The Video Game Thread

[The Swanton825]

I agree, but for some reason RE:Rev2 is the only februari game I'm actually looking forward to, which is sad.

 

Luckily, with the new (small) Divinity:Original Sin patch, I can finally get to playing this game during januari.

 

As hard as it is to take seriously, I adore Resident Evil and all its cheese. Besides, what RE fan wouldn't be excited about Revelations 2? Barry AND Claire are finally making a comeback!

 

I just started Last of US on PS4. Voice acting, graphics, sound design, animation.... all fantastic. It's the combat I'm not crazy about. Stealth is obviously encouraged as you never have a ton of ammo, and melee weapons are unreliable as they break easily. Sooo.... I walk up to rooms with 20 guys in them and take an unreasonable amount of time sneaking up and doing the same exact stealth kill move. Over. And over. and over.

 

And then I get to watch a 20 minute movie as a reward...

 

That's nothing, I timed the ending cutscene and credits of MGS2, 90 minutes. I literally could have watched an action movie in that time.

[Blackman]

As hard as it is to take seriously, I adore Resident Evil and all its cheese.

 

I admit I chuckled during the Jill sandwich scene.

 

There's a new HumbleBundle in town, and it packs quite a 'force'ful punch. Too bad I recently purchased Jedi Knight III and they're giving it away for free now. Wish I got Jedi Knight II instead (as it's absent from the bundle for some reason) and still costs quite a pretty penny.

[The Swanton825]

I admit I chuckled during the Jill sandwich scene.

 

There's a new HumbleBundle in town, and it packs quite a 'force'ful punch. Too bad I recently purchased Jedi Knight III and they're giving it away for free now. Wish I got Jedi Knight II instead (as it's absent from the bundle for some reason) and still costs quite a pretty penny.

 

The line so hilariously bad, even the REmake couldn't keep it out entirely.

[Hive]

There's a new HumbleBundle in town, and it packs quite a 'force'ful punch. Too bad I recently purchased Jedi Knight III and they're giving it away for free now. Wish I got Jedi Knight II instead (as it's absent from the bundle for some reason) and still costs quite a pretty penny.

 

Well the page says that more games will be added, so I reckon there's a good chance JK II will show up as well. One can always hope.

 

Either way, this bundle is practically a steal. So much quality. Long time since HB last gave us this good a bundle, and even though I have some of them already, it's always nice getting them on Steam.

[Dawn]

As hard as it is to take seriously, I adore Resident Evil and all its cheese. Besides, what RE fan wouldn't be excited about Revelations 2? Barry AND Claire are finally making a comeback!

 

 

 

That's nothing, I timed the ending cutscene and credits of MGS2, 90 minutes. I literally could have watched an action movie in that time.

 

The Assassin's Creed games' credits are also a pain to watch.

[machinesxe]

So I got an Xone this year and it came with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag/Unity. I've been playing BF the last couple of nights and I guess I don't get the back story. I've never played a AC game in the past but it seems like they are imagination games and not you aren't actually in the world you are playing in... Weird. Anyone got some info?

[Celuwyn]

So I got an Xone this year and it came with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag/Unity. I've been playing BF the last couple of nights and I guess I don't get the back story. I've never played a AC game in the past but it seems like they are imagination games and not you aren't actually in the world you are playing in... Weird. Anyone got some info?

 

You are in the animus, who can scroll through the DNA of a person, to be in the skin of an ancestor

[D-Lyrium]

Yeah, the backstory to AC is basically "you are in a machine which can scan your DNA and allow you to relive the memories of your ancestors".

 

How he ended up with ancestors from Syria, Italy, native America, Wales, England and France is anyone's guess. But it's not as if anything else in Assassin's Creed makes any sense, so...

 

Games I've been playing lately:

 

Rimworld- Early Access, but still very playable. It's at that "doesn't crash every three seconds so now it's just a case of adding extra content and tweaking" stage of early access. Basically Dwarf Fortress with Prison Architect's graphics. Great fun, although probably worth waiting for more content if you're not gagging to play it.

 

Darkest Dungeon- Roguelike dungeoncrawler with Cthulhu elements and a very interesting and enjoyable combat system and great art style. What's there is very playable. When it's finished, this is going to be fantastic. The premise is that you're the descendant of a noble/aristocratic house, and have inherited the ruins of a long abandoned hamlet. You're trying to restore it to it's former glory, but it's not easy given that it's overrun with bandits, monsters, beasts and hellspawn due to your ancestor's... 'experiments'. Fantastic narration too, provided by the voice of said ancestor. Both in cutscenes and during general gameplay.

