Video Games: Shadow of the Rise of the Live Madden War III- HD Remaster

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

You dont need a travel case. 

Okay, thank you! That's good to know.

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

I didn’t need a Micro SD card until I downloaded Diablo 3.  I have a handful of games downloaded and the rest are physical copies.  I managed to get a 128 GB one for $20 at Best Buy the other night.  It was a crazy bargain for some reason.

I would recommend an extra pair of Joycons.  If the budget allows, there is a charger that doubles as a controller grip.

So I have a couple of questions. If you buy physical games, it's not like the Playstation where you still have to download a huge ton of data to play it? You can...just play the disc (or whatever Switch has) like in the old days? 

Also, I was looking at the joycons. They have two smaller controllers attached to a single one? This console is so strange! But I can't wait to play Breath of the Wild with him.

[Kalbear]

To my knowledge you can't play botw together. But you should get a second controller. I'd recommend getting a standard console controller instead of the joycons. 

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, The Grey Wolf said:

What PS3 operating snafu?!

Someone else can likely explain it better.  But my understanding is that when originally promoting the PS3, Sony said you’d be able to run a different OS.  (Like you could download Linux or something.)  Not long after launch, a patch came out that took away that ability.

A year or two ago I had to return a postcard saying I was mad as hell about that.  Then BINGO!  Ten bucks.  

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

Okay, thank you! That's good to know.

So I have a couple of questions. If you buy physical games, it's not like the Playstation where you still have to download a huge ton of data to play it? You can...just play the disc (or whatever Switch has) like in the old days? 

Also, I was looking at the joycons. They have two smaller controllers attached to a single one? This console is so strange! But I can't wait to play Breath of the Wild with him.

The Switch uses little bitty cartridges.  You download some, but not a ton of info. I really do think that if cost is an issue; you could easily wait on the Micro SD.

The Joycons are weird.  They are like part hand held console controllers, part regular controller, part Wiimote.  Depending on the game, you can use them in many functions.

For example, in MARIO Kart you can play it with using the two Joycons in a controller grip base.  Or you can turn them sideways and two of you can each use one to play with them as mini controllers.  The reason I recommended a second pair is to use them as four controllers if needed.  

But as Kal said, a gamepad controller for serious gaming would be useful.  If you don’t anticipate ever needing four players, I’d go that route.

One silly game I like to have is 1-2-Switch.  It’s just a bunch of mini games that use the Joycons to show off their abilities.  One has you milking a cow, another has a wizard wand battle, another is a QuickDraw contest,etc.  

[Toth]

Yeah, the humblebundle cheapskate strikes again. Even though I really shouldn't have and now feel extremely guilty about it, I bought the Warhammer bundle after a particularly exhausting day to blow off some steam.

I was especially interested in Battlefleet Gothic Armada, which had looked extremely cool when it came out. And I must admit, it indeed is extremely fun. Both very tactical and 'slow' as I love my strategy games, while the individual engagements still barely last more than 5 minutes. So you can accomplish quite a lot in what little spare time you have...

And the atmosphere is really, really terrific. When in my very first mission as admiral one of my escorts was torn apart and sacrificed itself ramming the enemy ship and the captain of one of my cruisers panicked and wanted to warp out despite the enemy vessel being already as good as done for and I had to order his fist officer to execute him... yeah, that's the grim darkness of the 40k universe alright. Also the ships look absolutely stunning and detailed and mean. So really, I had a lot of fun.

... at least if the game wouldn't be so astonishingly hard even on Normal difficulty. The first convoy I had to protect against Ork pirates I did around half a dozen time. They always just charged right past my cruisers and swatted the transports right away, causing me to loose the important food delivery for this planet. I only managed after I looked up some tips and learned that you can right-click on every skill to let the AI automanage them so that you aren't constantly stressed out by keeping the boarding action and torpedo arcs of every ship in sight. In fact, it made every battle considerably easier given how ridiculously good the AI captains are at timing their skills. With that I was much more effective in taking on the Orks (I still changed my strategy in the way that I now just leave my transports where they are and just focus only on the enemy vessels, one time even hiding them behind a convenient asteroid field where the Orks had a hard time even reaching them).

