Ye olde open video games thread

[pochercoaster]

Per Mumu's suggestion.

Talk about vidya games in here! What have you been playing?

(I will write a little more about my minecraft exploits and fails when I'm not about to work.)

Is anyone interested in watching me livestream some games (probably minecraft, but I'm open to suggestions) this Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday? I normally don't have much time to game but I randomly got a three day weekend.

[shiney]

Technically I should delete this since i beat you to it by ten minutes OHOHOHO

but this OP is way better than me being like "talk or, like, thing" so whatever

*runs away*

---------- Post added at 04:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:11 PM ----------

Content post:

Got a ps4 pro Thursday and been playing uncharted 4. pretty good. gonna purchase atelier sophie soon and play that with the Rai-face and will yak about it. Looking forward to seeing what kind of weirdness the newest gen brings

[Kim]

So currently I'm playing Dishonored 2 which is pretty good so far. A lot of stuff to make nonviolence more viable and a lotta cool ladies. The one complaint I have so far is that Emily has a love interest you can find a note from but they game deliberately avoids saying what gender the love interest is, which feels like a copout. Like, its trying to make everyone happy it feels like and if you wanna make me happy just make her gay.

I've also been playing a lot of visual novels lately. Exclusively yuri ones. Most recent one I started is Stargazers, and before that were Negligee and Ne no Kami.

Ne no Kami

https://65.media.tumblr.com/f45b78da5873732de42bcfbaa49cf838/tumblr_ogkgivAMRe1txqxjbo2_1280.jpg

Negligee

https://66.media.tumblr.com/1d0043b2b06d948e8e9b733a5366d9d1/tumblr_ogkgivAMRe1txqxjbo1_1280.jpg

The Stargazers

https://66.media.tumblr.com/379c7f87c410b034a6f97613e1b8bb00/tumblr_ogkgivAMRe1txqxjbo3_1280.jpg

[MuMu]

I've been replaying Sleeping Dogs, which still is a great game but I probably won't be finishing it. I got this bad habit in open world games of doing all side content I can which is ok when you're playing the game for the first time but I'll probably get bored of it this time.

I'm up to watch streams most of the time, I find them really entertaining, specially when it's about a game I'll probably never play like Minecraft.

[phil_]

I recently beat the SNES remake of Dragon Quest. I haven't started up DQII, yet. Mostly because we watched that Rocket League documentary that came out recently, and I was like, "Why don't we own this game now?" Because it didn't have a Linux build until this September, that's why. So, I spent full price on a crash-prone Linux beta of a mostly online game that requires more of an internet connection than this county will ever have. But there's split-screen multiplayer that's entirely worth $20 if you have someone in the house to play with. Sure wish they'd hurry up with fixing the crash bugs.

And SIF eats up pretty much any spare time left over/carves hours out of my schedule to feed my need for cute anime and rhythm games.

[Arcanum]

Been playing a lot of Titanfall 2. I had gotten tired of the shootbangs for a long while, with the last multiplayer FPS I put any significant time into being... shit I want to say Halo Reach or Team Fortress 2. But yeah it's been a long while since I've played the multiplayer component of a shooter. But holy shit is Titanfall 2 fun. The movement in that game is phenomenal and switching to other games made me feel slow and lethargic and craving more wall running.

Also the campaign is great, has some unique levels and mechanics and amazing set pieces. You're not getting an amazing story (obviously, it's a AAA FPS, the story is just there to move you along), but it's a short jaunt that feels amazing to play and doesn't overstay its welcome.

I've also been working my way through Thumper, a neat rhythm game where you play as a space beetle racing along a track. Except as cute as that sounds the game is absolutely brutal. The music, which I've seen described elsewhere as "oppressive" and I feel that's certainly a good term for it, is amazing. The commands/inputs start out reasonable in the first few levels and then they throw all of those learned mechanics at you all at once. It can get pretty tough, but the thrill and elation you feel when you clear a section of track on your first attempt is amazing.

Content post:

Got a ps4 pro Thursday and been playing uncharted 4. pretty good. gonna purchase atelier sophie soon and play that with the Rai-face and will yak about it. Looking forward to seeing what kind of weirdness the newest gen brings

I also bought a PS4 pro, although mine's in the mail and I'll be getting it on Monday. I'm looking forward to finally playing Bloodborne, and am extremely excited for Final Fantasy XV later this month.

[BB]

I'll go into more detail in my Games Of 2016 thread due some time next month, but I've just finished playing through Ace Attorney 6 and I'm currently working my way through the Steam release of Tales Of Symphonia which I played to death as a teen. It's interesting to see how my opinions on the characters have changed since then.

I'm also playing the TF2 halloween event every day and, yes, SIF continues to be a part of my life.

[Loyal]

Got a PS4 recently along with a handful of games. I was briefly employed at Gamestop, so it all came reasonably cheap, all considered. Uncharted 4 was pretty solid all over. Infamous SS was fun, but I didn't like how the Smoke power was p.much obsolete by mid-endgame. Tropico 5 is alright. A bit obtuse in places that make being a dictator difficult, but the soundtrack is catchy as hell.

Just Cause 3 is fantastic. A bit repetitive in some ways, but the gameplay is extremely satisfying so it more than makes up for it. I've bought, but have yet to play, Tales of Zestiria. That's because Disgaea 5 is god damn take me away from this already I can't stop

In non-Playstation news, recently Particle Fleet: Emergence got released, which is a really fun indie RTS game by the guy who did Creeper World. I heartily recommend it for anyone who likes fighting spaceships.

I'm currently working my way through the Steam release of Tales Of Symphonia which I played to death as a teen. It's interesting to see how my opinions on the characters have changed since then.From what I heard the port was pretty choppy in places? Is that true?

[Solid Snake]

If any of y'all are new to the Playstation community, be sure to friend me at RyotaroDojima, that's my PSN name.

I've finally gotten around to the PS3 versions of Saints Row The Third (which I just completed) and Saints Row IV (which I've just started.) It's...okay? A lot of the humor is a bit too juvenile for my tastes and the graphics have not aged well at all, but that may be related to a different problem I'm having with my TV that I've posted about here. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?p=1258920#post1258920) (That or the PS3 versions of these games might just look worse than their PC counterparts, and I may be watching PC footage on Youtube and comparing / contrasting things all wrong.)

I've also recently finished Cold Steel II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Heroes:_Trails_of_Cold_Steel) and I strongly recommend that title. Just be sure to play the first one first (even though the first one is not quite as great), it's a direct sequel and you'll be lost without the backstory.

I actually think it ultimately does Persona's social links system even better than Persona 4 did, with supporting characters who generally have more agency and who are more independent. Also, you can't roleplay Rean as a womanizing jerk who deceives multiple girlfriends into manipulative relationships without consequences, that helps too. The cast is pretty phenomenal all around and, while just about everyone in the cast (male or female, older or younger) are all crushing on Rean something fierce, it still manages to avoid some of the most ludicrous tropes you'd expect from the harem genre. I've written a lot about Cold Steel on other forums and, if I were some sort of videogame journalist, I'd want to write an article or two about it.

Finally, I haven't played all too much Civilization VI lately but it's excellent, and if you ever have spare time and want to hit me up on Civ VI multiplayer, let me know. I find that it's an improvement over V, with more depth over city and territory management with new districts to control. Games also seem a bit shorter, which is great for a vigorous multiplayer community.

Root Letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_Letter) is arriving soon and I'm saving that for a time when I'm traveling and only have my Vita, but I've heard great things. It's basically Phoenix Wright style mechanics in a more 'realistic' VN setting, but you're not an attorney, you're just a regular guy looking for a friend who's gone missing, and all her friends are potentially suspicious suspects and witnesses you interrogate and maybe befriend along the way.

[Flarecobra]

Been playing around in Star Trek Online, in terms of multiplayer games. Was in a Pixelmon server on Minecraft for a spell, but the server is currentally in the middle of a move and currentally unavalable. Singleplayer-wise, reloaded Knights of the Old Republic 1, and also been attempting the DLC for Party Hard *Mutters something about damn dogs* as well as enjoying a little Ragnarok Clicker for idle fun.

[mauve]

Started playing Banner Saga II, until it reminded me of why I ultimately disliked Banner Saga I. The game has beautiful art but DAMN is it hard. It does manage to stand up on its own a little better than original recipe Banner Saga, namely in that it seems like character deaths and major issues are a little better tied to things you actually have control over, but it's still not something I'll be racing off to play again any time soon.

Played a fair bit of Mass Effect 2 despite not being able to finish Mass Effect 1. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I like the world and some of the characters (Mordin, Garrus, Tali... aaand... I'm sure there's others..?) and the universe itself is interesting enough, but there's just something about it that keeps me from falling in love with it. It comes off as being a bit sexist sometimes, or at the very least, it tries to be "edgy" and "grownup" in the way that fifteen-year-old boys think is edgy and grownup. I'll probably go back to the game when I'm done with my current Fallout 4 obsession though, because I still like being a super cool space marine in space having space adventures with my space friends. Spaaaace.

Right now my time is consumed by Fallout 4. I don't know why I suddenly decided that I needed to play Fallout 4, but I bought it in a recent Steam sale and I... kind of love it so far. I know the storyline is supposed to be really lame, so I'm prepared to be disappointed later. It's fairly different from New Vegas, and HOLY SHIT is it broken in certain places (there are a whole slew of areas I cannot access around Goodneighbor, like Pickman Gallery and Hub 360, which locks me out of a bunch of side missions. Apparently this can be "fixed" by starting a new game and/or reinstalling, but I have like 40-some-odd hours in my current playthrough and I don't want to start again from scratch. I live in constant terror of finding out that a main-plot-related mission ends up in one of those buildings that I can't load into) and I completely ignore the settlement building components, but I'm having fun with it. My Sole Survivor is named Peggy (because the idea of a revenge-fueled wasteland warrior who strikes fear into the hearts of the commonwealth being named Peggy is hilarious to me. Also because Codsworth can say "Peggy.") and she's glorious.

My sister is currently playing the game on her own computer via Family Sharing, and it's funny seeing how differently we play from each other. She's almost level 30 and she hasn't bothered doing any of the story missions. She avoids Diamond City so she won't have to initiate the Find Nick Valentine mission, but she's liberated The Castle for Preston, discovered a huge portion of the map, and done a bunch of mini missions. She only has Codsworth, Preston and Dogmeat-- She met Cait but left her at the Combat Zone, she's met Hancock but hasn't done the Bobbi No-Nose mission, and she hasn't been interviewed by Piper or visited the Valentine Detective Agency yet.

[MuMu]

From what I heard the port was pretty choppy in places? Is that true?

It was a mess at release and got some updates that made it slightly less of a mess. However, when I bought it Ocelot guided me through the Steam Forums and there is a TSfix that makes it pretty much playable.

The optimal solution still is playing on the Gamecube.

edit: In retrospect, I should've linked to the thread with the Fix just in case you were still interested. (http://steamcommunity.com/app/372360/discussions/0/412446292759260120/)

[Arcanum]

Quick post because RO won't stop hounding me about this:

I completely forgot about Overwatch. Played the crap out of that before, so technically a competitive shooter. Just with the RPGish elements, and the focus on team comp, it never really clicked in my head to put it in the same category as Titanfall 2 or other fast-paced twitch shooters.

Yeah I know Team Fortress 2 falls in the same category as Overwatch, but I never really played it that way and always played it more like a twitch shooter.

[Revising Ocelot]

I have a friend who gives me live commentary on his Hearthstone games, you have it easy.

Speaking of which I've been playing Hearthstone, Overwatch, and the Dark Souls 3 DLC recently. Never going to start on that backlog.

[MuMu]

I don't even know why I bother having a http://i.imgur.com/6KnKqH0.png folder. BB made that thread about getting through yours and I got one in and then proceed to 1)Buy even more games and 2)Replay games.

This is the digital era, buying things we will never use.

[BB]

I want to resurrect that because for me at least it worked really well but no one was really doing it and then I also stopped. I'm currently knee-deep in RPGs though so not a lot of point putting more on my plate yet. One for the new year.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I really need to get back into actually, like, playing some games. I kind of fell out of Warframe once it started getting really grindy, with no real meaningful progression. I would spend all my time levelling up weapons to max to raise my mastery rank, then never bother using said weapons again, and raising mastery rank doesn't even really mean anything after rank 12 anyway. I had also already acquired most of the more beneficial frames (Loki, Ember, Frost, Valkyr, Mag) so levelling up new characters was also equally as meh. And then they went and nerfed Valkyr hard (she was my fave).

There's been a few more updates since I stopped playing, but Valkyr is still nerfed and the core pointless grinding still seems to be present so I can't see myself going back soon.

Also fell out with Overwatch despite really enjoying it, at least at first. Then I realised how terrible the matchmaking system is, where you can go 10 games with no challenge, then go 20 games where you're just on the receiving end of an absolute stomp game after game. Ranked was even worse, with the end goal being a grind for a crappy golden gun skin that'll take you ages to acquire because every win might only gain you a 10th of a level towards your next rank, but every loss seems to drop you a whole rank, so a losing streak becomes an exercise in futility. Sombra looks interesting at least, and seems to be more like the kind of playstyle I prefer (I had pretty firmly settled into maining D.va, Mei and Junkrat, with occasional Reinhardt, Zarya and Symmetra on certain maps). It also didn't help I had no friends to play with, and I feel like this is the sort of game where this is a must.

