Son of Videogames Thread

[Tyrellius]

Just bought Saints Row 2 Platinum for peanuts on Play.com

For anyone in the UK there are some really good bundle packs coming out soon. Saints Row 3 and Uncharted 3 + new PS3 for like £250.

Being addicted to Starcraft 2 is paying off as I was able to pick up a lot of missed PS3 titles for dirt cheap. Saint Row 2 and most of the Assassin's Creed games and all platinum discount games now.

[TheEvilKing]

Yeah I'm almost definitely going to get Saint's Row 3. The only question is to pre-order, or to wait and get it cheaper down the track. With BF3 and Skyrim coming out shortly and Dark Souls eating a lot of my time as well, I'm thinking I'll wait.

[Kosciuszko]

Yeah I'm almost definitely going to get Saint's Row 3. The only question is to pre-order, or to wait and get it cheaper down the track. With BF3 and Skyrim coming out shortly and Dark Souls eating a lot of my time as well, I'm thinking I'll wait.

How you liking Dark Souls these days?

[TheEvilKing]

Good, except I can never find anyone to summon to fight the Bell Gargoyles. I've helped other people beat 'em a few times, but there's never any bros around for me to summon. Don't really wanna take 'em on by myself and risk my humanities.

[Muttering Bill]

Good, except I can never find anyone to summon to fight the Bell Gargoyles. I've helped other people beat 'em a few times, but there's never any bros around for me to summon. Don't really wanna take 'em on by myself and risk my humanities.

Summon Solaire? (You know that you have to be in human form to summon, right?)

They shouldn't be any trouble to beat solo. Even if you die, you can get your Humanities back with your blood stain. What SL are you? What weapon are you using?

I'm at Sen's Fortress now. This game just gets more and more evil the farther you get. And there are supposedly worse areas to come.

[TheEvilKing]

I don't see Solaire's soul sign anywhere. I got his white soapstone, but his sign should apparently appear outside the fog door thingy that leads to the gargoyles. It doesn't. :dunno:

I think perhaps I didn't talk to him long enough.

[Howdyphillip]

Another report on Arkham City... I just finished the story, and although it was excellent storytelling, and phenomenal voice acting (especially by Mark Hammil as the Joker.), it was incredibly short. It did not take much time at all to beat this game, and that is another disappointment. All and all, I think that Arkham Asylum was a much better game all the way around. .

[ICE CROW]

Another report on Arkham City... I just finished the story, and although it was excellent storytelling, and phenomenal voice acting (especially by Mark Hammil as the Joker.), it was incredibly short. It did not take much time at all to beat this game, and that is another disappointment. All and all, I think that Arkham Asylum was a much better game all the way around. .

There is still alot of side missions for you to do, i haven't played yet myself. But all the reviews i read said there is a ton of side missions, that are almost as deep story wise as the main story.

[Muttering Bill]

I don't see Solaire's soul sign anywhere. I got his white soapstone, but his sign should apparently appear outside the fog door thingy that leads to the gargoyles. It doesn't. :dunno: I think perhaps I didn't talk to him long enough.

I don't know. I never summoned him. Didn't even know it was an option at the time. I've been mostly keeping in undead form. I just know what the wiki says - be in human form, and there will be an orange summon sign before the boss gate.

Actually, come to think of it, I did fight the Gargoyles in human form once. I don't recall seeing his sign either. There was a guy with a boar's head helmet, but I didn't bother summoning him.

Maybe there is more to it that hasn't been figured out yet. Like how, in order to summon Maneater Mildred to fight Quelaag, you can't die between beating her and getting to the boss gate.

[ICE CROW]

There has been alot of Dark Souls in this thread, i myself am planning on getting it eventually. Some have stated how they enjpy the high difficulty level, while others hate it. This is great article about video game difficulty progression in the last several years.

http://games.ign.com/articles/120/1200005p1.html

[Fiddler]

When I fought the Gargoyles I summoned Solaire. His sign was right outside the fog door. I also heard that there was a second guy you could summon, can't remember his name off hand, but I hadn't talked to him in Firelink so I couldn't summon him.

As for me, I usually stay in Hollow form unless I know I want to summon someone to help with a boss fight. I just don't want to mess with the phantoms invading to much and I don't see a benifit like there was in Demon Souls.

Personally, I loved Saints Row 2. I felt that it was a more light hearted version of the grand theft auto series that I personally enjoyed a lot more. It felt like I had more stuff to do, more stuff to custumize and just all around more fun. I am looking forward to Saints Row the third, but I don't know if I will be getting it right when it comes out. I'm already getting BF3, MW3 and Skyrim, not to mention that I am still playing Dark Souls(and want to get some more achievments on Dead Island) so I don't know if I will have time to play Saints Row the third. Ah well, I'll be haveing a good time no matter what games I'm playing, lol.

I wanted to add, also, I love that trailer for Saints row the third. I love that it is a parody of MW3 and BF3. When I first saw it on Xplay I laughed my ass off.

[Poobah]

Meanwhile, Saint's Row 3 has elevated dementedness to an artform. The game has an entire Caprica City-style VR world thing going on within it, as well as the mental insanity that rages on the streets. This trailer reveals that the game has hoverbikes, as well as lots of soldiers in reinforced armour for you to kick in the nuts. Impressive.

I need this game.