 

You take teams of 4 into dungeons to explore for lost artefacts and treasure (which you can use to upgrade various things, as you'd expect). The roster management is quite X-Com style; you have a roster of lots of heroes, and can take 4 on each mission. There are loads of different classes and each class has a wide variety of possible skills. Each character starts with 4 random skills from that set. So even two different characters with the same class will start off playing very different to each other. Even down to their role within the group. For example, I have two cleric-type dudes in my current party. One is right at the front as a melee character, because he's got 2 melee attacks, a heal which he can use in the front rank, and a self-buff he can use there too. My second cleric has one of the melee abilities, but 3 support abilities that he can use from the back. So he stays at the back and only moves forward when necessary.

 

Combat is turn-based, with characters acting in initiative order but with initiative re-rolled each turn.

 

Each characters' abilities can be used from certain 'positions' within the group, and can be used ON certain positions within the enemy group (or your own, in case of buffs/heals etc). The place each character stands in the group matters a lot, therefore (there are only ever 8 characters on-screen in each battle. Four on your side and 4 on the enemy's).

 

For instance, currently my Vestal (cleric) is in position 4 (right at the back), so can't use her Mace Bash ability as she needs to be one of the front two for that. Luckily this particular Vestal rolled 3 support abilities so is better off at the back anyway. My highwayman (rogue) is in position 3, so he can use any of his abilities because he's got a pistol and a dagger (his dagger ability can be used anywhere except the very back, and can target either of the front two on the opposing side). He's also got a leaping stab which will move him forward 1 slot. He's got a grapeshot blast which will hit ALL of the front 3, but do less damage to each.

 

The number of each slot is fixed, too. If you kill the front guy, everyone else shifts up, but then there are only 3 slots. For instance, my Plague Doctor's stun ability can only be used on the guy in slot 4. So if I've already killed someone, there won't be a slot 4, so he can't use it. That sounds like a terrible idea, but it's actually REALLY AWESOME. Seriously, I love this system.

 

The Cthulhu element comes in the form of Stress. Characters build up stress as they go through dungeons. When their stress bar fills up, they 'break' and randomly roll on a table to determine the effect (usually bad, like Paranoid (refuses to eat any food/receive healing) or Hopeless (will sometimes skip their turn as they're too scared to fight). My favourite so far is 'Abusive', where they'll randomly yell at their party-mates and cause the rest of the party to stress out more. Good stuff is possible but rare). Mostly it's stress that causes party wipes and Bad Things, rather than actually dying.

 

Characters get stressed out by, among other things: Taking critical hits, reading unsettling books (there are several items you find along the way. Treasure chests and stuff. Some have neat rewards, others... don't), special spells and abilities that do 'stress damage' instead of/as well as HP damage, and of course nearly dying (the death mechanic means that when they're reduced to 0 hitpoints they're at 'death's door', and there's a random chance they can die when they take further damage. It means that technically everyone is invincible, except when they're not. Makes for some tense moments. I've beaten a boss with three characters on zero hitpoints for the entire fight. But I've also lost two characters in one attack when neither of them started the turn at Death's Door. It's more fun than "you've lost all your HP, you're dead"). You also get stressed just by walking around the dungeons. It's scary in there! There's a light mechanic too. When it's darker, characters get stressed more easily and monsters have advantages. Vice versa when it's light. you make it lighter by lighting torches (consumables you buy/find in dungeons) or by casting some spells which cause light. Then it gradually gets darker again as you go, so you have to keep lighting torches (or risk the consequences of not).

 

Health regenerates after each mission, but stress doesn't. When you get back to down you can visit the tavern (to drink, have sex with whores or gamble) or the abbey (to pray, flagellate or... the other thing, I forget). Each of these relieves stress, and there are loads of character traits that prevent people from going to certain places, or give people a bonus to others (for example, my bounty hunter has a Love Interest, so will only ever go to the whorehouse, which causes problems if it's occupied, because he can't go anywhere else to relieve stress).

 

So it becomes a case of "do I take the stressed out but badass bounty hunter into this dungeon, or the n00b fresh off the wagon?"

 

If you're the sort of person who has to investigate every treasure chest/bookshelf, or kill every monster in a dungeon, you will die a lot.

 

If you're not that sort of person, you'll die slightly less.