I'm also considering giving Fallout 4 another go (it was the game that originally convinced me to get a ps4 a year ago), but my saves all got wiped out due to issues and it was too much of a pain to start over. I remember I spent way too much time building settlement shit and not really progressing with the game in any meaningful way, so if I did start again I'd probably want to avoid that shit and just explore and shoot things, and actually do the quests and story this time.

Unfortunately my console hasn't even been turned on in about 2 months so I probably have gigs worth of updates to go through. Oh woe is me.

[phil_]

I started DQII today instead of getting a Ryuutama scenario prepared. I hope it isn't much longer than DQI, because my Heal and Firebal and probably Sleep spells are in the hands of a Paladin who has not been doing his reps and who may have untreated asthma, as opposed to being wielded by the all-around ubermensch hero from the first game (me). He does the same damage at level 7 that I did at level 1, and this is with the strongest spear I can tape into his hands. So he has to use Firbal to do any damage at all (still less than me), and his MP runs out in ten fights, so I'm afraid if this goes on very long I'm going to resent dragging his weight around something fierce.

But it's still fun, so far. Both games have essentially an open world (though the second has had a door I needed to have Paladin around to get past the bouncers), and being free to run into stuff that's way past what I can handle makes wandering the overworld fighting random slugs interesting because things could get real at any moment (and have).

Plus the escapism is nice. Budgeting for swords beats "Do I buy a car before this one catches fire, or do I pay back my loans before I get summoned to court?" And everyone agrees I'm a hero when I sword the Dracolord.

[Arcanum]

Alright got some time to actually respond to people and get some discussion going.

Started playing Banner Saga II, until it reminded me of why I ultimately disliked Banner Saga I. The game has beautiful art but DAMN is it hard. It does manage to stand up on its own a little better than original recipe Banner Saga, namely in that it seems like character deaths and major issues are a little better tied to things you actually have control over, but it's still not something I'll be racing off to play again any time soon.

I loved Banner Saga's combat because of its unique armor and strength mechanics, as well as the difficulty of not just the combat but also the choices and resource management. Never was really bothered by seemingly random character deaths as I just took it for a sign of the brutal futility of the journey.

I really want to get Banner Saga 2, but I know the devs have it planned to be a trilogy so I can't convince myself to rush off towards another cliffhanger ending.

Played a fair bit of Mass Effect 2 despite not being able to finish Mass Effect 1. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I like the world and some of the characters (Mordin, Garrus, Tali... aaand... I'm sure there's others..?) and the universe itself is interesting enough, but there's just something about it that keeps me from falling in love with it. It comes off as being a bit sexist sometimes, or at the very least, it tries to be "edgy" and "grownup" in the way that fifteen-year-old boys think is edgy and grownup. I'll probably go back to the game when I'm done with my current Fallout 4 obsession though, because I still like being a super cool space marine in space having space adventures with my space friends. Spaaaace.

ME2 is probably the weakest story out of all the Mass Effect games. I can remember a lot of good moments from ME1 and 3, but there's very few memorable moments in ME2. And I even played through ME2 two or three times, whereas I only played ME3 once. The best thing about ME2 is how much it improved the gameplay over ME1.

Ranked was even worse, with the end goal being a grind for a crappy golden gun skin that'll take you ages to acquire because every win might only gain you a 10th of a level towards your next rank, but every loss seems to drop you a whole rank, so a losing streak becomes an exercise in futility.

Sounds like you're describing the ranking system from season 1. It was overhauled significantly for season 2. It now uses a more traditional MMR-style skill rating, with your rating ranging between 0 to 5000. Depending on your rating you will fall into one of several tiers, which are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster.

The matchmaking still isn't great, but they are working to fix it. Blizzard already stated that in season 2 they had too many people ending up in the Platinum tier, so the range of skill was all over the place making it difficult for people to climb to their appropriate skill rating and they plan on addressing that in season 3 (which starts at the end of this month I think).

Also I disagree that the point of ranked is to grind for a golden weapon skin (which isn't all that hard to do since after every season you get a good chunk of points depending on what's the highest tier you reached). The gold skins are just a bonus. The real point of ranked is to climb the rankings, and to get matched with people taking the game more seriously than those in quick play.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the next patch. Not just for Sombra, but also for the Arcade modes they are adding which includes a 3v3 mode, and ways to get more loot boxes outside of just levelling.

[BB]

I have a question to ask, what's everyone's thoughts on NES Mini? Anyone bought one and has opinions to share? It's a heck of a lot more popular than I thought it would be, apparently it's sold out pretty much everywhere already- even people with pre-orders are having to wait.

It's a good sign, because the thought of a follow-up SNES Mini makes me excited.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah I never even saw to the end of season 1, so I have no idea on the current status of ranked. I need to jump back in and see if it's any better, I just hope my favourite heroes haven't been nerfed to hell in the meantime as well.

[Solid Snake]

ME2 is probably the weakest story out of all the Mass Effect games. I can remember a lot of good moments from ME1 and 3, but there's very few memorable moments in ME2. And I even played through ME2 two or three times, whereas I only played ME3 once. The best thing about ME2 is how much it improved the gameplay over ME1.

I actually think I like ME2's story the best in the series, insofar as it really emphasized the bonds you made with the characters you were working with, and it had a great cast that was cut down in ME3.

ME1 had better aesthetics and a more interesting overarching plot with better antagonists in the Reapers, while ME3 had absolutely nothing at all.

[Arcanum]

I actually think I like ME2's story the best in the series, insofar as it really emphasized the bonds you made with the characters you were working with, and it had a great cast that was cut down in ME3.

ME1 had better aesthetics and a more interesting overarching plot with better antagonists in the Reapers, while ME3 had absolutely nothing at all.

I'm mostly talking about the main story. All I remember from ME2 was going to recruit people to your team, doing their personal side quests, then going through the Omega Relay. I agree that the character interactions were done well, or at least the few bits I can remember which is mainly Mordin, Tali, and Garrus. Grunt just made me wish Wrex was back, Miranda and Jacob were boring, and Samara had something to do with her daughter? Yeah it's been a while.

Meanwhile ME3 had some really great moments in its main story, like Mordin's sacrifice on the Krogan homeworld, reconciling the Quarians and the Geth (which I somehow managed to do on my first/only playthrough of the game even though it's apparently a weird checklist of things), and the return of the Rachni. Yeah ME3 floundered with a lot of its ideas (like everything relating to the war effort, or whatever that system was called), and the ending was abysmal and disappointing, but I still find it to be the more memorable experience. I just feel the game gets too much undeserved hate because people refuse to look past the ending.

---------- Post added at 09:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 PM ----------

Although honestly I don't really expect us to see eye to eye on this, because I know character interaction and the related side stories are a huge part of games for you Snakе (aw yeah outsmarted the word filter), so I can completely understand why you prefer ME2.

[Gregness]

I really need to get back into actually, like, playing some games. I kind of fell out of Warframe once it started getting really grindy, with no real meaningful progression. I would spend all my time levelling up weapons to max to raise my mastery rank, then never bother using said weapons again, and raising mastery rank doesn't even really mean anything after rank 12 anyway. I had also already acquired most of the more beneficial frames (Loki, Ember, Frost, Valkyr, Mag) so levelling up new characters was also equally as meh. And then they went and nerfed Valkyr hard (she was my fave).

There's been a few more updates since I stopped playing, but Valkyr is still nerfed and the core pointless grinding still seems to be present so I can't see myself going back soon.


You've missed a lot. You're right in that warframe IS very grindy, but I have a hard time calling it 'pointless' grind, when that core gameplay loop of 'kill mans, level gear, get new gear, repeat' is the whole point of the endeavor. Like, I normally don't care for grind in my games, but the core gameplay of just being a runnin', jumpin' space ninja is so damn good that it kind of masks the flaws.

Also, Valkyr got a fairly sizeable buff to her Hysteria form (the damage works a lot like Excalibur's new Exalted blade in that the damage scales with mods now) and they've started putting in 'cinematic quests' which are story missions with full cutscenes and lore explanations.

I've, as you can probably guess, been playing Warframe, but also Starcraft II and League of Legends. From a gameplay standpoint, Legacy of the Void is by far the best RTS game I've ever played, but from a story standpoint I can't help but continue to be ever so slightly disappointed in the focus on cosmic-scale villains rather than the more focused war and politics stories of OG Starcraft. That said, they turned what seemed to be the token 'bad guy protoss' faction in the Tal'Darim from the previous two installments into one of the more interesting setting expansions in the whole series. Getting John De Lancie to give his best what-if-Q-were-a-sith-lord impersonation as Alarak certainly helped that along. The new co-op mode has been a huge success as well, with the co-op playerbase eclipsing the 1v1 ladder population on occasion (for good reason, as it's awesome, but this is already getting long).

I continue to enjoy League, but I was a little frustrated after having realized I waited too long to try to grind to gold league for the ranked rewards this season. I hit plat 5 at one point last year, but didn't play ranked for about six months this year and ended up in silver once I did my placement matches. I got to silver 1 over the week prior to the season end, but got tilted at one point on the last day and lost a bunch of games in a row. I realized at that point that to hit gold for ranked rewards I needed to win about 10 games in 6 hours and the math just didn't check out for me. I'd have gotten it easily if I'd started the week before. :crying:

For single player games, I've been slowly working through Persona 3. I finished the main story, and I'm a few hours into 'the answer'. I played Persona 4 first, and I can definitely feel a lot of the UI improvements that went into it. I'm super fucking hyped about Persona 5, and as much as I hate to buy an entire console for one game I might just be buying a playstation 4 next year. ::V:

I played through The Wolf Among Us, and Tales From the Borderlands early in the year, and Telltale continues to fucking deliver.

Valdis Story: Abyssal City is a metroidvania that very clearly wants to be Symphony of the Night, and makes it admirably far in the attempt. The soundtrack is cool, and the battle system has a lot going on with it.

@Mauve: The Banner Saga 2's combat is even better than 1 with the addition of several new classes and power that bring out a lot of the inherent depth. The story better or worse, depending on your viewpoint. It's still the same old bleak viking ragnarok meets Oregon Trail, but the cliffhanger is even more brutal than the first game's.

[Arcanum]

@Mauve: The Banner Saga 2's combat is even better than 1 with the addition of several new classes and power that bring out a lot of the inherent depth. The story better or worse, depending on your viewpoint. It's still the same old bleak viking ragnarok meets Oregon Trail, but the cliffhanger is even more brutal than the first game's.

I feel like you meant that to be directed at me.

[mauve]

@Mauve: The Banner Saga 2's combat is even better than 1 with the addition of several new classes and power that bring out a lot of the inherent depth. The story better or worse, depending on your viewpoint. It's still the same old bleak viking ragnarok meets Oregon Trail, but the cliffhanger is even more brutal than the first game's. Yeah, I agree with you and Arc that the combat HAS improved in BS2, and I do like some of the new classes. I actually really like the Skalds/Bards. Haven't met any of the centaur people yet, but they look cool too.

I dunno...It's not a bad game, but so far it's not really grabbing me the way I expected it to. As I said before, the art is gorgeous and the sequel really does bring some new combat elements to the table, but I haven't played it since the day I installed it.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

You've missed a lot. You're right in that warframe IS very grindy, but I have a hard time calling it 'pointless' grind, when that core gameplay loop of 'kill mans, level gear, get new gear, repeat' is the whole point of the endeavor. Like, I normally don't care for grind in my games, but the core gameplay of just being a runnin', jumpin' space ninja is so damn good that it kind of masks the flaws.

Also, Valkyr got a fairly sizeable buff to her Hysteria form (the damage works a lot like Excalibur's new Exalted blade in that the damage scales with mods now) and they've started putting in 'cinematic quests' which are story missions with full cutscenes and lore explanations.



I should probably clarify; I was playing Warframe up until about 3-4 months ago, and was playing it fairly solidly since november last year. I'm aware of the cinematic quests and the buff Valkyr originally had, but trust me, she is utterly useless now. Her Hysteria drains energy so fast you can barely keep it running for less than a minute, unless there's some specific ultra-rare mods that I've missed that helps, and the range on the aura actually increases drastically over time now, so where before you could move a few feet away from enemies and drop Hysteria, now you need to be several dozen meters away or you'll take damage when it switches off. And there's a ton off stuff that can shut down Hysteria now, or which can cause the energy drain to accelerate further, meaning you can be in the middle of a fight and then just suddenly die with no warning.

Trust me, I used to be able to solo tower 3 survivals for an hour with Valkyr, without ever dropping Hysteria, until I got bored of killing the thousands of foes running into me, but now, I'm afraid of turning Hysteria on because it's so easy to die.

[pochercoaster]

I've been replaying Sleeping Dogs, which still is a great game but I probably won't be finishing it. I got this bad habit in open world games of doing all side content I can which is ok when you're playing the game for the first time but I'll probably get bored of it this time.


I watched Erick play some of Sleeping Dogs awhile back and really enjoyed its humor and aesthetic. I should probably try to play it myself sometime :/

After messing around with Open Broadcaster Software for awhile (thank you, Loyal, for the suggestion) I confirmed that I can stream decent quality video to twitch. Last time I streamed games I used procaster, which is garbage, so this is a nice upgrade.

I'm thinking I'll proooobably stream minecraft on Tuesday evening. Like around 6 PST. And maaaybe I'll try to stream tomorrow evening as well. If I do I'll confirm it in this thread and/or on chat for anyone who's interested.

