Bigred's Video Game Thread

[Luco]

I'm about 10 hours in on The last of us and absolutely loving it. Game is a straight up masterpiece

[Luco]

Finished The last of us, loved it loved it loved it. might even be the best game ive ever played.

Starting the stick of truth next

[MadMojoMonkey]

Finished The last of us, loved it loved it loved it. might even be the best game ive ever played.

Starting the stick of truth next

Wow. That's a 180 in style.

I was all choked up a couple of times on The Last of Us. The story and telling are so dramatically astute.

Whereas Stick of Truth is wild hilarity as only South Park could offer.
If you're going in without spoilers, I'll warn you to make sure there are no kids in the room while you play it. The drug and sex paraphernalia in Cartman's mom's room is only the beginning.

[a500lbgorilla]

Stick of Truth was a lot of fun.

I have found a game that is more fun.

It's called crypt of the necrodancer.

I can't play it for more than 20 straight minutes. The fun is too great.

[Luco]

Wow. That's a 180 in style.

I was all choked up a couple of times on The Last of Us. The story and telling are so dramatically astute.

Whereas Stick of Truth is wild hilarity as only South Park could offer.
If you're going in without spoilers, I'll warn you to make sure there are no kids in the room while you play it. The drug and sex paraphernalia in Cartman's mom's room is only the beginning.

Thanks for the warning, I will keep it well away from my two younguns.

And yeah I loved the storytelling in the last of us, so many memorable characters it made it easy to feel emotionally invested.

[Luco]

Stick of Truth was a lot of fun.

I have found a game that is more fun.

It's called crypt of the necrodancer.

I can't play it for more than 20 straight minutes. The fun is too great.

just watched a video of it and put it on my wishlist as a placeholder. looks kinda fun

[MadMojoMonkey]

Stick of Truth was a lot of fun.

I have found a game that is more fun.

It's called crypt of the necrodancer.

I can't play it for more than 20 straight minutes. The fun is too great.

I clicked on a youtube video of this game.

lol. definitely has great music and linking the mechanics to the music is a cool choice.
Making a roguelike game with such a fast paced turn timer is clever.
The graphics are like SNES.
OMG the singing shopkeeper is great.


This compares to Stick of Truth?
Maybe in "fun" but not in content, presentation or even the fact that SoT is jam-packed with lolz.

[Luco]

So the console release of stick of truth got censored in europe. Rather than leave the player unaware matt and trey decided to put in a splash screen explaining in writing exactly what got cut, for each of the seven deleted scenes. The majority of the cuts involved randy on the spaceship fwiw

Bizarrely the pc release is uncensored though.

Also, this game is way easy. Playing on hardcore and it's a cakewalk

[rong]

Just watched the last of us trailer. Might have to buy a ps.

[Luco]

Just watched the last of us trailer. Might have to buy a ps.

If you get a ps3 be sure to get the uncharted games as well, especially 2 & 3

[rong]

Currently playing far cry 3. It's a bit meh imo. Need to get a bit more up to date on my gaming.

[Luco]

Currently playing far cry 3. It's a bit meh imo. Need to get a bit more up to date on my gaming.

Stay >12 months behind, it's so much cheaper

[rong]

I know, and I don't have the time to play to justify the price of new games. Every now and then the Mrs goes away with kids for a night and I go to my local 2nd hand game shop and ask for a recommendation for a one night only 10 hr session game. They recommended a batman game, arkham city or something, which was boring so I went back for another and got far cry 3. I've played worse. My problem is really the only thing I'm looking for is gta type game (loved saints row and the true crime games) or fallout type games. I don't really like anything else. Red dead redemption was great and I'd put in the same bracket. Far cry is a pretty scrappy version imo more like a dull just cause, which at least was fun.

[Luco]

I know, and I don't have the time to play to justify the price of new games. Every now and then the Mrs goes away with kids for a night and I go to my local 2nd hand game shop and ask for a recommendation for a one night only 10 hr session game. They recommended a batman game, arkham city or something, which was boring so I went back for another and got far cry 3. I've played worse. My problem is really the only thing I'm looking for is gta type game (loved saints row and the true crime games) or fallout type games. I don't really like anything else. Red dead redemption was great and I'd put in the same bracket. Far cry is a pretty scrappy version imo more like a dull just cause, which at least was fun.