 

The game is set up to expect a lot of characters to die (there is a pretty much unending supply of new characters you can hire, but only a few at a time and it's random as to the classes you'll get). But there are definitely rewards for the ones who survive a while.

 

If you're the type of person who gets frustrated by random events in games, you'll hate this. It's perfectly possible to get completely dicked over and outright killed by things that you couldn't have avoided just because you had a bad die roll and the AI had a few good ones. That kind of extreme situation is rare, but it happens. You're actively encouraged to abandon the quest and run away if you've got a lot of loot and the going starts getting tough. You lose all the loot if you wipe your party, but you keep anything you've found in the dungeon if you retreat (but you don't get the quest reward unless you've completed the quest). Quests are usually "explore 90% of the rooms" or "clear 100% of the enemies in rooms" (there are also random encounter enemies while travelling through corridors which don't count), stuff along those lines. So often you'll complete the quest with a room or two unexplored, and start thinking "...shall I leave now? Nah, I'll just see what's in th-OHGODI'MGOINGTODIEANDLOSEEVERYTHING".

 

But there's plenty of strategy involved too, it's not completely random.

 

I'm having a hell of a lot of fun with it.

 

Edit: I can't help feeling I gave a lot more love to one game than the other here. ¬_¬

[The Swanton825]

Yeah, the backstory to AC is basically "you are in a machine which can scan your DNA and allow you to relive the memories of your ancestors".

 

How he ended up with ancestors from Syria, Italy, native America, Wales, England and France is anyone's guess. But it's not as if anything else in Assassin's Creed makes any sense, so...

 

That's actually one of few points that aren't illogical. Altair banged an English chick and the resulting child could have had more than one kid, one of those kids goes to Italy, becomes part of the Auditore (think I spelled that right) family and Ezio was a known womanizer and more than likely had several children across Europe. And unless you didn't play AC3, you should know that Haytham, an Englishman, was Connor's father.

 

Edit: I can't help feeling I gave a lot more love to one game than the other here. ¬_¬

 

Well of course, Darkest Dungeon deserves to be talked about. It's a rare day when you have an Early Access game is perfectly playable right off the bat.

[Jaysin]

Out of boredom today, I purchased Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon off of PSN and holy crap, what a treat. It's like someone took Stallone or Arnie and threw them into a cyberpunk action movie from the 80s. I wish they'd do a full game like this instead of just a standalone side game. Some of the one-liners are getting old, but it's only because I'm ripping out a ton of hearts, so it's bound to repeat some.

 

Adding the neon to the bow made me laugh quite a bit and it's so far my favorite weapon to use. Which wasn't surprising to me since the bow was my favorite weapon in Far Cry 3. I'm going to be trying Far Cry 4 at some point soon, so hopefully this is at least enough to tide me over.

[denzil85]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="28397" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Out of boredom today, I purchased Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon off of PSN and holy crap, what a treat. It's like someone took Stallone or Arnie and threw them into a cyberpunk action movie from the 80s. I wish they'd do a full game like this instead of just a standalone side game. Some of the one-liners are getting old, but it's only because I'm ripping out a ton of hearts, so it's bound to repeat some. <p> </p><p> Adding the neon to the bow made me laugh quite a bit and it's so far my favorite weapon to use. Which wasn't surprising to me since the bow was my favorite weapon in Far Cry 3. I'm going to be trying Far Cry 4 at some point soon, so hopefully this is at least enough to tide me over.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Blood Dragon - so bad it's good! </p><p> </p><p> As you say, it's very much an 80s action movie in a game, and as long as you enjoy the one liners, cliches and so on from some of Arnie and Stallone's finest efforts, Blood Dragon is good fun!</p>

[Clarity]

<p>So Sony are still being d#cks so gonna sell up and move to Microsoft. </p><p> </p><p>

Anyone have any recommendations for XB1 games that arent FPS's</p>

[The Swanton825]

So Sony are still being d#cks so gonna sell up and move to Microsoft.

 

Anyone have any recommendations for XB1 games that arent FPS's

 

So, in retaliation for not getting $60 (or whatever it is in pounds) back, you're going to spend $400 on a system (if you don't get the Kinect) and however much on games and peripherals (I'm guessing since you have a son, you usually like to have more than one controller) made by a company that is just as, if not more crooked as Sony? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who swears by Windows and has used their products all his life, Microsoft would screw you over in the exact same way if your kid had bought Unity on the XbOne.

[Undertaker666]

Darkest Dungeon

 

*snip*

 

I'm having a hell of a lot of fun with it.

