Check out this interview of Irrational Games’ Ken Levine talking about BioShock Infinite. The game was one of the best things I saw at E3 2011. Ken is awesome, BioShock Infinite will likely be awesome, and your day will be better for this double dose of awesomeness.
Check out this interview of Irrational Games’ Ken Levine talking about BioShock Infinite. The game was one of the best things I saw at E3 2011. Ken is awesome, BioShock Infinite will likely be awesome, and your day will be better for this double dose of awesomeness.
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It makes me want to finish Bioshock 1. My big problem with that game is the same as I had with Alan Wake, Batman: AA, or Splinter Cell: Conviction. With each of those games I started off saying "I don't care about the gamerscore or all the little things in the game that aren't part of the story," such as finding all the riddles or coffee thermoses (I still can't find 2 of them) etc. I wanted to leave the grinding behind and just really enjoy the game and the story but I started to get into the games and just couldn't bring myself not to do it. I hate the grinding on Bioshock but I have not been able to make myself play that without attempting the grinding. That has been the only thing stopping me from finishing that story and moving on to Bioshock 2, and getting excited for Bioshock Infinite.
It's also the reason I stopped playing Prince of Persia—I did not want to spend all that time collecting light orbs. I think I can only take that grinding in certain games, and if it is an option I just have to do it. There is so much grinding though that it takes some of the fun out of the game for me and keeps me from enjoying the experience. Maybe soon I will just play through Bioshock and say damn the achievements. Hopefully.
I can add to this dilemma as well… But I'll wait until Ray makes it a Coffee Talk topic.
It will probably be Thursday since tomorrow's topic is obviously going to be "Can the result achieved while playing BF3 on an i7 Turbo and a Radeon 6990 in Uber Mode be possible on a $1K PC?"
I was actually going to write a timeline of my problems with AnHosting. That has been dominating my thoughts today more than anything else. It's sad that I now recognize voices from tech support and am scared about tonight's fourth attempt at server migration.
Dude… if the headache of switching host servers is lesser than the headache you currently have… check out siteground.com.
They always run awesome deals to start with and the way they set you up is awesome for their rather competitive price.
The thing is, I'm paid through April 2012 and have two months free because of the incompetence AnHosting has displayed in the last week. I don't want to spend the money if I don't have to, especially when the site isn't making any money because of the Amazon situation.
All of that is understandable. Very valid points.
I've only had a few issues from time to time and more recently than ever before. Sometimes it takes forever for a page to load and other times it gives me the 404.
I'd say that only happened about 30% of the times I tried this week.
And then FF logs me out every time I reload a page… that may be on my end though. I don't know, I've just been using Chrome instead.
On a side note (while I'm thinking of it), I just recently checked out HBO Go and saw how legit it truly is. I'm a fan. Not only do they have all the things you've talked about, but they have all the documentaries too B)!!! And the complete Kenny Powers saga…. AND Carnivale! Carnivale was a brilliant show that was untimely denied a 3rd season (if you don't know).
What grinding achievements are there in Bioshock? The only ones I can think of are the "fully research… " ones. But those are hardly considered grinding and it's helpful later in the game. All you have to do is get a few tonics that boost the experience you get from taking pictures (like both Photographer's Eye and Photographer's Eye 2- you can stack them) and then go around taking pictures of enemies (preferably close-up and in motion) like mad. You will be hit a lot. Also, focus more on the Nitro splicers since they are limited in numbers after you get the research camera.
Hey, I was just looking at your achievement list in Bioshock and I noticed that you didn't have the "Completed Welcome" achievement unlocked, yet this is the very first achievement you get in the game. It is impossible to get to the third level of the game and not have this unlocked. So, how the hell did you get to the third level of the game and not have this unlocked?
Oh, and if you think that Bioshock 1 is grinding, just wait until you see the multi-player achievements for Bioshock 2.
-M
P.S.- I had the same problem with the thermoses in Alan Wake. The only way to do it is by finding a guide online. If not, you're doomed to wander through the entire game for dozens and dozens of hours and may still fail. Even with a guide, it took me two play-throughs just for the thermoses alone. The same thing goes for the pigeons in GTA IV.
