The Video Game Thread

[D-Lyrium]

I'm really enjoying Blood Bowl 2 on xbox 1. Played it quite a bit today. The controls work very well. The presentation is solid. As a total newb I'm enjoying the campaign system but it really is basically just one long tutorial. I could see how veteran players would be annoyed by it. Overall I'm still learning but it's s fun game.

 

Outside of the 90s midi background music it's a very solid title.

 

I'm stuck on a mission int he campaign... I don't know maybe I missed something. But literally like my guys are no where near the ball and go for advantageous blocks yet still keep getting knocked down no matter what. And how the eff do turnovers work? Are they random? My guy will be no where near the ball and go for a block with a buddy and still cause turnovers... never had a single one go my way yet. How come sometimes I roll a "Both down" but only the attacker (MY FRIGGING GUY) is the only one that goes down?

 

Veteran players won't be playing the campaign. ¬_¬ It's kinda like Starcraft 2. Single player might as well not exist, because the only people who play it are the people who don't play Starcraft.

 

Clarity nailed both of your questions though. A turnover has nothing to do with the ball in BB, it literally means your 'turn' is 'over'. See what they did there? A turnover happens when, as Clarity said, you fail at something. Anything that involves a bad dice roll causing one of your players to not do the thing they were trying to do. The ONLY exception is when you fumble a catch from a kickoff. That's the only time when a failure doesn't end your turn.

 

The best advice I can give you is 'expect to fail all dice rolls'. Sounds defeatist, but you have to be in BB. What I mean by this is to be constantly thinking "what would happen if I failed this?". If the answer is "my opponent picks up the ball and scores pretty easily" or is otherwise disastrous for you then that means you need to position your players better before you roll. Sometimes this won't be possible, but try to limit these occasions.

 

Blood Bowl is all about playing the odds, and doing the things that give you the best chance of success.

 

Like Clarity said, always do the safest things (moves, 2/3/4 dice blocks) first.

 

Try to avoid 1 die blocks (blocks where you and your opponent have equal strength so you only roll one die) where possible, unless there's no way to increase your odds and you really need to make the roll (for instance, blitzing their final defender with your ballcarrier so he can score when scoring wouldn't be possible otherwise, or tackling their ballcarrier because he's certain to score if you don't).

 

Always avoid red blocks (where your blocker has LESS strength than the opponent so that the opponent gets to choose the dice result). In order to be successful on these you need to roll favourable results on BOTH dice, because your opponent will always pick whatever works out worst for you.

 

Sometimes it will feel like you're doing everything right and the game is screwing you. That's just the nature of dice. That's what makes the game fun for some people (and unplayable for others ).

 

If you haven't already, try to learn and look for favourable blocks. I'm sure the tutorial has already taught you this, but just in case:

 

A player's 'tackle zone' is the eight squares directly around him (left, right, up, down and the four diagonals). Any players in these squares add to the 'strength score' of their player EXCEPT if there's an enemy player in THEIR tackle zone. This gets confusing, but you'll get used to it.

 

For instance, if I've got a S3 guy next to your S3 guy, it'd be a one dice block because we're the same strength. If I move another guy next to your guy (the new guy's actual strength is irrelevant) then my strength becomes 4 (3 +1 for the assist), so I get two dice because I'm beating you by 1. That drastically increases my chances of avoiding a turnover, because I get two dice to choose from. Sometimes they'll both be 1s or 2s and I'll lose anyway ('double skulls'). But usually not.

 

Be aware of player's skills too. Anyone with Block is useful because they can essentially ignore '2s' ('Both Down' results). Anyone with block only falls down on an 'Attacker Down' (the skull icon you're always striving to avoid). That's what happened in your example at the end. He had block, you didn't, so on a Both Down roll only you fell over. That's why attacking someone with Block is riskier than normal unless you also have block. If both of you had block, neither of you would've fallen over, it would've cancelled each other's result out.

If you have block and he doesn't, then that makes it a lot easier for you, as a roll of a 2 acts basically like a 6 ('both down' acts like 'defender down' because you don't fall over), which gives you a much better chance of success.

 

Going back to the example above, I've got +1 strength score because of the assisting player. If you now bring another defender into my player's tackle zone, he'll negate that bonus and I'll be back to one die. Alternatively, if you bring him over to the other side (so that he's in your original player's TZ but not in my assisting player's TZ) he'll assist the defender and add +1 strength, making us tied at 4 and still a 1D block. If I then bring a player next to one of your players, he'll negate one of your assists and I'll win 4-3, etc, etc.

 

Basically it takes experience and planning to work out where you can fudge the numbers in your favour. Once you get access to players with higher strength it gets easier. Plonk an Ogre in the middle of your line and it takes multiple weaker opponents to take away his strength advantage, so he gets far more 3 and 2 dice blocks, which makes him a better blocker.