[Gregness]

I should probably clarify; I was playing Warframe up until about 3-4 months ago, and was playing it fairly solidly since november last year. I'm aware of the cinematic quests and the buff Valkyr originally had, but trust me, she is utterly useless now. Her Hysteria drains energy so fast you can barely keep it running for less than a minute, unless there's some specific ultra-rare mods that I've missed that helps, and the range on the aura actually increases drastically over time now, so where before you could move a few feet away from enemies and drop Hysteria, now you need to be several dozen meters away or you'll take damage when it switches off. And there's a ton off stuff that can shut down Hysteria now, or which can cause the energy drain to accelerate further, meaning you can be in the middle of a fight and then just suddenly die with no warning.

Trust me, I used to be able to solo tower 3 survivals for an hour with Valkyr, without ever dropping Hysteria, until I got bored of killing the thousands of foes running into me, but now, I'm afraid of turning Hysteria on because it's so easy to die.

I'm, uh, really NOT gonna trust you on that one since Valk's one of my most played frames. You should REALLY dig into the specifics of how the powers work before you dismiss them. The energy drain on Hysteria scales to both efficiency AND duration. You can mod it such that the drain is slow enough that just the energy drops from enemies will let you stay in it constantly. In the event before last (Rathuum, the grineer arena one) I soloed the achievement to get the 100 rathuum point clan trophy by just perma-raging through it.

I mean, Nullifier bubbles and stalker blasts and what have you will still knock you out of it but frankly, if you're dying easily as Valkyr, git gud.

Edit: To bring this down from 'more abrasive than I intended starting out', I basically stopped modding Valk for efficiency entirely. I mod for duration and power, and after all's said and done I end up with 163% power strength, 58% range, 65% efficiency, and 191% duration. This ends up getting a hysteria power drain of a little over 1.75 per second, which is enough to keep it up for quite a long time with orb drops. I also use the Rage mod, so even when I run out, one hit gets me enough energy to hulk right back out if I want. Dumping range doesn't hurt that much, because grapple's really the only one that needs it and it has a long range to begin with.

[pochercoaster]

Welp, whilst digging a mine down from my base, I just stumbled upon silverfish for the first time, and judging by what I've read online that means there's a stronghold nearby. Stumbling upon a stronghold is supposed to be pretty rare in Minecraft, right? And yet I found one basically in my basement. That's super cool, even though it means I'm going to be nibbled to death by a horde of silverfish as soon as I unpause my game.

Edit: I suppose they spawn in extreme hills biomes too, which I'm in right now. Darn it.

Minecraft's mobs jumpscare the shit out of me.

[Ryong]

I've beaten Trails in the Sky FC again, now on PC, because I got gifted Trails in the Sky SC, so now I've been playing:

PC:
- FF13-2 ( more than halfway done with that, I believe )
- Trails in the Sky SC ( which has been REALLY TOUGH so far )

Vita:
- Sword Art Online Hollow Realization ( a terrific game with some controls that could be slightly better )
- Natural Doctrine ( sort of on the backburner; I got it for cheap, but the game is extremely complex to get into )
- Grand Kingdom ( also on the backburner; I finished the "main" part of the storyline, but there's four more storylines just as big as it, but I feel like I've already seen all the game has to give and the online, while fun, almost requires me to have a perfect, maximum level party, which I do not have )
- Sword Art Online Lost Song ( have some post-game content to do, but don't much care about it other than easy trophies )

On the subject of Sword Art Online games as a whole, too:

Hollow Fragment, while suffering from a terrible translation ( on the original version, the Re: Hollow Fragment version seems to be better ), some rather stiff controls during combat, it does everything else much, much better than the actual series; every girl gets fleshed out much better and some of them aren't crazy about Kirito in the way you'd expect from, well, a harem series, which is already much better writing than anything else SAO-related. The game has hundreds of different weapons and armor pieces and a lot of these have very unique effects - for example, I had a two-handed sword which had Breath Immune, which meant any time a dragon did a breath attack, normally extremely dangerous, it did absolutely nothing. There's some 15 weapon skills per weapon type and a simply absurd amount of different buffs and debuffs; something around 80 or so. The game also has an absurd amount of content to do, to the point where either it or Hollow Realization are the games with the most content I've ever played on the Vita; I played over 100 hours of it and there was still content I hadn't bumped into yet. Also, while everyone calls you Kirito, you don't have to look like Kirito at all; in Re: Hollow Fragment I believe you can even be a girl.

But then, Hollow Fragment had a sequel - Lost Song. It was a trainwreck. The first game had a Action MMO-esque combat system which, sure, was very stiff, but this one went full cookie cutter ARPG. Combat is either spamming your strongest skill and then using your normal attacks until you can use skills again, you can run - and should - through most of the game and the flight controls are horrible. Big bosses have multiple parts to hit, each with different defense values, but when you lock-on to them and you're in a midair battle, you always automatically move towards their center of mass when attacking, but the bosses move far too fast for you to reliably hit their weak parts; this is also caused because it seems like the bosses also lock-on to you, which means when they attack, they adjust their altitude to yours too.
But enough about the combat; the writing, except for a single cutscene early on, is terrible here and everyone is extremely generic and/or have a lot of flanderization going on. The plot is also not good, unless maybe for people who are into idols; very Japanese plot. Unlike the previous game, each character is limited to three weapon types and some 6 weapon skills per and then their fairy race determines their magic skills; there's not that much actual variety and since the game forces you to use Kirito during several parts of the game - and any side events only happen when you're playing as him - you'll end up playing Kirito anyway. Armor consists of 3 or 4 outfits for Kirito and then every girl has 2 outfits, 3 or 4 fanservice outfits and then some of them get one extra - like Sinon.

Hollow Realization, however, seems to follow Hollow Fragment's systems and feels a lot less clunky and they expanded on some Hollow Fragment stuff and there were some changes overall, which makes it feel like a more polished reimagining of the same game, gameplay-wise.

THE OTHER THING about these games is that they don't follow the canon storyline, which gets rid of things such as Asuna going from strong girl to completely powerless girl who's constantly about to be raped unless she's saved by her incredible amazing husband who has powers he shouldn't have at all. While the games certainly have "fanservice" scenes with tentacled and/or slimy things grabbing girls, these are always cut short very quickly and they're not "extremely creepy dude who specifically requested to be a slime monster with multiple appendages for the express purpose of touching girls sexually". They're just "oh look at this giant octopus who grabbed this girl because she got close to him" or "look at this monster who happened to spew clothing-dissolving acid at this girl".

TL;DR the first and third games are amazing and the second is extremely cookie cutter and on no budget whatsoever, but at least the worst parts of the canon storyline are fucking gone.

[Solid Snake]

I watched Erick play some of Sleeping Dogs awhile back and really enjoyed its humor and aesthetic. I should probably try to play it myself sometime :/


I remember being really mesmerized by Sleeping Dogs when I first played it. (Enough so that I actually wrote a long spiel on Hong Kong on SexayPartay back in the day.) It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and a couple of the characters will annoy you with their stereotypes (I was not very fond of Emma Stone's VA cameo, which is odd because I love Emma Stone in nearly everything else), but the vast majority of the characters are well written and it's a fascinating look into a very different culture. Also, some of the car-hijacking and martial arts mechanics are so good they'll make GTAV feel like a gameplay downgrade.

While the main character definitely straddles two worlds (law enforcement and criminal) that are dominated by men, there are also a few very strong women in the cast, which I remember appreciating.

---------- Post added at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------

Mass Effect Stuff

I'll concede we probably have different standards for our preferences in storytelling, but my biggest problem with ME3 has nothing to do with the ending or its war effort mechanics and everything to do with those two moments in the story that you feel are 'great;' the Quarians and Geth, and Mordin with the Krogans.

Now, let me be clear: Those moments were excellent! In terms of narrative both conflicts were compelling, ME1 and ME2 both laid the groundwork, there were some interesting payoffs.
But the prior two Mass Effects understood that the heart of the series was in presenting Shepard with difficult choices, and then ensuring replay value by encouraging players to witness different possibilities that encompassed various shades of grey.

The issue with ME3's major conflicts is that there's only one right answer to every problem.
Whether you're Paragon or Renegade, if you screw over the Krogans you're a terrible person. It's not even a choice that's justified in terms of war effort score, there's virtually no difference there. So there's no pragmatic reason for a renegade to screw over a friend. And there's no likable character who's a counterweight to both Wrex and Mordin, who are on the same side. It makes sense for Wrex and Mordin to be on the same side given what they've gone through before ME3, but if your choices are "Side with all your friends, make the ethically correct decision, face no negative consequences" or "Piss off all your friends for no discernible reason, watch a much worse sequence of events go down, feel awful" you're going to choose the first option every time no matter what your Shepard is like in terms of his/her personality.

It's even worse with the Geth and the Quarians because if your Paragon or Renegade points are high enough you can choose the option that's objectively better and avoid alienating either side of the conflict. Which, again, kills the game's replay value because you're going to make that choice every time unless you're deliberately playing your Shepard as an asshole. It's not even a very hard threshold of Paragon or Renegade points to reach, particularly if you're importing an ME2 save. Basically, imagine if ME1 had the option to save both Kaidan and Ashley if your Paragon or Renegade score was high enough. Why would you ever let either die? And wouldn't it hurt the replay value if you never experienced either dying?

So the problem with ME3 isn't that its main story is bad, but rather that the main story betrays the core value of ME1 and ME2 that established the tone of the series; in the previous games you were confronted with difficult choices without easy answers or obvious solutions, every choice you made felt like it had a tradeoff, and the value of said approach was that encouraged you to roleplay as several different Shepards with very different values and watch different and distinct series of events unfold. Fundamentally good Shepards still differed insofar as they could be more idealistic or more pragmatic, more tolerant or more xenophobic, and the diversity of options presented you with opportunities to experiment. In ME1, there's no objectively 'correct' answer as to who to sacrifice on Virmire, so there's two playthroughs right there: One where you choose Kaidan and the other where you choose Ashley. Even shooting Wrex was a more ambiguous choice in the heat of that moment (and I actually did try it, in one of my playthroughs where I had romanced Ashley and wasn't going to tolerate anyone threatening her for a moment.)

In ME2, it's more about the different options you have to ensure the loyalty of your followers and different choices you can make when bonding with them that had subtle effects on their character development; that and whether you side with Cerberus or against them, which felt much more morally nebulous before you knew what would happen to the organization in ME3. Again, moral ambiguity is a great thing in the ME universe, and when that's stripped away, and the Illusive Man just becomes a possessed jackass, you're robbed of depth and complexity.

As for ME2's characters, my biggest disappointment there is how many of the interesting ones are completely relegated to single mission cameos in ME3. If that cast is going to drop everything to help you against the Collectors, they sure as hell won't run away once the Reapers show up and start destroying everything in sight. ME3 felt like an exercise in favoritism -- the developers basically said "We like Garrus, Tali and Liara more than the rest of your potential love interests so you're going to get much more exciting content if you romanced those three." (Thane did pretty well too, I guess.) And while I can't complain about Jacob and Miranda getting shoddy treatment, Jack deserved so much better. I romanced her in an ME1 --> ME2 playthrough series with a character I'll probably never import into ME3 because, what's the point?

So yeah, the main story of ME3 actually probably is better than ME2's if you're analyzing it as a linear narrative, akin to a novel. More exciting things happen in ME3, and it's more relevant to the broader plot with the Reapers. But, the Mass Effect series was never supposed to play out like a linear novel. The nonlinear nature of branching possibilities was the key feature of Mass Effect and it just disappears when you reach ME3 and there's no more complexity to the decisions you're making and no replay value because every Shepard you'll ever roleplay will make the same decisions at the same major plot events. The shades of grey are compressed to simple black and white, right and wrong, and formerly ambiguous plot points like the Rachni suddenly have objective 'right' and 'wrong' answers.

ME3 is basically the anti-Fallout New Vegas. Fallout New Vegas was all about the subtle complexity of multitudes of intertwining factions where you could barely tell right from wrong and where every quest was a referendum on your character's backstory, morality, personality. ME3 is just like, no, fuck that, here's some cheap emotional moments that are very simplistic and there's no depth.

I'm really just miffed because so many people respond to ME3 criticism with "I know the ending sucked, but you gotta admit everything else was phenomenal!" and I just shake my head because, there were so many problems with ME3 before you even reached the ending, it was a terrible experience for me long before I even reached the last conveniently color-coded choice.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

I'm just gonna say that generally speaking I think the problem ME3 had was that the writers were used to the idea of creating consequences that were far away, and thus were able to seem more ambiguous than they became in practice.

Should you keep the collector base or destroy it? At the time it's a tough choice. You don't completely trust the illusive man, but you've seen that he puts practical work in to stop the reapers... but then you've also seen that they can screw the hell up while working, a lot.

But then ME3 rolls around, and you know no matter what you did TIM was going to be a reaper puppet. There goes the ambiguity.
They were suddenly confronted with the absence of a fallback, the consequences had to be real, in a here and now sense, because from their perspective there was no more Mass Effect to tell, and nowhere else to push the eventual consequences TO without abandoning their resolution entirely.

[MuMu]

Man, I loved Trails in the Sky characters and the little plot that I saw(Steam says I played for 13 hours) but man, I can't stand that combat. I will definitely give it another chance one day but maybe with CheatEngine or something like that.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I'm, uh, really NOT gonna trust you on that one since Valk's one of my most played frames. You should REALLY dig into the specifics of how the powers work before you dismiss them. The energy drain on Hysteria scales to both efficiency AND duration. You can mod it such that the drain is slow enough that just the energy drops from enemies will let you stay in it constantly. In the event before last (Rathuum, the grineer arena one) I soloed the achievement to get the 100 rathuum point clan trophy by just perma-raging through it.