 

This ^, love it.

 

So Sony are still being d#cks so gonna sell up and move to Microsoft.

 

So, in retaliation for not getting $60 (or whatever it is in pounds) back, you're going to spend $400 on a system (if you don't get the Kinect) and however much on games and peripherals (I'm guessing since you have a son, you usually like to have more than one controller) made by a company that is just as, if not more crooked as Sony? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who swears by Windows and has used their products all his life, Microsoft would screw you over in the exact same way if your kid had bought Unity on the XbOne.

 

He may well spend all that money on an Xbox One, but selling off the PS4 along with the peripherals and games also means:

a) He'll have cash to put towards or outright buy the Xbox One, and

b) Sony don't get any money from the person/s he sells the stuff to.

 

I don't like Sony for two reasons:

1. They were a big part in Sega leaving the console race (even with Sega's own failings). It began with using sneaky marketing tactics to fool people into thinking the PS1 was a better deal than the Sega Saturn, when in truth most Saturns came with two controllers (unlike just the one with the PS1) and the Saturn had internal memory so there wasn't any need to buy extra memory cards like on the PS1.

2. This twisted tale starts not long after the 12 month warranty ended on my PS2. It had already started refusing to play dvd's for the previous few months, fair enough, "It still plays games" I said to myself. Then on one fateful day when England was in the grips of a massive heatwave combined with a bad day at the office, I came home after work to have a nice relaxing game of Smackdown. It paused on the first loading screen, I checked the disc - no scratches and restarted it. Then it went 1 second longer into the loading screen. Restarted the console again. Same thing. I then proceeded to stomp on and rip apart the console. The results of which are shown here, as my friend didn't believe me.

I refuse to buy any Sony hardware/software ever again, unless it's second hand so Sony do not get any money from me.

 

You mention Microsoft, but they've always been good to me and the following sticks out in my mind. I was one who purchased the original Xbox on (or maybe the day after) release for £400/$609.34 (current exchange rates) which was the console, two controllers and a few games (Halo was one, I forget what else there was). Later on they lowered the price of the console from £300/$457 to £199/$303.15 (current exchange rates again), then asked that if anyone who bought it within a certain period of the launch to send them proof of purchase and they'd gift you £125/$190.42 worth of games and/or peripherals. I was already very happy with my Xbox, then I was even more happy. (my original Xbox still works, by the way)

Microsoft are also giving away Windows 10 free to users of Windows 7 and 8 within the first year of launch, which they didn't have to do as people would buy it anyway.

[The Swanton825]

<p>I honestly didn't think of him selling the PS4. You couldn't get me at gunpoint to give up any of my game systems, no matter how mad I am at a company.</p><p> </p><p>

I'll concede the Sega point, the Dreamcast still remains my favorite system and it bugs me to this day that they could have made what, essentially, built the foundation for modern game consoles and deem the DC a failure. Especially when it finally started turning the corner in sales in the last year of its cycle. But your PS2 is pretty much the exact opposite of mine, hell, it took modding the system so it could play import games before my PS2 started malfunctioning and even that took a couple years to set in.</p><p> </p><p>

And as for Microsoft, I won't argue, they've been much better in the past couple years, but let's not forget that they built up so much consumer rage before the XbOne's launch (which they have recovered from well) that all Sony had to do was announce that the PS4 would play used games to get the E3 attendees pop. Their general thickheaded behavior going into that E3 pretty much solidified in my mind that they're just as predisposed to "profit before all else, even common sense" decisions as Sony is.</p>

[Clarity]

<p>I have 2 PS3s and a PS4</p><p> </p><p>

It's not the first issue I've had with Sony. When I got my PS4 I found out that I had 5 consoles associated with my account and I would have to deactivate one to activate another for games. It took them over a month to sort that out.</p><p> </p><p>

I will be leaving an offline ps3 in the child's room but the ps4 and other ps3 are going since I barely play them anyway.</p><p> </p><p>

I did have a 360 and I do miss how reliable Xbox live was and the things like Major Nelsons videos they always used to put up.</p><p> </p><p>

Undertaker is right as well. Sony won't get any money off the sale or from any more digital downloads (they got Nfl,Nhl,GTA, Farcry to name a few this year)</p><p> </p><p>

It may well be an extreme action but I'm pretty loyal to my brands (even typing this on a Sony Xperia phone) but in return if you d#ck me over expect hell</p>

