Thrik

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Posts posted by Thrik

  4. Posted

    Haha, wow. I was just peeking at a gameplay video and holy crap the the UI is a lot like Destiny's. The ship customisation screen is so lifted. I mean it works, but Destiny's novel and superb UI is a significant part of its identity (especially bearing in mind how much time you spend there) so to have another space-orientated game use such a similar approach seems like a missed opportunity to me. Then again, the similar might help to endear it to the masses — something that was potentially a conscious design decision — so I can't completely condemn it.

  6. Posted

    I'm just a silly bastard and keep watching TV shows rather than continuing to play the games I'm halfway through like MGS5 and Uncharted 4 even though I think they're absolutely excellent.

  7. Posted

    The Sims for Mac isn't available through the Steam store, I hadn't thought to look outside of that. It is on Origin, but I'm not willing to deal with just for The Sims. 

     

    Another thing I like about Rimworld is that it resembles the mods used for my

    , which used Fallout style mods to give Dwarf Fortress a post apocalyptic feel. Which is Rimworld default mode.

     

    Ah right. I guess because I keep all the gaming shit like Origin and Steam tucked away on a separate partition it doesn't bother me so much. Origin and Steam are both pathetically under-developed though — both still look like hell on a high-pixel density display. So annoying when I use them.

     

    I know Windows generally isn't free but if you ever get the opportunity to grab a Windows 7/8/10 key I'd highly recommend installing it with Bootcamp. I noticed that the same games installed on both Windows and OS X literally run at twice the frame rate in some cases, or at the very least a good chunk faster. It's a very effective way of getting more gaming life out of an ageing (or even new) Mac, if that ever becomes a concern.

  8. Posted

    I'm liking your anecdotes about this game. I think I'll get it this weekend.

     

    The guy really should mention Prison Architect on the website though, ideally where a whole load of other games are prominently cited as influences. Only seems right. :tup:

  11. Posted

    Social aspect is clearly referring to the way that the game has brought literally tens of thousands of people together IRL who'd never otherwise have met. From a purely academic point of view I'd be fascinated to know how many lasting friendships or even relationships result from this game. I know that with its spiritual predecessor Ingress this happened a lot — in fact I know a woman who's met several dates through it.

    It's definitely missing a lot, but in all honesty the whole app screams 'exploratory prototype' to me. I can't imagine that they expected this kind of sudden popularity and would imagine that there'll be lots of additions in the coming weeks and months to milk the fad for as long as possible. Nintendo's big question right now is presumably whether or not it has the legs to be an enduring cultural phenomenon like Ingress.

    Without the masses of people playing it everywhere leading to in-person encounters the shine would probably wear off fast. Perhaps more than anything this game is revealing most people's innate desire to connect with others in the real world, and for those who struggle with that it's perhaps a really nice ice breaker and feeling of being part of something. It's not just a idyllic fantasy — people really are connecting through this thing.

  12. Posted

    Well Nintendo certainly seems to be on a roll this week! I too would definitely grab a SNES version for the convenience and nostalgia/collectable factor of the physical unit, if it came with key favourites like DKC1–3, Super Mario All Stars, Mario Kart, and Super Mario World 1&2.

  13. Posted

     

    I've seen Pokémon Go with a couple of people now and, it's weird: it looks like a pretty ugly / visually uninteresting game with mechanics that don't terribly appeal to me beyond the gimmick aspect of augmented reality. Yet, everyone goes nuts about it, which must be a combination of Pokémon and the adventuring vibe? Like, it's just inherently fun to go outside to do an actual goddamn quest in real life, wandering around - no matter how shallow or ugly or iffy the game itself is?

     

    It's basically just what we all dreamed of as children, right? Being able to go out in the world and catch Pokemon. Not some virtual world in a console — the actual world. Just like the earlier games' characters' adventures would just be random shit that happens to them while out and about, the same can happen to you while playing this game. Will you find some rare delight? Nearly get eaten alive by a bear? Meet wonderful new companions? Get mugged? It's all part of the adventure.

     

    Of course the game is ropey as hell. It's noticeably rough for an iOS game, with lots of blurry textures and UI elements. Animations and transitions feel clunky and overly time-consuming. The overall performance of the application is bad even on an iPhone 6S Plus. But see my previous paragraph for why none of that matters.

     

    Personally I'm basically done with it after one morning since it came out in the UK. I can see younger people absolutely loving this, and clearly many older people are too. I'll probably delete it soon. It's been a fascinating fad to see happen though, one that seems to cross generations like few other phenomena.

  14. Posted

    Haha that's my feeling too, but we keep coming back so it must be good.

     

    However one thing that bothers me about the game is how light it is on story and cutscenes. I never thought I'd say that about Metal Gear. The gameplay to cutscene ratio almost feels like an American RPG. I've played for 30 hours and really not much has happened, it's like I am playing a Bethesda game. Really at 30 hours in a Metal Gear game you shouldn't be asking where the story is, you should be finishing your second run through. 