I mean, Nullifier bubbles and stalker blasts and what have you will still knock you out of it but frankly, if you're dying easily as Valkyr, git gud.

Edit: To bring this down from 'more abrasive than I intended starting out', I basically stopped modding Valk for efficiency entirely. I mod for duration and power, and after all's said and done I end up with 163% power strength, 58% range, 65% efficiency, and 191% duration. This ends up getting a hysteria power drain of a little over 1.75 per second, which is enough to keep it up for quite a long time with orb drops. I also use the Rage mod, so even when I run out, one hit gets me enough energy to hulk right back out if I want. Dumping range doesn't hurt that much, because grapple's really the only one that needs it and it has a long range to begin with.

I know all of this. I know very well how her powers work, I've been playing her since last year up until, as I said, a few months ago when she got nerfed, hard. I too was able to solo a lot of tough events with perma hysteria on, but you just can't now, unless like I said, there's some specific mod I'm missing (I forget now what Rage does, perhaps that's it, since I don't think I ever got that one).

But unless they've more recently un-nerfed her back to what she was,last time I played her the energy drain accelerated over time for the first minute and the range on her aura increased to a massive area over the same time, which meant an ill timed interruption would likely leave you with enemies still in range and taking damage. And there ARE more enemies now that can affect her, or even drain her energy faster, whereas before she was immune to such things; it's not just Corpus nullifers and Stalker who can take her out of Hyst.

I would love to be able to do shit like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2NrkUmlaR4) and this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Lp4Mdm-RY) again, but the last time I played, this was no longer the case.

[rpgdemon]

Hey, uh, could we maybe put spoiler tags on things, especially in an open vg thread where you have no idea what games will be discussed?

[Gregness]

(I forget now what Rage does, perhaps that's it, since I don't think I ever got that one).


This is probably one of the issues. Rage is the mod that gives you energy back whenever you take health damage, so even if you run completely out of hysteria, getting shot pops your energy back up, then a spin attack with the innate lifesteal tops your health off again. Combine with Quick Thinking for extra insurance against late game burst.

As an aside, DE trying to kill the perma-hysteria monofocussed Valkyr builds doesn't really bother me all that much. I love the berserker theme, but 'press 4 for invulnerability' made for unhealthy gameplay when Trinity used to do it, and though it's less offensive on Valkyr, it's still not super inspiring design. I'd much rather they just scrap the invulnerability and find a more interesting direction. Just off the top of my head, Tryndamere from League of Legends has kind of a similar gimmick, but rather than being straight-up immune to damage, he simply makes himself unable to drop below 1hp for the duration of his ult. For Valkyr, maybe that could translate as a timed ability instead of a channel that prevents you from dropping below 1hp, and extra damage beyond that is what gets 'banked' as per the current ability. Kills and losing hp (so, damage before the 1hp threshold) give some amount of extra time on the transformation. The 'banked' damage, instead of killing you when you turn off the ability, instead maybe inflicts some kind of self-inflicted crowd control once the power ends to still give that 'you should find a good place to power down' tension without it being all or nothing.

That was long. The point is, binary gameplay could stand to be improved.

I'd also like to see Warcry adjusted to make it a more useful team buff. Valkyr loves the stats it gives her, but what the hell is a Volt or a Mag supposed to do with an X% armor boost? they start with 15. ::V:

Change the armor boost from X%, to a flat number boost. For extra spice, make it count as a base armor boost if you want to still reward modding for armor above even the normal boost. Like, changing it to a 300 base armor boost still ends up equaling the current percentage boost once you take Steel Fiber into account, while making far more of a difference to squishy frames you're running with. Then, instead of attack speed, what about extra crit chance? It still fits the RIP AND TEAR theme while distinguishing it more from Volt's speed. Make that crit chance apply to whatever weapon people are using rather than just melee. VALKYR TURNS SQUISHY WIMPS INTO WARRIORS!

[Ryong]

Valkyr was my favorite warframe back when I played, but she relied completely on her ultimate and the only other good thing about her was her armor, gameplay-wise. There's a lot of other, much better warframes that don't have to rely on becoming completely immune to damage in order to be relevant. There's also the fact that her damage ceiling is much lower than a lot of other warframes because melee weapons are very powerful early on or with a sufficiently gigantic combo, but primary weapons outclass them most of the time in all aspects other than, y'know, infinite melee "ammo". The other thing is that, since the damage that Valkyr does with her melee attacks during Hysteria gains damage bonuses from her actual melee weapon but completely ignores attack speed means that only a subset of weapons are efficient for her; those which are only strong because they have a crippling slow attack speed.

Valkyr, as a whole, is a warframe for solo play, that's why War Cry is like that, that's why she becomes immune to damage.

I'd say she needs a hard limit on how long her ultimate can last, but is dramatically stronger during it, as melee weapons do not scale that well to damage.

MORE THAN ANYTHING THOUGH

I want to see a "Valkyr Prime" who's just Valkyr before all the shit happened to her, so she's less wildcat and more valkyrie; maker her ultimate give her a sword and a shield and change ripline into some sort of smite ability or the like, everything else can be kept.

[Gregness]

*snip*

The other thing is that, since the damage that Valkyr does with her melee attacks during Hysteria gains damage bonuses from her actual melee weapon but completely ignores attack speed means that only a subset of weapons are efficient for her; those which are only strong because they have a crippling slow attack speed.


The Hysteria buff Hawk and I mentioned offhand changed that some time ago. It now works like Excalibur's Exalted Blade in that the weapon stats are irrelevant to Hysteria, but it now scales based on what melee mods you have equipped.


I want to see a "Valkyr Prime" who's just Valkyr before all the shit happened to her, so she's less wildcat and more valkyrie; maker her ultimate give her a sword and a shield and change ripline into some sort of smite ability or the like, everything else can be kept.

Valkyr Prime looks like it's gonna be the next one on the list, but I doubt they'll actually change any abilities around.

[phil_]

I have a question to ask, what's everyone's thoughts on NES Mini? Anyone bought one and has opinions to share? It's a heck of a lot more popular than I thought it would be, apparently it's sold out pretty much everywhere already- even people with pre-orders are having to wait.

It's a good sign, because the thought of a follow-up SNES Mini makes me excited.I didn't think much of it, so I looked at the official site. The game selection is good (though why Star Tropics, a game that requires the manual?). It really should come with two controllers by default (though, most of the games are one-player, so eh), but otherwise a physical artifact that hooks up to the TV to play NES games seems to me a better value proposition than ROMs tied to a Nintendo account that go poof with said account and also cost more, collectively, than the physical plastic box which can be used as a bludgeon or door stop and doesn't go away until it is used as a bludgeon/door stop.

Now, if a hypothetical N64 mini comes with 30 N64 games, that's just straight up awesome. If it has Sin and Punishment, I might even buy one to play it with a proper N64 controller.

A SNES mini runs into the difficultly of curating 30 games out of a much larger library of good games, even if we cut out licensed games. Personally, I think they should translate Talking Parodius. System seller if I ever played one.

[pochercoaster]

For anyone interested- I'll probably start a minecraft livestream in about 2 hours. Possibly sooner, but I'll need to double check that my microphone etc. works.

You can watch it over here: https://www.twitch.tv/pocheros

I dunno what chat should be used- twitch chat requires you to have an account. If y'all have twitch accounts that's good. But there is also discord and ajax. I like being able to take feedback and respond to questions, so.

[MuMu]

I didn't think much of it, so I looked at the official site. The game selection is good (though why Star Tropics, a game that requires the manual?). It really should come with two controllers by default (though, most of the games are one-player, so eh), but otherwise a physical artifact that hooks up to the TV to play NES games seems to me a better value proposition than ROMs tied to a Nintendo account that go poof with said account and also cost more, collectively, than the physical plastic box which can be used as a bludgeon or door stop and doesn't go away until it is used as a bludgeon/door stop.

Now, if a hypothetical N64 mini comes with 30 N64 games, that's just straight up awesome. If it has Sin and Punishment, I might even buy one to play it with a proper N64 controller.

A SNES mini runs into the difficultly of curating 30 games out of a much larger library of good games, even if we cut out licensed games. Personally, I think they should translate Talking Parodius. System seller if I ever played one.

I watched the Giant Bomb Quick Look (http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-nes-classic-edition/2300-11680/) and there's one glaring flaw in the hilariously short controller cables, so there's that.

[pochercoaster]

Sorry to be a spambot but I'm streaming now if anyone wants to watch. If you are watching please say hi, I'm quiet right now but I'll chat if I see people pop in.

[RickZarber]

(though why Star Tropics, a game that requires the manual?)A review I was watching said the Mini comes with QR codes to view all of the manuals on your phone/tablet/whathaveyou.

[Flarecobra]

Not to mention we got this little thing called Google...

[Overcast]

Have gone through one playthrough of Tyranny where I played a Pit Fighter with fists on Hard and supported the Voices of Nerat, and now doing two simultaneous playthroughs of a Soldier bowman and a Guild Mage. Its a very nice little RPG for all those people who have a craving for an old school isometric RPG with a deep setting and not insubstantial story.

The actual mechanical systems in place for social interaction, skill usage, and combat are semi unique. Seeming like an odd fusion of old school DnD attributes, WoW perks, and Elder Scrolls skill progression as well as level progression.

It is kinda hard to describe until you experience it, but for anyone that dives in know that your combat skill is not monumentally important since you learn by doing and killing people is a big part of the game. There is no pure pacifism path. The social skills are Athletics(intimidation), Subterfuge(social dexterity) and Lore(Knowledge and Law) which are worth pumping up in character creation to around 30. The game itself is challenging enough even on normal to keep a person into that interesting without frustrating someone who doesn't like it.

The setting as I said is pretty deep, you learn a lot about it by asking questions to other characters and listening to interactions, but it is also nested in the dialogue. Certain subjects being highlighted so you can open a new window for more detailed info. This system also includes a little bit of playfulness from one of the important characters who uses this system to speak directly to your mind.

The conversations with other characters are reasonably interesting, just about everyone has their own angle on the situation occurring. I'd say the simultaneously weakest and strongest portion probably being in the companion end of thing. Which start very strong but much like Pillars tend to peter out a bit as you exhaust their primary talky subjects. Around the mid point of the game, you'll only get a few more important pieces of dialogue from them after important events, but those can be somewhat minimal even as they continue to react to your personal choices.

The game story itself is not overly long, with a bit of dedication I got my initial run down in around 20 hours, and there are around four primary paths to walk down meaning you can have at a minimum around 4 unique runs due to choices of alliances or in the case of the fourth choice having no alliance whatsoever. I'd recommend it to people who are into the genre, particularly folks who enjoyed PoE but might have wanted a little more out of the setting and tone.

[Flarecobra]

No Man's Sky designer is now working on Star Citizen. (http://www.idigitaltimes.com/no-mans-sky-designer-quietly-leaves-hello-games-work-star-citizen-568549) Sinking ship memes follow.

[MuMu]

Titanfall 2 is 33% off at Origin. I can't run it, but most that I've read about it online basically boiled it down to "the best game no one will play" thanks to being released between BF1 and CoD.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

Titanfall 2 also has the big problem that it's Titanfall 2 and not just Titanfall. The first game was kind of a flop and it's playerbase shrunk as quickly as that of Battleborn, which I've been told is the new measurement for playerbases evaporating.

Battleborn, allegedly, is also a good game. With a similar fate as Titanfall 2. Because it decided to go toe to toe with a Blizzard game. I mean, yeah, why would I play a game by the studio that created Aliens: Colonial Marines if I can play one by a studio that is known to put ridiculous amounts of polish into their games and is known to rework things if they are unpopular with the players (Diablo 3)

In different news: I started playing Thumper. It ramps up in difficulty quick but once you get a groove going it's really satisfying.

[Arcanum]

Titanfall 2's playerbase shrunk as quickly as that of Battleborn, which I've been told is the new measurement for playerbases evaporating.

Nope. Completely false, at least on PC. Shortly after it launched the game would have between 8-12k people playing it depending on time of day. Currently it has around 5-8k players depending on time. Currently, at ~6pm EST, the game has 7k players.

Battlborn, according to steamcahrts, (http://steamcharts.com/app/394230) launched with 12k peak players, and within a month that dropped to 2k at its peak, and two months after that it dropped to about 500 peak players. The average player counts are even sadder.

So while the numbers for Titanfall 2 aren't amazing, they are in no way comparable to Battleborn, and making those false comparisons only makes people more hesitant to buy the game and it will end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Fortunately the game's player count should spike up a bit with black friday sales and christmas gifts.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I actually meant the numbers for Titanfall 1, I mistyped there. There's dark tales of the game's playerbase being effectively dead after about two weeks. Though, I don't have any concrete numbers, I'm merely relying on video game fans on the internet not exaggerating. Which might be a mistake.

[POS Industries]

I've lost control of my life.

n8UMF0-wBT0

[MuMu]

So another Steam Sale comes by and we're once more blessed by mighty discounts. But those are not the point of the post. What I really want to see is what awful games you have selected for the first(and probably last) STEAM AWARDS!

Mine were:

•Test of Time: Rollercoaster Tycoon
•There's Something in my Eye: The Walking Dead S1
•Just Five More Minutes: FTL
•Whoooooooa, Dude!: Danganronpa
•Villain in Most Need of a Hug: Finding Teddy
•Game Withing a Game: Plants Vs Zombies (This one was hard)
•I Liked This Game Before It Got An Award: Darksiders
•Best Use of a Farm Animal: Just Cause 3
•BLANK: Assassin's Creed 2 for "Best Sequel"

The most ingenious one I've seen was Earthworm Jim 2 for Farm Animal but I won't change mine. So what were your choices? Don't be embarrassed, post away!

