GAMES!

So I'm talking about GAMES! Games, games, g-g-games, games, Games (it helps if you read each of those in a manner more zanier than the last).

What are you playing? What are you looking forward to? What have you got your eye on and wanted a review for?

Currently I've been playing Outlast, which has been scaring the shit out of me. For those of you who don't know, it's a game where a reporter goes to do an expose on a mental hospital, but as people are trying to constantly kill him and he can't easily escape he gets a little more than he bargained for. You can't fight back, so you have to run and hide, but unlike Amnesia you can actually run and things are unnerving in a non-Lovecraftian way. Definitely good so far. I've also been playing Fallout 3, it's not as bad as you'd think - granted it's derivative and too easy and the enemies are bullet sponges and the main story sucks; but I didn't see the lapse in continuity a lot of fans did and overall it's enjoyable to play.

I'm looking forward to Pillars of Eternity, natch, and Batman: Arkham Knight - it's made by Rocksteady again and is the game Kevin Conroy will actually be in beyond his misleading comments that he would be in the next game before Origins. Plus it focusses around the Scarecrow, possibly my favourite Batman villain.

I'm also keen on Mordheim, which seems like XCOM: Enemy Unknown but Warhammer - which is great as I used to play Mordheim when I was younger and I think it would adapt great into a new PC game - especially with multiplayer. I'm itching to hear for news about Fallout 4; the way I see it Bethesda can't neglect the level of storytelling introduced in New Vegas, so hopefully we'll get a taste of the better plot but without the shoehorn New Vegas was placed in to an extent in terms of location design.

It terms of games I'm keen to hear about, Civ: Beyond Earth. I know some of you were interested in it a while ago, and I'll have to wait a little while to get it on mac, but I'm still curious. I hear you can tailor factions however your want, but having played Stars! that's not so much of a bad thing.

So GAMES! Games, games, g-g-games, games, Games !

 

I have no option but to disappoint thee, my dear Jojo. (Or rather all of this forum)

You see, I recently seem to have lost most of my interest in gaming.
It might have been the horribly boring games of this year, the much praise and anticipated yet lacking AAA titles or the mind numbingly repetitive mess that indie games have turned into, but I no longer have either interest or excitement for the titles to come.

Still, there's some games that I've recently played and enjoyed.

First of all, I've lost countless hours playing the new version of dwarf fortress, and I have to say that it is truly a remarkable experience. The changes in both A.I. and combat system play nicely along the new emotion system, and all the new plants and bushes are simply too sweet.
I can't wait for new mods to come out.

I've also played through most of Fallout 2 again. I don't think there's anything to say about it that hasn't been said before.

I went back to Ultima online for a while, but my guild dissolved and I don't really like the idea of being a bank sitter.

Then, lastly I played Fonline2, an mmo based in the 2234 engine, pretty fun game, it plays like an extended version of the classic fallouts. I haven't logged on in a while because I'm playing a female character and since none of the players I spend time with knows I'm a man, interactions have become rather uncomfortable, still, I intend to keep playing.

And, I think that's all related to gaming right now.

 

I had an itch for some FPS action, so I picked up CoD: Advanced Warfare. It is what you'd expect: more of the same with some new gizmos and whiz-bangs. Pace of movement is a deal faster than previous CoDs thanks to the new Exo suits, which suits my play style just fine; I'm a roamer, natural enemy of campers. Quality of the game is what you might expect: highly polished graphics, sound, and gameplay. I've had a few issues with matchmaking, crashes, hackers, and lag spikes, but this is also to be expected. All in all, I give it about 8.5 Jungles.

Prior to AW, I was playing minecraft and League of Legends off and on, preceded by about 1.3 playthroughs of Wasteland 2.

Looking forward to PoE, obviously. I have considered making another foray into Dwarf Fortress, but I don't think that would be a healthy choice; with match-based games like CoD and LoL, I rarely feel compelled to play more than an hour at a time. Not so with DF. Hours, days, sleepless nights, and bloodshot eyes.

