What are you playing?

I started the trial, but TBH MMOs really don't excite me anymore. I burned out from a decade and a half between hardcore EQ and WoW, and games that are basically hopping from quest hub to quest hub and grinding exp and gear just bore me fast. It doesn't matter how pretty it is, they are all basically the same in my mind.
The biggest difference that FF14 has over other MMOs is that it has a proper story, with voice acted cutscenes (extremely often) for the Main Story Quest content, comparable to a solo RPG. It's less "Go here, do everything in a zone and move on" and "move as the story demands". If you're leveling on a low pop server and have the XP buff, you'll get enough XP that you never need to do MMO style filler quests... though sometimes those quests lead to things like pet, mounts, and cosmetics.

I keep telling people, but I'll say it again: if the end-game raiding content was as strong in FF14 as it was in WOW, I'd only be playing FF14.
 

Dave

Staff member
Apparently you can toggle "Skip All Cutscenes" in the settings. Crisis averted. Interest rising again.
 
The biggest difference that FF14 has over other MMOs is that it has a proper story, with voice acted cutscenes (extremely often) for the Main Story Quest content, comparable to a solo RPG. It's less "Go here, do everything in a zone and move on" and "move as the story demands". If you're leveling on a low pop server and have the XP buff, you'll get enough XP that you never need to do MMO style filler quests... though sometimes those quests lead to things like pet, mounts, and cosmetics.

I keep telling people, but I'll say it again: if the end-game raiding content was as strong in FF14 as it was in WOW, I'd only be playing FF14.
It doesn't matter, I'm going to get bored. I don't think you understand what I mean by hardcore MMOing for a decade and a half.
 
Apparently you can toggle "Skip All Cutscenes" in the settings. Crisis averted. Interest rising again.
Skip it if you like, though the story gets pretty great starting with Heavensward. You ever DO care to watch that stuff, it's all available in your Inn Room. There's a book there that lets you play any scene you've seen.
 
Sounds like SWTOR. Basically with SWTOR you can solo damn near everything except Operations, Flashpoints, Conquests, and PVP. Now, Flashpoints give you lots of XP, better gear, and special rewards, but they are pretty much optional. And many flashpoints can be solo'd with an NPC companion and Combat Droid; in fact story mode flashpoints are designed to do solo, which doing one in a group automatically bumps it up to Veteran difficulty. There are some flashpoints that can only be done in a group, though.
 
I don't understand.
This isn't heaping endless praise on Blood Bowl.
I don't praise blood bowl. The video game version is a janky port of the salt inducing board game that is certain to make everyone curse at the heavens when they roll those double ones... I just happen to love it, a lot.
 
To give a more in-depth judgement, FF14 is the most straight forward theme-park style MMO I've ever played but in a good way.

Pros

- You only NEED one character because that character can do every class and trade. You switch between them by changing your active weapon outside combat. Leveling other classes is pretty easy compared to WoW because you get an in-built XP bonus for other classes depending on your highest class.
- Every class feels distinct and has it's own mechanics. Red Mage and Thamaturge/Black Mage are both long range casters, but the "gimmick" of each class gives them a unique role and feel.
- Every class and trade has it's own sidestory that you unlock as you progress.
- An expansive, single player story that's comparable to any Square Enix game. Less so in ARR, but I really love the Heavensward and Stormblood stories.
- A pretty good tutorial on how to play your role in a dungeon. When you hit lvl 15 and the game is getting you ready for your first dungeon, go to the training hall they direct you to and do EVERYTHING. You get some good armor and a super useful ring that gives you bonus XP up to lvl 25 for any combat class.
- Lots of side stuff to do that unlocks as you level. Beast Tribe quests, raids, bonus hard mode dungeons... you even have special side stuff for crafting and gathering classes. They even got a series of comedy questlines that exists for no other reason than they were screwing around with the in-game models one day and realized they could do some wacky shit.
- Fight mechanics that actually mean something. Assuming you have a decent healer to do AOE healing when it's their time, most of your success and failure in big epic fights is tied to your ability to understand and avoid targeted attacks. It's not WoW where you just die because someone didn't do something random.
- An English translation team that actually gives a fuck! Damn near every mission has a punny name. Expect to see references to not just other games from Square Enix, but the Simpsons and even the musical Hamilton.