 

Blood Bowl as I said is mainly about odds, and trying to work them into your favour. But you have to go into it expecting things to go wrong every now and then, even when you have stacked the odds in your favour. That's just Blood Bowl. Plenty of salt, plenty of randomness.

 

 

Also, damnit I bought the game. I'm bad at not buying things I want. Just wish you'd bought it on PC so we could play.

[Dawn]

Anyone else pumped after the WWE carreer trailer?

 

I pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition for the PS4 2 days ago. While I am excited, I'm not ruling out a possible disappointment in some regard after the crapfest that was 2K15. However, everything that has been shown so far is leaps and bounds better than 2K15, so yeah, it will be a good or even a great/amazing game.

[iruleall15]

I pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition for the PS4 2 days ago. While I am excited, I'm not ruling out a possible disappointment in some regard after the crapfest that was 2K15. However, everything that has been shown so far is leaps and bounds better than 2K15, so yeah, it will be a good or even a great/amazing game.

 

Why go deluxe when a hard copy can be traded into Gamestop if you hate the game? Digital is just not worth it IMO.

[Clarity]

Why go deluxe when a hard copy can be traded into Gamestop if you hate the game? Digital is just not worth it IMO.

 

Never go digital when when the version before has been terrible (unless you can check it out first like with EA Access)

[D-Lyrium]

I massively prefer the convenience and durability of digital versions. But even I have to agree that I'd never get the digital version of a game when I hated the previous instalment, especially on pre-order.

 

Pre-ordering a digital version of a sequel to a game you didn't like is just begging for it to be terrible.

[iruleall15]

Never go digital when when the version before has been terrible (unless you can check it out first like with EA Access)

 

Agreed. Plus I may have bias but I work at Gamestop and always go against digital. Especially with all the hackers these days. Atleast a hardcopy you have forever as opposed to Digital if your account gets banned or hacked all your games are gone forever

[LoganRodzen]

I prefer digital content and I've practically gone exclusively digital since getting the Xbox One. I only have Watch Dogs on disc (it was $12 brand new on eBay in the plastic wrap). I bought the Media Hub that came out for it and added an additional 500GB hard drive. Works and looks awesome. I like digital games for the computer as well. If anything happens to my computers or if I were to lose a disc, its really easy to reinstall stuff.

[Clarity]

I prefer digital content and I've practically gone exclusively digital since getting the Xbox One. I only have Watch Dogs on disc (it was $12 brand new on eBay in the plastic wrap). I bought the Media Hub that came out for it and added an additional 500GB hard drive. Works and looks awesome. I like digital games for the computer as well. If anything happens to my computers or if I were to lose a disc, its really easy to reinstall stuff.

 

Its a double edged sword.

 

Pros - Its massively convenient switching games without discs and having them download ready for you to play first thing. You don't have to worry about losing discs or getting them scratched.

 

Cons - You can usually find physical copies cheaper and you have the option to trade the game in and get some cash back. You can also get stung when a GOTY version comes out with all the DLC cheaper than buying seperately. If a game sucks then your stuck with it.

 

I consider any digital game as a risk and wont but one without checking it out before.

 

If unsure, go to the store

[packerman120]

No argument for me, but in my opinion, physical is my favorite way of buying games. It's just convenient to be able to sell them. Plus, I like bragging about my collection

[Celuwyn]

No argument for me, but in my opinion, physical is my favorite way of buying games. It's just convenient to be able to sell them. Plus, I like bragging about my collection

 

I was picking physical over digital (hell, you can find post of me in this topic where i'm mad over steam) but since i've got my Xbox One, i'm a digital guy

[Blackman]

Haven't bought a physical game in years. All digital. I've also bought about twice the amount of games since years ago.

[Dawn]

Why go deluxe when a hard copy can be traded into Gamestop if you hate the game? Digital is just not worth it IMO.

 

I don't really have a preference. But I can get the games in better, cheaper prices (In dollars) digitally than I would get with physical pre-orders, or even released games (There are games that were released 1-2 years ago that still cost 200, TWO HUNDRED reais) (in reais, the Brazilian currency), and I just think it's convenient. And several other factors enter the story as well.

[bigtplaystew]

D and Clarity, thanks guys. Like I said I missed some stuff in one of the campaign missio s that explained many of my problems. My fault. Not the game's. Game does a great job of explaining everything. Leaves some for the user to figure out but in a good way. The game hasnt held my hand as far as how to pick strategies and move the ball forward. As a tutorial mode, the campaign does a fantastic job of explaining what youre doing but letting YOU play the game.

