My Firefox was misbehaving to the point where I switched over to Opera Next. Now I don't have any problems.

I'm not sure I'll get ATI/AMD again next time but I will certainly look at them. I haven't really had any major trouble with mine.

I've met more than one highly intelligent person with very advanced degrees who are unable to find work in their field at at a decent pay rate. People become so specialized with PhDs that they all end up competing for the same 20 or 30 jobs. When there's a glut of PhDs it causing degree hiring inflation, which is even worse.

As an aside, I wish people would recognize that having a HS diploma is the same has having no diploma and fund free public education through to the level of at least an associate's or trade school education. Also, the stigma on trade work needs to be erased. There is nothing great about any white collar worker that sets him above a good plumber or welder.

I didn't know the Yahoo Directory even still existed. I would have thought that should have been shut down 15 years ago.

I actually have one character with a lot of points in outdoorsman. I like being able to control when I want to enter a random encounter.

I agree about the quest arrow. I don't find wandering around trying to find the right guy fun or very challenging - it's just tedious. Thankfully I have only run into one area where it was a huge hassle. I actually think I biffed the story in that area just because I was tired of going back and forth so much and I just wanted it to be over.

Tom wrote on Sep 24, 2014, 18:29:

Sho wrote on Sep 24, 2014, 18:13:
My 2 cents: Fallout 3 got the gameplay right, but Bethesda simply can't write dialog or create memorable characters to save their lives. New Vegas retained the gameplay and amped up the writing massively (which includes creates a gamespace with actually interesting social dynamics) and was a much better game for it overall. NV might just be my favorite Fallout, actually.

Yeah I think you're right on the money there. It's a shame too. Imagine how much better Oblivion and Skyrim could've been if they'd just had some decent writers.

I suspect they do. I just don't think they focus on having a really complex narrative. I think they're focused on a story that most people can get through and remember the highlights from.

To me it seems like surgery skill is almost mandatory because without it if you get the bleeding effect you will die. Maybe there are items that counteract the effect I haven't come across though.

Safecracking and lockpicking both seem useful but if you fudge up a lock on a gate you can always throw an explosive like TNT at it to take care of it (usually). Using items in that way doesn't seem to require any special skill to do (or maybe I'm just lucky).

I think I know where you might have gone and if it's where I'm thinking I had to run away fast. I haven't been back either.

Impressions after 20 hours:

Old school charm. Old school problems (are they really problems?).

The game doesn't lead you around by the nose. If you wander through a hundred miles of radioactive waste into an area that has nuclear destroy-o-trons (I made that up) and they turn your party into a fine paste - too bad.

If the party member you really like is bleeding out and the guy with the surgery skill doesn't have any surgical packs, or he passed out - too bad.

If you just got to somebody and they didn't act like you expected or did the opposite of what you thought they'd do and it would take 3 hours of gameplay to undo what went wrong - too bad.

If you are 2 clicks away from the base and you just got a random encounter with something you can't handle - too bad.

If you just wasted your own guy with friendly fire - too bad.

If the safe you cracked last time gave you awesome stuff and you had to reload for some reason and now it gives you crap - too bad.

If you find yourself without healing items - too bad. As far as I can tell there is no way to rest and heal. If there is any regenerative healing over time it is so slow that it's not worth waiting for.

If you put all your skill points into underwater basketweaving and the area you're in has a door that needs wallbending - too bad. You can either make a team of specialists and hope the team member you need is still alive when you need him or you can make a team of generalists and hope they have enough skill to do what you need when you need it. Your pick, but chances are good you're going to run into things that you just can't do. Too bad.

That's kind of the theme. You get what you get and the world is pretty brutal.

I save and reload a lot but I think the intended gameplay is to roll with what you're given and be prepared to have a steady flow of new rangers in your party to replace the deceased. That or you will need to play pretty conservatively.

Glitches:

I've seen a couple visual glitches now that had to do with shadows. They correct themselves in a turn or two and are infrequent. I've also had a couple times where I couldn't switch weapons with the mouse, but the keyboard shortcut for switching weapons worked fine. That's all I've come across. Still no crashes so far.

Annoyances:

The camera control could be a little better. I've seen worse, but I've seen better too. I wish I could actually zoom in more sometimes. Sometimes it's hard to tell what background items are usable (switches for example). Get used to rotating the camera to look for things. You can't just leave it in one place and expect to find everything. It's serviceable. Don't get me wrong. I'm kind of stretching for nitpicks here.

Grade after 20 hours: Still a solid A- / B+. It's an old-school romp. It's fun. Just know what you are going to get and how brutal the gameplay is going to be before you sign on. There's no mercy in the Wasteland.... 2.

Edit:

I just read that they had already sold $1 million dollars worth of this game on Steam.

