The Videogames Thread

[Jon AS]

Well, here's the thing. Team Fortress 2 is coming up on four years old now. Everyone who would have paid for it by now already has. So why not bring in as many free players as possible and try to sell some hats?

And then release Team Fortress 3...

[csharpminor]

It makes sense. Especially if hats are as expensive as they are.. can't blame them though if it works.

I wish every game did that. After 4 years it'd go free, and you could pay for hats if you wanted.

[Week]

I tried playing Diablo II a year or so ago. Man, it was just not as fun as I remember it. Plus, for some reason, it didn't run very well on my newer computer. Kept lagging for some reason.

It never was fun -- it was always less than mindless dungeon crawl. At least single player.

[Shryke]

Saint's Row 3 gameplay trailer.

The VTOL jet is ludicrously over-the-top, but the cannon that uses passing pedestrians (or yourself, if you so choose) as ammunition is excellent.

I love the people making those games. Unlike GTA, they have embraced the random silliness and stupidity of that type of game and just run with it.

[Durckad]

I've heard devs from Bioware say they'd like to make entire games where you guy it a chapter at a time. Greedy bastards. I think you're right though that people are waiting for discounted versions. There will always be people who have to wait until launch, but I really have no problem waiting a year or whatever.

If they're priced accordingly, episodic content wouldn't be bad. I know I'd be more likely to buy new games if they were $10 to $15 and semi-short than $60 and semi-short with some multiplayer I'll never touch. That's why I primarily buy Steam games, XBox Arcade games and used games nowadays.

It all depends upon the execution.

And if they announce Left 4 Dead 3 or something, people will start to think they're taking the piss a bit.

I would laugh so much if L4D3 were announced next. It likely won't happen, but if it did...

It never was fun -- it was always less than mindless dungeon crawl. At least single player.

Yeah, you're probably right. I remember finishing it once, then not touching it again for at least 5 years or so.

[Shryke]

It never was fun -- it was always less than mindless dungeon crawl. At least single player.

It was, for it's time, the best dungeon crawl game around. Still got some great stuff about it but alot of other parts of the design have been improved upon so much in the last like ... decade or whatever that it's difficult to go back and play it now. It's like loading up Doom or something.

[Shryke]

Gears of War. How in the fuck is this a best selling series?? Been going through my backlog, loaded this up because, hell, never tried one of these "over-the-shoulder" shooters before and this seemed like the time.

My god this game is ass. At least, so far. Maybe at some indeterminate time in the future it might get better? Maybe?

First, ugliest fucking game I think I've ever seen. This is the game the colour spectrum forgot. I think someone on the dev team suggested going for a sepia tone with the game and they were fired for trying to make the world too vibrant. Every place I've been so far has been nothing but samey brown/grey crap with chest-high-walls as far as the eye can see.

Second, the shooting so far has been mediocre at best. Indistinguishable brown/grey blob enemies, you unload 2 clips of your piddly pea-shooter into their head, they eventually fall over. Rinse and repeat in every so slightly different rooms full of chest high walls.

Played a couple of hours, gave up in disgust.

[SkynJay]

Well, got the computer working again(no more posting by phone). And the wife reinstalled Plants vs Zombies. Mindless fun is often the best.

Brains....

[csharpminor]

I would never, ever play gears of war single player. The game is too 1-2-3 military for me to enjoy it by myself.

The hilarious merit is more in the gears of war 2 multiplayer and probably the gears3 multiplayer in my opinion.

Horde was always decently fun to do with people who knew how to do it effectively. Gears 2 competitive play is a bit broke in my opinion, hopefully some shit will be fixed in Gears 3.

But yea, I'd never play those games by myself. I don't ever play shit that's single player besides action games - Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and a few fighting games to go over combos and shit when somebody outnerds me. and castlevania, though people are really agreeing that the dlc for lords of shadow was overpriced and not really alot of fun . . . hope the sequel to that game will be just as good as the original was.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Gears of War. How in the fuck is this a best selling series?? Been going through my backlog, loaded this up because, hell, never tried one of these "over-the-shoulder" shooters before and this seemed like the time.