I also dabbled a bit in the skirmishes. They too are extremely unforgiving. The first matches I always got my ass handed to me and I had to warp out. When playing the Eldar I forgot to switch from broadsides to frontal assaults and ended up wondering why my ships weren't firing. Still one of my best first runs given how ridiculously powerful they were. When playing chaos however I was incredibly frustrated fighting the Tau. The chaos thing is whittling down an enemy at a distance, but the Tau are simply better at this and always give you a face-full of rockets. When I grew desperate and closed in at ramming distance, the Tau's turn-rate made it impossible to out-maneuver them and I kept getting a face-full of rockets. It's the only battle where I didn't manage to warp out and they just wiped me out in the very first engagement. I don't know how the hell I could have done a better job there since Chaos just sucks all-around and the Tau proved to be ridiculously tough.

Orks however... my first mission was against Space Marines and I find it rather telling that here too I approached them the wrong way, but had time to adjust my strategy and still win. It seems the Space Marines suck just that badly in space. In any case, after my first frustration that I could barely scratch them with my puny weapons (so much for the 'shooty' approach you can do in ground combat), I ended up just mashing red buttons and rammed everything in my way. That was both very fun and highly effective. Especially in one scene where I saw two Space Marine escorts essentially lining up in front of one of my cruisers, but one of my own severely damaged Ork escort with disabled engines was in my way. I then said "WHAT AR YA DOIN YA GITS? GET DA HELL OUT O MY WAAAAGH AND LEMME HIT DA BOXY HUMMIES!", mashed the red button, cleaved through my own ship and both the Space Marine vessels, destroying all three of them. That really felt like an incredibly orky thing to do.

[Luzifer's right hand]

On 11/12/2018 at 10:33 PM, Werthead said:

Bullfrog may be the greatest development studio of the 1990s (alongside LucasArts) for this. Their games stand up brilliantly now, even the older Syndicate. Dungeon Keeper II is also excellent. Have you played Two Point Hospital? It's made by veteran Bullfroggers and is a modern version of Theme Hospital. Fantastic game.

 

Ah interesting I need to give this game a try. I noticed so many new things playing Dungeon Keeper. I never used to spell which allows you to control creature when I played it as a kid but you can do a lot of stuff with it like going straight to an enemy keeper with an imported level 10 creature which allows you to win some of the early missions incredible quickly,

[Fez]

I want to pick up Hitman 2, but after dropping almost $600 on my cat over the past week (he seems to be getting better now) I don't really have the budget for games until I get my Christmas bonus.

However, owning all of the Hitman (2016) on Steam does unlock the ability to open the Hitman 2 client and replay all its maps there (and IOI has updated the old maps to include the changes from the new game, including the ability to hide to tall glass and mirrors being reflective). So I've started replaying Hitman, and its really great.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

9 hours ago, Kalbear said:

To my knowledge you can't play botw together. But you should get a second controller. I'd recommend getting a standard console controller instead of the joycons. 

Yeah--I meant more like we'll play two files at the same time. When he was little, we'd swap the controller on games like this, but he's 13 and going to want to play his own adventure. BUT I figure I can talk to him about this one as opposed to Fortnight which I don't play and I have no idea WTF he is talking about 99 percent of the time. A standard controller is an interesting idea because as we go forward, I think playing nintendo classics would be awesome.

8 hours ago, Rhom said:

The Switch uses little bitty cartridges.  You download some, but not a ton of info. I really do think that if cost is an issue; you could easily wait on the Micro SD.

The Joycons are weird.  They are like part hand held console controllers, part regular controller, part Wiimote.  Depending on the game, you can use them in many functions.

For example, in MARIO Kart you can play it with using the two Joycons in a controller grip base.  Or you can turn them sideways and two of you can each use one to play with them as mini controllers.  The reason I recommended a second pair is to use them as four controllers if needed.  

But as Kal said, a gamepad controller for serious gaming would be useful.  If you don’t anticipate ever needing four players, I’d go that route.

One silly game I like to have is 1-2-Switch.  It’s just a bunch of mini games that use the Joycons to show off their abilities.  One has you milking a cow, another has a wizard wand battle, another is a QuickDraw contest,etc.  