This comment was edited on Sep 21, 2014, 05:31.

It doesn't have slick cutscenes. You might want to watch a Youtube video first. The game is old-school and derives a lot of its fun from the "one more turn" factor.

I'll play the same combat 3 or 4 times to make sure nobody dies, for instance - or to see if I can take out an area that is way out of my league (generally: no way).

I have played through about ten hours and it's pretty fun.

Ups:

I like the story. I die a lot and I constantly feel starved for resources. No crashes or glitches so far. UI is pretty easy to use. I like the situations my party gets put in and I like the combat mechanics.

Downs:

I do miss having a quest arrow. Graphics are a little murky sometimes. Graphical character customization is lacking. Combat could have had more tactical options.

Ten hour review:

I'd give the game a solid A- / B+. Wasteland 2 is a game that has fallen right in line with my expectations. I'm going to go play it some more today. The story has drawn me in and I want to see my characters survive. I hope this success lets them make some kind of expansion or sequel with even more money. I don't want this to be a one-off. I want to see an entire series.

If you're not sure start with a "Let's Play" on Youtube and see if old-school is for you.

A $9 price increase for a total of $24 makes a game "overpriced" now?

Indies never should have ever priced their games so low in the first place. They just set a stupid precedent.

I finished the first one but didn't replay it.

It was good but not Eye of the Beholder good. I hope they fix their spell casting UI for next time. With a few tweaks the series could be great. Right now it's solid and worth seeing but I'm not that excited about a sequel yet.

If Radio Shack would run classes on arduino and sell parts for different robot kits I'd rather buy there vs. online.

Sometimes it's nicer to pay an extra $5 and have someone actually hand hold you through the process.

They don't seem to "get it" though. They keep trying to compete with Monoprice and Best Buy. The only time I go to Radio Shack is when I'm in desperate need of some weird connector and I can't wait 2 days for Amazon Prime. That happens maybe once every 3 years.

Medical care for stupid people lets interns practice on somebody before they get to me. That's how I see it.

Seriously who eats a cactus... I hope that is faked somehow.

I like GoG. I just don't buy very much from it because most of their titles I played and beat when they were still new.

If they could get rights to reprint some of the old box swag from Ultima - that would be something I'd buy.

We're essentially back to the era of yellow journalism across all media and practically every news publication.

People talk about editorials like they're the news. That's claptrap. Who, what, why, when, and where - that's real news.

Harlequin wrote on Sep 6, 2014, 23:18:
What a bunch of small minded, judgmental people on here. Surprising. He wants to move on, to work that may better the world as a whole. Admirable goals and vastly more impact then dev'ing a game that will be forgotten about 12 months after release like 90% of all games.

Lets name call the guy and make fun of him for wanting to better himself and perhaps injustices in the world that he perceives. Real big of you people. *rolls eyes* Congats posters, you people are whats wrong with the gaming community.

There is a lot wrong with the gaming community but the ability to detect BS is not one of the problems.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 6, 2014, 17:51:

Silicon Avatar wrote on Sep 6, 2014, 16:59:

Guy at the top screws a ton of people on the way out by selling to the worst company on the market, runs off to salve himself by breezing through a Quaker community and handling some convenient charity now that he can afford to do whatever he pleases.

Maybe he's awesome and I'm being harsh but I see celebrities and rich people pulling this crap in the news all the time. It's just so transparent and meaningless 99% of the time.

I'm curious to know how he screwed over his employees. I don't recall mass layoffs. And while EA does tons of shit to piss off gamers, they are stable and profitable and consistently rated as one of the best places to work for.

There were layoffs and EA is pretty much the worst place to work for. They're the Wal*Mart of gaming.

Beamer wrote on Sep 6, 2014, 16:10:

Silicon Avatar wrote on Sep 6, 2014, 14:16:
Rich guy sells out to EA, screws a lot of his employees in the process, goes to "think about life".

Pretty formulaic.

Well, I don't think he was rich prior. Hence selling out to EA. If someone offered me a chance to be a billionaire, or hundreds-of-millionaire, I'd probably do it, too. You never know if you'll have that chance again.

Could be.

It just strikes me as disingenuous I guess.

Guy at the top screws a ton of people on the way out by selling to the worst company on the market, runs off to salve himself by breezing through a Quaker community and handling some convenient charity now that he can afford to do whatever he pleases.

Maybe he's awesome and I'm being harsh but I see celebrities and rich people pulling this crap in the news all the time. It's just so transparent and meaningless 99% of the time.

Rich guy sells out to EA, screws a lot of his employees in the process, goes to "think about life".

Pretty formulaic.

Vogel doesn't need to do anything he's not already doing. He has outlasted every fad and has a core fan base.