Video Games: The long wait until Fall games come out

[Muttering Bill]

Do you play on Xbox or PS3? I know on Xbox if you go into your inventory and push the X button on an item it expands and shows you the stats of said item.

On PS3. Yeah, it was the square button. And printed right on the bottom of the screen if I'd bothered to look. :blushing:

So I finished the demo. Damn that was a long demo too. I guess they wanted to make sure that we're fully addicted by the end. Well, it worked; I'm picking this up tomorrow. Eventhough I can import my progress, and I have already played a quarter of the game, I'm going to start over. I rushed through the last section, after getting the message that I hit the demos level cap, and I noticed what time it was. So there was probably lots of enemies and loot that I missed. I had a lot of fun with the wizard, so I think I'll just do that again.

[Werthead]

This is interesting. The new Command and Conquer game will have single-player campaigns downloadable after launch and they will not be limited to the Generals sub-universe. Whilst the first campaign will indeed be, essentially, Generals 2, future campaigns will be set in both the standard (Tiberian) and Red Alert settings as well. This is why they removed the Generals 2 subtitle, because the game will invoke all of the existing C&C settings.

Planetary Annihilation now has a final release date of December.

[Sci-2]

If you like the old school art style, the Kickstarter footage for Hyper Light Drifter looks gorgeous.

Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time, steeped in blood and treasure hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease. Echos of a dark and violent past from the dead eras resonate throughout and he can't help but listen....

[Jace, Extat]

Started a replay of 'Tomb Raider'. Awesome game, completely blown away by 'The Last of Us', but awesome in its own right.

[Fez]

Did some angry-playing of Diablo 3 after the Jets-Pats game. I'm now up to a level 26 monk, level 16 demon hunter, and level 12 wizard. I'm really loving this game. I'm not really loving the demon hunter though. Damage is finally on par with the other classes, after accounting for leveling differences, (although I understand that'll go away on the highest difficulties), but it seems all I do is rapid fire and a bit of vaulting around. Its not very engaging. By contrast, my monk just destroys things (killed the Act II end boss in under 30 seconds) but I use all 6 mapped buttons to do so.* Even the wizard, who doesn't have that many abilities yet, takes more involvement than the demon hunter. Its a shame, because I really like the gameplay concept; it just doesn't seem to be working in practice.

*Pro tip if you don't know (the game doesn't seem to document it anywhere): turn on elective mode in options. It lets you assign any unlocked skill to any unlocked button, and assign multiple skills from the same category. It gives so much more customizable freedom than the rigid default mode Blizzard created.

[Shryke]

DH is the weakest class in that way imo. There's some fun builds you can try but none of them I find ever feel quite as engaging and fuckawesome as some of the other classes.

I love Monks personally. My favourite class even though starting the game they were the one I was least interested in.

[Rhom]

By contrast, my monk just destroys things (killed the Act II end boss in under 30 seconds) but I use all 6 mapped buttons to do so.* Even the wizard, who doesn't have that many abilities yet, takes more involvement than the demon hunter. Its a shame, because I really like the gameplay concept; it just doesn't seem to be working in practice.

*Pro tip if you don't know (the game doesn't seem to document it anywhere): turn on elective mode in options. It lets you assign any unlocked skill to any unlocked button, and assign multiple skills from the same category. It gives so much more customizable freedom than the rigid default mode Blizzard created.

DH is the weakest class in that way imo. There's some fun builds you can try but none of them I find ever feel quite as engaging and fuckawesome as some of the other classes.

I love Monks personally. My favourite class even though starting the game they were the one I was least interested in.

Monk was my first class and I still think my favorite. Its funny you mention the mapping of buttons because I had the same issue with the PC version. I don't think they really did a good job of letting the player know that you could map any skill to any button eventually. There are some really awesome monk builds that utilize varying combinations of skills.

[Kosciuszko]

Did some angry-playing of Diablo 3 after the Jets-Pats game. I'm now up to a level 26 monk, level 16 demon hunter, and level 12 wizard. I'm really loving this game. I'm not really loving the demon hunter though. Damage is finally on par with the other classes, after accounting for leveling differences, (although I understand that'll go away on the highest difficulties), but it seems all I do is rapid fire and a bit of vaulting around. Its not very engaging. By contrast, my monk just destroys things (killed the Act II end boss in under 30 seconds) but I use all 6 mapped buttons to do so.* Even the wizard, who doesn't have that many abilities yet, takes more involvement than the demon hunter. Its a shame, because I really like the gameplay concept; it just doesn't seem to be working in practice.

*Pro tip if you don't know (the game doesn't seem to document it anywhere): turn on elective mode in options. It lets you assign any unlocked skill to any unlocked button, and assign multiple skills from the same category. It gives so much more customizable freedom than the rigid default mode Blizzard created.

Try a Barbarian sometime. It's really fun to just, well, Barbarian through everything while mobs fly around from your hits, skeletons are literally hit out of enemies, and so on.

Also, I've done this on my Wizard, but there are a few abilities that work well together to make a melee wizard. They're pretty obvious when you get them and, honestly, so far it's basically my favorite way to play the class.

[Fez]

Try a Barbarian sometime. It's really fun to just, well, Barbarian through everything while mobs fly around from your hits, skeletons are literally hit out of enemies, and so on.

Also, I've done this on my Wizard, but there are a few abilities that work well together to make a melee wizard. They're pretty obvious when you get them and, honestly, so far it's basically my favorite way to play the class.