Downsides

- You wanna DPS? Prepare to (routinely) spend 5-15 minutes waiting for a dungeon pop. This is a problem early on because you will do almost every dungeon as part of the main story. They are changing this in the upcoming Shadowbringers expansion (you can bring your NPC allies along for MSQ dungeon runs instead of waiting for players) but it can be an issue.
- Outside of dungeons, trials, and raids... you're gonna be soloing virtually everything. That's just how the game is designed. That said, it's VERY solo friendly so it's just fine to play by yourself.
- Some parts of the story are just... ugh. Everything post-ARR/pre-Heavensward is THE WORST. It's long and your running around not doing a lot for a good period of time until the story rights itself. This is because THIS part of the story was hastly written when they had to remake the game for 2.0 after 1.0's troubled launch. Grit and get through it though and you'll hit some of the best stuff.

Let me or @Ravenpoe know if you decide to sub after/during your trial and we'll hook you up with a friend code for some nice stuff. I recommend starting on a server with the low pop XP bonus (it'll let you know which those are when you make a character).
I've never plaid a FF game in my life. I know, revoke my nerd card.

But this description makes it sound very appealing.
 
I don't praise blood bowl. The video game version is a janky port of the salt inducing board game that is certain to make everyone curse at the heavens when they roll those double ones... I just happen to love it, a lot.
I've loved the idea of Blood Bowl ever since Monsters of the Midway was featured in Dragon Magazine #65.

Can I have my nerd card back now? :D
 
I don't praise blood bowl. The video game version is a janky port of the salt inducing board game that is certain to make everyone curse at the heavens when they roll those double ones... I just happen to love it, a lot.
Rolling triple skulls, rerolling to double skulls and both-fall-over against an opponent with block, scream to the heavens.
 
Rolling triple skulls, rerolling to double skulls and both-fall-over against an opponent with block, scream to the heavens.
I had a playoff game where I hired Morg'n'thorg for the big game with all my money. Very first action he takes, he rolls triple skulls and kills himself.

I still have nightmares.
 
Yakuza 0, a.k.a.: Cutscene The Game

Why is this game so highly praised? No seriously, why?

From when I hit "start game" I had to wait over twenty minutes before I could even move my character. I moved him briefly, then there was a cutscene and a short, introductory fight. Then another cutscene. And another. And another and another. Then a brief karaoke mini-game. Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene, fucking cutscene. Even when I tried skipping a cutscene, it went right to another one THREE MORE TIMES.

Fuck.
That.
Shit.

When the ratio of cutscene to gameplay weighs much heavier on the cutscene, I will not have patience for that shit. I'm playing a game to play it, not watch it.
The first two chapters are like that. And it doesn't help that they saw the need two use different styles of cutscenes too. But after that and when the world opens up a bit more it's a great game. Two be honest, the game is praised for the sidequests and side activities not the main story.
 
Been finally playing Prey now that I have a week off. Prey might be the finest successor to System Shock. It's really great.
 
More FF14, just unlocked the Bard class and discovered that not only do you get a variety of musical attacks and buffs for combat, you also get the ability to just straight up play music.

 
More FF14, just unlocked the Bard class and discovered that not only do you get a variety of musical attacks and buffs for combat, you also get the ability to just straight up play music.

Not just Harp ether. Several instruments. It's almost like being in LotRO again, except there you could load in midi files to play songs automatically and synch players together for proper multipart harmony.

This was a long time requested feature and I'm glad they finally got around to it.
 
Alright, complaints about Prey now. It's too long. It just feels like every time I enter a new big area I just want it to end.
 

Dave

Staff member
More FF14, just unlocked the Bard class and discovered that not only do you get a variety of musical attacks and buffs for combat, you also get the ability to just straight up play music.

I think I'm like level 13 or something. It's okay. Not sure if I'm going to spend money on it yet, though. One of the things I like the most about WoW is that you can gather pretty much right away. I have yet to figure out how to do a profession in FFXIV.
 
I think I'm like level 13 or something. It's okay. Not sure if I'm going to spend money on it yet, though. One of the things I like the most about WoW is that you can gather pretty much right away. I have yet to figure out how to do a profession in FFXIV.
You have to unlock it as part of the main story. You join a crafting guild and get a new job just like your class guild
 
At what level?
So unlike WoW, there's not a specific level that it happens at, instead it depends on your progress through the main story quests. I got it around level 15, and I didn't do any side quests, but I was on a double XP server

Every time you get told you have a new job quest, go do it, and eventually your jobs guild leader will tell you that you are allowed to join other guilds now
 
@Dave You unlock the ability to switch jobs and take on Gathering/Crafting jobs as soon as you unlock the Armory system by completing your first Lvl. 10 job quest. They tell you that they trust you to be able to switch jobs now. Once you can do other jobs, just go to whatever class you wanna pick up and do it.