Hmm, have you tried sleeping dogs?

[rong]

No, I just let that one lie.

[Luco]

No, I just let that one lie.

[rong]

Sleeping dogs looks awesome, seems very similar to true crime streets of la, which I played to death about 10 yrs ago and loved.

That's my choice next time the gf is away for a weekend. Thanks.

[Luco]

Sleeping dogs looks awesome, seems very similar to true crime streets of la, which I played to death about 10 yrs ago and loved.

That's my choice next time the gf is away for a weekend. Thanks.

it's like the spiritual sequel to true crime and yeah it's really good

[rong]

Hopefully it's nothing like the actual sequel to true crime.

[Renton]

Sleeping dogs was whatever. GTA hong kong combined with an old school beatemup like streets of rage or double dragon with neither the depth/freedom of the former nor the addictive arcade-style fun of the latter. I didn't feel like my time was wasted or anything.

[MTCashman]

Anyone played those Batman arkham games? Was thinking of picking up Arkham City, for $10 can't really go wrong.

[rong]

Dull imo, but people seem to rate them.

[a500lbgorilla]

[Luco]

Anyone played those Batman arkham games? Was thinking of picking up Arkham City, for $10 can't really go wrong.

i rate the series highly and city was my favourite

[Luco]

Really enjoying Stick of truth. Wish it was harder though, and the summons are way overpowered

[bigred]

Still playing a lot of FireFall but also picked up early access H1Z1. Pretty much a day-z clone with better dev support (so I've been told). I found a group of 8 people via a gaming forum that I roll around with. That game is definitely about strength in numbers.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I'm pretty sure I saw a post from our beloved Chemist on an FTB forum.
(Feed The Beast - a modded minecraft forum)

[Luco]

Still playing a lot of FireFall but also picked up early access H1Z1. Pretty much a day-z clone with better dev support (so I've been told). I found a group of 8 people via a gaming forum that I roll around with. That game is definitely about strength in numbers.

Is that a play on H1N1, aka the swine flu virus?

[bigred]

Yes. It's a very poor choice for a title, imo. Having a lot of fun with it so far.

[Luco]

Humble Square Enix Bundle 2

The rise of the (Square) Enix! After vanishing into the depths of no-bundle despair, the mighty Square Enix has returned with its second Humble Bundle! Pay $1 or more for Hitman: Absolution, Supreme Commander 2, and Hitman GO. Pay more than the average price, and you also get Thief, Murdered: Soul Suspect, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut. Pay $15 or more, and you get all of that plus Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

*beat the average price is currently under $7

[aubreymcfate]

has anyone here ever played xenogears? i started it some years ago but never finished, been playing it again presently. top notch dialogue/story so far, not to mention music...

[Galapogos]

Where in the world are in you in it currently?

[Renton]

has anyone here ever played xenogears? i started it some years ago but never finished, been playing it again presently. top notch dialogue/story so far, not to mention music...

Probably the most engrossing story of any video game of all time. The music was done by Yasunori Mitsuda, who also did Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. He's probably an even stronger composer than Nobuo Uematsu, if not as prolific.

[bigred]

I believe I started the second disk on xenogears (there were 3) which is no small feat. That game seemed to run on and on and on.

My flavor of the month games include Sunless Sea, Darkest Dungeon, and I'm currently downloading Ori and the Blind Forest which I'm told is amazing.

I also played speedrunners at SXSW gaming convention which is a really fun couch co-op game.

[Hoopy]

Currently starting the witcher 2 and getting my ass ploughed by basic enemies. Also playing don't starve ROG on and off again, might get the together expansion.

I picked up mirrors edge for £3 for xbox 360 and while it has problems the level design & art style are beautiful, plus time trial is addictive.

Anyone played those Batman arkham games? Was thinking of picking up Arkham City, for $10 can't really go wrong.