[i effin rule]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Clarity" data-cite="Clarity" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="28397" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So Sony are still being d#cks so gonna sell up and move to Microsoft. <p> </p><p> Anyone have any recommendations for XB1 games that arent FPS's</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> If you enjoy EA games, I would highly recommend subscribing to EA Access. $30 a year, you get free games, discounts on EA Games/DLC, and you can play a full game for 6 hours 5 days before launch before you purchase.</p>

[Clarity]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="i effin rule" data-cite="i effin rule" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="28397" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If you enjoy EA games, I would highly recommend subscribing to EA Access. $30 a year, you get free games, discounts on EA Games/DLC, and you can play a full game for 6 hours 5 days before launch before you purchase.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Define free games</p>

[Blackman]

<p>Dreamcast was the bomb diggity. Way to get arcades to your home, and such potential for the future it had. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/frown.png.e6b571745a30fe6a6f2e918994141a47.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

And EA Access... You don't need it. I just tried Sims 4 for a couple of hours. Not much, but theoretically you could've spend an entire weekend playing the game for free. That's a great move by EA. </p><p> </p><p>

Clarity is right to suggest what you get aren't free games at all. It's the result of a financial transaction, so that's not free, and on top of that they are only free for a limited time, leaving you with no game or other form of residue of your 30€ spend a year other than "all the fun you've had". Not free.</p><p> </p><p>

"When a game is added to the Vault, EA has pledged that it will not be removed at a later date.[3] However, the Terms of Service do state that EA does retain the right to remove titles with 30 days' notice" (from wikipedia)</p><p> </p><p>

Funny how they also go and redefine "demo" for something that is clearly a demo in practice ànd in theory. So you get some games you can play and can play demos. I'd say just take your 30 euros and buy FIFA15. That said, I don't want to blast the deal. For a number of people, this is sufficient as they don't care about ownership etc. and good for them. Quite frankly, EA games are limited in use anyway. Who still plays FIFA02?</p>

[moon_lit_tears]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="i effin rule" data-cite="i effin rule" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="28397" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If you enjoy EA games, I would highly recommend subscribing to EA Access. $30 a year, you get free games, discounts on EA Games/DLC, and you can play a full game for 6 hours 5 days before launch before you purchase.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> If he hates Sony, going to EA won't be much better......</p>

[Clarity]

Dreamcast was the bomb diggity. Way to get arcades to your home, and such potential for the future it had.

 

And EA Access... You don't need it. I just tried Sims 4 for a couple of hours. Not much, but theoretically you could've spend an entire weekend playing the game for free. That's a great move by EA.

 

Clarity is right to suggest what you get aren't free games at all. It's the result of a financial transaction, so that's not free, and on top of that they are only free for a limited time, leaving you with no game or other form of residue of your 30€ spend a year other than "all the fun you've had". Not free.

 

"When a game is added to the Vault, EA has pledged that it will not be removed at a later date.[3] However, the Terms of Service do state that EA does retain the right to remove titles with 30 days' notice" (from wikipedia)

 

Funny how they also go and redefine "demo" for something that is clearly a demo in practice ànd in theory. So you get some games you can play and can play demos. I'd say just take your 30 euros and buy FIFA15. That said, I don't want to blast the deal. For a number of people, this is sufficient as they don't care about ownership etc. and good for them. Quite frankly, EA games are limited in use anyway. Who still plays FIFA02?

 

Thats sorta what I was wondering.. I had the feeling it would be very much like a PS+ sub where you own the games for however long you keep up your sub for..

 

I was also wondering on the quality.. Do they offer things like FIFA15 and Battlefield 4 or is it older stuff like Golf or a 2012/13 game

[Blackman]

I think it's the stuff they simply don't sell anymore at a decent price, like previous year's FIFA. Decent games, but no longer profitable. Or battlefield 3 / sims 3 and stuff.

[Clarity]

I did have a look at their xb1 vault. Looks like it's just their launch titles. Will probably give that a miss

[Blackman]

Heard EA MMA would be joining the line-up, which would make things somewhat interesting (if I had a next-gen console, but I don't).

[Clarity]

Heard EA MMA would be joining the line-up, which would make things somewhat interesting (if I had a next-gen console, but I don't).

 

Its UFC, Battlefield 4, Madden 25, FIFA14, Peggle 2, Need For Speed Rivals and Plants Vs Zombies GW

 

Its a pretty rubbish selection. PvZ was given away for free recently, the sports games are 360 ports and Battlefield is still a buggy mess i've heard