[mauve]

-Test of Time: Half Life 2
-I'm Not Crying: Blackwell Epiphany
-Five More Minutes: Fallout 4
-Woaaahh, dude: Transistor (Couldn't decide between Transistor and Kentucky Route Zero)
-Villain in Need of a Hug: Tales from the Borderlands
-Game Within A Game: Left 4 Dead 2 (because I don't actually own many Steam games with minigames, and the shooting gallery/whack-a-mole game in Dark Carnival are amusing)
-Cool Before It Won An Award: Portal Stories: Mel
-Farm Animal: New Vegas (Because I wanted the badge and I don't own many games with farm animals aside from the brahmin in Fallout and whatever the hell the cow/pig/horse creatures are in Battleblock Theater)
-BLANK for Kentucky Route Zero because I wanted to nominate it for something. Homemade category name: The "I Don't Know What's Going On Here But I Like It" award.

[Arcanum]

-Test of Time: Left 4 Dead 2

-I'm Not Crying: To the Moon

-Five More Minutes: Rocket League

-Woaaahh, dude: DOOM

-Villain in Need of a Hug: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (because the villain is either a scarred man with a lust for revenge who could really use a hug, or a psychic child who latches on to whatever person is feeling the most rage/revenge-lust and who would probably not be so evil if he just got a hug)

-Game Within A Game: Witcher 3 (because of Gwent, that card minigame that they are turning into a full game)

-Cool Before It Won An Award: Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (because I couldn't think of anything else and I needed to nominate the game for something)

-Farm Animal: Stardew Valley (because I'm oh so original)

-Anime Was A Mistake: Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom (because anime was a mistake)

[BB]

-Test of Time: Ikaruga
-I'm Not Crying: Analogue Hate Story
-Five More Minutes: TF2 (but we all know CIV is gonna win this)
-Woaaahh, dude: Undertale
-Villain in Need of a Hug: Portal 2
-Game Within A Game: Final Fantasy 8
-Cool Before It Won An Award: Ys Origin
-Farm Animal: Earthworm Jim
-Cracking Wise award for Best Sidekick: Blackwell Epiphany

[Solid Snake]

Root Letter is a prime example of how you can take a really fascinating premise and botch it with poor execution. It's a game that I can only half-heartedly recommend on the virtues of its unfulfilled potential as opposed to its actual content. Still, it's a rare VN that's available on Vita that isn't related to Steins;Gate, so I figure I'll type up the premise and my thoughts on it anyway.

You are the Protagonist, nicknamed 'Max' (even in Japanese), a thirty-something year old guy with an ambiguous backstory that you can tailor to fit your imagination. Most of the story takes place in a new city he's never visited before, surrounded by strangers as he partakes in something vaguely akin to a vacation. The story isn't really about Max, though; he's just the amateur sleuth who's tasked himself with the responsibility of investigating the disappearance of a high school pen pal. The story's really about the missing pen pal, 'Aya', and her seven childhood friends, who appear to be concealing the secret behind her disappearance fifteen years ago. For the most part, Max is just a blank canvas that the others project their fears, insecurities, hopes and dreams onto.

When Max stumbles upon a series of strange events that lead him to begin his impromptu 'investigation' for his old pen pal and one-time long-distance crush, nearly everyone he interacts with in Shimane (Aya's hometown) is hostile to him, and each ex-classmate he interrogates him seems to give him completely differing, bizarre interpretations of what might have happened to her.

For the first three-quarters or so of the game -- before you branch off into five different endings -- you're in for a real treat of a narrative. That's actually why I'm bothering to write all this out in the first place, because this is the part of the game that is unique and innovative in terms of its plot, its approach to character development and its aesthetic presentation. Mind you, the gameplay is fairly atrocious, in large part because it's a strictly linear visual novel that doesn't seem to know just how linear it is. The result is a distracting clutter of unnecessary options and menus, and lots of long periods of just navigating through the same boring map screen to go to the only destination at any given moment in time that you know you're supposed to trek to. Why the game doesn't just automate all this and guide you from place to place without requiring any input whatsoever, I do not know. If anything, this is a visual novel that would've benefited tremendously from developers who'd make this flow organically as visual novels generally do -- if you're forced onto a single path, just take us from Point A to Point B, don't give us any artificial illusion that we can visit a dozen other places instead when doing so has no purpose and doesn't even offer any optional dialogue or bonus content to explore.

That gripe aside, what Root Letter does quite well is toy with your assumptions and present you with a well-fleshed out cast of flawed thirty-something supporting characters. The key to understanding Root Letter is acknowledging that neither Max nor his beloved pen pal Aya are the 'main characters.' Max may be the protagonist and the narrator, but the characters who are rigorously explored are Aya's seven classmates. Each of them is broken in differing ways by Aya's disappearance and each has skeletons in their closets that Max ultimately has to uncover to get closer to the truth. And another interesting wrinkle is that the others know more about Max (by virtue of Aya's frequent mentions of him to her friends fifteen years ago) than Max could possibly know about them, and several of them try to exploit Max's naivete against him in illuminating ways.

Be forewarned that the English translation isn't all too great; I've been told the original Japanese includes a lot more nuance that's lost with the subtitles. Even still, I could often tell what the characters were attempting to communicate, even when the fairly generic English dialogue didn't quite fit the tone. That's where the game's excellent artwork, which does a great job capturing subtleties with facial expressions, helps matters. (Unfortunately, the music is comparatively bland and one song in particular gets really grating as it's frequently replayed.)

There's a pretty common theme that's toyed around with here that's related to the supporting characters each embodying one of the seven sins, and while that idea certainly isn't original or unique, it's executed fairly well...until you get to the crucial moment in the narrative where the story branches off to accommodate five different endings. Then it all goes to hell.

First and foremost, the endings are rushed in a way that fails to capitalize on the groundwork of the common route. A lot of ideas are initially explored and just dropped to accommodate five very different endings (several of which are downright nonsensical.)

Furthermore, the endings don't just change what happens moving forward, but also change the backstory in crucial ways that...don't hold merit under any serious scrutiny. Be prepared to be asked, often, to suspend your disbelief as you encounter cookie cutter variations of last-second Shamaylan twists from the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres. Most of it is so cliched and just plain stupid.

What's unfortunate is, up until you reach the mostly-awful endings, you're in the midst of this really poignant story that works in large part because it's narrowly focused on telling a more 'realistic' tale related to the quirks, foibles, sins and dreams of seven painstakingly crafted people. It's not trying to tell some grand metaphysical fable or impart any deep philosophical lessons; it's just about seven adults struggling to cope with friendships in their past that have fallen into ruin and disrepair after the glue that held the group together in high school mysteriously vanished. That's the great story. And it's great in large part because it actually unapologetically follows adults, and doesn't shy away from alcohol and sex and even some really boring conversations about career trajectories and sacrificing ideals to make ends meet in the 'real world.'

So, forget about the endings and just play the first eight chapters if you can. If you must play through the endings, I'd recommend '1' and then '5', but skipping '2', '3' and '4' unless you're really a completionist who enjoys laughing at poorly executed plot twists. The 'Cursed Letter' route (1) is equally ludicrous but it's at least slightly better thought out and has a couple genuinely funny moments, while the last route is the canon 'good ending' one and, while it's relentless with a certain sense of optimism that doesn't really match the earlier chapters' more realistic approach, it at least bothers to wrap the story up in a semi-coherent manner.

Is it worth playing through Root Letter? Maybe, if only to get a sense of the missed opportunities that were lost when the developers decided to pursue the same tired genre tropes instead of sticking to a more intimate, character-driven affair. This is the kind of game I often find myself hating to play most, though, even moreso than the next hackneyed edition of a tired franchise like Assassin's Creed; with Root Letter you are confronted with a vision of a masterpiece that could have been, but too many essential ingredients are simply missing, and too many intriguing threads of the plot are cast aside and forgotten.

[mauve]

Escaped the Steam sale with only one purchase. Bought the Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4 because even though part of me knows Fallout 4 is buggy and a bad Fallout game, I've already dumped 75 hours into it and I still kind of love it. Besides, Far Harbor involves more mystery solving with the robo-detective and that's well worth the price of admission in my book.

[phil_]

I didn't buy anything because everything I looked at I was like, "yeah, but I'd rather play Dragon Quest 2 right now." So I'm still doing that. I like the princess I'm carrying around now more than the paladin, because, while she's even squishier than him, her fire spell is actually worth casting because it kills things dead. And I have a boat and instructions to find some tiny island somewhere. So I've been aimlessly wandering the seas, fighting way too high level monsters and teleporting back to port when we're all too dead to continue. It's fun. I found the demon king dragon lord whatever the jerk who killed princess's dad is's castle on one voyage, but that's not what I'm looking for so he can just wait there.

[Solid Snake]

Escaped the Steam sale with only one purchase. Bought the Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4 because even though part of me knows Fallout 4 is buggy and a bad Fallout game, I've already dumped 75 hours into it and I still kind of love it. Besides, Far Harbor involves more mystery solving with the robo-detective and that's well worth the price of admission in my book.

Just do yourself a huge favor and limit yourself to only purchasing Far Harbor. Far Harbor is pretty decent!
The other Fallout 4 DLCs are either limited only to the workshop content, or Nuka-World, and Nuka-World is awful.

[mauve]

Just do yourself a huge favor and limit yourself to only purchasing Far Harbor. Far Harbor is pretty decent!
The other Fallout 4 DLCs are either limited only to the workshop content, or Nuka-World, and Nuka-World is awful.

Yeah, that's what I've heard other people say too. Crafting is lame and boring, so I have no interest in the workshop content, and the general consensus around Nuka-World seems to be that it is, indeed, awful. I'll be happy with just Far Harbor. I'm not even close to finishing the main game, so it's not like I'm running out of content anyway.

[MuMu]

Along with it's Winter Sale, GOG is giving away Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition (https://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition).

Yes, it's not Steam but it's free!

[Solid Snake]

Goddammit I was browsing to look for the FFXV anime on Youtube so I could rewatch Brotherhood before starting my first playthrough and what pops up immediately in the search bar on Youtube but a massive fucking spoiler in the title of the video.

I swear to God I'm going to kill that asshole.

[Arcanum]

Goddammit I was browsing to look for the FFXV anime on Youtube so I could rewatch Brotherhood before starting my first playthrough and what pops up immediately in the search bar on Youtube but a massive fucking spoiler in the title of the video.

I swear to God I'm going to kill that asshole.

Could you pm me what the spoiler was (or post it here with spoiler tags)? I beat the main story earlier today so I could let you know if it actually is a huge deal or not, cause there were a few things that I kind of knew already going in and then the way things developed regarding those spoilers made them obsolete, if that makes sense.

[Gregness]

Yes, it's not Steam but it's free!

To my mind, it's better than Steam since it's DRM-free.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

Goddammit I was browsing to look for the FFXV anime on Youtube so I could rewatch Brotherhood before starting my first playthrough and what pops up immediately in the search bar on Youtube but a massive fucking spoiler in the title of the video.

I swear to God I'm going to kill that asshole.

Welcome to Youtube. Unfortunately there's a lot of people who put spoilers in their titles or thumbnails.

[MuMu]

It's a good day to be a Sony fan. The Playstation Experience, Sony's big ass con, happens this weekend and a boatload of annoucements are already coming out. Among others, the most notable so far are:

-Uncharted: Lost Legacy (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/playstation-experience-2016-kicks-off-uncharted-lost-legacy/), a spin-off of some sorts of the Uncharted series?

-Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/marvel-vs-capcom-infinite-2017-ultimate-marvel-vs-capcom-now), the first a remaster for the Ps4 released right after the announcement, the second a new installment of the series.

-Parappa the Rapper, LocoRoco and Patapon getting remasters for the Ps4 (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/parappa-loco-roco-patapon-remasters-announced/)

-Ni No Kuni II (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/ni-no-kuni-ii-releases-2017-heres-latest-trailer/) releases 2017, new trailer launched.

-Akuma and 5 New Characters announced for Street Fighter V (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/street-fighter-v-announces-akuma-for-december-20-season-2-dlc-character-pack-announced/)

-Nier: Automata to release in March in NA and EU (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/nier-automata-to-release-on-march-7-2017-in-north-america-and-europe/)

-Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 6 to be released outside of Japan (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/yakuza-kiwami-yakuza-6-released-outside-japan/)

-Ace Combat 7 gets a new trailer (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/ace-combat-7-fuels-up-for-a-new-trailer-at-playstation-experience-2016/)

-Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy, the remake of the first three games, gets a new trailer (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-gets-its-first-trailer-at-playstation-experience-2016/)

-The Last Of Us Part II Announced (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/the-last-of-us-part-ii-announced-for-playstation-4/)

-Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony released outside of Japan in 2017 (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/danganronpa-v3-killing-harmony-leaving-japan-2017/)

And probably more to be announced for the rest of the weekend. :dance:

edit:

-Both Ultimate MvC 3 and MvC Infinite are coming out for PC (http://www.pcgamer.com/marvel-vs-capcom-infinite-revealed-coming-to-pc-next-year/). I guess I'll probably Mahvel one day, even though I suck at fighting games.

[Solid Snake]

-Uncharted: Lost Legacy (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/03/playstation-experience-2016-kicks-off-uncharted-lost-legacy/), a spin-off of some sorts of the Uncharted series?

