Video Games: And Now For Something Completely The Same

[Tony Soprano]

Any opinion from Europa Universalis IV?

I really like Crusader Kings II and was wondering if this one is worth the money.

It's not out yet, release date is 13th of August.

I've played all of Paradox's grand strategies so far, and if you're a fan of the genre EU is a must. But be prepared for a game that's a lot more complicated than Crusader Kings II. I'd recommend you get EU III: Chronicles to see how the series plays.

[jurble]

In this reddit thread:

http://www.reddit.co...michael/cavksrd

about what was found on Michael Jackson's PC, they listed his usernames. A guy found a video of Michael Jackson possibly playing Runescape (though the Username is not a complete match):

The comments the user left don't really shed any light one way or another. Interesting though. Especially given a comment left on the video some years ago:

Did king tut quit becuse heis on my friends list and is never any more

[Centrist Simon Steele]

All right, just got Last of Us yesterday and after three hours it says I'm 27 percent complete. Am I doing something wrong? I don't want to be done with a 60 dollar game by Friday.

[Lord Tyrion's Whore]

All right, just got Last of Us yesterday and after three hours it says I'm 27 percent complete. Am I doing something wrong? I don't want to be done with a 60 dollar game by Friday.

I understand that the game was designed to be about 12 to 16 hours long, but there's a youtube video of a full play-through lasting just 9 hours. Wow, I don't own a game console so I had no idea how much those games cost. That's like 6 bucks an hour. Kind of sucks.

[Werthead]

Finished the main campaign on Company of Heroes 2. Very solid, though it turned into too much of a cakewalk at the end. By the end of the war the Russians had overwhelming technological and manpower superiority over the Germans and basically curb-stomped them through massive firepower and overwhelming numbers, and the game reflects that a bit too accurately. The Theatre of War mode, which is a mixture of singe-player, co-op and AI battles based around specific criteria, is where the game really shines over its predecessor, with a great variety of challenges to complete. The Theatre of War is also dynamic and challenging, with DLC planned to expand it.

Overall, very good but also a bit on the conservative side. It does feel like Relic was badly stung by the reception to Dawn of War II, which changed almost everything about the original game, and have been frightened into making CoH2 almost the same as its predecessor, just with different sides. I'm also not convinced that CoH2 is better than CoH1 with the Eastern Front mod installed (though CoH2 does have - more accurately - tougher T34s) for pure multiplayer, though obviously the SP content is extensive and worth the price of admission.

All right, just got Last of Us yesterday and after three hours it says I'm 27 percent complete. Am I doing something wrong? I don't want to be done with a 60 dollar game by Friday.

This is why I'm refusing to buy it until I can get it cheap :) However, the second-hand copies I've found are going for about £3 less than the full-price, which is ludicrous.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Decided to play my old infinity enginegames. Im starting with Torment, and then will play the BG series. Ive already used EasyTUtu to clone BAldurs Gate into the BG2 engine. As im impatient to get to BG2 which ive never actually completed (ultima online stole my attention in 2000), ive imported a bunch of TOB starter gear to twink my chars, with my main dual wielding Drizzt's scimitars :)

I also dug out Desperados, a weatern strategy came made with the Commandos engine. Its as fun as i remember.

[Sci-2]

Massive 4th of July sale at GOG

If nothing else, grab Hotline Miami for $3.33. This game is just insanely fun and addictive. And strangely enough, actually comes with an interesting story.

[GoodGuyA]

You shoulda done BG first, since BG1 is older than Torment and thus a bit less intuitive overall. I can understand the reasoning though.

And why are people so angry at 9 hours? Do we really have to break down into deciding "time for money" to determine whether or not a game's worth playing? Sure, I'd love it if all games had Ocarina of Time levels of content, but I would more than willingly pay 60 dollars for 6-7 hours of extremely satisfying content (which I'm sure the Last of Us isn't for me)! Not every game needs to be elongated like an RPG or have crappy MP.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

This is why I'm refusing to buy it until I can get it cheap :) However, the second-hand copies I've found are going for about £3 less than the full-price, which is ludicrous.

I almost never buy brand new games--the last one I did was Dark Souls which got me 200 hours. No matter how good Last of Us is I am starting to really regret this purchase. For 60 bucks I want more than a few days of game time. I think anything under 20 hours is a ripoff anyway, unless it has huge replay value which I am not seeing in Last of Us.

Edit: And I'm playing Planescape Torment right now. I added a bunch of resolution mods and I have to say I've often had a hard time getting into the game, but this time I'm really getting right along. I like it. It's grim and disgusting.

[Derfel Cadarn]

You shoulda done BG first, since BG1 is older than Torment and thus a bit less intuitive overall. I can understand the reasoning though.

I've played BG umpteen times when I got it in winter 1998. I played it about 18 months or so ago also with the intention of playing through BGII, though I stopped BGII after getting out of Irenicus' dungeon and got distracted by other stuff. I've had Torment for years and never completed it, so I want to get it done.

