughout the game. If you don't have the tools available to talk your way out of a situation because you didn't "grind" enough experience, it still affects your character on more than a statistical level. I wouldn't label the BIS games as "grinds", although they all contained random encounters that dealt with none of the story elements in the game. I preferred those games as they were - much of the experience came from completing objectives but you could still go grind some XP if that was what you preferred.
This said, I'll read your second article tomorrow. I do think Deus Ex: HR would've been better off without the individual enemy XP grinding, especially when it favored the incapacitation of enemies with much more substantial character building rewards as opposed to a pure stealth approach or murderous rampages.

You can't really get rid of "grinds" effectively in RPGs. Like MCA has stated, the player likes to be rewarded. The trick is to try to reward all types of players by creating unique and fun objectives for the different personalities players will want their characters to have.
 
I narrowed my GOTY picks down to LA Noir, Catherine, or Batman Arkham City. I didn't get to play Witcher 2 though, but I loved the first one.
 
Makagulfazel said:
That's the thing for me - sneaking is pretty easy in the game with the radar. So why reward the player for taking the easier route? I would have preferred a system where you gained more experience one way or another depending on the situation. You wanna kill the mercenaries that are hunting you down? Good - you should thin their ranks. You want to kill the thugs in Detroit although you're asked not to? Less XP for you. Or an even the tried and true system of exterminating individual enemies in any fashion you wanted without penalty. Give extra XP for completing the side quests if they called for killing, incapacitation or/and non-detection.
But whatevs - I didn't play this game for the combat anyway and as you said, you get more than enough XP otherwise. It's not really game breaking for me; my preferences would have just been different in a developer's shoes.

The game's geared towards sneaking, sure, and so was the original DX, more or less. I can't say that's a bad thing. However, sneaking with lethal weapons is no harder than sneaking with nonlethal (if anything, it's often easier), and as I said, I've found the bonus pacifist XP to be negligible. Most XP still comes side-quests and such.

If you want to complain about grindy XP, hacking is a much worse problem.
 
Ausdoerrt said:
If you want to complain about grindy XP, hacking is a much worse problem.

But with hacking, the hardest path is rewarded better. I feel the incapacitation of enemies is unjustifiably rewarded better although it is simpler than outright combat or actual sneaking - combat is especially tougher at the higher difficulties.

You can't really get rid of "grinds" effectively in RPGs. Like MCA has stated, the player likes to be rewarded.

I was simply addressing Sea's article.
 
It's true, straight-up combat in Human Revolution gives much less XP and is harder than stealth, even the thugs with pistols in Detroit kill you in 2-3 hits (1 in case of shotguns) and your health regenerates slowly. That said, it's also more satisfying than in most shooters imo, because it rewards planning and you have lots of weapon diversity, and unlike in Deus Ex, you can start a firefight and still end up not killing anyone, Lord bless the tranq gun, PEPS and gas grenades.

I do agree hacking is excessively dominant (a lockpicking minigame would have been nice) and the game has some design flaws, as evidenced in Sea's article. But for me they are easily overlooked by all the goodness. It's by no means perfect, but it's still damn good, better than anything since New Vegas if you ask me, which as I see it is high praise. So it still stands as my GOTY 2011, with The Witcher 2 second and Arkham City third, honorable mention to Total War Shogun 2, and also to Skyrim for being, surprisingly, noticeably better than Bethesda's previous offerings.
 
But with hacking, the hardest path is rewarded better. I feel the incapacitation of enemies is unjustifiably rewarded better although it is simpler than outright combat or actual sneaking - combat is especially tougher at the higher difficulties.

I've found lethal combat much easier than nonlethal - towards the endgame the enemies show up in bigger and bigger groups, and become difficult to incapacitate without killing (they'll wake each other up etc.). Sniping from beyond their sight is much, much easier.
 
Well I was trying to do a max XP run, took 98% of enemies in the game with non-lethal take-downs (Zhao apartment was one of the exceptions, last for guys downstairs were hard to take out that way). But then it was just drag a body to a safe spot and give it bullet to the head so it will not wake up ...
 
Xellos said:
Well I was trying to do a max XP run, took 98% of enemies in the game with non-lethal take-downs (Zhao apartment was one of the exceptions, last for guys downstairs were hard to take out that way). But then it was just drag a body to a safe spot and give it bullet to the head so it will not wake up ...
They don't wake up on their own, only if found by another enemy. So dragging them to a safe spot and killing them is, literally, overkill.

I think didn't "grind" for XP even once in Human Revolution.
 
Yeah, I knew that they do not ;) One time however I spent 2-3 hours non-lethally cleaning a big area, only for the last guy to see one of the bodies somehow, and in turn the rest, waking all his friends up. After having to replay this section I decided to make sure for it to never happen again. One bullet of fully upgraded pistol was enough for everybody, and since I was taking everybody out HtH I had like 400 ammo at the time
 
Ausdoerrt said:
towards the endgame the enemies show up in bigger and bigger groups, and become difficult to incapacitate without killing (they'll wake each other up etc.).

Yes, true. I just dragged them out of the way of their patrol routes, but it was still time consuming getting everything set. A lot of quicksaving was to be had.
 
That's when my Commandos-mode kicks in. Observe, knock out, hide body. Repeat. Fuck up. Quick load. Repeat until map is clean. Never gets old.

Or, y'know, post four of my guys behind a fence and kill hoardes of Nazis by pointing the unlimited-ammo handguns at the one spot where the enemies come rushing in. Hehe. Stupid Nazis.
 
I'm PC through and through but this year it's the console title, Dark Souls that gets the kudos from me. It's a PC game in depth that just happens to play well with an Xbox controller.

If it came to the PC I'd buy it again! I'm guessing it won't get played by most of this forum but you really are missing out on a treat. If you've got an Xbox or a PS3, get it.

After that, Footy Manager 2012 and Deus Ex, just. It's been a pretty unremarkable year (apart from Dark Souls).

Skyrim aint getting a sniff until it's been modded to hell.
 
Brother None said:
Black said:
No game this year deserves goty.

This statement makes absolutely no logical sense.

I couldn't tell if it was a joke or not. At least one good game comes out every year, otherwise I would be a bored motherfucker. Although fewer and fewer good RPG's come out every year.....
 
Top five in ascending order: Battlefield 3 (for its multiplayer, obv), Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dawn of War II: Retribution, Dark Souls, and the winner is:

Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUu4SV3GjVw&feature=channel_video_title

And people think Dark Souls is hard. Let me tell you, brother, joy is studying a 600+ page manual, eventually learning to cold start the "Hawg" practically blindfolded, then moving up to prosecuting a JTAC 9-line brief on a column of tanks with the mother of all Gatling guns.
 
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