     

    Is this even the case when you're listening to the cassette tapes as you unlock them? I'm not particularly far in, but I've been enjoying a steady supply of new narrative-orientated tapes as I complete each main mission. I've been treating them like the codec conversations of the older games, where I just sit and listen to them while having a cup of tea or something. It's a lot like MGS2 in that respect, seeing as that game was probably 90% codec to 10% cutscene.

     

    It's different but still nice, and actually I feel less obligated into enduring the long stretches of narrative on the game's terms; instead, I can dive into it when I can't be bothered with actual gameplay. I've also been hearing quite a lot of Big Boss in these conversations, whereas in the game proper he's basically a silent protagonist — which makes sense seeing as you can swap your main character for others, such as a woman with a voice of her own.

  16. Posted

    I honestly hate my base and that I have to deal with it at all.  It's so weird and annoying digging through a billion menus (which are horrible in the PC port) just to unlock things.  And then I'm supposed to just walk around for no reason to raise troop morale.  I capture tons of people because otherwise I can't get items, but the capturing is a comical hot air balloon extraction.  I feel like I am playing the worst economy game in between missions.  I am wondering what would happen if I just ignored it altogether because it occupies most of my game time and is almost unbearable for me.  Otherwise, it's one of the very best games I've played, the peaks are high, but so much of the game is listening to tapes and digging through menus.

     

    In Peace Walker you could pay relatively little attention to all the base stuff and the net result was the game just became considerably harder because your equipment was less varied therefore you had less perfect-tool-for-the-job options. There were occasionally moments where you actually needed something like C4 so a little grinding was needed to get some money and research, but honestly only a few times.

     

    The Peace Walker Mother Base was literally just menus so it was a lot more boring. Everything about it seems a lot better thought out and implemented this time around. In both games Mother Base is essentially a second game in and of itself, which a lot of people seem to really enjoy but I can see how all the resource procurement and management could grate on some. Just ignore it and see what happens, report back for the rest of us. :D

  18. Posted

    Yeah that is absolutely ludicrous. For all of PC gaming's technical advantages, that we're still stuck with DVDs in an era of games often being 15–40GB is downright daft. For people like me with relatively slow internet connections (still sadly common even in UK cities), digital distribution isn't a good solution with all forms of digital media continuing to balloon in file size.

  21. Posted

    I did find that the truck method was extremely effective, although I only discovered you could do that when replaying it on hard. The first time I played Ground Zeroes I extracted the female prisoner all the way out to the cliff you started at, which I can definitely say wasn't easy but just required a lot of good timing. Your toolbox is pretty limited in GZ, but you can still make use of distractions. For example, set some C4 somewhere and detonate it to attract enemy attention over there. Magazines are unbelievably useful and make up for the lack of being able to knock on surfaces like in previous games.

     

    I find that GZ is at its best when you're not overthinking things too much and think fast, maintaining stealth but only just. The game seems to allow for lots of edge-of-seat moments like this due to cars unexpectedly driving by and patrols changing, which is but a taste of what to expect in The Phantom Pain's much bigger world. In previous games you can plan out a whole section and execute it quite perfectly, but in GZ you can totally have a solid idea of what you're going to do and some spanner will almost certainly be thrown in the works. Also, in previous games you could 'clear' areas by taking everyone out. This isn't really possible in GZ so you need to embrace using CQC (or if you must tranquilisers) to temporarily get through areas.

     

    As reviews have highlighted, the gameplay mechanics and systems in MGS5 are the star of the show. Unlike any previous MGS game, you can have bombastic experiences that resemble scripted set pieces occur out of absolutely nowhere. With so many options and ways of playing the game, I think that self-imposed restrictions will be a more fun way then ever before to play (or replay) these games. That is, challenge yourself to only use certain pieces of equipment, no weapons, no alerts, etc.

  22. Posted

    I'm going to miss Kojima with nobody to bankroll his lovely madness.

     

    With the reviews for this game I don't think that Kojima will have an awful lot of trouble finding someone to back him, even if it comes down to what will surely be the most successful Kickstarter on the planet.

     

    A friend of mine had his MGS5 preorder come today. What an absolute git. Sounds like Simply Games is the place to go for UK preorders.

  23. Posted

    Didn't see a thread covering either of these so thought I'd create one for this absolutely wonderful new trailer for the Nathan Drake Collection:

     

     

    Really brings back how splendid this series was, true classics that I'm delighted will be preserved in the finest condition with this remaster. Weirdly I feel a bit nostalgic about it even though it's not even that old a series.

  24. Posted

    Oh yeah, I totally missed that. Building GMP should provide a really nice sub-game, especially if you can earn it through base assaults and stuff. All of that could become a way you spend your evenings on MGS5 in itself, like Destiny except with a fleet of fortresses to show for it rather than just a piece of shit in your inventory.