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Discuss anything from Age of Empires to Wasteland. Any gaming talk that isn't Fallout-related goes here.
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Superhaze
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Post by Superhaze »

S4ur0n27 wrote:What's Victoria about? It's like post-EU?
Vicky is a shamelessly Euro/western-centric strat game like EU, but the mechanics for EU doesnt quite work with the industrial revolution etc. so they have changed quite a big regarding trade, research, politics and pops. Its probably one of my favourite grand-strat games.
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Post by Blargh »

Borderlands 2 was reasonably amusing. Though they may have homaged a little too much to Sterling Archer with the character of Handsome Jack ? Dishonoured is highly engaging, I'll probably ruminate upon it, in some sort of depth, when the wonders of finding ways to trap guards into being DEVOURED BY THRONGS OF RATS, amongst other things, has worn off. Apparently, the fourth chapter of The Walking Dead will be out in a day or two. I confess, I've lost interest.

Also, Hotline Miami is up for pre-order (I can hear you scoff, and you ! - and I would agree, usually) on GoG (though it doesn't, yet, appear to include the soundtrack as part of the usual extras - I remain hopeful that this will be remedied). I'm reasonably confident that, at the time of writing, $9 ($1 off !) is as cheap as it gets. Looks fucking fantastic.

Also, Retro City Rampage IN THE very near FUTURE ? I don't know. :drunk:
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Post by SenisterDenister »

So the new XCOM is fun.
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Post by Tofu Man »

Nothing to play worth a damn all year and now all of the interesting AAAs are out within days of each other? All 2 of them? Why, thank you marketing! <strike>:dru</strike> Dishonoured annoys as much as it impresses in the first 10 minutes-

Yay, another fucking tram intro; oh wow, mouse controls aren't actually fucked up!; Yay, children; oh wow, movement is fast and precise and here, I can climb things, me!; Yay, it's being patronising by having me complete a "mission" consisting entirely of walking forward, Yay, I'm in jail again (gee, thanks bethesda), Yay, more patronising hints, and again, thanks bethesda, a fucking objective compass; oh wow, these guards seem quite adept a fucking my shit up; wow, attack animations are faster and more conducive to proper skill-based gameplay than any fps in the last 10 years; wow, my sneaking-by-hiding-in-clearly-not-too-dark-shadow is woefully inadequate; wow, I can move unseen through a bunch of guards, plant a bomb, hide in a bin, dive for the safety of water amidst threats of surprised guards, AND I could have killed them/unconsciousified them instead!

Everything I've played so far's let me know that this probably wasn't made with me in mind (cue embracing corpses with the "Oh, we're dying!" journal right next to them) but I've been pleasantly entertained. Straight combat seems way too easy to make sneaking anything other than a nod to "that old guy that played Thief", but hey, it's only the intro level; besides, I could've played on hard or harder instead (and prolly will if it doesn't pick up).

Current mood: Cautiously optimistic; hoping gondola-induced exposition isn't going to turn into a "thing".
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Post by jimmypneumatic »

This is not my computer. I think a small Japanese man lives in it.

Starhawk.

That gold yet? I have no way of knowing, the spotlight eye in my backyard pyramid keeps blinding me when it makes a pass. It actually makes my viewscreen break down into fractals (in my own eye)
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Post by S4ur0n27 »

I downloaded World of Tanks(free to play) two days ago, and I'm completely hooked. The game balance is perfect, the game is hard and punishes you, but it's so much fun. The leveling system is fun to go through, and it's so vast.

Highly recommended.
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Post by Blargh »

I just beat a dozen mimes to <strike>death</strike> sleep with a golf club, while hopped up on 'Milk' and on fire, in Retro City Rampage. It's basically an 8-bit GTA 1 with severe ADHD. While it is fun, it's not something I'd want to play for more than a half hour or so at a time. Some iffy bits (though perhaps they're just unusually stubborn homages to THE EIGHTIES - I don't know), such as : being able to buy what amounts to a single use skateboard for THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, because you can't store it and it vanishes when you die. Same with certain other purchased/unlocked vehicles. A terrible tailing mission that lambasts tailing missions for being terrible. :meta: Stealth sections. Other stuff I haven't encountered yet. Presumably.

Also I suspect most of the numerous references have been concord on account of the fact that I haven't played many console games, particularly those of the vintage this game is so enamoured with. Ehue. :drunk:
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Post by VasikkA »

The new XCOM makes me wet my pants.
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Think you'll still get a squad after what happened last nigh

Post by Blargh »

The glow has faded, all the entertaining bits have been drowned out by the parts of my mind whinging about the flaws, and, as threatened, I return. In no particular order, Dishonoured . . .