Asylum is worth getting since it's a decent game in it's own right and the plot of City follows on from it. Combat system in those games is simple yet challenging and very well implemented. The stealth sections are clever & the riddler challenges will keep you busy for a while. Only weak point is Asylum's bosses.

Origins is very similar to City and a bit of a rehash, it wasn't made by rocksteady so avoid it imo.

[bigred]

I wasn't the biggest fan of City. Once I got over the novelty of an open world gotham I found things a little too monotonous as open world can often become if not well designed. Collect 8 of these and go get 3 of those kinda thing. Still fun if on sale.

[aubreymcfate]

Probably the most engrossing story of any video game of all time. The music was done by Yasunori Mitsuda, who also did Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. He's probably an even stronger composer than Nobuo Uematsu, if not as prolific.

i agree, i love mitsuda. the work he did on chrono trigger is the best of the best of jrpg soundtracks. nobuo did some of the soundtrack for that too, i know he was involved in the music for the reptite lair, but i'm not sure what else he did. I never finished Chrono Cross but I always thought that world map song was really gorgeous, i think it's the Another World theme.

for me, Final Fantasy 9 is Nobuo's crowning achievement. also, Dancing Mad >>>>>> One-Winged Angel. Not that sephiroth's theme isn't baller as fuck, but Dancing Mad is like Bach meets The Joker, so damn good.

someone i know described Xenogears as the Tolstoy of JRPGs... I'm down with that description, haha. That prologue alone is heartbreaking.

[Renton]

One winged angel is one of my least favorite of Uematsu's songs. The FF7 soundtrack is otherwise incredible, of course. FF9 soundtrack is good, but I think FF6/FF7/FF8 are better. If I had to pick I'd say that FF6 is my favorite. FF4 is great too. A few of the FF4 songs are played by major orchestras currently, which is pretty god damn amazing when you consider that the original songs are 8 bit audio and rarely >30 seconds long.

I think the Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears soundtracks are at least slightly better than any of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, though. Mitsuda's weakness seems to be volume. Uematsu can just crank out four hours of masterpiece-level music on a deadline. Mitsuda got so stressed out over Chrono Trigger that he had to be hospitalized with ulcers.

[aubreymcfate]

Major orchestras have performed a lot of the FF music across the board. There's the Distant Worlds concerts, Tour de Japan (check this out, so beautiful), plus more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_concerts

I love orchestrated version of video game music in general. John Williams doing Ocarina of Time was so fucking cool. (speaking of, Koji Kondo, also brilliant)

I think FF9 is the richest soundtrack on the whole. It helps that "You Are Not Alone," "Vamo' Alla Flamenco," "Roses of May," "Bran Bal, the Soulless Village," just to name a few, are just like... breathtaking. I think FF6 comes in second for me. ff9 is apparently Nobuo's favorite of his own work, which gives me an air of superiority about my opinion Have you listened to the Final Fantasy piano collections? They are really dope reimaginings of the songs. "You Are Not Alone" becomes this like, sassy jazz fare, and "Bran Bal" becomes a little more robotic and atonal. They're all on youtube.

I think One-Winged Angel is a good song but I was never as enthralled by it as everyone else, I guess because I know what I expect from Uematsu at his best, and it's not close to what he's really capable of.

I didn't know that about Mitsuda, that sounds a lot like how I would be in that situation.

aww this is adorable... via wiki:

"After Mitsuda contracted stomach ulcers, regular Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu joined the project to compose ten songs and finish the score."

I remember when I first heard the 600 AD theme, completely immobilized me for a minute there.

[Renton]

It's possible that I underrate FF9 because I don't have as strong of a connection to the game itself. A lot of what I like the most about these two composers is how well they are able to create themes for the game scenes. I think I only played through FF9 once or twice and it was one of my least favorite FF games at the time. That said, I kind of hated FFX but the soundtrack was so great that it practically carried the game.

I think similarly Chrono Cross soundtrack doesn't get enough love because the game itself wasn't that great.


edit: Yeah I've heard all of the piano collections and stuff. I'm pretty much a fiend for Uematsu's and Mitsuda's shit. Probably number one guilty/nerdy pleasure for me.

