Video Games: It's On Like Donkey Kong

[Red Tiger]

2 minutes ago, Mexal said:

My wife and I have been playing a lot of BOTW lately and really enjoy it. I can only play a few hours at a time but those hours are pretty enjoyable and I like the story enough to want to see it through. Will need to get another Switch game after this. Any recommendations?

Furi. Also both Bayonetta games soon.

[RumHam]

Just now, Mexal said:

My wife and I have been playing a lot of BOTW lately and really enjoy it. I can only play a few hours at a time but those hours are pretty enjoyable and I like the story enough to want to see it through. Will need to get another Switch game after this. Any recommendations?

Mario seems like the obvious choice if that's your kinda thing. It's similar to Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. 

Dark Souls is coming out in March. If you've never played it and are prepared for a challenge it's a great game. 

Then there's a bunch of great indie games that you should totally try if you don't already have them for PC. Stardew Valley in particular I love. 

[Melphis Amekia]

8 minutes ago, Mexal said:

My wife and I have been playing a lot of BOTW lately and really enjoy it. I can only play a few hours at a time but those hours are pretty enjoyable and I like the story enough to want to see it through. Will need to get another Switch game after this. Any recommendations?

if you want to play JRPG's, I recommend Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Atelier Lydie & Suelle(although that one comes out in two months in the West), as well as Super Mario Odyssey.

[Werthead]

53 minutes ago, briantw said:

I think the difference there is that the hatred for the prequels had burnt Lucas out on Star Wars, and even then it certainly seems like he regrets the decision now that he's seeing other people make Star Wars movies.

Newell, on the other hand, already has all the money he could ever want to work on whatever creative endeavor he's interested in, and he has a brand name attached to it that will essentially guarantee it sells if he ever gets it to market.  Unless he's just planning to straight up retire, it's hard to imagine him selling Valve.  Hell, even if he wanted to retire he could keep his stake in Valve and simply put someone he trusts in charge and keep collecting free checks for selling competitors' games. 

I dunno. People are pretty annoyed with Valve for lying about working on HL3, for letting games take the piss in Early Access and for letting an absolute ton of shovelware shit onto Steam over the last few years, to the point where some indie devs have abandoned the platform in favour of other platforms (like the Switch). The shine of Valve and the belief that Valve are the gamer's friend are well and truly dead by this point. People use Steam for convenience and out of inertia at this point, and the occasional bargain (speaking of which, I just picked up Dying Light and all its DLC, even the full game-sized expansion, dirt cheap in the latest sale so there you go).

My feeling with Steam is that it's kind of gone as far as it can and having Valve or Microsoft monopolise it at this stage is much of a muchness. If Microsoft drives it into the ground, we've still got GoG (just started using GoG Galaxy and it's pretty smart) and even Origin and UPlay are far superior to what they used to be like.

[Inigima]

6 hours ago, Mexal said:

My wife and I have been playing a lot of BOTW lately and really enjoy it. I can only play a few hours at a time but those hours are pretty enjoyable and I like the story enough to want to see it through. Will need to get another Switch game after this. Any recommendations?

Really depends on what you're after. I think Mario Odyssey is the best single-player retail release on the Switch. Splatoon 2 is terrific and multiplayer, but only supports one person playing per console and has no significant story. Rayman Legends also has no real story but is a gorgeous platformer.

Some indie games you could look at, length and genre and pricing vary dramatically: Picross S, Stardew Valley, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero, Gorogoa, Blaster Master Z, Death Squared

[briantw]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

I dunno. People are pretty annoyed with Valve for lying about working on HL3, for letting games take the piss in Early Access and for letting an absolute ton of shovelware shit onto Steam over the last few years, to the point where some indie devs have abandoned the platform in favour of other platforms (like the Switch). The shine of Valve and the belief that Valve are the gamer's friend are well and truly dead by this point. People use Steam for convenience and out of inertia at this point, and the occasional bargain (speaking of which, I just picked up Dying Light and all its DLC, even the full game-sized expansion, dirt cheap in the latest sale so there you go).

I don't care how annoyed people get with Valve.  If they announce another game or piece of tech, it's going to sell.

[KiDisaster]

14 hours ago, Mexal said:

My wife and I have been playing a lot of BOTW lately and really enjoy it. I can only play a few hours at a time but those hours are pretty enjoyable and I like the story enough to want to see it through. Will need to get another Switch game after this. Any recommendations?

Highly recommend Night In The Woods if you haven't already played it. It came out on Switch last week I believe. 

