Games Discussion Thread

[ToxicShock]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Not me. I wish the last one was

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Nope, loving the improvements.

Starbound: I actually backed this too! But I haven't played it in over a year, so I'm excited to see what's changed.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Speaking of plots you don't care about, I've been playing a fair bit of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen lately. The gameplay itself is pretty decent, with skills opening up various special attacks and allowing a bit of strategic play. The opening sequence is actually METAL AS FUCK as a dragon tears out your beating heart and devours it. But that's the high point of the story, devolving into a fairly standard RPG from then on.
[...]
Less would be more in many respects when it comes to Dragon's Dogma. Less walking, for instance. You do get an infinite fast travel early in the game, but its fast-travel spots are ridiculously sparse.

So I actually do have to go back on those two. While the main quest IS fairly standard, some of the side quests (Especially those surrounding the duke's private life) are actually pretty cool. The characters around you get pretty fleshed out (except your pawn, but that's by design), and even your own Arisen gets some development. Hell, even the big bad DRAGON, goofy as his underbite kinda maw is, is actually kind of a decent character with his "that's just the way the world works" attitude.

And at least in the late game, you can find enough of the port crystals you can place yourself to make travelling around the world comfortable.

So while the game is pretty slight on stat-like character development, with it being automatic as you level up and you only unlocking job skills gradually, I'd actually encourage you to buy Dragon's Dogma if you've been on the fence about it or are just looking for an RPG to play. It's still not in the Dragon Age: Origins top tier of RPGs, but it's still a damn fine game worth your time and money.

Spoiler

I mean, damn. They even thought about what happens when you turn in a forgery instead of the genuine item. I'm actually looking forward to finding out if it has more consequences than just this one scene.

 

[Twisted]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

While the main quest IS fairly standard, some of the side quests are actually pretty cool.

I wish games would stop putting more effort into sidequests than the main primary quest

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

So I actually do have to go back on those two. While the main quest IS fairly standard, some of the side quests (Especially those surrounding the duke's private life) are actually pretty cool. The characters around you get pretty fleshed out (except your pawn, but that's by design), and even your own Arisen gets some development. Hell, even the big bad DRAGON, goofy as his underbite kinda maw is, is actually kind of a decent character with his "that's just the way the world works" attitude.

And at least in the late game, you can find enough of the port crystals you can place yourself to make travelling around the world comfortable.

So while the game is pretty slight on stat-like character development, with it being automatic as you level up and you only unlocking job skills gradually, I'd actually encourage you to buy Dragon's Dogma if you've been on the fence about it or are just looking for an RPG to play. It's still not in the Dragon Age: Origins top tier of RPGs, but it's still a damn fine game worth your time and money.

Spoiler

I mean, damn. They even thought about what happens when you turn in a forgery instead of the genuine item. I'm actually looking forward to finding out if it has more consequences than just this one scene.

Aaaaand in the ending it lost me again. My feelings about Dragon's Dogma are giving me whiplash. This game went from "Meh" to "Wow" to "What the fuck?"

 

[Byzantine2014]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

DD is still one of my fav games, got to say. Outside RPG maker and the like, don't think I've come across all that many games that actually try to be like a stereotypical fantasy game, while still having enough elements to set it apart. I mean, go slay the dragon and save the realm, pretty retro. Add the side quests are pretty well done and interesting; in particular where you go slay the griffin with some guards, highly enjoyable

Kinda disappointed in the horror aspects though, the underground sections being mildly ruined by your pawns yelling about enemies before they can jump out... And the ending was a bit wtf, but overall fun.


I think the counterfeits only affected two quests directly; you can copy the port crystals and they'd work somehow though.

 

[Paladox]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I've been playing Mad Max recently. I got it from the mystery Humble monthly bundle for just $12, which has been the only month so far that I thought was actually worth getting. Anyway, it's fairly decent but I do wish I had waited on clearing all the enemy camps, scarecrows, etc.. until AFTER I had finished the challengers. Enemies are super rare now.

Yup, I'm on the last achievement now (do all challenges). There's about 8 of them left. The most annoying is that "2 x 3 second jumps in a storm" because you can't just MAKE a storm happen, and when they do happen you're probably not at a good place for jumping. Aside from that I just have to destroy a bunch of vehicles by grinding, side smash, etc.. About halfway through those.