Notes on Gathering/Crafting jobs:
- Gathering is pretty straight forward until about 46-50. I recommend using Leves to level these. More over, leveling gathering classes will let you turn your Retainers (which you can get two of for free at lvl 17) into them and send them out to gather resources. This requires Ventures, but those are easy enough to get.
- Crafting is... not straightforward. It's a lot more indepth than WoW, in that you can fuck up crafting if you don't know what your doing. More over, you kinda need to get ALL CRAFTING CLASSES TO 50 if you want to get the most out of it, because the system relies on cross-class skills that can only be acquired by leveling classes (though the dev team is talking about changing this). I don't recommend getting into this until you have a good deal of gil on hand because it can get expensive.
- If you're going to disregard that advice, then I recommend getting all the crafting classes to 15 for the first cross-class skill they have. It's generally the most important till 50 and isn't too expensive. Once you've done that, I recommend doing Weaver because they can make clothes for crafters/gathers.

If you want to gather, gather to your heart's content. You can get Miner in Ul'dah, Botanist in Gridania, and Fisher in Limsa Lominsa.
 

Dave

Staff member
Well, what can I do with mats that I gather? Since I'm on the free trial I don't have access to the auction house thing. Is it even worth it?
 
Well, what can I do with mats that I gather? Since I'm on the free trial I don't have access to the auction house thing. Is it even worth it?
I didn't know about the auction house restriction. Uhh... no. Profitability of crafted goods is generally tied to the auction house.
With mats you gather? That would depend on what you're doing as a gatherer.

- Botanist gets wood, plants, raw food stuff, etc... it's most useful for Carpenter, Culinarian, and Weaver. Some bits are used in Alchemist.
- Fisher gets fish. This is basically just useful Culinarian, but Alchemist does use stuff from it too.
- Miner gets ore, gems, bones occasionally, and some chemical stuff. It's most useful for Goldsmith, Blacksmith, and Armorer, but the alumen you can find is also needed for tanning hides in Leatherworking, the water and salt you can get is useful for Culinarian, and other bits are good for Alchemist.

The biggest issue is that basically all craft skills are interconnected. So Weaver items might need leather or ingots, Carpenter needs ingots and growth solutions, Culinarian and Alchemist need bits from just about everything...

So no. The 1-10 stuff can be handled with guild suppliers in the respective guilds though, if you want a taste of what each class makes.
 
Just Cause 3

Pretty fun, but it took FOREVER to get to the sandbox part. Missions and cutscenes galore.

Still, blowing up shit is fun. I'm terrible at the gliding, though and the side challenges are impossible to beat for me. Not to mention it's annoying that I have to do these challenges for any upgrades.

Not sure if I'll keep on with this.
 
So I've thrown myself down the Sims 4 rabbit hole. And immediately I did it wrong. Starting a household in the blank slate town, and by the time I realized that, they'd already had a baby, which complicates picking up and moving to a more populated area. So it's either start over or cheat and age up the baby to make it a sim instead of an object.

OTOH, TIL you can reverse the genetics process to generate a parent from an existing kid sim. So I made @GasBandit's dream family. Starting with redhead twins from the Gallery, aged them up to teens, then created a hot redhead mom. :D
 
I don't understand the thought processes behind having fucking wolves spawn next to quest givers in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I've lost 3 so far, just traveling back to them only to watch them get eaten by a wolf. Fuck off. It's fucking infuriating.
 
I don't understand the thought processes behind having fucking wolves spawn next to quest givers in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I've lost 3 so far, just traveling back to them only to watch them get eaten by a wolf. Fuck off. It's fucking infuriating.
And that's been a problem going back to Assassin's Creed 3. You'd talk to a mission critical NPC, and mid-conversation, both of you would get mauled to death by wolves. Here's a bigger question - why the fuck have wolves in the first place?
 
And that's been a problem going back to Assassin's Creed 3. You'd talk to a mission critical NPC, and mid-conversation, both of you would get mauled to death by wolves. Here's a bigger question - why the fuck have wolves in the first place?
Ubisoft thinks More Stuff = More Profit.
 
Conan Exiles has this problem too; if I want a High Priest of Yog, I have to go to the one spawn on the map that has one and do it in such a way as to be able to get there quickly enough to kill the hyenas attacking the priest before the priest dies... and do so without killing the priest in the fight or having the priest kill ME in the fight or triggering Deferi adds from the camp. It's a clusterfuck.
 
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