It's a very charming (and fairly short, I think I finished it in around 6 hours) narrative driven game about returning home to your small town after dropping out of college. Lot of coming-of-age stuff. But the dialogue is so well written and the characters are phenomenal. It's very funny but also hits you hard from time to time. Did for me anyway. It does have a good amount of weirdness going on too. Speaking of... (massive ending spoilers for anyone else who's played it)

I was not expecting the Lovecraft curveball at the end of that game at all but it was fucking great.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

On 2/6/2018 at 0:42 PM, Werthead said:

I dunno. People are pretty annoyed with Valve for lying about working on HL3, for letting games take the piss in Early Access and for letting an absolute ton of shovelware shit onto Steam over the last few years, to the point where some indie devs have abandoned the platform in favour of other platforms (like the Switch). The shine of Valve and the belief that Valve are the gamer's friend are well and truly dead by this point. People use Steam for convenience and out of inertia at this point, and the occasional bargain (speaking of which, I just picked up Dying Light and all its DLC, even the full game-sized expansion, dirt cheap in the latest sale so there you go).

My feeling with Steam is that it's kind of gone as far as it can and having Valve or Microsoft monopolise it at this stage is much of a muchness. If Microsoft drives it into the ground, we've still got GoG (just started using GoG Galaxy and it's pretty smart) and even Origin and UPlay are far superior to what they used to be like.

I would move over to GoG fully and completely if I could buy games in NZ$. They need to roll out more currencies for their platform and suck up a bigger share of the global market. But not turn into corporate dicks in the process, which is actually the hard part.

[Ramsay B.]

Witcher 3 update: 

Spoiler

So I broke it off with Yennefer. We did that quest that broke our bond and I kind of just dropped it on her that I don't feel the love anymore and she was pretty hurt. I seriously felt bad. But I have my eyes on Triss. I dropped those magical 3 words on her to get her to stay after helping all the mages escape and it worked. We're kind of a thing now.

I ran into a level 31 ghost when I was a 20 and beat it pretty easily so I decided to put the difficulty up to Blood and Bones. Having a lot more fun with it. The oils and everything actually seem important now and fights are so much more exciting. I should've did that much sooner.

So I'm a level 25 and rocking enhanced Feline Gear with Ursine Swords. Been building up my Quen along with the oils branch the most lately. I tried the Axii puppet but it takes so long to cast that it's just not worth it most of the time, and I've totally ignored Yrden and Aard for the most part. 

 

[Jace, Extat]

Champin' at the bit here waiting for the latest Civ VI expansion. Seems pretty fun and I'm currently trying to secure a passage to the sea through Russia as Tomyris of the Scythian Horselords.

[Inkdaub]

I haven't had a console nor have I played pretty much any game, outside of my WoW addiction, since Mario All-Stars on Super NES.  I'm still into both of those games but I decided to modernize my gaming options and so I bought an Xbox One X. 

I also bought the following games based on recommendations.

Dragon Age Inquisition...haven't played it yet.

Bioshock the Collection...haven't played it yet.

Shadow of Mordor...I like this one quite a bit even though I'm dying a lot and those orcs are shooting up through the ranks.  This game is better than I thought it would be.

Mass Effect Trilogy...pretty great sci-fi game. The main character features the worst voice acting I have ever heard in any format.  This guy is obviously just reading an index card.  Who greenlit that for the main character?

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen...haven't played it yet.

Pillars of Eternity...haven't played it yet.

Fallout 4...pretty good so far.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt...this one is great in just about every way.  Almost perfect.

Skyrim...good game but I need to start over with a different character.

Red Dead Redemption...haven't played it yet.  Not sure I will like a western game and the quick draw segments I saw in a video worry me because I am like a toddler with the controller.

[Rhom]

I picked up my South Park: The Fractured But Whole game the other day.  My save data said I hadn't played it since November.  (I went through a phase of getting back in to SW: TOR and reading the behemoth Oathbringer and then Persepolis Rising.)  Goddamn, I love those games.  I found myself laughing out loud multiple times.  I feel like I'm still relatively early in the storyline.  Had a quest to go questing "The Woman With the Dick Tattoo" that took me into a strip club and saw me fighting multiple strippers on the way to the one I needed to question.  I had to go back and talk to Mr. Mackey again to be sure that I understood what it meant to be a Cis Gendered Heterosexual Male and when leaving the school got ambushed by some rednecks who "Don't take kindly to my type."    I don't know that its quite as good as Stick of Truth; but I don't know that I've ever seen games make a better use of a licensed property than these.

6 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

I haven't had a console nor have I played pretty much any game, outside of my WoW addiction, since Mario All-Stars on Super NES.  I'm still into both of those games but I decided to modernize my gaming options and so I bought an Xbox One X. 

I also bought the following games based on recommendations.

Dragon Age Inquisition...haven't played it yet.

Bioshock the Collection...haven't played it yet.

Shadow of Mordor...I like this one quite a bit even though I'm dying a lot and those orcs are shooting up through the ranks.  This game is better than I thought it would be.