The last time I did BG (using EasyTutu for the BGII engine), I logged into TOB first and exported characters loaded up with TOB's starter gear, and used the multiplayer to import those chars into BG. Once I was out of Candlekeep I deposited the gear, deleted the TOB characters and transferred the save back to the singleplayer folder. I then had an arsenal to kit everyone out. My main was still level 1, but with such a high AC he was almost untouchable in melee, and used Drizzt's scimitars to good effect. I was able to storm through the game for the story.

I had Khalid dual wielding two uber powerful bastard swords to good effect. It's kind of weird to listen to him being all nervous about combat while handing out asskickings. Minsc was also suitable badass with a Flail of Ages in each hand.

[Hallyington]

Bought Victoria 2 yesterday.

Still struggling to try make Ireland decent.

[Muttering Bill]

And why are people so angry at 9 hours? Do we really have to break down into deciding "time for money" to determine whether or not a game's worth playing? Sure, I'd love it if all games had Ocarina of Time levels of content, but I would more than willingly pay 60 dollars for 6-7 hours of extremely satisfying content (which I'm sure the Last of Us isn't for me)! Not every game needs to be elongated like an RPG or have crappy MP.

It depends on the game really. I prefer long games too, especially if I'm playing full price. But I got Lollipop Chainsaw at full price - it was 4-5 hours long, but completely worth it. The game was awesome and as long as it needed to be. I've played through it about 10 times, so I've gotten about 50 hours out of it. I also play a lot of fighting games, which is about 15 minutes through arcade mode, and that's fine too.

But for a game like The Last of Us, which is mainly about the story, 9-12 hours isn't good enough. And assuming that it plays similarly to Uncharted, I doubt it would keep me coming back for multiple play-throughs. I'm waiting for it, along with Bioshock Infinite, to drop to $20.

[Xanrn]

I consider anything under £1 pound per hour of gameplay, shit.

Thats single player campaign only, no sideshow bullshit.

So basically I only buy big RPGs, Strategy games and Multiplayer games.

Most of the big companies hate the used game market and then make games for it.

Edit: Forgot Indie games, which are usually good value aswell.

[Fiddler]

I think the price vs time argument has some merit, but I think it also depends on the game.

I'm ok paying 60 dollars for a great game that is only 9-12 hours, such as Infinite(which I do think is a great game). The enjoyment of the story, for me, was worth the money.

Now a game like Black Ops(another game that I loved and would put in my top ten) I would say the time vs price argument has more merit. While I love playing it and enjoyed the story, if I only played the story, I don't think it would have been worth it. But, the 20 days or so that I put into the multi player made it one of the best value games I have ever bought.

So, I think it is an argument that can change based on the game itself. If last of us's story is that good, then, IMO, it would be worth full price.

[Sad King Billy]

price & time does have merit, but I can honestly say that hotline miami was one of the best games I played in 2012, and I finished that (with both endings) in 4 hours. great but short still trumps long and filled with a mediocre experience (meaning gameplay, atmosphere, writing, ...)

[Francis Buck]

The Last of Us is definitely closer to 15 - 20 hours for the average person. I had just under 15 (on hard, with no listen mode), and that was without going for collectibles or anything. It also depends on difficulty. If you play on hard, or with listen mode off (or better yet, both), it's going to be a longer playthrough because you have to go a bit slower and pay more attention to your surroundings. Anyone beating it in 9 hours is seriously blowing through the game. It's not really comparable to Uncharted at all either, certainly not in a gameplay sense. You customize/upgrade Joel, the environments are big and offer multiple ways to complete many of the areas, and there's a decent amount of collectibles (many of which offer new story points/side stories). And there's NG+ for all difficulties. I definitely think it was worth $60, just for the single player alone. Of course there's also the multiplayer, but I'm not really into many MP games so that's not much of a factor for me.

[funkymonkey]

All right, just got Last of Us yesterday and after three hours it says I'm 27 percent complete. Am I doing something wrong? I don't want to be done with a 60 dollar game by Friday.

Keep in mind that the game also has a pretty good MP component, so dont write it off the game's longevity just yet. And the SP is a decent length. took me around 15 hours on my first playthrough

[TheLoneliestMonk]

Id also point out that as the game goes on, things get more difficult, and you have to move slower. 27% of content may not be 27% of time.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte]

Just played the walking dead DLC, it was awesome!! My only complaint is that the criminal vince's storyline was like 5 minutes.. All others had satisfying 20 minute stories which all ties together in the epilogue(which changes depending on your choices). All in all, it's definetly worth the 3 bucks on steam.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Interesting. I have another questions, what's all this online pass stuff I'm seeing now? When I bought Last of Us the girl offered me online pass for an extra 20 bucks or something. I didn't ask her what it was, but it sounds like more nickle and diming from the companies.