 

I have been juggling my time between a Civ:BE and Samurai Warriors 4. I could elaborate more on either one if you wish.

I also had a dabble in Wasteland 2 a little while back but haven't picked it up since. I enjoy the game and will return to it, just not sure when. Also played Shadows of Mordor for a day. Was disappointed that the fun modes of the game are hidden behind DLC, so I put that back down.

Fallen into the WoW trap again, new expansion next week, a lot of mates all telling me "We're gonna play again, it'll be great."

Well, we'll see.

I haven't had much time for games lately. Work has been a bit hectic with the weather being warmer now that Summer is next month. At least the cold keeps most criminals and drunken lowlifes indoors.

 

I'm one out of two administrators of a tournament for the BF2 mod Project Reality. We've mixed elements from the RTS Wargame, giving a lot of freedom to the commanders of each team. Might be interesting for JJ, but it's certainly not as fast as CoD, with more focus on teamplay than anything else. Takes up a little bit too much of my game time, thought.

Other than that, I'm playing Wasteland 2. JJ's tips in the News section are certainly helpful, to say the least. Looking forward to Pillars (that's a given, I guess), and, in the long run, also Witcher 3, as both the prequels were solid RPG's in my book.

 

Man, I haven't played BF2 in ages, but I sure had some good times with that one. My army buddies and I had a well rounded squad, and we'd roll 5-deep in the Humvee and run riot. Or my buddy who was a crack pilot in game (now a helicopter pilot IRL) would take the controls of the attack helicopter while I gunned down scores of enemies. Occasionally, in our mad rush to claim the helicopter, I would end up on the controls; these flights invariably ended in a fiery crash.

 

Re:

I wouldn't mind hearing more about Civ:BE, I think it's going to be released soonish on mac so I was wondering whether I should pick it up. I've heard quite a lot of criticism for it not having unique factions, at the same time I like games where you can completely customise your factions so I don't think I'd mind that too much.

On an unrelated note, I bought Rome II: Total War yesterday on a whim as it's not released on mac and my graphics card matches the minimum specs. I'm finding it a little hard to get into, but honestly I can never resist an RTS where you get to attack people with elephants.

 

I decided to wait a bit with Wasteland 2 as there are quite few patches coming out. I got screwed by F:NV during my first playthrough. Getting locked out from the Strip due to an early patch resetting the lock (this was before I knew of the console commands) wasn't too great.

Currently I'm playing Empire: Total War with DarthMod and having much fun with it. I still think that, despite its many faults, it's still the best game in the series (maybe tied with Medieval) and I'm unwavering in my opinion that Rome II is utter shite.

I also got around to finishing BioShock 2 and I must say that I prefer it to the first. I really liked Sinclair for some reason. I'll try Minerva's Den next.

Apart from these fine games, I'm also grinding towards a Tiger in World of Tanks. It's quite fun, but the community is absolutely horrible. It's almost worse than this place. Oh, and did you hear about Obsidian's upcoming tank game? What's up with that?

 

I enjoy Civ:BE mainly because it is familiar yet fresh. I know the general gameplay and how things are going to turn out however there are features to the game that make it a unique playthrough. The tech treadmill has been swapped with a tech web now so you don't require as many prerequisites to gain techs. Also the placement of the techs on the web have a slight randomness to it so one game you think you are going to go for a Purity style game however necessity and what is more readily available may make you decide to switch to Harmony instead.

As for the factions being the same, there are slight differences. Each faction has a bonus, such as increase the amount of trade routes you can have or culture tile expansion takes half the time. Other than those bonuses the factions are pretty much the same. You choose your starting bonuses through the choice of colonists you decide to take with you.

You have the option of having all of the AI factions land at the same time with you or they can land one after another over the span of 50 turns. You may think this will give you an advantage however it evens out that the other factions took longer because they decided to take two worker units instead of one, or their city automatically has a higher population etc.