Mass Effect Trilogy...pretty great sci-fi game. The main character features the worst voice acting I have ever heard in any format.  This guy is obviously just reading an index card.  Who greenlit that for the main character?

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen...haven't played it yet.

Pillars of Eternity...haven't played it yet.

Fallout 4...pretty good so far.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt...this one is great in just about every way.  Almost perfect.

Skyrim...good game but I need to start over with a different character.

Red Dead Redemption...haven't played it yet.  Not sure I will like a western game and the quick draw segments I saw in a video worry me because I am like a toddler with the controller.

All solid choices.  Shepard's voice acting is pretty solid the further you go into the game.

[Fez]

16 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

Mass Effect Trilogy...pretty great sci-fi game. The main character features the worst voice acting I have ever heard in any format.  This guy is obviously just reading an index card.  Who greenlit that for the main character?

There's a reason why a lot of players went with Female Shepard; though Mark Meer did improve somewhat in the second and third games.

[KiDisaster]

27 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

Mass Effect Trilogy...pretty great sci-fi game. The main character features the worst voice acting I have ever heard in any format.  This guy is obviously just reading an index card.  Who greenlit that for the main character?

Shoulda gone with FemShep, her voice acting is way better

[Corvinus85]

I thought Mark Meer did a solid job as MaleShep. 

[Rhom]

12 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

I thought Mark Meer did a solid job as MaleShep. 

I did too, but I do recognize that he's better as the trilogy goes on.

[Werthead]

 

Quote

 

Mass Effect Trilogy...pretty great sci-fi game. The main character features the worst voice acting I have ever heard in any format.  This guy is obviously just reading an index card.  Who greenlit that for the main character?

 

Mark Meer was actually only the placeholder guy. They liked his performance so much (for whatever reason) they asked him to stay on. IIRC, some of his perfomances in the first game were from the placeholder, which explains why he's kinda flat, although certainly no worse than a lot of video game voiceover acting.

He's a lot better in the second and third games, as said above.

[Jace, Extat]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

 

Mark Meer was actually only the placeholder guy. They liked his performance so much (for whatever reason) they asked him to stay on. IIRC, some of his perfomances in the first game were from the placeholder, which explains why he's kinda flat, although certainly no worse than a lot of video game voiceover acting.

He's a lot better in the second and third games, as said above.

I actually kind of dug him over whatshername in ME3, as far as the trailers. 'Cause Femshep was fucking awesome. But in ME3 the dude was like 'ok, i'm on board with this shit' and the lady was like 'FUUUUUUCK YEEEEESSSS' and you can kind of feel the excitement in places that aren't really meant to be 'exciting' in that yaaay feminist kind of vibe.

Anyway. Jace sad.

Jace Mad

New Coach Best Break Bad

[The Anti-Targ]

New Germany coalition govt possibly going to recognise E-sports as sport?

From Rocket League Reddit thread

Quote

The current coalition agreement between the political parties CDU and SPD cotains a part they will recognize esport as a full sport. This is not guaranteed but will maybe persist even when we dont get a goverment in this run.

Free translation by [poster]:
We are recognizing the importance of E-Sport in Germany. 
E-Sport improves important skills, that also matter outside of the digital 
world, requires training and sport structures, we will recognize E-Sport as
its own sport including all club- and union rights [Comment: this is very 
important in germany!]  and will help building an olympic perspectiv.

Original text:
"Wir erkennen die wachsende Bedeutung der E-Sport-Landschaft in 
Deutschland an.Da E-Sport wichtige Fähigkeiten schult, die nicht nur in 
der digitalen Welt von Bedeutung sind, Training und Sportstrukturen 
erfordert, werden wir E-Sport künftig voll ständig als eigene Sportart mit 
Vereins- und Verbandsrecht anerkennen und bei der Schaffung einer 
olympischen Perspektive unterstützen."

 

[Jace, Extat]

On 2/5/2018 at 5:42 PM, Werthead said:

I dunno. People are pretty annoyed with Valve for lying about working on HL3, for letting games take the piss in Early Access and for letting an absolute ton of shovelware shit onto Steam over the last few years, to the point where some indie devs have abandoned the platform in favour of other platforms (like the Switch). The shine of Valve and the belief that Valve are the gamer's friend are well and truly dead by this point. People use Steam for convenience and out of inertia at this point, and the occasional bargain (speaking of which, I just picked up Dying Light and all its DLC, even the full game-sized expansion, dirt cheap in the latest sale so there you go).

My feeling with Steam is that it's kind of gone as far as it can and having Valve or Microsoft monopolise it at this stage is much of a muchness. If Microsoft drives it into the ground, we've still got GoG (just started using GoG Galaxy and it's pretty smart) and even Origin and UPlay are far superior to what they used to be like.

Yo, I'm too intent on getting fucked up to search your blog.

Did you do a thing on the new Civ 6 Expansion?