Still a rather fun game and it will keep you busy for 80+ hours if you do everything. Mattel should partner up and make Hot Wheels of all the different vehicles. A magnum opus pack with all the different custom parts from the game would be neat, or they could just make all the different archangels.

 

[dragoon93041]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Just played Stellaris, a 4X Sci-Fi game. It is better by far than a lot of the 4Xs but the problem is the scale. There are 17 empires in the base setting and the galaxy has something like 400 stars. I've already forced two of my competitors to become my vassals but that means I still have 14 more to conquer and none of them look like they would be hard to defeat.

There are 3 types of space travel and mine, the simplest, can't move too quickly along vast distances so it takes long time and I can't get to other sections at all without moving a vast distance.

Resources are weird. There is one, a power resource, that just accumulates. I've got over 2000 points and fuck all to do with it. The materials resource keeps accumulating when I'm not looking until I've got enough of it to build a whole fleet every ten minutes or so. There just isn't enough to spend it on. You can't "buy" things to speed up construction, like you can in many 4X games but even if you could, the only thing that would take long to purchase is a colony ship and, again, I have enough to build a whole fleet while another place makes a colony ship.

It was challenging in the beginning and maybe I'm missing something but, while it was fun for a while, I don't recommend it.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I've been playing Mad Max recently. I got it from the mystery Humble monthly bundle for just $12, which has been the only month so far that I thought was actually worth getting. Anyway, it's fairly decent but I do wish I had waited on clearing all the enemy camps, scarecrows, etc.. until AFTER I had finished the challengers. Enemies are super rare now.

Yup, I'm on the last achievement now (do all challenges). There's about 8 of them left. The most annoying is that "2 x 3 second jumps in a storm" because you can't just MAKE a storm happen, and when they do happen you're probably not at a good place for jumping. Aside from that I just have to destroy a bunch of vehicles by grinding, side smash, etc.. About halfway through those.

Still a rather fun game and it will keep you busy for 80+ hours if you do everything. Mattel should partner up and make Hot Wheels of all the different vehicles. A magnum opus pack with all the different custom parts from the game would be neat, or they could just make all the different archangels.

It's a cool game, but some of the features, like the watchtowers, feel a bit forced in order to make the game fit into the open-world game mold. Also, I'm still a bit conflicted about the ending.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Stellaris is kinda a mix between a 4X and a grand strategy game.

It's supposed to, and intended to transfer from 4X when you and the AI have filled in most of the planets to be more like Europa Universalis 4, but in space.

But that's not really working that well, so the game kinda becomes a bit more frustrating when you get to that point. Great start, but then it doesn't follow through

 

[Paladox]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

It's a cool game, but some of the features, like the watchtowers, feel a bit forced in order to make the game fit into the open-world game mold. Also, I'm still a bit conflicted about the ending.

I feel a little better about the ending when I go visit them at Deep Friar's place.
I felt like that ending was to basically shoehorn the story into the Mad Max universe.

Spoiler

I didn't see 100% that everyone was actually dead though. Glory and Chumbucket could both be alive. A side story featuring Glory where she wakes up in the care of the organic mechanic would be interesting.

 

[lurker]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

So, Guns of Icarus is doing an Open Alpha for it's PVE modes. This includes four faction airships and the testing of the PVP/PVE combat mix with em. Gotta say, those new ships are fucking fancy tho...

Four of the six factions is getting tested this run, and the ships have some similarities with the original ones (for example, the fourth one there, the Mercantile Guild's Magnata's being similar to the Goldfish in maneuvering strength) and each faction also gets a unique cannon. Looking forward to this early glance at it. Probably the biggest update GoI has gotten for ages.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Blizzard bans cheaters from Overwatch

Cheaters cry and make laughable statements about revenge

You must be registered to see the links

What did they expect, cheating and all?

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Guild Wars 2 started off their new "Living Season 3" last week, continuing their storyline. If you have Heart of Thorns and log in before their next "episode" goes online, you get that first episode for free.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Blizzard bans cheaters from Overwatch

Cheaters cry and make laughable statements about revenge

You must be registered to see the links

What did they expect, cheating and all?

IDK, but it takes too long to get to ranked play, not that I always have to win but the one sided matches are just god awful. And lord knows there's no way to leave a match then keep playing without getting thrown right back into the spawn-zone locked match you were in!