Odd, unsatisfying pacing. Could have, I feel, benifited from a mission (or two ?) before the whole dead empress plot point, if only to develop the character of the protagonist, the empress, the daughter and the various opportunists who are Most Displeased with the ahead of schedule return of Corvo, and, more importantly, establish why we should give a fig about her ignominious demise. Similarly, I believe that, ideally, the hilariously hamfisted betrayal (spoiler : you are betrayed) <strike>should have not have been hilariously hamfisted</strike> should have been the half way point of the narrative, with a series of much more substantial scenarios where the player steadily ruins the 'loyalists' aspirations/respirations and makes them collectively shit themselves/question why in fuck they ever even conceived of betrayed Corvo, unquestioningly obedient attack dog that he is, in the first place. Oh, wait, it's because Corvo wouldn't let them manipulate (his ?) the daughter. A voiceless protagonist with an agenda ? How curious. Perhaps I would have liked the option to play Callous Usurper Tyrant with Stockholmed Puppet Empress myself ? Perhaps I would have liked the option to not be given a why would you hurt your allies ? game over after the YOU'VE BEEN POISONED IN AN OH SO CUNNING TWIST visual cues spurred me to shoot the conspirators in the face with explosive bullets ? Perhaps Corvo was -~straight edge~- ? YOU DON'T KNOW.

In this sort of game, the mute protagonist is a woefully poor choice.

FASTEST RE-REVOLUTION IN THE WEST. Wilfully ignoring the implied six month stint in ye olde not-Cragscleft, the events of the game take between five and seven days . . .

Also, how the fuck is stealing the purse from the bloody actual regicide an adequate response ? Because he's so fabulously emo ? Even if you take the stance that he was just the tool chosen for the task, I ask again : how is stealing his wallet at all cathartic, thematically or as an accomplishment ? Why in fuck can I not review my statistics until the end of the mission ? This, combined with the . . . interesting way in which the game attributes corpse responsibility (TELEPORTING RAT SWARMS) means I am Quite Glad I wasn't running a no kill jaunt . . .

The Outsider (who is, apparently, a colossal whale who has, it seems, consumed far too much pulp media of the era) felt like something out of (what I might imagine) Twilight (to be). Is his (?) agenda really nothing more complex, more nuanced, than <strike>lulz</strike> It Seemed Amusing At The Time ? No closure on the whole fluff dispensary heart of empress-with-(implied)-benefits plot point ? Fucking really ? No one notices/comments on the bloke in the scary mask who runs around with a heart clutched in his fist running around with a heart in clutched in his fist ?

GOOD EVENING MADAM, PAY NO MIND TO THE BLOODIED HEART, FOR I AM HERE TO KILL THE WEEPERS. ALL THE WEEPERS. Also, to take your candlesticks and potted whale meat.

Insufficiently challenging. With the magical bag of tricks, including such gems as rapid short range teleportation, invisibility and the ability to see pretty much everything through walls . . . ghosting the entire game was much less engaging than I would have liked. Might consider a replay with no magic, no upgrades (at the least, not the stealth boots), but the anemic, incoherent, stiflingly linear plot and the unrealised, underdeveloped, unresponsive characters, are sapping my interest in doing so. Perhaps I would have a more favourable opinion of the difficulty curve if I hadn't been ghosting Thief I/II and their assorted attendant fan missions for the past 12 years or so. Funnily, I'd grade the AI as only marginally better than that of the Thief series. How far we've come . . .

Further, there are effectively three options for less-than-lethal play. You can choke them, shoot them with a rare and/or expensive dart, or avoid them. Whereas you can stab, dismember, shoot, incinerate, explode, or have them consumed by rats, MAGIC rats, or naturally occuring, teleporting rats. You can even interfere with time and, via possession, walk them into their own bullets, walk them into being atomised by SCIENCE ! grade security devices, walk them off of a roof et al. Much more variety.

The whole eleventh hour Piero/Sokolov BFF happy magic fancy dancy SCIENCE ! faire felt, in a series of similar thematic elements, extremely contrived. Bravo for consistency ! Also, ran into a (mildly amusing) bug where, due to having personally removed all the enemies in the area, Piero decided to develop spontaneous rapid onset dementia and repeat a comment about his glorified Van de Graaff generator no less than nine times before walking off the roof. Also, in that specific scene, they both repeat the same comment regarding the device and its capacity to kill/incapacitate verbatim. Equal parts condescending and perplexing.

