fausto higgins

First PC in 9 years; what should I play?

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While I'd normally agree, dollars to donuts his Book can't run Rome 2. Also an entire six months!

Actually Rome 2 can run on pretty weak hardware from what CA have said. So could Shogun 2. The Creative Assembly have been banging on about it being available for all the last year of PR. Obviously we're talking features-wise, I tried Shogun 2 on minimal and it looked like shogun 1.

I disagree personally. i spent more hours in Napoleon than Rome, and for good reason. It's such a polished game that's persistantly overlooked and a stop-gap.

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It's still running on the core framework of Empire, which is dull as paint musketoon battles. Obviously TETI, but gah. I guess the campaign driven nature of Napoleon could to.

As for specs for Rome 2/Shogun 2, I kind of doubt that there won't be a pretty major jump for Rome 2. If nothing else it'll take twelve hours to load the main menu.

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I dunno, it makes a lot of sense for them to keep the Rome 2 specs at or even below the Shogun 2 specs. Because consoles haven't bumped up a generation in a while, you have lots of people on older PC harware who haven't been forced to upgrade by any console ports they can't run, because they can still run all the console ports, so getting them to upgrade just to play Rome 2 would be a losing proposition. If CA instead spends their time tweaking the engine they had when they finished Shogun 2 to make it run better, their potential install base will widen rather than shrink.

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Morrowind OR Skyrim (playing either will make it hard to play the other, Oblivion falls between in all axes basically)

I think that is true only when you play Skyrim first and Morrowind later. If you progress from the older to the newer game it should be fine.

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Because there is no jarring experience where the game suddenly feels much less intuitive.

I personally find it hard to deal with early 3d graphics. For a long time developers where shooting for "realistic" when hardware just couldn't do that kind of visual fidelity.

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I think that is true only when you play Skyrim first and Morrowind later. If you progress from the older to the newer game it should be fine.

Depending on what you get out of Morrowind, transitioning to Skyrim is really jarring. Out of the box, you have a much more urgent main quest, you have fewer options for your character, the game is less free, you have to no quest journal, everything is hot-spotted. It's a game that can definitely feel "dumbed down" when you jump into it (and is dumbed down in some ways). It's the first game where they have actively stopped supporting role playing functionality by doing things like absolutely requiring quest markers to find anything. Skyrim is also the first game where, as far as I can remember, there were no ambitious steps forward in realizing role-playing nirvana. It was made by cutting away from Oblivion and refining, while Oblivion was more adding than cutting.

But this should not turn into a Skyrim-bashing thread. I love the game, and have put over a hundred hours in, but I see it as a more dangerous direction than Oblivion (the only crazy sins of which were being ugly and having dorky voice acting).

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While I'd normally agree, dollars to donuts his Book can't run Rome 2. Also an entire six months!

Quad Core 2.6ghz i7, 16gb RAM, 512gb flash storage, and GeForce 650M w/ 1gb. I should be find for most anything (though likely not everything).

Depending on what you get out of Morrowind, transitioning to Skyrim is really jarring. Out of the box, you have a much more urgent main quest, you have fewer options for your character, the game is less free, you have to no quest journal, everything is hot-spotted. It's a game that can definitely feel "dumbed down" when you jump into it (and is dumbed down in some ways).

This is all true, but I felt it made for a better game. I just felt there was too much in Morrowind (played on Xbox). Skyrim distilled TES down to what I felt was its biggest draw: a gigantic world with stuff to do. Yeah, the Dark Brotherhood wasn't as cool as the Morag Tong. And yes, nothing in either game was as good as Shivering Isles. But I really enjoyed the characters I made in Skyrim even if they did take out my two of my favorite things (enchanting based on spells and DLC Horse Armor).

I am, by nature, a min/max-er. So when I play a game like Oblivion or Morrowind, I end up spending far too much time grinding a particular stat category to make sure THAT one gets level up bonuses than just playing like I'd want to.

Compare this to one of my favorite games I mentioned before: Saints Row: the Third. I don't care how dumb it is to karate kick through an airplane in-flight, shoot a guy, and then parachute out the back why some girl with pink hair says sarcastic things. It, and Amped 3, both decided to dump the over-complication and distill down to what made those games fun in the first place.

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If you're a fan of point and click adventures there's a bunch of really nice wee games that have come out in the past few years (including the previously mentioned Telltale games).

I'd recommended Ben There, Dan That & Time Gentlemen, Please and Gemini Rue.

Ben & Time were both written by a couple of English guys and have a really great sense of English/British humour (says the Scot).

Gemini Rue is a nice wee scifi thriller that's just really well done.