I feel the audio diaries are grinding in Bioshock. I feel the same way about these as I did the radio shows and such in Alan Wake. They really enhance the story, but some of them are a pain to find. I can't decide on a good way to change the dilemma though. Making them a gimme is too easy and doesn't really challenge the player, but making them too hard to find (to the point where you have to have a guide to do so without tearing your hair out) isn't fun and can lead to people either grinding to find them all or missing some and potentially missing out on some cool story extras.
The photographer achievements are a little dull to me, but doable if I tried more. The fully research ones really aren't that bad either, and I have progressed with those fairly well throughout the game. The audio diaries are the biggest thing I don't want to miss. I know I can go back and look for them when I am done, but what fun is there (or what difference in terms of grinding is there) to simply go back later and do it then. Why not finish it in one playthrough?
I think once I get to Bioshock 2 I won't really mess with the multiplayer, similar to how I never played much of the Gears 1 multiplayer (or Gears 2 for that matter).
In Alan Wake I loved the game and the story, I still think it is a great game for the story alone. I need to get that game again so I can get the DLC for it sometime. The thermoses were a cliche touch (a writer who loves coffee—how original), and I do know roughly where the last 2 are located. In levels 2 and 5, I have them written down more specifically somewhere on my laptop. In GTA4 I never did the pigeons, mostly because I couldn't take all the grinding in that game. If the locations for specific stunts, jumps, or pigeons were on the game's map I would be more inclined to do them during a playthrough of the game (sort of how Skate handles that situation). In Skate whenever you are going through the city and get close to a challenge it gets marked on the map and alerts you to the challenge. Then it is easier to come back to later if you don't want to do it then, there is no real hassle in finding that spot again.
Some of the games I have mentioned here and in today's coffee talk have done a great job with challenges and achievements. These things go mostly unnoticed, but it is the games that screw it up which draw the most attention (from me at least). That's the way it goes I suppose.
Also, I almost forgot about the very first achievement! I'm trying to remember how I missed that the first time through, but there was some sort of glitch because I was messing with what difficulty to play on. I began playing on hard and remember the achievement unlocking (just not on my profile, idk how) and when I restarted on an easier difficulty it never unlocked, I'm assuming it somehow somewhere someway viewed that as an already unlocked achievement. Honestly I don't remember exactly where that achievement went to, but my plan was to finish the game and make that the last achievement I got—simply because that shouldn't be possible to do.
It makes me want to finish Bioshock 1. My big problem with that game is the same as I had with Alan Wake, Batman: AA, or Splinter Cell: Conviction. With each of those games I started off saying "I don't care about the gamerscore or all the little things in the game that aren't part of the story," such as finding all the riddles or coffee thermoses (I still can't find 2 of them) etc. I wanted to leave the grinding behind and just really enjoy the game and the story but I started to get into the games and just couldn't bring myself not to do it. I hate the grinding on Bioshock but I have not been able to make myself play that without attempting the grinding. That has been the only thing stopping me from finishing that story and moving on to Bioshock 2, and getting excited for Bioshock Infinite.
It's also the reason I stopped playing Prince of Persia—I did not want to spend all that time collecting light orbs. I think I can only take that grinding in certain games, and if it is an option I just have to do it. There is so much grinding though that it takes some of the fun out of the game for me and keeps me from enjoying the experience. Maybe soon I will just play through Bioshock and say damn the achievements. Hopefully.
It makes me want to finish Bioshock 1. My big problem with that game is the same as I had with Alan Wake, Batman: AA, or Splinter Cell: Conviction. With each of those games I started off saying "I don't care about the gamerscore or all the little things in the game that aren't part of the story," such as finding all the riddles or coffee thermoses (I still can't find 2 of them) etc. I wanted to leave the grinding behind and just really enjoy the game and the story but I started to get into the games and just couldn't bring myself not to do it. I hate the grinding on Bioshock but I have not been able to make myself play that without attempting the grinding. That has been the only thing stopping me from finishing that story and moving on to Bioshock 2, and getting excited for Bioshock Infinite.
It's also the reason I stopped playing Prince of Persia—I did not want to spend all that time collecting light orbs. I think I can only take that grinding in certain games, and if it is an option I just have to do it. There is so much grinding though that it takes some of the fun out of the game for me and keeps me from enjoying the experience. Maybe soon I will just play through Bioshock and say damn the achievements. Hopefully.
Very interesting answer and excellent discussion point for a future Coffee Talk. Thanks!
Glad I could help out!