Gamers Thread

[HamburgerBoy]

Well, in the original Deus Ex you didn't really see what would happen down the road, but you had an idea. You still got to see or hear actual characters in the game and knew what their plans were for the future, even if in Tong's case (the silliest ending) it meant seeing you run for escape and receiving some mildly encouraging words as you evade a nuclear explosion. When I first played the game it would leave me wondering if JC survived or how Tracer Tong would maintain his own ideas. It made me hungry for a sequel and filled with happy fantasies.

As a prequel, Human Revolution can't exactly fulfill that but instead should mesh at least to some extent with the original. I just watched the rest of the endings on YouTube, and ugh. Jensen literally just repeats what the leaders say in their already-shallow dialogues in Panchaea. There's no sense of accomplishment. In Invisible War you at least got to see augmented people and greys being lynched should you choose the Templars; with Darrow you get scary pictures of oil fields and soldiers of the Iraq war marching around. With Everett's ending you had an actual dialogue and a quick sample of further Illuminati plots underway; with Taggart, the ending was most succinctly summarized with a YouTube comment "So basically, Adam says "We need laws and regulations, so I'm going to put that power of regulation in the hands of the mother fucking Illuminati. Who I don't exactly trust." Yeah, no. Not to mention a fucking foreclosed home sign. My goodness. Then with Sarif's ending they start talking about a human singularity? When in the HELL do they even mention that? Were they trying to throw a bone to the fans of the original by making obvious parallels between the original three endings, and that was the extent to which they could mirror the Helios ending? Add pictures of cavemen with fire and moonwalking because progress. Not only do they not make sense in their own world but they make no attempt to mesh with the original Deus Ex.

I mean, it's almost like they wanted to make a dark, defeatist game where no matter what you choose you're fucked, but instead of driving that point home, they give Jensen a bunch of sappy talking points and motivational pictures and dramatic/emotional soundtrack. If they explicitly showed Sarif being killed or driven out of business or whatever by Bob Page, being a cover up to hide their technology so that Paul & JC's story could begin, I would be totally satisfied. But it didn't come close.

EDIT: But I don't want to focus on literally just the final ending videos. The entire Panchaea part was a waste. There were exactly five plot-relevant conversations amidst all the zombie killing, and aside from Darrow's you gained nothing. Well, aside from learning that a shady preacher whose name rhymes with Swaggart was being deceptive (SHOCK SURPRISE) and that you get to confront Sarif for STEALING YOUR D-N-A[sic]!!! (something you pretty much figure out in your first time in Detroit). It was just crap all around.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Hm, well, I only did see one ending of Deus Ex, and that was the Helios one. Which consisted of a brief, goofy conversation with Helios, a Voltaire quote and then credits. I was pretty underwhelmed.

 

[WCannibal]

Contra 3 is better.

 

[JontRevolting]

So I got this fucking router and still can't connect my 3ds,does anyone have any suggestions or can offer some advice.

 

[waif]

With the endings in Human Revolution...they really should have toned it down. Obviously multiple endings are necessary, but there's no need for them to be so wildly divergent. It also would have been nice if they'd led into the first game a little better.

I thought in terms of gameplay Human Revolution was honestly better than the first game. I mean, it wasn't quite as good at player choice in gameplay, but the sneaking, shooting, hacking, etc were way more satisfying. Visually it was obviously a lot better, both in terms of the graphics but also aesthetically. The first game has a much better plot, however...although even that is kinda silly at times.
Still, if you judge them relative to their time periods Deus Ex 1 is the obvious winner.

Also, I didn't really hate Invisible War the way everyone else did. I kinda dug it, although when I go back to it after having all the flaws pointed out I guess it does seem kinda shit.

 

[damnromulans]

I played Raging Rabbids on Kinect last night. WHAT THE I DON'T EVEN

 

[ArneZ]

Im two hours in and I enjoy it much more then I thought. Like every change that have done since XIII. And the new character reminds me of Kingdom Hearts. Sweet!

 

[waif]

Based on what I've read that game ships without an ending. My friend who normally hates JRPGs is playing it and loving it, but as far as I'm concerned it could be the best game in the world, if they're charging you extra for the ending (as DLC) every single member of the dev team deserves to be beaten to death with a sack full of badgers.

 

[rms]

The last one was probably one of the worst RPGs I ever played so I don't think I would even bother playing that one. And the fact that all the good RPGs are able to be bought digitally on the PS3, why play this new crap?

 

[Chimaera]

Finished Dead Space 2 on Hardcore last night. It has to have been one of the most tense gaming experiences of my life. Only having three saves meant that I was constantly on edge and absolutely terrified of dying. It made the parts where the game throws loads of enemies at you massive adrenaline rushes.

Thinking that I might pre-order The Drakness II. Love the first one and the demo is pretty promising.