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Depending on what you get out of Morrowind, transitioning to Skyrim is really jarring. Out of the box, you have a much more urgent main quest, you have fewer options for your character, the game is less free, you have to no quest journal, everything is hot-spotted. It's a game that can definitely feel "dumbed down" when you jump into it (and is dumbed down in some ways). It's the first game where they have actively stopped supporting role playing functionality by doing things like absolutely requiring quest markers to find anything. Skyrim is also the first game where, as far as I can remember, there were no ambitious steps forward in realizing role-playing nirvana. It was made by cutting away from Oblivion and refining, while Oblivion was more adding than cutting.

Wow, that actually makes a ton of sense. I always had this sort of, learned instinct, that the more intuitive a game was, the better the experience, even though I fully agree that Morrowind was the superior game when it comes to roleplaying and ultimately, immersion. I guess I was just thinking from a layman's perspective, but now I'm not so sure anymore. What I do agree with is that Oblivion gets so much flak, while it's actually pretty good and I really loved it the second time I played it thoroughly.

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If you're a fan of point and click adventures there's a bunch of really nice wee games that have come out in the past few years (including the previously mentioned Telltale games).

I'd recommended Ben There, Dan That & Time Gentlemen, Please and Gemini Rue.

Ben & Time were both written by a couple of English guys and have a really great sense of English/British humour (says the Scot).

Gemini Rue is a nice wee scifi thriller that's just really well done.

Yes, and aside from that try Resonance a very nice, contained sci-fi thriller.

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This is all true, but I felt it made for a better game. I just felt there was too much in Morrowind (played on Xbox). Skyrim distilled TES down to what I felt was its biggest draw: a gigantic world with stuff to do. I am, by nature, a min/max-er. So when I play a game like Oblivion or Morrowind, I end up spending far too much time grinding a particular stat category to make sure THAT one gets level up bonuses than just playing like I'd want to.

It's a question of your perspective. Skyrim is better in a lot of "game" ways, from the levelling system, to combat, etc. If you come to it in that way, then you will certainly enjoy it more. If you come to it from a role-playing heritage and want it to enable that kind of experience, some refinements/distillations feel like they undercut you. I don't think it's safe to say that one approach is better than the other. What actually sucks is that Bethesda is the only one making these kinds of games, which means that we have no elbow room in the industry for both approaches. I'm pretty sure it's the role-playing approach that's going to give, at least in the modern refinement-obsessed climate.

I honestly can't comment on Saints Row. I only played the Third, and it was one of those "fun but nothing special" experiences for me.

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Quad Core 2.6ghz i7, 16gb RAM, 512gb flash storage, and GeForce 650M w/ 1gb. I should be find for most anything (though likely not everything).

Wow, MacBooks have some a long way since I last looked at one. Alright yeah, I'd imagine you're good to go then.

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It's a question of your perspective. Skyrim is better in a lot of "game" ways, from the levelling system, to combat, etc. If you come to it in that way, then you will certainly enjoy it more. If you come to it from a role-playing heritage and want it to enable that kind of experience, some refinements/distillations feel like they undercut you. I don't think it's safe to say that one approach is better than the other. What actually sucks is that Bethesda is the only one making these kinds of games, which means that we have no elbow room in the industry for both approaches. I'm pretty sure it's the role-playing approach that's going to give, at least in the modern refinement-obsessed climate.

You're totally right. I've gotten back into D&D again for my hardcore roleplaying; a single-player experience, for me, was never the right medium in which to accomplish that. I never felt a real connection to my character.

Conversely, I actually get more out of my characters in NBA 2k and Saints Row 3 (bro?). That went double when I made my 2k13 character Steve Francis (I'm a native Houstonian, and he was one of my favorite Rockets players). I was upset when the 76ers lowballed me in contracts and made me play shooting guard, so I became a free agent and ended up signing with the Heat (THEY HAD THE BEST OFFER). Now, I throw lob passes from the point to Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and get 18 points and 10 assists a game.

EDIT FOR REFINEMENT: After each game, there's a press conference. I tend to give really snarky answers or just play it cool. When I was on the 76ers and we got blown out, a reporter asked me what I felt the team needed to do to improve. I answered back something like, "I wasn't ever particularly good at math, but I'm pretty sure if we scored more points and kept the other team from scoring as many points, we would have done better. So that's my answer: we need to score more points than the other team."

I've also got custom Nikes I've designed (yes, they have an in-game shoe designer, and I signed with Nike over Jordan), I'm being followed by Justin Bieber on their Twitter-analogue, and I've been on the cover of a whole bunch of magazines. I LOVE RPGS.

I honestly can't comment on Saints Row. I only played the Third, and it was one of those "fun but nothing special" experiences for me.

The scriptwriting for the female protagonist character in that SR3 was fantastic. She had these incredible throwaway lines delivered at the perfect times that did, for me, what the violence in Hotline Miami did for the the Thumbs guys. The level of utter disregard for human life a character like that would need is staggering; SR3 actually embraced it. It's like the anti Max Payne; the game never takes itself seriously, and every character recognizes that you've murdered like a million people.