The Aliens replace the barbarians. I prefer the Aliens too as they act like a neutral faction. Early game they won't attack you unless you get close to a nest. Usually they will attack trade routes though however there is a way to counter that through a tech an quest reward. The Aliens don't discriminate either, so if you continually attack the Aliens then they will begin to attack everyone. Some factions may not like you attacking the Aliens.

This leads me to the AI. It still has the terrible habit of attacking you, then turning around and calling you a warmonger. I had a peaceful existence with the Chinese until one day they turned around and actually said "It was wrong of us to pretend to be your friends for so long." Then they launched a sneak attack on me. So even though you may have friendly rep with the AI, don't turn your back on them.

The AI is also too passive at times. In one of my games the Slavics were on their way to a victory. No one did anything to stop them. Instead the Brazilians decided to attack me, ME! we had 300 turns of peaceful trade and existence. They then turned around and attacked me because I was just there.

Overall it is a fun game however it does feel like it is missing a lot of standard features you would expect this far into the series. You can tell that they already have a couple of expansions in mind to make the game what it should of been from the start. Much like Civ V which at the beginning was enjoyable but made a lot better with Gods & Kings and later Brave New World, Civ:BE could really do with a lot of those features from the get go.

Despite the obvious flaws the game is still enjoyable and I did find myself having a lot of those 3am just one more turn moments.

 

Re:

Thanks for the review Zanza, it sounds good. I had heard about changes like the tech web, but that sounds fine to me compared to slightly restrictive structure before. It's interesting that you can antagonise the aliens to make them aggressive towards other factions - I probably will pick it up when they release it on mac, so long as isn't a steam exclusive.

You definitely should, Minerva's Den is one of the highlights of the whole series - it's quite affecting and it rounds the Rapture part of the series off nicely.

I wasn't really keen on the main game of BS2, it did feel like a bit of cash in with its retcons and inconsistencies (I can't understand why the highly paranoid Ryan wouldn't have established that Sophia Lamb was an egalitarian borderline communist before inviting her down in the first place).

It slightly irritated me that the final installment of the series so far (Burial at Sea episode 2 for BioShock: Infinite) really was just a muddled mess of trying to tie bits of the series together that really didn't call for it. It also implies BS1 only had the good ending, which seems to make the good ending canonical which not everyone would like. It's very easy because they couldn't work out good stealth mechanics, and so went too far in the "I can disappear whenever I want" direction. Definitely not a good way for the original developers of the series to round it off.

 

Skulgirls has been my main game for the longest time now. I usually hop online for at least a few matches on most days, hang around game-dedicated chatrooms and forums + host and participate in the weekly online European tournament on Sundays.

A game I lately "finished" was Skyrim. An unspeakable time-consumer, that thing. Now that after a few months all quests have been completed and all locations visited, I am free, free once again.

I'm an enthusiast of the Binding of Isaac indie game. Lots of hours were spent with the first game and now that the long-awaited "Binding of Isaac: Rebirth" remake'n'expansion had its release last week, I'm having lots of fun with that little gem.

Games I'm looking forward to:
Fallout 4 (cautiously, because remember remember the third of falloutember)
Batman: Arkham Knight (with mixed feelings, as console- and preorder-exclusive gameplay content tends to kill my hype)
Pillars of Eternity
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Oddworld: New'n'Tasty!

Games I already have and should consider playing one of these days:
Wasteland 2
Dark Souls
Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines

 

Zanza: I think it's quite awful when games are designed with DLC and expansion packs in mind, especially when they remove stuff that were present in earlier installments only to add them with DLC (religion, espionage, trade routes in Civ V). All in all, would you compare Beyond Earth favorably to Alpha Centauri? I'm guessing no...

Jojo: I felt that BS2 continued exploring Rapture beautifully. Instead of dealing with the elite we visited the slums and saw how the poor people had it. The characters were more interesting, I thought, or at least equal to the original's. Apart from Sophia Lamb, they felt like people rather than caricatures of the ideologies they were meant to represent. As for inconsistancies, I thought that one of Rapture's main selling points was unrestricted freedom for the best and brightest. Ideological differences were unimportant as long as you were gifted. "The artist should not fear censur" is how I believe Ryan put it; his fear and paranoia came later. I really liked Ryan's Amusements in this regard. You found a recording were Ryan vetoes the designer's original intentions for the place. Instead he stuffs it with hilarious propaganda and warnings of the evils of the surface. One of those evils are authorities demanding that artists' work promotes the authority's agenda. Still, one might wonder why a collectivist would think it a good idea to live in an objectivist society.