This console sounds awesome. Thanks for clarifying too. So if he gets Breath of the Wild--which is his top choice right now (though Smash Bros is really catching his attention), we will be okay without an SD for now. If I get one now, I'd have to go cheaper which isn't a huge boost in storage space. I could come back and get one with more space later anyway.

Great!

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Oh, and I'm playing Tales of Berseria. I only ever played Tales of Vesperia before, and I liked that game, but I like the characters in this one better. I even enjoy the little (skippable) conversations the party has...for the most part. There are some too "cute" characters that are grating. But the game is pretty cool.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I have been playing quite a bit of Fallout 76 and I'm enjoying it a lot. 

I even had quite a bit of fun with  photomode. 

Too much maybe. 

Making friends.

At the gold course.

Playing a bit of music. 

Getting in touch with my inner raider.

[aceluby]

6 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Yeah--I meant more like we'll play two files at the same time. When he was little, we'd swap the controller on games like this, but he's 13 and going to want to play his own adventure. BUT I figure I can talk to him about this one as opposed to Fortnight which I don't play and I have no idea WTF he is talking about 99 percent of the time. A standard controller is an interesting idea because as we go forward, I think playing nintendo classics would be awesome.

This console sounds awesome. Thanks for clarifying too. So if he gets Breath of the Wild--which is his top choice right now (though Smash Bros is really catching his attention), we will be okay without an SD for now. If I get one now, I'd have to go cheaper which isn't a huge boost in storage space. I could come back and get one with more space later anyway.

Great!

I have the console with Fortnight, Hollow Knight, Xenoblade Chronicles, Wizard of Legend, and Salt & Sanctuary all downloaded (maybe a couple others).  Haven't run out of space yet, so you can definitely wait on the extra SD card IMO; especially if you're planning on getting physical copies of games.

[Werthead]

On 11/14/2018 at 1:02 AM, Meera of Tarth said:

Is there a new version of Theme Hospital?
Oh...I have vivid memories of that onee

Yes. Two Point Hospital is, at the moment, my clear choice for Game of the Year.

Quote

 

I was especially interested in Battlefleet Gothic Armada, which had looked extremely cool when it came out. And I must admit, it indeed is extremely fun. Both very tactical and 'slow' as I love my strategy games, while the individual engagements still barely last more than 5 minutes. So you can accomplish quite a lot in what little spare time you have...

Yeah, I found this game interesting but ultimately a letdown. Far too hard and I must admit the 2D plane thing was infuriating. The same publisher brought out Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock a few months later, which was a far superior game.

[Fiddler]

On 11/15/2018 at 10:19 AM, Wolfgang I said:

I have been playing quite a bit of Fallout 76 and I'm enjoying it a lot. 

I even had quite a bit of fun with  photomode. 

Too much maybe. 

Making friends.

At the gold course.

Playing a bit of music. 

Getting in touch with my inner raider.

I'm enjoying the help out of the game.  Been playing a bit of cool with my brother and it is great fun.

 

[Heartofice]

13 hours ago, Fiddler said:

I'm enjoying the help out of the game.  Been playing a bit of cool with my brother and it is great fun.

 

Good to hear at least one or two positive things. I've seen so many scathing reviews of this game I'm pretty disheartened.

[Toth]

On 11/16/2018 at 7:03 PM, Werthead said:

Yeah, I found this game interesting but ultimately a letdown. Far too hard and I must admit the 2D plane thing was infuriating. The same publisher brought out Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock a few months later, which was a far superior game. 

Well, I take what I can get.^^ Yes, I wholeheartedly agree to how ludicrously hard it is (I'm still pretty bad playing any other faction than Imperial Navy), but right now I still find it very cool. Often frustrating, but all the more glorious when you pull off a victory in the campaign.

BSG Deadlock also looked somewhat interesting, but I guess it comes a bit late and the BSG craze went over me.

I'm still curious how Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 will look like. From what I can tell it is basically the same game as the first one, just with an insane 12 factions instead of just 4 + 2 DLC ones. I'm also not exactly a fan of the new Gathering Storm events. Probably because I have too much of a soft heart for Magnus and wanted him to have a redemption arc, so I obviously don't like him loosing his soul and becoming one-dimensionally evil for no good plot-reason... not that he seems to be appearing in the game, of course. Trazyn and Papa Smurf are comparably interesting characters at least, especially from what I read about the latter being totally irritated about all the grimdark, while former is just an amusing troll. Makes me hopeful that the story will be a bit more engaging than the first game. Yes, its campaign mode is very reminiscent of Dawn of War II (which is my favorite Warhammer game), but the actual 12th Black Crusade storyline doesn't really offer much in terms of twists, it is the same Chaos fucking things up story that crops up in every single game except the DoWII basegame.

