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I've decided to abstain from going to PETMAN Conf 2014 and... *load buzzing sound becomes audible in the background, sound of door being being mechanically destroyed*

I just started playing Dead Space 3 and it will probably wind up being a candidate for quitters club before long. I agree with Sno wholeheartedly about the entire series. It just gets further and further off the rails. All of the tension and horror of the series has been completely drained out by the third installment. I mean you already start fighting a weaksauce cthulu an hour or so into the game! Dead Space 1 totally nails that resident evil dynamic of building up to giant crazy bosses. 2 has some of that but the whole second half of the game is a barrage of sensory overload. It's a great example of how adding shit on top of what already worked fine is a terrible path for sequels (and operating systems, windows 8!) to take.

500k as far as I can tell from steam stats: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ more than 6 million unique players though, which is rad.

Oooh that FC2 realism mod is quite interesting! http://www.moddb.com/mods/dylans-far-cry-2-realism-mod Kind of ties directly into a question I sent in about Far Cry 2 vs Stalker in respect to the damage your character can take and how that effects gameplay. I'll load this up and see for myself!

It was all about that hilariously slow homing missile that ended up killing you and your teammate more often than not.

That ambush scene so perfectly encapsulates Nick's playing style (and Far Cry 2 in general). I went back and played some Far Cry 2 after being inspired by the stream. Damn but do those controls take some getting used to! I took many a sunrise screenshot, got in many a shootout and drove off a cliff or two. It was a splendid revisiting of a flawed but super interesting experience.

I feel like a sea-change in my apprehension of spoilers is going to be necessary to stop buying games day one. Thankfully, in this case since I couldn't care less about the outcome of the narrative of GTA V it'll probably behove me to wait for the PC release.

I use this bad boy with 4 wireless xbox pads to play 4 player PC games all the time. http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver-Windows/dp/B000HZFCT2

Apparently this is a good way to play SS1: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=211.0

I agree with Erkki, the potions are a vital part of what makes the Witcher series compelling. It reminds you that while you are still very much the superman that most video gamemans tend to be, you're still quite fallible and must think strategically about combat rather than brute force everything you come across. It's a much more nuanced and layered approach to combat than your average RPG where you simply down 50 potions in a pause menu and continue on.

That's a pretty interesting review, and makes a lot of great points. Jenn Frank's article in Unwinnable (which was brought up earlier in this thread) also brings up the idea of the puritanical male gaze being detrimental to art: http://www.unwinnable.com/2013/04/26/tits-or-gtfo/ I do pick a bone with this idea of consistency though. Drawing a comparison between male and female characters based on how little clothing they're wearing is missing the point. It's been said before but: the objection to fantasy women wearing no clothing isn't just about inadequate protection; it's about the perspective of the artist. This is why the women are busty and scantily clad and the men are muscular stacks of testosterone. The (usually male) artist tends to picture himself occupying the role of the man, thus making him look powerful. This is true for Dragon's Crown as it has been true for fantasy art since forever. I'm not sure that taking the grosser elements of fantasy and exaggerating them makes any kind of coherent point. Feels a lot more like pandering hidden behind a veil of irony.

Papers Please does really have just the best sound design. Did anyone else who's playing it notice your guy's subtle breathing that can sometimes just barely be heard in the background? It adds tremendously to the tone of bureaucratic drudgery that backdrops the often frightening and heart-wrenching scenes that play before you and in response to your actions.

I quit Torchlight 2 after the first act because it kept crashing when I attempted to play with my gf online. Imo, the gameplay is far too dull to support a single player experience. Not to mention, it looks and mostly controls like Dota 2 so why not just spend my time playing an analogous game that's actually exciting?

The horror element of the game is super well-done.

cheating or not, this is awesome!

Just played some hilarious 4 player local multiplayer coop, haven't looked into whether there's online coop yet.

Great interview that underlines a lot of the reasons why this game stands out. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/197999/A_film_director_gets_video_games_right_in_Starbreezes_Brothers.php It totally flies in the face of the standard dictum that film directors suck at making games and vice versa. In this case, the director's outside perspective actually helped the game. Whereas the conventional way to do it is to pad out content in the service of length, and have tutorials everywhere, Fares explicitly made sure the game does neither of these things.

Yeah I get suuuper strong Limbo vibes from Brothers. Which surprised me considering how cheerful and charming the game starts out. This is a really fascinating game. Mostly thanks to its inventive control scheme. The attention to mechanics and how they intertwine with the narrative clearly shows a level of though often missing from games. I love that it's 3 hours long and packed to the brim with unique and interesting events. The Polygon review brings up a good point about how its short length allows the devs to never have to rely on a gameplay mechanic to the extent that it becomes rote. (think Last of Us ladders).

I didn't enjoy Saints Row 3 really at all. It's not my kind of humor, for one. The Robot Chicken comparison Chris made is apt. Scary Movie also comes to mind; there's a lot of reliance on pointing at something ridiculous and laughing without putting in any effort to craft a nuanced joke. Also the gameplay felt pretty dull. 99% of the game was awkward 3rd person shoot-outs. I was constantly running out of ammo which seemed odd for a game that touted itself as being all about hyperbole. That being said, I'm cracking up at this trailer for 4. The sillyness of its humor can be endearing at times. I'm just not sure if the actual game underneath it will ever be my cup of tea:

Absolutely. All that the new consoles are doing is improving their specs (to a level we already can observe in PC games) It's the new and incredibly broad possibility space that the Oculus promises that makes it so dang exciting.

Yeah when I tested it it was with glasses on. (Big ol vintage frames and all) I only used it for a few minutes though, so I can't speak on effects from prolonged use.

The entire point of a different perspective, though, is that you're discovering things about another person or a group of people that you did not know before. It's ok to not know. I bet when you though of 'game from a female perspective' or whatever, you didn't imagine it would be about sleep problems caused by having large breasts. And that is the entire point! You're learning something new by playing a boobjam game or the ones I listed previously. And they're not games for women, they're games for anyone and everyone who wants to engage with the material.

It need not be reductive to identify with a female character, or any character. It completely depends on how the story is told. Some of the most interesting games out there right now are entirely about putting the player in the shoes of someone they may not necessarily have any experience with; in fact gaming is the perfect medium for this when you think about it. Games like Mainichi, Cart Life, Howling Dogs, Papo Y Yo, and Papers Please all offer alternative and often incredibly powerful non-traditional perspectives by allowing you to see the world through the eyes of characters as far away from the space marine as possible. And this is the stuff that excites me more than any other facet of gaming. The potential to walk into a room as someone who you never imagined you'd ever understand and gain even a kernel of understanding, of comprehension about another human being, this is absolutely something I'd like to see more developers strive for, not brush off as impossible or not worth the attempt.