 

[King Richard]

Whenever my Alienware gets here the first thing I'm buying is Star Wars: The Old Republic. That and installing CoD2 for some nostalgia. /fuckyea

 

[Draehl]

Finally got Dead Space and this game gives me a such a headache all because of the camera. I did a quick search to see if there was a way to mod it and came across several others who felt the same way... and a bunch of fanboys who defended the camera angle with the logic that "it's supposed to be bad to add to the horror factor" I just can't get behind that... 3rd person or 1st person I really don't care, but it's the fact that the view is positioned two fucking miles over your right shoulder rather than behind you. It gives me nausea/headache when moving and absolutely screws with my sense of symmetry.

I'll give it another shot tomorrow as I love horror type games, but the camera may well cause me to uninstall it...

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

Finally got Dead Space and this game gives me a such a headache all because of the camera. I did a quick search to see if there was a way to mod it and came across several others who felt the same way... and a bunch of fanboys who defended the camera angle with the logic that "it's supposed to be bad to add to the horror factor" I just can't get behind that... 3rd person or 1st person I really don't care, but it's the fact that the view is positioned two fucking miles over your right shoulder rather than behind you. It gives me nausea/headache when moving and absolutely screws with my sense of symmetry.

I'll give it another shot tomorrow as I love horror type games, but the camera may well cause me to uninstall it...

I played the first Dead Space on ps3 but i've read that the controls suck on pc. the audio is excellent as you feel like something will jump out an attack you at any moment. i picked up Dead Space 2 for $5 during the steam holiday sale and the controls are fine. the first game is much better though as it has a better atmosphere and the sequel doesn't get interesting until you return to areas from the first game. the sequel has the same problem the Bioshock sequel had since for the most part it feels like "been here, done that"

 

[waif]

Dead Space was pretty shit. I'm not sure how they fucked it up so badly. The premise was fantastic. The monsters were honestly kinda freaky. But then...every monster was the same, and the game traded horror for gore. It also relied primarily on cheap gimmicks like monsters playing dead or jumping out of walls. Not only was that lame to start with, but they did it so much that you could actually see it coming. As a horror game it was pretty shit, and as an action game it was clunky beyond belief and entirely reliant on the dismemberment gimmick.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a very good horror game. Without even putting you up against any monsters they scare the shit out of you. The problem was it wasn't all that great as a game.

I recently played RE4 (the PC version with better graphics) and the first couple hours are fantastic survival horror. You don't have enough ammo, the enemies are often overwhelming, and the whole thing is mysterious and scary. The last 2/3rds of the game are just a creepy action game, though still pretty solid.

 

[skeptik]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a very good horror game. Without even putting you up against any monsters they scare the shit out of you. The problem was it wasn't all that great as a game.

Somebody just mentioned this game to me after I mentioned that I was playing The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. I'm about a third of the way through the game, and I think it does a pretty good job of creating apprehension. Would I enjoy as much as I am if I wasn't a Lovecraft groupie? Of course not, but then not being a Lovecraft groupie is a personal deficiency I would not want to possess.

 

[waif]

I played Dark Corners of the Earth for a while before my old hard drive died. I really enjoyed it. Not perfect, but it succeeded at creating the gnawing dread essential to any good horror game and the unease and mystery essential to Lovecraft's more straightforward works. I also really appreciated the nods to The Shadow Out Of Time at the beginning, because that is far and away my favorite Lovecraft story.

 

[PhlegethonVeins]

Deadspace is great, I really don't care what so many say about it. Yes, Amnesia is far fucking freakier, but as far as current gen horror games go Deadspace is close behind it in the rankings (even if its because the genre has been in a slump).

 

[waif]

Dead Space is horror the same way those Friday the 13th movies are horror...


anyways, Crusader Kings 2 came out today. Fucking loving it so far. It's somewhat slower paced than the first game, but feels more realistic. The character interactions seem more like real human beings, although they're far from perfect. The random events are less confusing, although more information would still be nice. The interface is significantly better - having access to a realm tree is a fucking godsend - but there's room for improvement. The production values are much better, although it was clearly not developed by native English speakers. Most important of all, there's a motherfucking tutorial. Sure, it's kind of shallow, but it makes a huge difference.
Overall, the game is the same as the last one but improved in a bunch of ways. Anyone interested in grand strategy or medieval history should check it out.

 

[Chimaera]

Got the Darkness 2 last week and it's really fun as a straight-forward action game. The combat is really fun and the Darkness abilities do make it hard to go back to other shooters afterwards.

The story and voice-acting pales in comparison to the first one though. It's much more cartoony and ridiculous. I understand that it's going for the whole comic book feel, and it would actually be pretty sound if it was an original title. However, the emotionally engaging and serious tone of the first game just makes it seem awkward, especially since it's set in the same universe. The voice-acting in the first game was fantastic and, while it's certainly not bad here, it's far more generic and pretty much all the characters are much more one-dimensional. Even Mike Patton, who I believe is the only returning VA, doesn't sound quite as good as he was in the original. It's also way too easy and short. I got 1000G in about two or three days.

 

[Thralldom]

Did anyone play Dark Souls? If so, how was it?

Demon's Souls was extremely good although it was ridiculously difficult, so I'd like to know about this one.