My god this game is ass. At least, so far. Maybe at some indeterminate time in the future it might get better? Maybe?

First, ugliest fucking game I think I've ever seen. This is the game the colour spectrum forgot. I think someone on the dev team suggested going for a sepia tone with the game and they were fired for trying to make the world too vibrant. Every place I've been so far has been nothing but samey brown/grey crap with chest-high-walls as far as the eye can see.

Second, the shooting so far has been mediocre at best. Indistinguishable brown/grey blob enemies, you unload 2 clips of your piddly pea-shooter into their head, they eventually fall over. Rinse and repeat in every so slightly different rooms full of chest high walls.

Played a couple of hours, gave up in disgust.

I've had the same response as you. I think Gears is highly overrated. I'll never forget how my methhead brother insisted that a chainsaw kill in these games was "soooo satisfying." Then I did it and thought, "that's about like every other chainsaw kill in a game.

I think the games are weak. The characters are all ridiculously overmuscled with no necks and huge frames. In a war like they're fighting you might think being light on your feet would make sense, except of course the weapons all look like they weight about 70 pounds.

Back to my Two Worlds 2 play through, I just can't stress enough how much fun I am having. I am in chapter 2 with 21 hours, and there are so many sidequests and rewards for exploring I just can't get enough. I am disappointed that horses seem to be restricted to one small area in chapter 1, but oh well. The teleport system makes traveling a snap. And they completely improved on the weapon crafting aspect without changing it too much. It is no longer ridiculously overpowered. I also like that as a melee fighter that maces and blunt weapons are good for certain enemies while swords or sharp edged weapons are good for others. It adds an element of strategy to the game. I hear magic using is amazing once you figure it out, and I think I will try it on my next playthrough, but right now I am loving just exploring, gathering loot, leveling up.

The voice acting is much improved too, but it still sucks, except in a good way. No more "forsoothe" and all that. The monotone voice of the hero is a bit lame at first, but it grows on you.

Fun, fun game. I feel like I should be playing the Witcher 2. Like I have a new Martin book collecting dust while I devour Dragon Lance series, but the fun content takes away from that guilt. It does take a bit to get into the game.

Another great RPG I found is the Dragon Knight Saga, Divinity 2. I had Ego Draconis and didn't like it much, but this expansion and updated gameplay has made it into a new fast favorite. I love raining hellfire on goblin cities from above. I recommend both these games. Their quality and detail won't wow anyone, but for the low budget fair they are, you can't ask for more fun.

[Fez]

Gears of War. How in the fuck is this a best selling series?? Been going through my backlog, loaded this up because, hell, never tried one of these "over-the-shoulder" shooters before and this seemed like the time.

My god this game is ass. At least, so far. Maybe at some indeterminate time in the future it might get better? Maybe?

First, ugliest fucking game I think I've ever seen. This is the game the colour spectrum forgot. I think someone on the dev team suggested going for a sepia tone with the game and they were fired for trying to make the world too vibrant. Every place I've been so far has been nothing but samey brown/grey crap with chest-high-walls as far as the eye can see.

Second, the shooting so far has been mediocre at best. Indistinguishable brown/grey blob enemies, you unload 2 clips of your piddly pea-shooter into their head, they eventually fall over. Rinse and repeat in every so slightly different rooms full of chest high walls.

Played a couple of hours, gave up in disgust.

Its definitely not a great game, but it did have its moments for me. It helps that I was playing it right in the middle of a veritable orgy of 3rd-person cover-based shooters and so was amazing at that style of play at the time. There is always something satisfying about demolishing enemies on high difficulties levels, regardless of how ugly everything is or how bland yet confusing the circumstances you are in are.

Amazingly a few of the set pieces near the end of the game are actually interesting to look out too, so there's that.

[Inigima]

I think the multiplayer was the draw, though I got bored with that after a while too.

I enjoyed the first Gears campaign. The second was awful. I guess there was a third game? I kind of stopped paying attention.