[Werthead]

Almost finished my first XCOM2 War of the Chosen campaign. Superb game, adds a lot of meat to the XCOM 2 bones (which were somewhat bare in the vanilla game), but I made the mistake of not doing the Shadow Chamber research for a long, long time, mainly because the "breakthrough research" stuff you have to do immediately kept coming along one after the other and I didn't want to lose any of them. Unfortunately this has left me with an absolutely insane, massive roster of hulking death machines who put paid to all of the Chosen ages ago, so now the Shadow Chamber missions are far too easy.

Still, a very good game. I don't think XCOM 2 has quite reached the heights of Enemy Unknown/Within (the ludonarrative dissonance in the sequel between story and gameplay is a bit too unconvincing, plus the busywork in the metagame still ends up extremely frustrating) but War of the Chosen at least brings it within spitting distance.

3 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Good to hear at least one or two positive things. I've seen so many scathing reviews of this game I'm pretty disheartened.

I get the impression that Fallout 76 is a very odd game. It doesn't have the polished gameplay, heavy action or fast game turnover to interest hardcore FPS multiplayer fans, but it doesn't have the single-player storytelling focus to bring in the traditional Fallout fans. It seems to be mostly appealing to people who play Fallout mainly for the combat and settlement building and like a bit of low-stress, low-intensity multiplayer.

The frustration I'm seeing is that people think the world is amazing and a decent size for a change, and could imagine the excellence of a proper, single-player, quest-based Fallout experience in that setting, but instead have this kind of psychopathic multiplayer version of The Sims to play with instead.

My personal hope - given apparently it's still going to be a 2 year wait minimum for Starfield - is that Bethesda bolt in a single player campaign to Fallout 76 at a later date, which I think is more likely if the sales and reviews end up being disappointing (and I don't think there's much risk of either troubling the acclaim that Skyrim or Fallout 3/4/New Vegas received).

Bethesda are also getting a lot of heat at the moment after confirming that not only Starfield but Elder Scrolls VI will both continue using the Creation Engine, which is demented.

[l2 0 5 5]

RDR2 has taken a back seat the past week to Spyro. So much nostalgia... Such a gorgeous game and the soundtrack is as scintillating as I remember.

[Werthead]

Felt an urge to replay Fallout 3. Currently hip-deep in modding guides. Jesus, there's a lot of them to get the game looking reasonably well, playing nicely with Windows 10 and to also stop it crashing every five seconds (I forgot the game even had a limitation where it can't use more than 2 GB of memory, which has to be modded out).

It's also comical seeing how many of these issues are still blighting Fallout 76. C'mon Bethesda, get a fucking grip and make a new engine.

[Rhom]

On 11/15/2018 at 9:42 AM, Simon Steele said:

Oh, and I'm playing Tales of Berseria. I only ever played Tales of Vesperia before, and I liked that game, but I like the characters in this one better. I even enjoy the little (skippable) conversations the party has...for the most part. There are some too "cute" characters that are grating. But the game is pretty cool.

I played Tales of Zesteria and Bersaria earlier this year.  I really enjoyed them both.  Berseria has some great characters in my mind.

[Heartofice]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's also comical seeing how many of these issues are still blighting Fallout 76. C'mon Bethesda, get a fucking grip and make a new engine.

They have been milking this engine seemingly forever. Fallout 4 looked totally out of date when it arrived ( Fallout 3 wasn't ever beautiful ever) and now we have Fallout 76 which IMO looks dog ugly from what I've seen (the occasional landscape shot apart). 

There's really only so many ugly boxish interiors covered in rust I can look at without getting a headache. 

But the worst thing about these games is the lack of attention paid to PC gamers. The Pipboy system does not work with a keyboard well. Skyrim's inventory system was horrible. It seems they just do not care to do things differently for those people without a console.