I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

[osmosisch]

Oh, thanks for the reminder. I'd been meaning to pick up Sunset. Paid a bit over spec, hope it helps them out.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, I just went ahead and bought Sunset and their pack of 3 games.  I've enjoyed the hell out of listening to and reading smart people say things about their games for years, and never bought anything. 

[dartmonkey]

Also, has anyone played either of the Revelation games? I'm tempted to try them out. I really liked 5, but bounced off of 6.

I'm making my way through the first game on 3DS. To me it feels very much like a return to the earlier corridor style of the first games but with the mechanics of 4. I'm enjoying it. The enemies are dull generic blobby things - easily the worst thing about the game - but it feels more Resident Evil-y than 5 so far (haven't played 6).

[Merus]

So I'm getting really close to the end of The Last Of Us - a game I bought at launch and have put down for long stretches of time before deciding I really needed to finish it.

 

I'm reminded why I've had a tough time of it - there's something about the way it's balanced that makes it very difficult for me to enjoy. I'm finding plenty of supplies, but I find combat particularly tricky, especially if I get into open combat, where I usually either die or lose a great deal of resources. I find the infected sequences particularly difficult in this regard, where the presence of a clicker (which are introduced pretty early on) usually means that if I'm ever spotted, I'm seconds from death (because taking out clickers with conventional weaponry when they've spotted you is untenable).

 

I can only imagine I'm missing a few critical skills - I get flanked particularly easily, and I'd imagine I'm supposed to be at least a little better in open combat than I am- but it means that, in practice, I end up stopping right at the start of a somewhat taxing stealth sequence because the game's pacing makes finding natural stopping points a little unclear (a problem the Uncharted games don't have, with their obvious chapter breaks), so my impression of the game always starts a little negative.

[Trip Hazard]

I think (not randomly but whatever) that a fiver for Her Story is a bloody good price and I'll take two, please

[Vasari]

On their E3 stream, Nintendo showed a bunch of old drawings on graph paper which were the original level designs for the first Mario game. I can't stop thinking about how cool it would be if they put all that stuff out in a nice big art book. Or imagine owning one of those original designs? I'm not a big Nintendo fan but I'm getting chills thinking about it. I just want to spend an evening flipping through all their documentation.

[Professor Video Games]

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/18/8803243/super-mario-maker-level-design-tips

 

Another source of inspiration and guidance for budding Mario level designers, Tezuka said, is the book that Nintendo is shipping with every copy of Super Mario Maker. The book features some classic Mario artwork and reproductions of original design documents for Super Mario Bros., but it also contains hints and ideas for level design.

 

Not quite what you want, but close.

[Dewar]

So I'm getting really close to the end of The Last Of Us - a game I bought at launch and have put down for long stretches of time before deciding I really needed to finish it.

 

I'm reminded why I've had a tough time of it - there's something about the way it's balanced that makes it very difficult for me to enjoy. I'm finding plenty of supplies, but I find combat particularly tricky, especially if I get into open combat, where I usually either die or lose a great deal of resources. I find the infected sequences particularly difficult in this regard, where the presence of a clicker (which are introduced pretty early on) usually means that if I'm ever spotted, I'm seconds from death (because taking out clickers with conventional weaponry when they've spotted you is untenable).

 

I can only imagine I'm missing a few critical skills - I get flanked particularly easily, and I'd imagine I'm supposed to be at least a little better in open combat than I am- but it means that, in practice, I end up stopping right at the start of a somewhat taxing stealth sequence because the game's pacing makes finding natural stopping points a little unclear (a problem the Uncharted games don't have, with their obvious chapter breaks), so my impression of the game always starts a little negative.

 

Same thing happened to me twice, very near the start of the game, and I gave up.

[eot]

Her Story comes out tomorrow, RPS seemed to like it. I think it looks like it could be quite interesting.

[Merus]

Same thing happened to me twice, very near the start of the game, and I gave up.

 

I talked about this with my housemate, and he mentioned that the game does heavily imply molotovs are to be saved for taking out clickers.

[dartmonkey]

On their E3 stream, Nintendo showed a bunch of old drawings on graph paper which were the original level designs for the first Mario game. I can't stop thinking about how cool it would be if they put all that stuff out in a nice big art book. Or imagine owning one of those original designs? I'm not a big Nintendo fan but I'm getting chills thinking about it. I just want to spend an evening flipping through all their documentation.

They could make a KILLING by doing a print run of those. Good quality, full size. They'd make hot cakes look like turds.

[tberton]

Her Story comes out tomorrow, RPS seemed to like it. I think it looks like it could be quite interesting.

 

I am pumped for this game. All hail the triumphant return of full-motion video.

[Zeusthecat]

I talked about this with my housemate, and he mentioned that the game does heavily imply molotovs are to be saved for taking out clickers.