Barbarian's the only one I haven't tried yet (although I've only played witch doctor for around 20 minutes). I'm sure I will, it just seemed kinda similar to my monk; who is already a "wade into the fray and hit everyone really hard" chick. I've got my dodge at 45%, enough health regen to tank just about anything that does hit me (and when I don't, I've a healing spell that also does damage), and a punch that lets me teleport around the battle (which I think, although I'm not positive, is also causing attackers to miss me). And my spirit regen is high enough that I can use all of my special attacks as soon as their cooldowns end, so I've seen plenty of exposed skeletons in my time. Its fun.

[Shryke]

Barbarian's the only one I haven't tried yet (although I've only played witch doctor for around 20 minutes). I'm sure I will, it just seemed kinda similar to my monk; who is already a "wade into the fray and hit everyone really hard" chick. I've got my dodge at 45%, enough health regen to tank just about anything that does hit me (and when I don't, I've a healing spell that also does damage), and a punch that lets me teleport around the battle (which I think, although I'm not positive, is also causing attackers to miss me). And my spirit regen is high enough that I can use all of my special attacks as soon as their cooldowns end, so I've seen plenty of exposed skeletons in my time. Its fun.

Seven-Sided Strike?

Yeah, you are invulnerable during the animation. This comes in VERY handy in higher difficulties. It's one of the best all around moves imo. High damage (especially single target) and invulnerability too. I haven't taken it off my Monk's bar since I got it.

[Werthead]

Elite: Dangerous gives us a new combat video.

Okay, that was pretty good.

[Fez]

Seven-Sided Strike?

Yeah, you are invulnerable during the animation. This comes in VERY handy in higher difficulties. It's one of the best all around moves imo. High damage (especially single target) and invulnerability too. I haven't taken it off my Monk's bar since I got it.

That too. Though in this case I meant the primary punch attack with the thunderclap rune.

[Merentha]

Elite: Dangerous gives us a new combat video.

Okay, that was pretty good.

That looked pretty good, but as far as upcoming indie spiritual sequels to Freespace2 go, my heart has already been won by Enemy Starfighter.

[Shryke]

That too. Though in this case I meant the primary punch attack with the thunderclap rune.

Oh, yeah, you can dodge attacks just by moving out of the way of them like that.

Might feel different since they rebalanced some shit for dodge-rolling.

[fuseprime]

Started a replay of 'Tomb Raider'. Awesome game, completely blown away by 'The Last of Us', but awesome in its own right.

I happened to enjoy Tomb Raider more overall. It was a much better "game" than The Last of Us. The Last of Us had a much better story...probably one of the best ever in fact. Tomb Raider, IMO, suffered because it came out around Bioshock Infinite, and although it's a reboot (thank God), I think people just got tired of its "brand". Hopefully they end Assassin's Creed soon because I fear they're beginning to dilute that brand.

[Alcibiades]

I spent about half an hour trying out the new free to play Ridge Racer: Driftopia game. As someone who likes arcady racers like Wipeout/f-zero but never got around to playing any Burnout, it's right up my alley. I ran a few races (I'm playing on pc, though I think it's on ps3 too) and had a good time. However, I don't like the business model. Every time you crash (and you'll do it a lot), you have to use repair kits to repair your car. Successful completion of a race gets you one repair kit, and sometimes you'll randomly get more as a bonus after winning. The only other way to get repair kits is to buy them for real money in the store. Repairing my noob car cost 2 kits, and after I leveled it up it costed 3.

It got me thinking about how free to play is like the return of quarter munching arcade games. I was too broke for those as a kid, and I'm too wise to them now. I think what I'll do is just wait for a serious Steam sale on Unbounded. I may play Drifttopia a bit more until I run out of kits (they start you off with a bunch). I'm not adverse to putting a bit of money into a free to play game that I really like, I just don't want to play one that's going to continue demanding money for me to go on playing. I don't think it's wise for me, and I don't want to reward it as a business practice.

ETA: Speaking of Tomb Raider, it's dirt cheap on Steam this weekend, so people should pick it up. I haven't played The Last of Us, but everyone's probably right that TR is the better game while LoU is the better story. What really carries Tomb Raider is exploration and fun combat. The fact that they made Lara Croft a bit more realistic and less a boyish marketing fantasy is just gravy.

[Merentha]

Oh holy shit Tomb Raider is 75% off on Steam. That's probably worth a pickup.

[Sonic The Hedgehog]

Count me in as another who prefers Tomb Raider for the game play. In such close comparison to The Last of Us it's really evident that Tomb Raider gives you more control and more options. Like both games have you get snared and hoisted into the air where you have to dangle upside down while killing enemies, but Tomb Raider actually lets you shoot yourself down rather than trapping you there until the combat is over. The fighting in the game is just so fast-paced and fun.I just hope with the sequel that's being made that they really add some character depth. Every character besides Lara was such a cheesy stereotype.

[Alcibiades]

Yeah... Lara was alright but her companions were very mediocre. The best narrative element of that game is exploring the island to find out wtf is going on, and finding some of the audio logs.

[Ser Jake]

Really enjoying Diablo III at the moment. It's my first Diablo game, and I find it very enjoyable. Got a level 29 Barbarian so far, love the art style and atmosphere and all the badass looking demon spawn. The only other game I plan on picking up this year is GTA V. I'll wait until next year before I get a next-gen console, I've still got quite a backlog of games to finish. But yeah, go buy Diablo III if you haven't already!