According to Naughty Dog it sounds like Lost Legacy was originally intended to be just DLC for Uncharted 4, but they've expanded it so much that they believe it works best as a standalone game.

Regardless, If you purchased the versions of Uncharted 4 that promised the single-player DLC would be available to you for free, you'll get to download Lost Legacy for free instead when it's released.
(However, that's it for Uncharted 4 single-player DLC. We're not getting a Sam and Sully story like everyone predicted. Personally, I prefer Chloe and Nadine, so this is a good thing.)
If you purchased the standalone version of Uncharted 4 (with just the game itself, no promises of free DLC) like I did, you'll just essentially get to look forward to a brand-new game set in the Uncharted universe.

It might work like Left Behind did with Last of Us and enable you to download the new content as an expansion to Uncharted 4 (accessible through Uncharted 4's main menu) once you download it, but it will also be available to players who don't own Uncharted 4.

Naughty Dog describes it as longer than Left Behind but shorter than Uncharted 4 in length, so I do hope they're at least planning to not charge $60 for it.
I'd gladly pay $30, though. That would strike me as just right.

[POS Industries]

I beat Akuma.

I'm the best.

[MuMu]

All games that were free monthly for Ubisoft's 30th Anniversary are available until the 18th (https://club.ubisoft.com/en-us/ubi30)

The games are:

•Prince of the Persia: Sands of Time
•Splinter Cell
•Rayman Origins
•The Crew
•Beyond Good and Evil
•Far Cry: Blood Dragon
•Assassin's Creed III

Yes, it's Uplay, which is notorious for being a kinda shitty app that goes from not working to outright deleting your saves, but it's free

[dementedmongoose]

Soon's I get home from work, Imma boot up some Astroneer. No clue what it's really about, per se, since it just dropped today, but saw Scott Manley playing it, and proceeded to fangirl over the gorgeous beast for 20 minutes.

The game looked good, too.

[MuMu]

The Big Steam X-mas Disappointment Sale begins tomorrow, so I'd like to make a request. I was watching an Astroneer gameplay video (www.giantbomb.com/videos/unfinished-astroneer-12202016/2300-11769) and thought it was really cool but unfortunately it's very Early Access at the moment. Still, now I got this itch to scratch so I wanted a reccomendation of One(1) Survival and Crafting Game that's available on Steam. Reasonable price is preferred and as far in development as it can be. I'd ask for complete, non-EA games only but god knows people can't release a finished game nowadays.

---------- Post added at 05:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 AM ----------

GRID is FREE on the Humble Store (https://www.humblebundle.com/store) for a limited time. Steam activated.

[Solid Snake]

This Steam Sale is not disappointing.
It is going to destroy the crap out of my wallet if I let it, in fact.

Sierra Classics for $20. That's Quest for Glory, all the old King's Quests, new King's Quest, Gabriel Knight, Caesars III and IV, Police Quest, Space Quest...by God Almighty.

Stellaris is 60% off.

Last Remnant is 50% off.

Cities Skylines is 75% off.

Abzu is 70% off.

The GOTY edition of Witcher 3 is now down to $30, which if you do not own it, now means that it is a federal crime not to own it.

Steam Sales are back and they're back with a vengeance.

[MuMu]

The only Sierra game from that bundle I'm interested is Gabriel Knight and I'm seeing if I can trade some of my bundle trash for it.

Last Remnant

Steam says I've played 20 hours of that and I don't even know what the main story is about. Too many sidequests, and me being a dumbo means I won't skip any unless someone literally forces my hand. Or I get bored, which is what happened.

Cities Skylines

Do you have this one? Would like an opinion on it. How comfy is it? I suppose it has no combat, being a city builder and all, but is it too brainy? That's a very interesting price.

For the record, I very much enjoy Tropico 3/4 and Anno 1404 so use that as a basis if you can.

Abzu

Interesting but I already got too much on my wishlist. Maybe if I don't spend as much as I expect.

GOTY edition of Witcher 3

Can't run the game. The worst part is that I bought Witcher 2 a long time ago and went years without playing it because I couldn't run it, until one day I bought a decent video card and jacked that shit to maximum. Now I can't run 3, the whole cycle begins anew.

[Arcanum]

All of the games I want came out recently so their discounts aren't enough to make me jump on them.

[Solid Snake]

I mean, y'all have every right to feel however you may feel subjectively about this sale, but objectively speaking it's the best set of deals I've seen Steam push forward in the aggregate in the past couple years, for basically every title except a few released in the past four or so months.

[Revising Ocelot]

Can't run the game. The worst part is that I bought Witcher 2 a long time ago and went years without playing it because I couldn't run it, until one day I bought a decent video card and jacked that shit to maximum. Now I can't run 3, the whole cycle begins anew.

The winning strategy that I employed was to get Witcher 3 free with my GTX 970 as part of a NVIDIA promotion.

Unfortunately, said promotion also included Arkham Knight, which ran like dogshit.

[BB]

Damnit no

I move to another country in 9 days time I won't have a computer

Not this time Steam, not this time, I can't even pretend to myself I'll play them "eventually" this time

Edit: Damnit

https://68.media.tumblr.com/bf045a6555be75fe0708d56c90f38663/tumblr_oilzci2Ngr1qdx54to1_1280.png

"I can listen to the music, though!" I say, as I buy the Soundtrack edition

[mauve]

I'm in the market for multiplayer co-op games I can play with my sister. Has anyone played Warhammer: Vermintide? My sister's not a big fan of the fantasy genre (with the exception of Torchlight Ii), but it looks very L4D-ish and we both liked L4D. Aside from Vermintide, can anyone suggest multiplayer games for us to try?

Games we've enjoyed:
Battleblock Theater
Orcs Must Die 2
Castle Crashers
L4D/L4D2
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Torchlight II
Borderlands franchise

EDIT: Oh, also, I meant to ask your guys' opinions on Alan Wake. Is it jumpscare-heavy? I like suspense and psychological horror but I dislike jumpscares.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

To broke for purchasing but that price for Cities Skyline

[Arcanum]

I mean, y'all have every right to feel however you may feel subjectively about this sale, but objectively speaking it's the best set of deals I've seen Steam push forward in the aggregate in the past couple years, for basically every title except a few released in the past four or so months.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply I was echoing that the sale was a disappointment. Just sharing that I'm sad none of the games I want are in a price range I want.

Which really is my own fault, cause I have way too many goddamn games thanks to Steam sales.

I'm in the market for multiplayer co-op games I can play with my sister. Has anyone played Warhammer: Vermintide? My sister's not a big fan of the fantasy genre (with the exception of Torchlight Ii), but it looks very L4D-ish and we both liked L4D. Aside from Vermintide, can anyone suggest multiplayer games for us to try?

I've played it quite a bit. It's a pretty good game but it does have its flaws, the biggest of which for me is the RNG loot drops as I'm not a fan of the grind required to get the higher tier weapons (although to be fair you only need the higher tier weapons to do higher difficulties, you can play through the game on Normal or Hard with whites and greens).

I'll write a more detailed review of it tomorrow. Right now I'm tired and running off 4 hours of sleep so my brain don't think good at the moment and I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts into a good critical analysis.

But a game I can definitely recommend that you might like is:

Earth Defense Force 4.1 - You choose one of four classes (with completely unique play styles) and fight off massive swarms of giant insects invading earth. But what's that? The insects aren't the only threat? Giant robots have launched an assault from their moon base! And they brought Godzilla a legally-distinct-from-godzilla-kaiju! And you're not even at the halfway point of the game!

[MuMu]

I mean, y'all have every right to feel however you may feel subjectively about this sale, but objectively speaking it's the best set of deals I've seen Steam push forward in the aggregate in the past couple years, for basically every title except a few released in the past four or so months.

We're just commenting on your comments, mate. We're all gonna spend some dosh on this sale no matter what people say.


co-op games

I don't have a lot of coop games because I have no friends but I took a quick look at the Steam Store selections using the "Co-Op" tag and picked some popular ones:

•Overcooked (http://store.steampowered.com/app/448510/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_2) is this year's coop gem that pretty much every gaming news site is raving about.

•Helldivers (http://store.steampowered.com/app/394510/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_3) is a twin stick shooter with frantic action

•Guacamelee! whatever edition (http://store.steampowered.com/app/275390/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_3) is a pretty great metroidvania with some cool combat moves and a True Ending that's fucking annoying to achieve

•Lego Marvel (http://store.steampowered.com/app/249130/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_7) or Lego Batman (http://store.steampowered.com/app/313690/) for some light superheroing. They're cameo heavy with loads of characters but just remember they are very clearly intended for younger audiences so they're pretty easy to beat

•Metal Slug 3 or any other of this series (http://store.steampowered.com/app/250180/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_8); you're pretty much Hitler if you don't like this

•Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (http://store.steampowered.com/app/35130/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_11) is a classic Tomb Raider in a modern engine with coop.

•Depth (http://store.steampowered.com/app/274940/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_5) is L4D but with sharks

•Monaco (http://store.steampowered.com/app/113020/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_7) is the game where you pretend you're good at stealth but then screws everything up and tries to escape causing as much damage as possible

[Malek]

My friends and I had some fun with Iron Brigade (http://store.steampowered.com/app/115120/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1)
It's a bit like Orcs must die, but less goofy traps and more guns and robots and such. Only issue was that we didn't always have the most stable connection when playing co-op, dunno whether that's due to the game or our internet.

[MuMu]

I don't know if this is a new thing but I'm only noticing it this year; Bundles are a good way to complete a series if you already have some of the games in them. For example, I wanted to get Dangaronpa 2 in this sale. There is a bundle with 1+2 in it, with a bigger discount than the individual games but since I already own 1 it gets eliminated from the package and I get the bigger discount only for 2. Sure, this saved me only 5 bucks, but that's something.

Another thing, but I don't have any proof on this one, is that I think you also get progressive discounts the more games from a bundle you have. Earlier this year there was a big 2K sale and they had a Borderlands bundle. Since I already own 1 and 2, the only game available for me was The Pre-Sequel, which got a ridiculous, over 90% discount, making the price around 7BRL - Around 2,50 USD? - and the only reason I'd ever buy that game too.

Anyway, check store pages throughly for bundles and get even better discounts, sometimes, maybe.

[Flarecobra]

Well, Steam is currentally down, much to the relief of wallets, and the iration of gamers.

[mauve]

The incredible deals were too fantastic. The internet just couldn't handle it.

I always feel sorry for the Valve employees who have to troubleshoot and deal with the resulting whiny gamers over the holidays. That's gotta suck.

---------- Post added at 08:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------

I decided I wasn't going to buy much this sale because I'm busy with Fallout 4. I was just going to buy some multiplayer things.

I did buy multiplayer things. I got Broforce and Helldivers. But then Oxenfree showed up in my queue and it looked really interesting, and then Arkham Knight was only $6. So now I own those too.

[MuMu]

Who wants some BUNDLE TRASH? :dance:

Long story short, I got some spare games from diverse bundles that I usually trade for other stuff but, since this is the Season of Giving™, I'll let any of you pick and take whatever. Just post in this thread specifying what you want. I don't expect people to rush in for these shitty games but I'd like to mantain some order. Anyway, here's the unwanted orphans:

1.https://i.imgur.com/x8gfLEW.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/242820/?snr=1_7_15__13) 2.https://i.imgur.com/GYRrMN4.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/231720/?snr=1_7_15__13)
4.https://i.imgur.com/i9ZWRDQ.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/341440/?snr=1_7_15__13) 5.https://i.imgur.com/Ml8sZSs.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/285440/?snr=1_7_15__13) 6.https://i.imgur.com/OAGBSJa.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/348360/?snr=1_7_15__13)
7.https://i.imgur.com/UvuS81P.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/209690/?snr=1_7_15__13) 8.https://i.imgur.com/kC9M8h2.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/44200/?snr=1_7_15__13) 9.https://i.imgur.com/uaUow04.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/201040/?snr=1_7_15__13)
10.https://i.imgur.com/uEbNlH1.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/255370/) 11.https://i.imgur.com/0KDOw8a.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/294000/?snr=1_7_15__13) 12.https://i.imgur.com/hSENc3w.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/105800/?snr=1_7_15__13)
14.https://i.imgur.com/KFSegRW.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/225160/?snr=1_7_15__13)
16.https://i.imgur.com/lVqUDYl.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/528660/?snr=1_7_15__13) 17.https://i.imgur.com/stnR2IK.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/32400/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1) 18.https://i.imgur.com/sZ6AitL.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/32380/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1)
19.https://i.imgur.com/Scw9bNh.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/32350/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1) 21.https://i.imgur.com/xEBFw26.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/252310/?snr=1_7_15__13)
22.https://i.imgur.com/rCyBZhn.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/207750/?snr=1_7_15__13) 23.https://i.imgur.com/UjlVCo5.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/38700/?snr=1_7_15__13) 24.https://i.imgur.com/UE21Pjz.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/342360/?snr=1_7_15__13)
25.https://i.imgur.com/Tz4fNQ9.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/258890/?snr=1_7_15__13) 26.https://i.imgur.com/X4Vi8wS.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/306660/?snr=1_7_15__13) 27.https://i.imgur.com/HIiQcVD.jpg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/262150/?snr=1_7_15__13)

EDIT:
Menarker has chosen 20.Sword of Asumi
_phil has chosen 3.Ballpoint Universe
13. Shadow Man was removed
15. Sid Meier Pirates! was removed

[Gregness]

I don't expect people to rush in for these shitty games...