[Luco]

Currently playing goat simulator, when I'm not playing guild wars 2

[kingnat]

Xenogears

I think this game got brought up at one other point, but I feel like it was so flipping epic in story. Battles got extremely monotonous, but there was nothing like the thrill of getting a new attack and i liked how you could pace beating the shit out of your enemies. I also feel like this was a game my buddy had in college and I can't recall (except for one or two times) it being mentioned by anyone as being an epic game. FF is practically part of common culture and I find it odd that Xenogears, at least from what I've seen, is so obscure by comparison.

[a500lbgorilla]

I'm just waiting on Fallout 4.

[bigred]

I'm just waiting on Fallout 4.

Is there an actual release date for this or is this a half life 3 kinda thing?

[bigred]

If you like platforms (cough Luco cough cough) get Ori and the Blind Forest. The artwork and tone is great and the game is a fairly high difficulty. There are sections that are just unbearably punishing but so rewarding when you beat it.

[Luco]

If you like platforms (cough Luco cough cough) get Ori and the Blind Forest. The artwork and tone is great and the game is a fairly high difficulty. There are sections that are just unbearably punishing but so rewarding when you beat it.

Looks like trine sans co-op

[a500lbgorilla]

Is there an actual release date for this or is this a half life 3 kinda thing?

It's def coming. My hype is ready.

[oskar]

Dying Light is one amazing looking game. I've played about two hours and so far I'm very impressed. During the day it's the right amount of scary for my taste. During the night I just want to crawl into a corner and cry. Fighting mechanics are very satisfying, the parkour system is outstanding. Graphic optimization is great. I rarely drop below 120fps, in comparison Bioshock Infinite sometimes drops as low as 75fps on my PC.
Some people might complain that there is absolutely nothing innovative in this game and that the plot is super flat, but I don't mind that. It's simply a survival horror game done really well.

[dhubermex]

Every review or post I've ever seen about The Last of Us has been extremely positive. I've never owned any PlayStation console (I rented one in the early 90s from a Video Central and returned it before the due date because of loooong loading times. Still, between The Last of Us and the upcoming Bloodborne, I may actually buy the PS4.

[oskar]

I don't mind the kind of exclusives where the company pays a developer to produce a game exclusively for their platform. It limits the consumer, but the game likely wouldn't exist otherwise. More recently the trend has become that a game company makes a promising title and then Sony and Microsoft fight over the exclusive rights. I don't care for that. I'm not sure which category The Last of Us falls under. The game certainly looks fantastic, but I'm not too excited about the whole console experience.

[Luco]

Dying Light is one amazing looking game. I've played about two hours and so far I'm very impressed. During the day it's the right amount of scary for my taste. During the night I just want to crawl into a corner and cry. Fighting mechanics are very satisfying, the parkour system is outstanding. Graphic optimization is great. I rarely drop below 120fps, in comparison Bioshock Infinite sometimes drops as low as 75fps on my PC.
Some people might complain that there is absolutely nothing innovative in this game and that the plot is super flat, but I don't mind that. It's simply a survival horror game done really well.

120fps? I assume you have the draw distance down then?

Haven't played it myself but I've heard that the viewing distance slider is just a framerate killer that does zip for the visuals

[oskar]

I just started it up to make sure I wasn't talking shit and apparently I was talking shit. It depends on the environment. Indoors it's 120+ always. Outside it's between 60 and 130 depending on the environment and maybe time of day. That's on a single gtx970 with everything including FOV on max. The view distance slider makes no difference in framerate as far as I can tell. I can't even tell what it does in game. Turning everything off gives me 130+ and the game still looks pretty good.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Not to distract, but I am with dhubs on the long loading times.

For a minute there, Cd's an DVD's were the best way to cram all those 1's and 0's into a small enough space. Of course, the cartridges had no moving hardware and had nearly instantaneous load times. The move to disks introduced moving parts that slowed down the system dramatically.

Aren't we past that? Don't we have affordable SSD's now? Can't we eliminate loading times again?

Bring back the cartridge!