[csharpminor]

Third's supposed to come out soon. I always looked at it as a game to mess around on with people, not really anything too indepth for me. The last fps campaign I enjoyed was like the original Halo. I honestly would like to play through Metroid Prime again, now that I'm thinking about it.

anybody play any fighting games? ;/

[Fez]

Very few regular (so no FPS/RPG hybrids) 1st person shooters have good single player campaigns. Granted I've never played a PS3 so maybe there are some more hidden ones, but all I can think of is Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm. Other than that though, they are always based more around multiplayer. I've some fun with others, but they are never worth initial retail value.

Gears 2 is of course 3rd person not 1st, and 3rd person do generally seem to have better single player campaigns, but it sure doesn't. Although like I said, it did have its moments for me, primarily the vehicle sections and the last Act, but still.

[Muttering Bill]

anybody play any fighting games? ;/

I love fighting games. But I'm more of a casual fan. I don't have the time to sit down and really learn a game/character as deeply as is needed. So I don't win very often. I do have fun with them though.

Right now I'm bouncing between Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition (trying to decide who I like better - Viper or Ibuki), and Mortal Kombat (sticking with Jade, despite my terrible w/l record).

I picked up BlazBlue Continuum Shift a few days ago and am kicking myself for not having tried it sooner. I had avoided it because of the art style, but after spending some time with it, it's really rather charming. And such a good fighting system.

Also curious about Arcana Heart 3, but I've spent a little too much on gaming lately. I wish they'd put out a demo version.

[Inigima]

I'm not very good at fighting games, but I love them. Street Fighter IV and Dead Or Alive: Dimensions are currently among the only 3DS games worth owning, so I'm playing those.

[csharpminor]

Nice. Yea I'm the same way, but I consider myself to be alright at them since I've played them for a long time... I never really go to practice mode though, I mostly just learn combos when fighting people. Though it seems like in SF4 they encourage that sort of combo learning, since they put in combos that cannot very consistently be mashed out. That's fine, just means casual players with lives can't compete with the massive exact combo people. ;/

As for Viper or Ibuki, i'd suggest Ibuki, since I main her. But I think her entire gameplay system and movelist/properties are more thought out than Vipers because she was originally created in SF 3rd strike, a much more balanced and thorough game than 4: AE in my opinion. I think her super 4, and 4:AE incarnation is decently loyal to 3s. I just think she's got more options for destruction than Viper, who was created for SF4 specifically. Ive seen people destroy with Viper also, but good Ibuki players.. The matches are usually really one sided if the player knows what he's doing, granted, it depends on what character she's fighting also.. The SF2 chars seem to have the upperhand, even after the SF:AE update.

Granted I only know alot of the Ibuki stuff I know from SF 3s. She's very combo/setup based, so if casual stuff is more your thing, maybe Viper may be easier to actually have results with with less playtime or practice. I dont know, I only know a few people who play her. It's good to hear you're enjoying the game though.

I haven't played Blazblue yet because people have said it's fairly combo based, and I don't really care for alot of the big combo guilty gear,mvcish games. I may try it sometime just to see.

I've not played any of the Arcana Heart games, they look sort of interesting though. I'm mainly trying to look forward to Soul Calibur 5, though I'm really not sure at this point if I should be.. If they continue with the tekken/guaranteed combo/counter combo shit I may pass on it. Though I've heard dev's saying they're changing the gameplay so who knows.

[madking]

Anyone try dungeon siege 3 yet? Thoughts?

[Sheep the Evicted]

This will be my periodic Global Agenda pimp. Yeah TF2 is free to play now, steam won't stop telling us, but Global Agenda is also free and - yes i'm saying it - better! Especially now that they fixed the servers.

[Werthead]

Stronghold 3 will feature badgers as a viable weapon of biological warfare.

AWESOME. Also, procedurally-generated walls got the previewer unreasonably excited.

Anyone try dungeon siege 3 yet? Thoughts?

Haven't played it, but the consensus seemst to be that at the moment it's an okay dungeon crawl thing on console which in some ways isn't even as good as the first two (and given I thought the first game was pants, this isn't reccing the third one to me). On PC, it's a bit fucked (unsurprisingly, being an Obsidian game) due to a control system that is pure retard, but apparently an imminent patch will fix that.