Man, you've got Jedi Knight in there. I will cut you.

[MuMu]

Well, ok, the Star Wars, Shadow Warrior and Pirates aren't shitty and Shadow Man is dubious - Surely is the weirdest collectathon I've played - but everyone in the world has them.

[Flarecobra]

The Dark Forces games are not shitty by any means. Dated, mayhaps. But not shitty.

[Menarker]

Sword of Asumi for me please?

[phil_]

Could I get Ballpoint Universe? I think it works on Linux at this point.

[MuMu]

Checking my stuff, it's kinda funny that the last PM I've received was also from Menarker from the last time I did free game thingies.

Anyway, those two are sent, anyone else feel free to gobble up the rest. ::V:

[Flarecobra]

Well, I see I was gifted Tabletop Simulator... time to learn how to work it.

[MuMu]

Anyone would vote against buying any of these?

http://i.imgur.com/0RrXL09.png

Life is Strange is a 100% buy even though I heard it falls a bit apart in the last episode.

Hyper Light Drifter looks sweet as hell and the only thing I have against getting it is that it'll probably be cheaper in the mid2017 sale which is kinda of a silly con.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered is the one I have the most doubts but I don't think anyone here will vote against it given how big of a classic it is; I just don't know if it will still be good in 2017. Note: I've never played Day of the Tentacle before.

I'll probably still buy all three but I'd like to hear some thoughts.

[BB]

Hyper Light Drifter looks sweet as hell and the only thing I have against getting it is that it'll probably be cheaper in the mid2017 sale which is kinda of a silly con.

It's only a silly con if you're likely to play it before then. If it's going to go on a "I'll get to it one day" backlog and stay there for another three years, hold onto your $$$!

[MuMu]

Mass Effect 2 is the current freebie on Origin which would be a banger if literally everyone didn't play ME2 already. I'll add it to my account just for shiggles.

[MuMu]

Dirt Showdown is free at the Humble Store (https://www.humblebundle.com/store) for a limited time.

[MuMu]

The original XCOM is FREE at the Humble Store (https://www.humblebundle.com/store/xcom-ufo-defense-free-game) for a limited time.

[Flarecobra]

And now an icon has passed away.

Masaya Nakamura, founder of Namco, has died on 22 Jan. (http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/pac-man-pioneer-masaya-nakamura-founder-of-namco-dead-at-96-1201973117/)

[MuMu]

Sang-Froid - the cool ass canadian defense game - is FREE now (http://store.steampowered.com/app/227220) for some reason that I don't know.

[Solid Snake]

Controversial Opinions of the Day: The Mass Effect series, which I'm replaying now, hasn't aged well.
As a whole, the Dragon Age series has aged better, and that's even including Origins, which is the worst in the series and one of the worst games Bioware's released.

Other games released around the time Mass Effect came out that have aged well: Just Cause 2, Valkyria Chronicles, MGR Revengeance, and the PS3 cel-shaded Prince of Persia. Revengeance in particular is eerie to play now. How did you know what was going to happen in America, Platinum? How did you know?!?!?!

[Arcanum]

Controversial Opinions of the Day: The Mass Effect series, which I'm replaying now, hasn't aged well.

You're being sarcastic about that being a controversial opinion, right?

Because OH BOY is ME1 clunky as all hell. I always viewed ME1 through rose-tinted glasses, but when I tried to replay it a year ago those glasses were shattered instantly. Anyone who claims ME1 has aged well simply hasn't played the game recently.

But anyway, I do need to clarify that while ME1 was released in 2007, and the other titles you mentioned were released around that time, Metal Gear Rising was released in 2013 (i.e. not exactly a fair comparison).

[Flarecobra]

Yeah, I've never played the Mass Effect games, and to be honest, as time goes on, I still have no desire to play it.

[Solid Snake]

But anyway, I do need to clarify that while ME1 was released in 2007, and the other titles you mentioned were released around that time, Metal Gear Rising was released in 2013 (i.e. not exactly a fair comparison).

I'm talking about the Mass Effect series as a whole, which includes two games that came after the first Mass Effect.
Its clunky controls aside, the first ME arguably actually aged more gracefully than 2 or 3 in terms of my enjoyment of its characters / story and the sense of wonder it instilled that the sequels conveniently forgot. (Random planetary exploration with the Mako, of all things, is an underrated part of the ME1 experience.)

Comparing a PS3-era series to other PS3 titles seems pretty viable to me.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

You know, it was my goal to one day flip the Mako over completely

[Krylo]

Origins, which is the worst in the series and one of the worst games Bioware's released.

I will cut you.

[Solid Snake]

I will cut you.

C'mon man, everyone knows DA2 and Inquisition were both infinity times better than Origins and all its LOTR ripoff cliches.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

C'mon man, everyone knows DA2 and Inquisition were both infinity times better than Origins and all its LOTR ripoff cliches.

I disagree in the cliche bit as BioWare turned several tropes on their heads

[Arcanum]

I'm talking about the Mass Effect series as a whole, which includes two games that came after the first Mass Effect.

Sorry, the way you worded it before for some reason made me think you had recently started replaying it and still on ME1. My bad.

Its clunky controls aside, the first ME arguably actually aged more gracefully than 2 or 3 in terms of my enjoyment of its characters / story and the sense of wonder it instilled that the sequels conveniently forgot. (Random planetary exploration with the Mako, of all things, is an underrated part of the ME1 experience.)

This is honestly the first time I've seen someone talk about a video game ageing poorly/well while referring to its writing. To me (and a few friends I asked because your post kind of threw me for a loop and I couldn't quite articulate why yesterday) discussing how a game has aged is in reference to the game's technical aspects, be it graphics, controls, mechanics, design, etc. There's tangible, rapid advancement in the field all the time so it becomes quite noticeable when a game did a great or terrible job with the technology they had at their disposal.

Meanwhile, to me at least, writing doesn't really age, it's just you that has aged, your expectations of writing in games changing over time. If I read an old teen novel that I used to love and found it lacking, I wouldn't say the novel has aged poorly I would just say that I've grown out of it. Someone who is relatively new to reading novels might still enjoy it just as much as I did back then.

Which is the same thing with video game writing. Someone relatively new to games will probably still be blown away by Mass Effect's writing. But if that same person had played even a small handful of modern games then they will most likely be bothered by its controls, loading elevators, or excessive texture pop in.

Anyway that's my elaborate explanation on my mentality that hopefully explains my previous post and the apparent miscommunication.

Comparing a PS3-era series to other PS3 titles seems pretty viable to me.

Comparing games across a 9 year life cycle is not viable at all. Especially considering how difficult it was for developers to get used to making games on the PS3's cell architecture. Look up early interviews with developers and you will find them complaining about the PS3's cell processor.

Even ignoring that, we're talking about nine years. That's a lot of time in the video game world. The amount of technological advancements, the lessons learned through success and failure of making games, teams growing in size, hell even 4 years results in a huge change in quality for games.

Let's go back to Mass Effect 1 versus Metal Gear Rising.

ME1 was released in 2007, and was Bioware's first x360 game, as well as their first game using Unreal Engine 3. So not only were they learning how to make a game for a new console that was a massive leap forward from the previous generation, they were using a new engine as well.

MGR was released in 2013 and was Platinum's fourth console game that generation, having already released Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Anarchy Reigns. The studio was very familiar with making games for that generation of consoles.

It's not fair to compare those two scenarios at all.

Saying that it's okay to compare PS3-era titles to other titles of that generation is saying that it's okay to compare Resistance: Fall of Man to The Last of Us, when in reality it is not fair at all to compare a launch title to one that came out at the end of the PS3's life cycle.

[Solid Snake]

This is honestly the first time I've seen someone talk about a video game ageing poorly/well while referring to its writing. To me (and a few friends I asked because your post kind of threw me for a loop and I couldn't quite articulate why yesterday) discussing how a game has aged is in reference to the game's technical aspects, be it graphics, controls, mechanics, design, etc. There's tangible, rapid advancement in the field all the time so it becomes quite noticeable when a game did a great or terrible job with the technology they had at their disposal.

Meanwhile, to me at least, writing doesn't really age, it's just you that has aged, your expectations of writing in games changing over time.

I understand your distinction, I just believe that writing can age a bit.
Xenogears is another example of a game I once considered to have great writing that's aged fairly poorly for me.
But yes, I suppose you could say that I 'aged out' of Mass Effect's writing. But I also think that the writing and story arcs in games have matured (see: Witcher 3) to a point where it's hard to go back to some of this really cliched, really hamfisted generic dialogue. Also, I think games are evolving to include more complexities than just the heroic tropes that Shepard so embodies -- see the difference between KOTOR and DA Inquisition on that front and you'll realize even Bioware's growing out of bad writing habits.

(And I'll always fondly love KOTOR on some nostalgic level, mind you. It's just another example of a story that's aged poorly with me. Whereas -- here's a counter-example -- Chrono Trigger and Suikoden 2 were perfect stories for me then and now, and have aged gracefully. And KOTOR 2 is a great example of a game I actually didn't appreciate when it was first released, it initially felt like a disappointment compared to KOTOR, but I've grown to appreciate the nuances of its story more and more over time.)

It's worth noting that this isn't just about tropes, it's about recognizing quality of storytelling, which has either changed as a byproduct of me getting older or has changed due to cultural forces influencing expectations or...something. But throughout me replaying the ME series I've been surprised at how the actual lack of quality of the writing contradicted with my nostalgic memories of said events -- it was so much more badass in my mind.

There's no real objective standard for this so I may just be talkin' out of my ass, or trying to rationalize a general sense of disappointment. There are games I really enjoy replaying because they hold up well over time (for all its generic tropes, Valkyria Chronicles, which I recently replayed on PS4 when the Remaster was released, is a great example of a game I enjoyed every bit as much the second time around.) And then there are games like the Mass Effect series, where I almost wish I didn't replay them because my memories of my playthroughs on release were so much better untainted, and now I've ruined those memories by experiencing a playthrough again with a more critical perspective.


Let's go back to Mass Effect 1 versus Metal Gear Rising.

Yeah, you're misconstruing my point again. When I'm talking about comparing the Mass Effect series to PS3-era titles, I'm assuming (and this is unstated, so I don't blame you for misunderstanding) that while I'm comparing the stories of those games throughout I'm comparing everything technical with the game in the ME series that's closest to the release of the other title. So I might compare ME1 to other 2007 releases or releases close to that timetable (I think MGS4 would a better fit there than Rising), whereas I'd compare ME3 to MGR.

My reasoning behind it being fair to compare Mass Effect as a series to any PS3-era title is that the ME trilogy spans pretty much the totality of the PS3's lifespan -- so you have ME1 as the direct comparison for the early titles, ME2 for the mid-lifespan titles and ME3 for the late titles. You can pick any PS3 era game and there's a Mass Effect released close to it.

And my point with ME as a series is that each game in the series feels like it's aged poorly in every respect compared to many contemporaneous releases. I'd much rather replay MGS4 than replay ME1. And, I'd much rather replay MGR than replay ME3.

Sadly, having started this ME replay experience and invested enough time into it to make it into ME3, I gotta see this through to the end now because I'm a completionist.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Honestly, I do not think that the graphics for DA1 has aged well. When I look at the characters, specifically their hair, they look like pieces of wood placed on the head.

[MuMu]

The Humble FREEDOM Bundle is a seriously good deal (https://www.humblebundle.com/freedom) - if you're not still suffering from the damages from the X-mas Sale, that is.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

The Humble FREEDOM Bundle is a seriously good deal (https://www.humblebundle.com/freedom) - if you're not still suffering from the damages from the X-mas Sale, that is.

I have everything from that bundle and have no money to spend, otherwise I would get it and hand it out to you friends

[MuMu]

The Humble FREEDOM Bundle was such a smash that a lot of games were sold out by today. However, they've restocked some of the keys and are selling them again. Check it out just in case you missed it the first time.

[Menarker]

Alright! I got the bundle, but I happen to have a pair of games on that bundle that I already own!

Guacamelee! Gold Edition
System Shock Pack

So, I'm handing them out (first come first serve) to whoever wants them. Just respond here and I'll PM with key link.

Would be poetic if Mumu got them though, since the last two times he handed out game keys, I took one. =3

[rpgdemon]

I'll take System Shock, if you're giving them away.

---------- Post added at 05:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 PM ----------

Scratch that, I just saw the bundle.

[MuMu]

Would be poetic if Mumu got them though, since the last two times he handed out game keys, I took one. =3

I also do have them, but thanks for considering. :)

[MuMu]

Steam decided I was worthy of a gift so it gave me a coupon of 15% for Rosenkreuzstilette (http://store.steampowered.com/app/564150/) which seems to be some sort of very anime Megaman. The coupon is valid until the 27th so if anyone wants it, post here with your Steam account or PM me if you're ashamed to share your backlog with the public.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Anyone here been playing Horizon; Zero Dawn at all? I have. It's fun. Just took down my first mecha-T.rex with bows and arrows and explosive tripwires. Challenging fight, very intense cat and mouse game. It's good.

[Arcanum]

I had to choose between Zelda and Horizon. I chose Zelda. So far I do not regret this choice. I do really want to play Horizon at some point though.

[Solid Snake]

IT'S OUT IT'S OUT IT'S FINALLY HERE

Y'all can have your stupid Horizons and your wretched Zeldas and your infernal Mass Effects, Snake's Beloved Game of 2017 has arrived at last

(I will eventually own all three of those games too, so I shouldn't be hatin')

[MuMu]

GOG.com Spring Sale is live (https://www.gog.com/) and no, there aren't any Niers or Horizons here but you might get a Saboteur? Maybe a Theme Hospital? Who knows.