[oskar]

I can tell you excatly why that is. Customers look at numbers. If the number is higher they assume it's better. 'SSD' is not a number, therefore it doesn't sell. You'll never convince someone to buy CL9 memory over CL12 either. Why: smaller number! You can tell exactly how it works by the dumbshit systems that hardware manufacturers offer. I7's all over the place. I7 macbooks with physical harddrives. So you can cruch the shit out of all those floating point calculations after you wait a minute for your system to boot up. They know exactly what they're doing. Retarded customers call for retarded system configurations, because we know you're going to pick the 2TB drive over the 500gb SSD every single time, you dumb fuck.

I don't even know why I'm angry lol. Like it affects me.

[Renton]

Is there a particular reason why a game would need to be 120 frames per second? I'm pretty sure the human eye cannot discern frame by frame motion at like 20-30. Seems like the only benefit to more frames is in games like WOW and diablo where damage ticks frame by frame and it makes stat calculations more crude when there are fewer frames.

[oskar]

That's a myth. You can see way past that. If you move your mouse across the screen you see a series of images. That's not some kind of sytem artefact, that's your screen printing your mouse 60 times per second.
http://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates
Once you get up to 144 it becomes almost smooth. The reason 24fps works for movies is because the way cameras work they blur the shit out of every frame. Also the camera tracks the action rather than your eye. In a video game you have to keep track of fast moving objects so the faster the refresh rate the clearer you can see moving images. On a 144hz monitor you can read text in a browser while you're moving a window, but you can still clearly see the frames. In the next couple of years displays will go past 144hz, and will hopefully switch to a smarter way of updating images. The only reason it still goes from top to bottom and left to right is for CRT compatibilty. This causes a series of issues. When the video card is done rendering a frame it can either send it to the monitor straight away making it update mid frame causing the bottom half of the screen to be further ahead in time than the top and you end up with a noticeable tear through the middle. Or you can make the video card wait until the next frame to update, which is called vsync. This is generally considered fine as long as your video card can render a frame in less than 1/60s consistently. If it doesn't then it will wait for the next refresh cycle of the monitor and while it waits it prints the previous frame again, so now you're down to 30fps for one or more frames which is even more annoying than a game running at a constant 30fps.

[Luco]

Can I assume you're gaming on a 144hz g sync monitor?

[oskar]

Nah, I'm waiting until prices are less retarded. I'm slightly bothered by tearing but I'm not $200 - bothered

[Deanglow]

So I played Mass Effect 1-3 in 3 weeks recently. What an amazing experience. I actually really liked the ending, the one I got anyway.

[bigred]

Looks like trine sans co-op

I like this a lot more than Trine. Story is light but engaging (warning: The beginning has an Up moment that you may have to explain off to your wife as you just cut onions) and the art style is wonderful and engaging. Trine felt like a light hearted platformer that laughed at itself. This is better...and much harder.

[MTCashman]

Don't know if there are any Nintendo fans here, but the new Smash bros is tons of fun had a few late nights with that one!

[a500lbgorilla]

Pillars of Eternity.

It's rich.

[bigred]

Pillars of Eternity.

It's rich.

Not sure I want to make the purchase. It looks awesome but I didn't particularly involve games like Baldur's Gate that required super micro management in each battle.

[a500lbgorilla]

You gotta play it on easy. I turned it up to Normal while dungeon crawling and I was burning through resources. But it is a true, blue RPG. Very well executed. If it looks like it's up your alley in terms of story and world, you'll love it.

[dhubermex]

I've been playing Bloodborne this week. I got it and The Last of Us: Remastered along with a PS4 console Tuesday... haven't played The Last of Us yet.

Without spoiling it, Bloodborne is a great game. My personal opinion is that it's way better than DKS2 and on part with DKS1 (I've never played Demon Souls). There is an entirely new fighting mechanic that alters PvP and makes it potentially much longer. Aggression is key in both PvP & PvE.