Muro: Hang on, slow down, wait just a minute. Are you saying that you haven't played Bloodlines?!

 

Re:

^this

 

Re:

Two different games made during different eras of gaming.

 

Grand Theft Auto 5. Just beat the main story two days ago, then I completed the assassination missions to net me about 1.6 billion per protagonist. Currently trying for 100% completion, then I'll see if I actually start enjoying GTA Online. I started learning how the stock market works aside from those missions, but before I decided to make another huge investment I discovered there's a money cap - exceeding it causes your money to go negative.

Before that, I was playing the Mass Effect series. Got to 3 and had to stop playing 10 hours in. Put my campaign on hiatus until I think I can power through it. It has everything to do with the need to change discs - what made me put my game on hold was the need to switch from disc one to two, back to one and then to two again by travelling to 4 different areas in the game. It's a really poor way to handle disc changes; especially considering how ME 2 had disc 2 content plot restricted until the latter half of the game, only requiring one more switch to disc 1 for the final mission. As it stands I'm going to look for a disc content guide so I can travel to all of the part one locations, then the part two ones rather than haphazardly stumbling across both of them trying to travel from system to system.

Unfortunately, this isn't a "Just install the discs!" issue. I can do that, but I'll only reduce load times. The content of each disc is verified by the same, which seems like a huge oversight given the ability of an Xbox 360 to install games. One major plus going from ME1 to 3, however, is I finally don't have an ugly C.H.U.D. of a custom Shepard.

And hassle aside, I think gameplay took a step forward from ME2 and is more like the first game in terms of leveling talents. Also, talent cool-down time has been greatly reduced, and it can go down even further if you're willing to forego heavy firepower in exchange for nearly semi-automatic biotic singularities. That said, I miss being able to buy weapons and armor like I could in the first game. And I miss going planet side with the Mako and shooting stuff with the cannon.

 

Re:

I had a quick look through some of the first games audio diaries and it does seem like his censorship and paranoia only came later (hanging people for religious contraband for example). I think it is more the second point that bothered me, a collectivist wouldn't care for an objectivist society unless all they wanted to do was go in and shake things up. Her mission was also bizarre in the extreme - creating a "utopian" without any real justification of how they would make Rapture better and solve its problems, it was weird.

In terms of the characters, I like BS1's more. Sure some of them were caricatures, but I think this just showed the mind altering capabilities of the plasmids better, and there were plenty who were normal too (Julie Langford and Peach Wilkins for example). Besides BS2 lacked Steinman.

 

See I am the opposite, I enjoy GTA V Online, but I get bored of the storymode.

As for Mass Effect I was not aware there was any need to swap CDs. Each game was played on one DVD, there may of been an install DVD but never had to switch while playing. Perhaps you need to make a deal with the devil and install Origin, use your product keys to activate them and have the downloaded versions.

 

Re:

Bought it because Troika, yet never could find the drive to play it when there was always something else catching my interest.

But good news! This is your unique opportunity to motivate and inspire me to finally pick up the game.

 

You'll need a community made patch, not to make the game better, just to actually get past one of three spots the game automatically crashes on vanilla version.

 

Well, I ended up liking online mode. I didn't like it before because of just how much of an advantage higher level players have. Dealing with tanks and helicopters when you're too low level to have explosives or a sniper rifle is nigh impossible without the right skill set. After playing in story mode though, I learned what I needed to keep people off my back.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 require disk switching on the 360 - my sister doesn't have this problem as she moved her gaming to her PC when her oldest son discovered Minecraft for the xbox. I guess you could say my problem arises from playing the game wrong.