The voicework. Despite the presence of Susan Surandon, Brad Dourif, Lena Headey, John Slatterly, and even Michael fucking Madsen, most of the voice work is, at best, average. Can't blame them, really. Speculating, but I'd find it challenging to give my best efforts to a such a clumsy narrative. Also, I've heard that voice acting is a substantially different frog to EVERYTHING ELSE. And the pay usually sucks. What a shame.

Some painfully moralistic bits in relation to the <strike>morality</strike> chaos system. One stand out bit would be right at the end, where your chauffeur gets all high and mighty if you've stabbed and shot and generally been very unpleasant to a numerous and varied group of people who've been (trying to, at the least) stabbing and shooting and generally been very unpleasant to you, throughout the entire game. YOU SIT IN A BOAT. You abandoned friends to be executed so YOU COULD SIT IN A BOAT. It is not your prerogative to judge. Also, bolt to the eye.

Despite the gameplay dichotomy of lethal/non lethal, the narrative and characters seem to only be written to respond to Corvo-as-Mass-Murderer (despite the traditional definition of assassin making no mention of indiscriminate slaughter), rather than three (such excess, such indulgence !) sets, one with Corvo-as-Saint-of-Not-Killing-Ever, and one with Corvo-as-Saint-of-Not-Killing-Ever-Well-Alright-Sometimes-Rarely-But-Only-If-My-Modern-Take-On-Morality-Tells-Me-So. BUT YOU'RE AN ASSASSIN BUT YOU'RE AN ASSASSIN BUT YOU'RE AN ASSASSIN BUT YO -

Also, anyone who claims that the daughter was a well executed child character may, I suspect, have the brain worms. A character who bases their entire moral outlook from your killing/not killing a dozen guards, for example, is an exaggerated, shitty, shitty, character. SHIT.

Indeed, for all the talk of multiple paths, they seem to have forgot multiple consequences. The choice to spare a target by having them abducted (SOMEHOW) by a gang of street thugs, and be worked to death in a mine as a slave for the rest of their short, miserable life receives, at best, cursory mention in dialogue/text. Favourite would have been the one where you can elect to place a woman who was an obstacle to your Good, Loyal Friends at the Loyalist Conspiracy into the (lifelong, apparently) care of her ominous, unsettling, anonymous (if not for the Outsider spawned Floating Name system) elephantmanesque mask (there were some awesome masks in that level) wearing admirer-from-very-afar, rather than grant her an honest, quick death. MORAL AMBIGUITY ! Worst would be the regent, who, mind bogglingly, keeps a recording detailing his responsibility for not only the death of the empress, but the importation of the plague rats that have basically overrun the entire city (empire ?) and his intention to use them as a means of wiping out all those useless, listless, unsightly poor people. A recording that is, conveniently, compatible with the nearby citywide propaganda broadcast hub. The regent, who was, until his little coup, the fucking spy master. Completely bereft of logic. It was, I concede, rather fun to find the first target wandering around in a plague district, his last (written) words all FROM HELL'S HEART and such.

Awful ending, too. HAPPILY EVER AFTER/OH NO EVERYTHING'S ROOTED FOREVER. No middle ground.

Brace for DLC.

So. I blame two things. Bethesda. Bethesda and the capitulation to hoary console hardware.

What could have been. Oh. What could have been.

WORDS :aiee:

:drunk:
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Post by jimmypneumatic »

Infamous. It's pretty good, and hugely stressful when I finally beat a scenario, but rewarding. How does the saying go? Weakness leaving the body hurts. And what doesnt stronger makes kill u... u
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Post by jimmypneumatic »

Gran Turismo, you fickle bitch... sucked almost a decade out of my life... I think there are cheaters online, but could just be my paranoia. Anyway, wanted to let you all know if you don't already (or give a rats patoot) that there are limited edition standard vehicles going up on the online dealership. They are gems, hand picked... 300sl... Jag XFR... others. I still don't have my GT40 from the late sixtie- 20M at best... UUUUUUUGH I feel better getting that off my torso
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WHY ARE WE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION ?

Post by Blargh »

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT

Hotline Miami is fucking grand.

I know. I know.

The gameplay reminds me much more of Syndicate than GTA 1. If Syndicate dosed you, the player, on PCP and had you wrangle only one agent at a time, and had a fantastic soundtrack (which is included in .ogg).

The plot makes almost no sense. In a departure from my usual stance, I don't mind this in the least.

It's punishing, visceral, frantic, and, when you finally briskly strut through a level without error, in a lurid display of near perfect reflexes and grotesque violence ; hypercatharsis.