[Muttering Bill]

There has been alot of Dark Souls in this thread, i myself am planning on getting it eventually. Some have stated how they enjpy the high difficulty level, while others hate it. This is great article about video game difficulty progression in the last several years. http://games.ign.com.../1200005p1.html

I agree with pretty much everything that article said. I started my gaming on an NES, when pretty much every game was hard. Now it's all about cinematics. "Hey, look how pretty our graphics are. Look how trite and mediocre deep and interesting our story is."

Not to say that cinematic and story driven games don't have thier place. Sometimes you want to sit back and enjoy a good story with a bit of interaction. I enjoyed Heavy Rain and Mass Effect well enough. And easy games too. Sometimes you just feel like running around and tearing through crowds of enemies in a Dynasty Warriors, or wandering the city in an Assassin's Creed destroying anyone who gets in your way. There's nothing wrong with that. At times. The trouble is that it's become the standard.

Honestly, Dark Souls isn't even that hard. It's about trial and error. Move slowly, be aware of your surroundings, study your enemies and develop strategies for dealing with them. Yeah, you're going to screw up. You're going to die. Then you think about what happened and formulate a new plan. And I think that what modern games are missing the most - creative thinking. It's all just a bit of action to hold you over to the next cut-scene. I can't even remember the last game I played that had puzzles. And that's mainly why it's being called hard; because you're not controlling an overpowered character that can just stroll through and slaughter anything in it's path. The enemies are stronger than you, but they do have weaknesses. You just need to find them.

I think that's why games have such short shelf lives now too. It's more like watching an 8 hour movie. You watch it, say that it was good, then move on to the next one. Maybe you'll watch it again sometime, but there's really no incentive to keep coming back - beyond you want to watch the story again once it's not so fresh in your mind. But also because of that, because most games these days are basically trying to be movies, we've all become numb (or grown soft, as the article says). So when something like Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry comes along, something that makes us strategize and learn from our mistakes... There will be some that latch on to it. I have to think that the majority will be people who started their gaming on an NES, SNES or Genesis, and miss the "good old days." And people who aren't used to having to think through their games are going to say it too hard or too cheap, complain a bit and move on to the next movie. (Although, to be fair, Ninja Gaiden 2 was extremely cheap. But not insurmountably.)

Last night I spent 2 hours playing Dark Souls. 2 hours that I spent trying to kill 4 Titanite Demons on the ground floor of Sen's Fortress. They are mini-bosses, so they don't respawn, and you can fight them one at a time. Even so, it still took 2 hours to get past them. And when I finally beat them, I let out a big whooping "Fuck Yeah!" Well, not literally, since it was past midnight and I didn't want to wake the kids. It was a silent version of the same sentiment. But when's the last time a game challenged you like that? When the last time that a game made your victory it's own sweet reward? I know the next last time for me (outside of Demon's/Dark Souls) was working through Master Ninja mode in Ninja Gaiden 2. Before that... :dunno:

[Inigima]

Dungeon Defenders is goddamn amazing with friends.

[ICE CROW]

@Muttering Bill

I argree with your post 100%, i was also a hardcore NES player. Its funny when i come across list on websites, of the hardest games ever and see titles like Megaman 2 and Ninja Gaiden. That yes they were hard, but i beat those when i was like 8 years old, put those same games in the hands of todays kids and they'll throw the controller through their HD TV.

Some will argue that games are still hard, but im sorry they are nowhere near as hard or challenging as they use to be. Look at modern games that have puzzles, Uncharted 2 if your stuck for a minute it gives you a pop up saying press up for hint, older games never use to hold your hand like that. Even the Call of Duty franchise, remember when you had to play smart, cus you had to find health packs. Now you can just rambo through on the hardest difficulty just hide behind something for a minute and your health regenerates.

Some games harder difficulties are more challenging then others, but the article i posted is right when saying gamers have gotten soft.

[Daeric]

Dungeon Defenders is goddamn amazing with friends.

I was just running through the tutorial for it and it seems like it would be a hoot with other people.

[Inigima]

I was just running through the tutorial for it and it seems like it would be a hoot with other people.

Daeric, you play a lot of the same games that my regular gaming crew does. You should come play with us.

[ICE CROW]

There have always been hard games, and there have always been easy games.

News flash: people like different things.

No debate there, true on both counts. The fact of the matter though is that in general, forget Hard and Easy, games Normal setting now is easier than it once was. Developers in general are doing a lot more hand holding, and step by step leading you to what you have to do. Instead of making the gamer really earn and figure out on his own what he's getting and how to achieve it.

Can you honestly tell me, that you have not personally noticed, the way games have changed regarding overall difficulty. With some exceptions of course, games that are the exact opposite end of the spectrum, such as the new Ninja Gaiden and similar titles.

[Kosciuszko]

No debate there, true on both counts. The fact of the matter though is that in general, forget Hard and Easy, games Normal setting now is easier than it once was. Developers in general are doing a lot more hand holding, and step by step leading you to what you have to do. Instead of making the gamer really earn and figure out on his own what he's getting and how to achieve it.

Can you honestly tell me, that you have not personally noticed, the way games have changed regarding overall difficulty. With some exceptions of course, games that are the exact opposite end of the spectrum, such as the new Ninja Gaiden and similar titles.

Play some Catherine. Seriously. It's a fun game, really difficult, interesting storyline. And the company that makes it also produces the Persona series; hell, it had the same dev team as Persona 4. And Persona is awesome.

An ad for it from awhile back.

[kungtotte]

I saw the Diablo 3 cinematic, so now I'm replaying Diablo (and will go on to Diablo 2 once I complete D1). Aside from it being a pain to play in 640x480 fullscreen it's still as fun as it was way back when.

Let there be clicks!