The Video/PC Game Discussion Thread

These are awesome:

Still plugging away at Mass Effect: Andromeda, now 56 hours in, 50% completion and still feeling like I have at least 20-30 hours left before I"m done with the game (I'm not trying to 100% it: Just want to do all the quests I care about and get outposts set up on every planet.) I'd say the game definitely has some flaws, as already mentioned, and loading times can be excessive, but the gameplay is incredibly addictive, combat feels much better than in probably any other Bioware game ever, the open world is generally quite fun and most non fetch quests are great, and I'm just overall having an awesome time with it. The game certainly could have used more time to fix some of the glitches and maybe get the animations looking smoother, but I'm still glad to be playing it as is, and I think I'd take it over any Bioware game since ME2, which I consider the last of their golden age games.

Just purchased Andromeda due to seeing a good price but I still intend to finish my playthrough of the original trilogy first. I just may be playing the games that bit faster. 

It looks like you made the right call in waiting a bit to play it, Adam: They're putting out an update that apparently lets you speed up animations during planet travel, which was actually my biggest annoyance with the game because it made planet scanning take FOREVER. That will seriously make your playthrough much more enjoyable than it would have been if you had played right away, I think, even if you don't do much scanning, because some late game quests have you going back and forth a lot. 

My replay of the original Mass Effect Trilogy is complete. Andromeda bound next. 

aglasshouse wrote: Guys help me out -- it's spring break and I need a new game to entice me and make me sit on my ass for days in a row. Any ideas?

Okay, not sure what you may have already played but I can recommend the following series/titles for open world games with a lot of gameplay hours in them. Some would count as 'the obvious' in my view but just to be thorough: 

Well, I'm a few hours into Mass Effect Andromeda and these are my first impressions:

Andromeda just really pissed me off: it abruptly forced a dialogue right in the middle of a fight, so my Ryder just stood there getting beaten to death while being unable to do anything about it.

adg211288 wrote: Okay, not sure what you may have already played but I can recommend the following series/titles for open world games with a lot of gameplay hours in them. Some would count as 'the obvious' in my view but just to be thorough:  Elder Scrolls (III: Morrowind, IV: Oblivion & V: Skyrim) - lots of modding potential if you're playing on PC too. Fallout (3, New Vegas & 4) - like a post-apocalyptic shooter version of the above.  Borderlands - not 'open' in the sense of the above, but many open, connected areas with a lot to do. 2 is the best game IMO.  Far Cry 3 - I haven't played any of the other games but I mostly liked this one.  The Long Dark - survival game with several fairly large open maps and some smaller ones. It is a Early Access title though, however I have managed to clock over 100 hours so far and I haven't even played the most recently added area yet. Saints Row (I've played 2, 3, 4 and a bit of Gat Out of Hell) - started as a serious crime serious but then turned into over the top comedy.  The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I recommend all three games but only the third is open world. It's also a contender for my favourite game of all time.  These ones aren't open world but I've thrown a lot of hours into them all the same: Alien Isolation - great horror title even if you haven't seen the film series. Bioshock Infinite - fairly linear but I've replayed this one more times than I care to remember. Deus Ex Human Revolution - still not got into Mankind Divided, but I should make an effort after I exhaust Mass Effect Andromeda. Love this one though and I do recommend the director's cut edition with the DLC integrated.  Dishonored 1 & 2: Second game has been plagued with (steadily improving) technical problems but I do recommend both, including the two main DLC for the first.  Mass Effect trilogy: can't pass a judgement on Andromeda just yet but I've played the trilogy I guess four times in all now.  Metro 2033/Last Light: Pretty good post-apocalyptic FPS set in the Russia metro. Linear but games I've enjoyed replaying a few times over now.  Tomb Raider 2013/Rise of the Tomb Raider: first TR games I've really got into.  That's all I can think of right now, hopefully they aren't all games you've tried before.