Highly recommended. :drunk:
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Post by Tofu Man »

Going through it. Or rather, catching my breath behind a closed door, frying pan in hand, waiting for the guard to pass it by; "easy now- you open the door on his face, chuck the pan at the other one, pound this one's face into mush, grab the knife and cut the other one's throat. Simple." . If that's not bloody satisfying, I dunno what is.

2 issues. Maybe my eyesight is going but I'm having trouble finding the crosshair amidst all the fuss, maybe some colour or a flashier animation could help; same key for executions and human shields makes the second option awful hard to pull off in the middle of action, maybe an option to bind that to Shift or something.

Totally with Blargh concerning the sounds. The sights you can see for yourself- personally, I think they're brill. Controls are sharp as fuck, too and considering the gameplay, they really oughta.

Not played enough but I can't fucking wait to get my hands on it again, if that's any indication.
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Post by Blargh »

Nowhere Tether wrote:crosshair
Must concur, it can be difficult to keep track of, between the pace and the art direction. As for human shields, I've yet to find them useful. They slow you down, limit your mobility, only unreliably intercept bullets, and your opponents seem to not care a whit for the wellbeing of their erstwhile comrades.

I am at a loss to determine which is objectively the best mask.

Jake, Carl or Peter ?

TYRANNY OF CHOICE :aiee:

Would be nice if high scores were organised by mask, given how radically they can change playstyle and opportunities.

Also, flexibility > 0 ? If so, how ? Bugged ? Or just obtuse ?

Also, unlocking more masks. <strike>Four</strike> Two to go, and less and less rhyme to their manifestation. Or perhaps I'm just being horribly inattentive. What a surprise. :drunk:
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Post by Blargh »

Actually, Phil is best. Best mask.

MYSTARY solved.

Whereas Carl is arguably the worst mask, as it appears to not function at all. :drunk:
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AlsoX2 WHY THE FUCK ISNT TRAILER PERTURBATOR TRACK USED?????

Post by Tofu Man »

Blargh wrote:useful
Saddened if that's the case. Thought it might be useful for :clear 3-gunmen-room with shotgun: when it's impossible to without because of the reload time. But then the only time I pulled it off semi-successfully (whilst trying to execute the prick) it merely seemed to delay the inevitable death by machinegun for 1/2 a second, so my (rather lacking) experience mirrors yours.
Blargh wrote:Also, flexibility > 0 ?
Always 0 here, so far. Suspected it to reflect my hamfistedness at it. That's another thing, I've no fucking clue what most of the scorecard means, so maybe it'd benefit from an additional training mission where it's laid out for you. Then again, maybe I've just been improperly re-continioned by the last 10 years of shit hand-holdy gaming. Maybe I should stop being a pussy and get with :learnthrurepetition:. Maybe one opens up when you finish it. Maybe. mebaY. M.

Tony seems awful useful. Then again, I've just gotten to Don Juan, the latin gentleman of equine persuasion.

Also, had the ost on me ears for a bit now, both tracks named-after-cities2 are fookin' beast. (well, one track named after a city, the other named after what Blargh's avatar would look like if it had tenants and a tattoo and it was nighttime and it was the 80's):whateverthesmileycodeforguywithheadphonesisbecauselet'sbeseriousI'mnotgoingtowaste10minutestryingtofinditintheviewmoreemoticonswindow:

EDITALSO- M O O N i s t e h s h i z n i t .
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Also, press X to taunt enemies in 16th century english.

Post by Tofu Man »

Come to think of it, your avatar'd make for a bloody good mask.

Image
BLARGH

Increased screen wobble*. Drunken movement. Plot makes sense**. Start with beer bottle.

*EPILEPSY WARNING - refer to manual***

**results may vary

***lolwat? manuals, this day an age? hahahahah



I'll shoot Den and Tom an e-mail. :drunk:
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Post by Blargh »

Ahaha. I'm imagining every colour in the palette of the game cycling at variable yet independent rates, each colour on a different sequence. All derived from player character motion. The provision of an example would dilute the majesty.

I noticed that points are awarded from enemies seeing you. Which is usually a very dicey affair, obviously. It is referred to as Exposure during the tally. This means that, on average, one will score less points as they refine their approach. On the other hand, by this time, blitzing an area in a single combo is, at the least, feasible.

Just acquired the 'sadist' rating. :dance:

Now if only I could find that fucking alligator . . . :drunk:
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Post by SenisterDenister »

Mountain Blade is taking up my time again. Playing with the Floris mod this go round. Something different than Native Expansion, which is what I normally use. Any other suggestions for mods?
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Post by rad resistance »

For which game? Cause i have loads of suggestions mostly for CoH, ME:TW and Empire Total War.
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