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

I do agree it takes too long to reach ranked

But then at the same time
Fuck ranked and tryharding
And then you have to play ranked anyway, because anything else has a tickrate of 20. Laughably bad

Just part of another disappointment from Overwatch, really.

---
And then I have this written

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

This is the Police. Pretty good game, but don't expect loads of deep gameplay or sandbox type stuff.

Spoiler

This is the Police is a mostly story based game in which the player takes control of a police department as Jack Boyd, chief of police and on the path to an unwanted early retirement.
You will uncover intrigue, mafia plots, a serial killer, and many criminals trying to hide from the law during a playthrough, interspaced with regular calls for the police to respond to.
As it is a mostly story based game, the mood and setting is excellent, with perfectly fitting music. excellent voice acting and a story that makes you want to keep going through the days to see how things go and what will come of them. As such I would recommend playing it blind, and without prior knowledge of the plot past the basics. The story does not disappoint, though you will have to accept that the game is telling you a story, rather than giving you a sandbox or deep gameplay experience if you are to enjoy it.

During your 180 days before retirement, you will be able to deal with the mafia, sketchy business owners asking for some questionably legal help, and the regular crimes happening in the city of Freeburg. All this while you are given a motivation of collecting half a million. A number you will likely have to do some less moral things to achieve.
Most of the gameplay is simple. I can not call it great, but it certainly isn't bad either. You dispatch officers to calls and occasionally get a multiple choice about how they should proceed while at the scene. While these are some of the more interesting, the results of a call are always one of a few options. The criminal can escape or be captured, the cops can get killed or survive, and a bystander can be killed or survive. There is nothing in between, it's dead or alive without any injuries or details on how many civilians got killed.
Further, there is an investigation minigame, in which your detectives find photo frames and you have to personally arrange them in the right order to unlock the next step- An arrest of whoever did it. I've found this personally to be incredibly difficult, with vague frames and sometimes missing information. This is sadly to the point where I have now stopped playing the game as I can not solve investigations without help from someone else. While I applaud the idea of this puzzle, I personally just can not enjoy it.

A disappointment was the gang and mafia system, which appears at a glance to be an interesting net of people to combb through, but in truth is just a straight line up to the top where if you fail once, the entire gang becomes off limits to you and you can't continue an investigation or try to arrest them. At a glance there is depth to the gameplay, but this illusion is quickly dispelled once you play.

In short, This is the Police is a great game if you accept it for what it is. A story-driven game with some basic gameplay to hold you over in between story segments, not a police simulator and certainly not a detective game. You hire the detectives, you don't go out with them. It is priced appropriately, and well worth what it asks as a good story and overall pleasant experience.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Dunno what tickrate is, I still haven't gotten to ranked (my friend is so engrossed in other titles namely Elite that he doesn't play).

I just want to go into games where matchmaking actually attempts to even out skill between the two teams, more and more each match I get into one team is just rolling the other, I don't like being stuck in my spawn zone and I don't like camping the other team's spawn either.

Did manage to get my hands on EDF 4.1! Awesome game that I also add my recommendation to, over the top startship troopers meets japanese monster movie makes for an excellent plot. The only thing I find lacking is weapon drops, given how important they are to progressing through the game they should just be auto-pickups, the way they are now just entices the player to not participate in the objectives until they've gotten every box they can. Of course it wouldn't be so bad if each box you picked up were unique, but you'll be getting multiple copies of each weapon and for classes like the air-raider whose equipment list is huge, you're going to end up picking up the same weapon 30+ times.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Tickrate is basically how fast the game 'ticks', sending an update to the server and the server back to you. A tickrate of 20/sec basically means that you don't get to input any faster than you would if you were running the game at 20 frames/second

It can be described much more technically, but basically it means that your controls will be more less responsive in quick play's 20 tickrate compared to ranked's 60

That said, steamrolling is build into the game. If it happens, disengage entirely and group up before trying to go in again.

 

[ToxicShock]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Low tickrate in an fps basically accounts for things like when you shoot someone and it just doesn't register, or when everyone else in the game is seeing something different from what you're seeing, eg: you run behind a corner for cover and right after you get there, you get killed by one of the people shooting at you. Then in the deathcam, it shows you were still clearly out of cover and didn't make it yet.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Pretty much that

But hey, it is really easy on the bandwidth for Blizzard to keep the tickrate low. Cheap to run, even if it is so low it has a negative effect on the game experience