Really, you're right -- it was nothing special. As a game, it's the equivalent of The Expendables. But I just loved how lines were written and delivered.

Wow, MacBooks have some a long way since I last looked at one. Alright yeah, I'd imagine you're good to go then.

Thanks. I'm sure I can build a better desktop rig, but I wasn't going to compromise on my laptop.

I use the same name on Steam (and pretty much everywhere else). I'm working on making all your suggestions in to a list to have on there. Every one of them I've played has been fantastic!

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Conversely, I actually get more out of my characters in NBA 2k and Saints Row 3 (bro?). That went double when I made my 2k13 character Steve Francis (I'm a native Houstonian, and he was one of my favorite Rockets players). I was upset when the 76ers lowballed me in contracts and made me play shooting guard, so I became a free agent and ended up signing with the Heat (THEY HAD THE BEST OFFER). Now, I throw lob passes from the point to Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and get 18 points and 10 assists a game.

EDIT FOR REFINEMENT: After each game, there's a press conference. I tend to give really snarky answers or just play it cool. When I was on the 76ers and we got blown out, a reporter asked me what I felt the team needed to do to improve. I answered back something like, "I wasn't ever particularly good at math, but I'm pretty sure if we scored more points and kept the other team from scoring as many points, we would have done better. So that's my answer: we need to score more points than the other team."

I've also got custom Nikes I've designed (yes, they have an in-game shoe designer, and I signed with Nike over Jordan), I'm being followed by Justin Bieber on their Twitter-analogue, and I've been on the cover of a whole bunch of magazines. I LOVE RPGS.

That sounds beautiful. That level of stupid intricacy for the purposes of role-playing just has such a dorky appeal to me.

I have almost always been a GM for any tabletop RPG I play, so it provides a very different experience from playing a single-player RPG. But I think if I ever found a group that I meshed with on the right level, I would have a lot of fun playing instead of controlling. On the other hand, one thing GMing and single-player games have in common is a high level of authorial control, which I think I value.

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Here's what you do. You install Steam and as sales happen you pick up games. Since you haven't had a PC for 9 years some of these games are at the point where they're old enough that for $5 or so you can get a whole series. You keep doing this and within a few months you'll have more than enough games to last you for 9 more years.

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That sounds beautiful. That level of stupid intricacy for the purposes of role-playing just has such a dorky appeal to me.

I have almost always been a GM for any tabletop RPG I play, so it provides a very different experience from playing a single-player RPG. But I think if I ever found a group that I meshed with on the right level, I would have a lot of fun playing instead of controlling. On the other hand, one thing GMing and single-player games have in common is a high level of authorial control, which I think I value.

Yeah, Vanaman's been talking about getting into MLB The Show on the cast, and I was like, "MAN. I'm all about the 2k." Playing as the '94 Rockets is a nice touch.

I had a weekly game going here in Houston, but my car died. That one ended because I was GM. And when I got my car back? One of my regulars went on tour with his band.

Here's what you do. You install Steam and as sales happen you pick up games. Since you haven't had a PC for 9 years some of these games are at the point where they're old enough that for $5 or so you can get a whole series. You keep doing this and within a few months you'll have more than enough games to last you for 9 more years.

That's good advice and exactly what I plan to do. In the meantime, I've got a great list to keep me started.

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I love your Alistair Cookie avatar Fausto. Those sketches are great. I have no PC gaming advice. I haven't had a decent PC in years.

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Here's what you do. You install Steam and as sales happen you pick up games. Since you haven't had a PC for 9 years some of these games are at the point where they're old enough that for $5 or so you can get a whole series. You keep doing this and within a few months you'll have more than enough games to last you for 9 more years.

Pretty much this. If you're catching up, and have no order to your list, just get games as they get reduced on Steam. Then drown in games when the Christmas sale happens.

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I love your Alistair Cookie avatar Fausto. Those sketches are great. I have no PC gaming advice. I haven't had a decent PC in years.

Me thank you, very much.

Pretty much this. If you're catching up, and have no order to your list, just get games as they get reduced on Steam. Then drown in games when the Christmas sale happens.

THERE'S A CHRISTMAS SALE?

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THERE'S A CHRISTMAS SALE?

Welcome to Steam, open your wallet and assume the position.

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I'd also like to suggest Kerbal Space Program but only because I feel the need to evangelize it. It's sort of the Spore creature creator for rockets crossed with the Apollo program with cute mascots.

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Speaking of holiday sales, this could give you a good start. $10 for Metro 2033, Red Faction Guerilla (Space Asshole), Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. Well, you also get Red Faction: Armageddon and Homefront, but those games are shit. Still a super solid deal - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A3F5S0O?tag=cheapassgam08-20

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