 

I usually saved molotovs for bloaters. For clickers, I tried my best to sneak up on them and use a shank and if that didn't work, some well placed bullets usually did. If you can power through a little further, it starts to get a little easier once you've upgraded gun accuracy and shank durability. Not sure if you've gotten to the part where you are hanging upside down and having to shoot infected and clickers that are rushing you but that is the hardest part in the game since it's early enough that you hardly have anything upgraded. Everything gets easier from there.

[Dewar]

I'm literally 4 set-piece fights in or so. In the end, I don't play my consoles much anymore, and if I am down in front of my TV, I'd rather be playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag.

[eot]

Speaking of TLOU, is it worth playing even if you know how the story goes? I had no plans of buying a PS3 (still don't, except maybe for DeS one day) so I gorged on spoilers for the game, and now it's on PS4 obviously.

[Trip Hazard]

Crazy about Batman being pulled from Steam, hey? It's great that consumers can now get a refund on games which are borked, but I do worry that the bigger publishers are going to look back at this debacle, and instead of thinking "yeah, we have to make sure our game is TIGHT before we put it out on Steam" they'll think "Let's just not bother putting our game on Steam".

 

I suppose a safeguard against that is how enormous Steam is. Presumably it easily has the lion's share when it comes to digital game sales?

[Griddlelol]

Speaking of TLOU, is it worth playing even if you know how the story goes? I had no plans of buying a PS3 (still don't, except maybe for DeS one day) so I gorged on spoilers for the game, and now it's on PS4 obviously.

 

If you like stealth games, then yeah, it's worth playing. It's not the best game-play-wise, but it's got some great moments. It's also one of the few stealth games that does getting caught well. The fire fights and CQC that break out when you're caught feel really good. They feel panicked and tense like they should.

 

Plus I enjoyed the characters. Even if you know what's going it happen, playing as the character is great.

[Mawd]

It's finally starting to sink in how much I'm going to miss the now thoroughly declined Natural Selection 2 Australian community.

There was a time when I knew practically all of the regulars not just by their names but by what kind of player they were, how they worked in a team, and what their strengths and weaknesses were as players. I remember feeling awe playing with some of the very best players in the scene and despite my own turbulent ebb and flow of ability I felt pride that I was playing on a level with them where we trusted each other's abilities to win the match.

I gave almost all of my gaming time since 2013 to that game and it's left me with a long set of memories and friends. Friends who feel like little more than ghosts now that we barely cross each other. Of the ninety or more players I met through NS2 I don't think more than 30 play any game regularly now. Sure we're all busy with studies and work but well these people were more than passing faces.

See voice coms in NS2 were more than just an option to tell foes to suck it. Without multiple people sharing tactics and calling out enemy positions a team was screwed. I've never found a game where voluntary co-operation mattered so much not even CS:GO or any of the Lomas I've played.

Huh, it just sucks. Imagine it the Idle Thumbs lost it's forums and only twelve or twenty people at most gathered to listen to a podcast that aired every month or so. With the people you all liked to talk to sometimes appearing for short moments in other communities but without the glue that kept the interest.

Sigh I miss the big family that community could feel like even with the shitheads and scrubs.

I saw a server list of vets I know pugging in Dirty Bomb and even though I have no clue if I'll ever be a contender in any other competitive scene again I'm almost driven to try to if only to capture that rare sense I belonging that I've only felt once in a video games community.

Sigh, it just sucks.

[Dewar]

: (

 

I remember having a similar feeling as my last forum slowly died.

[Bjorn]

Notice the asterisk text. This is now my favorite advert on Steam.

 

[Griddlelol]

: (

 

I remember having a similar feeling as my last forum slowly died.

 

I remember that feeling when I left my WoW guild because I couldn't deal with playing on American schedules and working in the UK. Sucks. 

[clyde]

@moddy

Thanks for sharing that feeling. I didn't realize Natural Selection 2 had that type of thing going on with it. It's interesting how all the gruesome violence and competition in many video games can lead me towards thinking that there is no sustained solidarity and communion among players. It's interesting to try and figure out what encourages sustained non-anonymous communities in multiplayer games rather than just trying to figure out what keeps a population high.

Also what is "pugging"? Do you mean "pubbing"? As in going into public matches?

[Ninety-Three]

Also what is "pugging"? Do you mean "pubbing"? As in going into public matches?

 

Pugging as in PUG, Pick Up Group. Basically pubbing, yes.

[eot]

To me pug is a competitive match with all or mostly random people, against a similar or sometimes more organised group of people, whereas a pub game is a totally open game anyone can leave and join at will.

[Griddlelol]

What games do you play when you have 5-15 minutes to kill? Can be mobile, but I rarely play games on my phone.