[Gregness]

25% off Tyranny ain't bad, actually.... Gaming budget's looking pretty thin. Must... Resist....

[Arcanum]

Beat Zelda. Game is fantastic. I may or may not have put way too much time into it over the past 5 days.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to catch up on my sleep and neglected responsibilities.

[MuMu]

I don't know if I missed some sort of notification but there is a XSEED catalogue sale going on at Steam right now (http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=XSEED%20Games); if you ever wanted to try Ys, Trails or - god forbid- Senran Kagura, now's a good time.

I'll probably nab Xanadu Next, it seems to be an interesting Ys-like.

[Flarecobra]

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-internet-is-brutally-mocking-mass-effect-andromedas-animations/


...Wow, those are some.... interesting walk cycles there.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Beat Zelda. Game is fantastic. I may or may not have put way too much time into it over the past 5 days.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to catch up on my sleep and neglected responsibilities.

Yeah I feel the same after finishing Horizon. I had 7 days off work just after it came out so I pretty much just smashed through it for like 2 weeks solid. Even platinumed. Now I have nothing to fill the void and my lack of sleep is catching up to me.

[MuMu]

The Square Enix Spring Surprise Box is LIVE until the 29th (https://store.na.square-enix.com/product/441476/spring-surprise-box-2017-pc-download). For 10$ you get a selection of 5 secret SE games and some coupons. It's not a bad deal as all of the previous Boxes had some good games in it; I'm considering it, given how disappointing this week's Humble Bundle was.

[MuMu]

Bundle Stars is giving away some key for Megabyte Punch (http://www.pcgamer.com/win-a-free-steam-key-for-megabyte-punch-100000-available/) which frankly I thought was a pretty lame game and didn't get very far into but if you're willing to do some social media bullshit for it, go ahead.

[Nique]

I bought Mass Effect: Andromeda. Haven't started yet but have begun catching wind of some pretty terrible reviews. How is it possible for this to look worse than the last gen???

[phil_]

Steam is having an animu sale this weekend. (http://store.steampowered.com/sale/anime-weekend-sale/) I already bought an animu. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/333250/?snr=1_7_7_204_150_2) It was fun but badly needs a level editor (done in two hours), as well as an option to mute the voices because wow they're bad. Still, Forward to the Sky isn't terrible for a couple bucks. I might see how fast I can run it, for giggles.

More relevantly, Skullgirls is heavily discounted, if there's anyone who hasn't pulled that trigger yet who wants to do so.

[MuMu]

The first Overlord is FREE on the Codemasters store (https://store.codemasters.com/us/product/286559/overlord). It's an edgy Pikmin, if you're into that sort of thing.

Also Titanfall 2 has a free weekend and is 50% at the Origina store.

[phil_]

I gots a Steam coupon for 40% off Inside. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/agecheck#) It's some nonsense by them folks what made Limbo, and it's Windows only. Anyone want it? It expires on the 17th.

[MuMu]

Trails In The Sky 3rd coming to PC in May, Trails of Cold Steel on summer, Cold Steel 2 "someday" (www.pcgamer.com/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-the-3rd-is-coming-in-may-trails-of-cold-steel-to-follow/)

And I'm not even done with Sky 1...

[Solid Snake]

Having played Cold Steel 1 and 2 on the Vita / PS3, I can strongly recommend them both, particularly since it sounds like they're now actually taking advantage of the PC release to fully voice Rean's lines.

It's great to compare and contrast the Cold Steel titles with Persona 5 as Cold Steel borrows a lot of the Persona formula (a protagonist in high school, maintaining social links, etc.) but the women in Cold Steel just have so much more agency and feel better fleshed out as independent, autonomous characters with their own unique perspectives and agendas. That's true of the entire cast, for the record (the men are generally much better written as well) but I really just feel like Cold Steel's writers could teach Atlus a thing or two on writing believable and respectful romances among likable and supportive characters who never descend to douchebaggery for cheap laughs. The way supporting characters on the team butt heads and at times undermine each other for personal or political gain reminds me, if anything, more of Bioware's approach to adversarial character development in games like Dragon Age Inquisition.

The plot's a bit slow (the first half of the entirety of the first game crawls at a snail's pace) but once shit hits the fan and everything picks up, it gets exciting in a hurry. The battle system is a pretty standard combination of turn-based elements you've seen before in the Tales and Final Fantasy series but it's executed well. And the music is exquisite -- maybe not quite on the level of Persona 5's when it comes to recent JRPG releases (and certainly leagues below NieR's) but still among the better OSTs I've heard in gaming over the past decade.

[Tev]

I just picked up Don't Starve, Pocket Edition for iOS. I'm loving this game, though I am a little sad that I am only just now finding out about it. Most of the people I want to geek out with about it played it on Steam a year or more ago.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Finished Final Fantasy XV last night. I cried at the ending

[Ryong]

I've been sort of finally working on my backlog; I grabbed Nier Automata on launch and beat it 100% as fast as I could, then went back to playing Tales of Berseria, which I also finished now. I've also been playing a lot of Sword Art Online Hollow Realization on the vita because there was a big update and I managed to get a lot of stuff done in it.

Now for my super great review of Tales of Berseria:

It's good. It takes a bit to really get going and the group's motivation for staying together early on don't exactly work, but eventually that sorts itself out and it's all good. The combat can be a bit complicated with the absurd amount of artes and how each arte has an enemy category that it's strong against and an element ( or two ), but some enemies you can't really exploit their weaknesses at all with certain characters - from what I recall, Velvet gets a single arte strong against Armored enemies and it's earth elemental, so if you fight an Armored enemy that's strong against Earth, you can't exploit it its type weakness with Velvet.

The bad parts...Velvet's outfit is atrocious; I ended up using her prologue outfit for most of the game because of it.
The music is rather bland and nothing really stands out.
Something about the game being the first with an actual female protagonist but then also be about Reason vs Emotions and then having the big bad be a stoic guy fighting a berserking girl who wants to hellmurder him strikes me as one step forward, one step backwards.

[MuMu]

Blizzard announced a while ago that the classic Starcraft would get a remaster, hd textures, 4k resolution, the whole deal. But that's old news; what's important now is that the original version of both Starcraft and Brood War are now FREE (https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424), just download and play as much as you wish.

[mauve]

Been busy playing Payload Mann vs Machi-- I mean, Overwatch: Uprising.

Jokes aside, I'm really enjoying it. It's a lot of fun to play, and it gives the characters a chance to shine as characters in ways you can't always get in the regular Overwatch modes. Even though I know this is just a short-time event, I wish there were more maps: I really like the cooperative 4-player team element, but the single King's Row map gets boring after a while. I hope Blizzard decides to do more of these in the future.

[Arcanum]

Been busy playing Payload Mann vs Machi-- I mean, Overwatch: Uprising.

Jokes aside, I'm really enjoying it. It's a lot of fun to play, and it gives the characters a chance to shine as characters in ways you can't always get in the regular Overwatch modes. Even though I know this is just a short-time event, I wish there were more maps: I really like the cooperative 4-player team element, but the single King's Row map gets boring after a while. I hope Blizzard decides to do more of these in the future.

They did a horde mode thing before for Halloween where you had to protect a castle door from hordes of Junkenstein's robots (as well as from a few enemy heroes that show up). So Uprising has shown they aren't afraid to make more PvE modes, and Uprising is way more involved than the Halloween event. I really hope we get another horde event (best case scenario would be a full blown mode, like how CTF got its own thing) before Halloween rolls around.

[MuMu]

Saints Row 2 is FREE for 48 hours at GOG (https://www.gog.com/game/saints_row_2)

I couldn't ever advise to buy this game on PC as it is a pretty shoddy port that requires some modding - more specifically the Gentleman Of The Row Mod - and prayer to properly work but free is free

[MuMu]

Addendum:Saints Row 2 is also FREE ON STEAM FOR A LIMITED TIME (http://store.steampowered.com/app/9480/) get it get it get it

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Got Breath of the Wild and OH MY FUCKING GOD LINK IS SO GODDAMN HOT!

[phil_]

Got Breath of the Wild and OH MY FUCKING GOD LINK IS SO GODDAMN HOT!A friend loaned me his Wii-U and I'm playing Zelda more than School Idol Festival. I haven't found any idols but otherwise it is amazing and pretty much all I think about.

Like, "I wonder what's over in this secluded corner of the map," is one of my main motivations in these kinds of games and there are so many secluded corners.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Beat Calamity Ganon but far from finished with the game. Breath of the Wild is a fucking good game. Like, when you are done you want a smoke after and bask in its greatness. You feel amazing with this game. The stakes in this have escalated to new heights. Skyward Sword, while a decent game, could never match what this game did.

[Nikose Tyris]

I'm casually rounding out my Hyrule Compendium. Arrows suck.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

I'm casually rounding out my Hyrule Compendium. Arrows suck.

I need to start doing that.

[phil_]

I can't even be bothered to start a sarcastically titled E3 thread for this year's E3. Is there anything exciting? Does anyone care about Xbone controller chargers? Should I call in sick to watch Nintendo for thirty minutes tomorrow morning?

[Arcanum]

A few personal highlights:

There was some more Sea of Thieves footage (I'm unreasonably excited for this game).

ArcSys are making a 2.5D DBZ fighting game (same art style / engine as Guilty Gear Xrd).

Guy/team who made Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is making a new game called A Way Out.

Co-op indie souls-like game with a really cool art style was announced and shown off, called Ashen.

State of Decay 2.

Bioware's new game Anthem looks visually impressive (though obviously prettied up for E3 purposes).

Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks fucking gorgeous. (https://youtu.be/2kPSl2vyu2Y) In other news, water is wet.

New Metro game announced.

Cuphead got a release date.

Life is Strange prequel confirmed.

Here's a handy reddit thread archiving all the significant announcements, thought it hasn't been updated yet with today's Ubisoft conference. (https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/6ghsfe/e3_2017_thread_archive/?st=j3unxw5s&sh=4b12f5b1)

[MuMu]

http://i.imgur.com/1bKSkl4.png

https://youtu.be/WqPT9hyPANs

And also games. New Wolfenstein, New Farcry(Yes, I'm the guy who buys Ubisoft games), New Metro, Dragon Ball Z by the Guilty Gear folks, Age of Empires HD, New Ori, New Middle-Earth and a Dishonored stand-alone where the plot is to assassinate the fucking Outsider


Semi related to E3: Origin is having a little sale and Titanfall 2 is at a great price. I've played 5 or 6 hours of it and it's absolutely fantastic, seriously get this if you want a fast paced balls to the walls thrilling FPS.

[BB]

As a PC/Nintendo type of person, I'm most interested in tomorrow morning's bounty. AoEHD was a surprise though, especially since AoE2 is by far the better game. Unless they backport all the QoL stuff 2 added, in which case it might earn a second look. That pirate game Microsoft showed off looked like fun too.

[mauve]

I am confused about Beyond Good and Evil 2. I mean, it looks pretty, but it honestly looks like they had an original IP and then slapped the BGaE name on it to cash in on nostalgia. Wildly different art style, theming and tone, different planet, different characters, presumably different villain... I'm not sure why this is being called a prequel. I mean, sure, there's a green-eyed woman (who I'm sure is Jade's mom or some other relative just so this can be called a prequel) and a pig-dude, but that seems to be where the connection ends. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting concept, but it's not what I would have expected. Again, it looks more like a new IP that they slapped the game name onto to garner attention.

[MuMu]

On highly unexpected news, both Monster Hunter World (http://www.pcgamer.com/monster-hunter-world-confirmed-for-pc) and .hack GU Remaster (http://gematsu.com/2017/06/hackg-u-last-recode-remaster-collection-announced-ps4-pc) are coming out for PC.

Also, a Metroid Prime on the Switch and a sidescroller on 3DS

in short,

https://i.imgur.com/ynSM8sS.gif

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

So.. nothing of actual interest then.

'Kay.

[BB]

Also, a Metroid Prime on the Switch and a sidescroller on 3DS


I can't BREATHE

[Steel Shadow]

Give me the Metroids now!

[Bard The 5th LW]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9r5hx47kxM&

Can we talk about how thoroughly bopping the Mario Odyssey trailer was?

[phil_]

Mario turning into a man with man-proportions has the potential for Octodad silliness. Outside the trailer, what I watched of people playing it kinda reminded me of Donkey Kong 64, which is honestly a bit worrying in the sense of "You missed a single banana on an out of the way jump somewhere, go find it in a giant world with no markers or clues because the other bananas were the clues and you already grabbed them." Or like blue coins in Mario Sunshine. I'm still going to get this game (as one does when possessed of a Nintendo), and I expect to have great fun until I drop it and everything else to play Xenoblade 2 because that thing looks like my (embarrassing anime) jam.

[BB]

The new Yoshi game is OFFENSIVELY CUTE and I strongly urge you to watch the Treehouse segment covering it so you can be as angrily charmed as I am:

7KHxN6NoKqM

[phil_]

It looks very dedicated to the conceit of everything being an arts and crafts project, and there was that one bit with the magnets where it actually mattered that this was a construction paper world on someone's kitchen table. But I don't see much to it other than Super Mario Bros Wii but with eggs. I'm sold on it as an artistic work, but not as something I'd want to spend $60 to play. I'd rent it if such facilities still existed in this world of clouds and steam.

[walkertexasdruid]

I have gone back to playing Dragon Age, the last franchise to truly keep my attention.