 

So yea, Im hooked lol. This game is wonderful. I dont know why I couldnt get into it when I tried BB1 on PC. As I understand it the core game is pretty much the same thing. Either way, Im loving it now. The XB1 controls work really well, too.

[Clarity]

D and Clarity, thanks guys. Like I said I missed some stuff in one of the campaign missio s that explained many of my problems. My fault. Not the game's. Game does a great job of explaining everything. Leaves some for the user to figure out but in a good way. The game hasnt held my hand as far as how to pick strategies and move the ball forward. As a tutorial mode, the campaign does a fantastic job of explaining what youre doing but letting YOU play the game.

 

So yea, Im hooked lol. This game is wonderful. I dont know why I couldnt get into it when I tried BB1 on PC. As I understand it the core game is pretty much the same thing. Im adoring this game. Either way, Im loving it now. The XB1 controls work really well, too.

 

Once your done on the campaign, the fun should really start as you can take that knowledge online and try grow your team.

[bigtplaystew]

Once your done on the campaign, the fun should really start as you can take that knowledge online and try grow your team.

 

Yea the campaign has some parts that aren't fun. I'm perfectly OK with this being a diced based game and the pluses and minuses that comes with this format. Problem is, sometimes you do EVeRythiNG right and the dice don't fall your way. If I was playing with a friend or something then whatever. The dice went your way and we had fun playing. Thats the game. Live by the dice die by the dice. I'm fine with that. But when I play an hour long game and lose because of some dice rolls then have to do the same thing all...over...again... not my favorite part of the game haha. Very much looking forward to the campaign ending so I can really sink my teeth into this game.

 

If you ever want to school me on XBL my GT is Big T is Buff.

 

Yes. Seriously.

 

 

 

 

And D I will probably be picking this up on Steam at some point when the sale hits the right price.

[Blackman]

Player HoM&M6 and got bored rather quickly. So little variation... Played M&M10 and got bummed over the fact that dead characters don't get xp (logical, yes, but annoying as you're stuck with them lagging 2LVL behind).

 

I heard HoM&M5 is supposed to be better so I guess I'll try that one. And there was also HoM&M3HD in the bundle so if all else fails... At least there's some value in the 10$ I spend on it.

 

With the unlockable characters finally unlocked in WWE2k15 for PC (still no Paige, grrrr), I found out Stone Cold, Nash and DDP are also in it, which extended the lifespan somewhat.

[gingerdilligaf]

After a skint saturday night playing helldivers has anyone got tips on other couch co-op games for ps4?I'm a rare breed i like to play games with friends in the same room & its actually not easy 2 find that option these days.

[hellboy2]

After a skint saturday night playing helldivers has anyone got tips on other couch co-op games for ps4?I'm a rare breed i like to play games with friends in the same room & its actually not easy 2 find that option these days.

 

i am the same, we couldn't find any really, instead we went back to the PS3 and got Resistance 3, The Club and Army of 2, the second one, we got got Lost Planet 2 we played for all of ten minutes and left that one to die

 

The Club while not what we usually play is great fun, we played a mode called Hunter/hunted or something like that, even better with 4 of us in the room

[gingerdilligaf]

The ps3 had loads of good couch co-op games. Worms Armageddon was a particular favourite but i retired my ps3 & gave it to the girlfriend for netflix so its actually finding ps4 games thats the problem.

[bigtplaystew]

XB1 has a few more couch co-op options than PS4, but off the top of my head, you've got all the sports and wrestling games. Pretty much any sports game can be played cooperatively.

 

You've got Diablo 3, Towerfall, Dead Nation, Guacamelee, Knack, Little Big Planet, and the Lego games. That's just off the top of my head but there's some options for you and those are all pretty well-received games.

[D-Lyrium]

Guacamelee is amazing. I heartily recommend that game.

[gingerdilligaf]

Ive kind of got the sports games covered but i'll look into the others suggested.Cheers for the help.

[bigtplaystew]

I had a lot of fun playing Diablo 3 with my friends all in the same room. On the consoles it really brought me back to the "Gauntlet" days. That really was an excellent port.

[Blackman]

Resident Evil 5/6 is fun co-op, but that's PS3. There's Rainbow6:Vegas too on PS3. PS4 should have spiritual successors to those games I reckon.

[gingerdilligaf]

Resident Evil 5/6 is fun co-op, but that's PS3. There's Rainbow6:Vegas too on PS3. PS4 should have spiritual successors to those games I reckon.

 

Backwards compatability would have been amazing but it wasnt to be. Shame really as I wouldnt be having this discussion!I'll end up with 12 consoles by the year 2030 & a tv standing so high i've got a constant neck ache.