The level visuals don't vary NEARLY as much as DKS1 & DKS2... most of it has the same general atmosphere, but it's different enough to where it doesn't take away from the game. There are long loading times upon death & warp (extra step added for warps, which isn't good). Humanity has been replaced by "Insight," which slightly alters the game at pre-determined levels (1, 10, 15, 30, 40 so far for me).

Anyone else Bloodbone-binging?

[a500lbgorilla]

Nah, too busy playing Pillars of Eternity. I have a stronghold and I killed a king. Climbed the walls at night and assaulted him and his guards.

[Renton]

Got back into Diablo 3 a few days ago. It is massively improved. Still pretty inferior to D2, but they're starting to approach it.

[MadMojoMonkey]

OMG!

New computers in tha house! My lady and I have a pair of identical new 'puters.

quad core 3.06 GHz chipset
8GB RAM
1 GHz graphics card w/ 640 data streams (capable of supporting 1080p @ 60Hz)
250 GB HDD
+ case / power supply / fans, etc.

All for ~$410 each.

She's running Skyrim w/o complaints right now. I think it's time to find a new game to play. I feel like I'm stepping 15 years forward with this move in computing power. I can't even play Oblivion on my laptop.

[Luco]

Nice. pc race is master race etc etc

Are you looking for more skyrim-esque games or you're not fussy?

[Luco]

Picked up trials fusion + season pass for £13

FMX levels are rather gimmicky but the game as a whole is superb

[Luco]

I've been playing Bloodborne this week. I got it and The Last of Us: Remastered along with a PS4 console Tuesday... haven't played The Last of Us yet.

Without spoiling it, Bloodborne is a great game. My personal opinion is that it's way better than DKS2 and on part with DKS1 (I've never played Demon Souls). There is an entirely new fighting mechanic that alters PvP and makes it potentially much longer. Aggression is key in both PvP & PvE.

The level visuals don't vary NEARLY as much as DKS1 & DKS2... most of it has the same general atmosphere, but it's different enough to where it doesn't take away from the game. There are long loading times upon death & warp (extra step added for warps, which isn't good). Humanity has been replaced by "Insight," which slightly alters the game at pre-determined levels (1, 10, 15, 30, 40 so far for me).

Anyone else Bloodbone-binging?

Whenever I get a ps4, the exact two games you own will likely be my first purchases

[MadMojoMonkey]

Nice. pc race is master race etc etc

Are you looking for more skyrim-esque games or you're not fussy?

I'm currently exploring mods and options in minecraft that were prohibited to me earlier. Playing the game with a higher-res texture pack and cranking up the draw distance has made the game much more viewable. I'm currently messing around with Thaumcraft for the first time. I have compiled a personal modpack that could be much expanded upon, but I didn't want to bite off too much at once.

I'll probably be getting into Skyrim soon, but I'm not willing to spend the $40 for a 2nd copy in the house. I got moderately into modding Morrowind for a while. I played Oblivion and loved it, too. So I'm certain that I'll get lost in Skyrim soon enough.

I confess that Cities Skylines is probably going to be sucking up a lot of time for me in the near future as well.

[MTCashman]

Oblivion is one of my favorites, I had to buy it twice because my PC couldn't handle it so I had to play it on xbox 360

[oskar]

So I was stuck on some really early mission in Dying Light and after a couple of days of dying horribly some guy comes along and just looks at me while I'm clubbing a zombi with a broken pipe and says Nice weapon lol. And then he drops me a sword with a battery and spikes and whatnot attached to it and it cuts 3 guys in half with one swing whilst electrocuting them. Then he helps me out with the mission and just walks off into the sunset. That was my 2nd most favorite video game moment of 2015. Right after getting a 15 min. Aghs on hardsupport Witchdoctor.

[dhubermex]

Oblivion is one of my favorites, I had to buy it twice because my PC couldn't handle it so I had to play it on xbox 360

I didn't find out about The Elder Scrolls until "Morrowind," and that game blew my mind. IMO not even Skyrim matches the mystery of that game... although it was definitely old-school with very little fast travel and a hard-to-follow journal system. I've heard that TES I & II (Arena & Daggerfall) were even better for their time. Oblivion was my least favorite out of the series, although the Dark Brotherhood side quest was awesome.