Gaming Thread

[E-bortion]

I could write an entire review as to why L.A. Noire rules but I'm lazy and playing it. This game is (so far) the best game of 2011 in my opinion. Anyone who says that the cases are too cryptic (a complaint I've seen lodged many times) obviously isn't paying enough attention to the dialog and/or physiology. Ugh, the acting and facial expressions alone make this game so impressive. I haven't liked a Rockstar game in YEARS but I have to say bravo guys, bravo.

 

[Enemy242]

I'm glad it's coming to the pc next month, I've only heard amazing things and honestly I really love games with good story/deep characters/interaction/uniqueness and it seems right up my alley. getting to delve into that and try to read all the situations and people sounds pretty fucking fun. took them damn long enough to get it here though, but i guess that's one of the downsides of pc gaming (once i sold my xbox i wasn't able to play gears 2 or 3 because they fucking refuse to bring it to the pc, fucking dicks).

 

[Dead Winter]

L.A. Noire is a great game but it's incredibly scripted. You only have the illusion of freedom because no matter what happens, the end result will always be the same in the cases. Whether you ask all the right questions or not, the end is already written.

 

[derek]

Just like real life, then.

 

[Dead Winter]

Heh, I suppose.

I enjoyed it but I really don't see the replay factor unless you want to get every single question right. Its selling point wasn't really gameplay but more dialogue and graphics. From what I understand, Heavy Rain is better.

 

[derek]

Agree with you, interesting game, but a bit narrow.

 

[E-bortion]

Oh, I agree. It has zero replay value. However, for what it is, it's amazing.

 

[El Stormo]

Well, replay value as such shouldn't really be a criterium by which games are judged, to be honest. You don't judge a film by its rewatch value or a book by its reread value either - a game should be judged in its own right, in one playthrough, not depending on whether you can play it again if you can't get enough.

 

[Liverslapper]

I want to play Heavy Rain SOOO bad. You have no idea. I'm willing to buy a PS3 again just to specifically play that one game.



Also......THIIIIIS

So much fun

 

[E-bortion]

Well, replay value as such shouldn't really be a criterium by which games are judged, to be honest. You don't judge a film by its rewatch value or a book by its reread value either - a game should be judged in its own right, in one playthrough, not depending on whether you can play it again if you can't get enough.

I agree, kind of. It absolutely depends on the genre of game. Games like L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain? Not so much. Hack and Slash, Fighters, Strategy, Shooters, and other genres? Absolutely.

 

[Enemy242]

I agree, kind of. It absolutely depends on the genre of game. Games like L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain? Not so much. Hack and Slash, Fighters, Strategy, Shooters, and other genres? Absolutely.

word. replay value and flexibility definitely adds to a game and can't be discounted. sure if it is an amazing game but doesn't have replay value that shouldn't HEAVILY detract from it's rating, but to have one with tons of replay value adds in a lot more time and shows that they really put effort into making it deep and expansive enough that you can go back and replay it with different results and the same engagement and enjoyment as you did the first time (not counting replay value like going back to get some really insignificant achievements or trophies or whatever, though some do enjoy that).

I thought that LA noire did have a lot of branching paths so i'm disappointed to hear it doesn't; my favorite games are the ones that allow for tons of different things to happen so each playthrough could technically be different except for some main plot points (though those being changeable is nice too) because i personally don't replay games much otherwise. quite possibly my favorite game is Deus Ex as i've stated many times because of the sheer freedom the designers put in the game for that time; moments like saving paul or not (when you'd never think to save him yet you can), finding the bomb hidden on the helicopter, doing different things and getting responses from manderly etc all are just so deep and changing that it truly feels like what you do matters.

 

[Dead Winter]

Well, it does and it doesn't have a lot of branching paths. The paths branch, yes, but they simply loop around and meet up together in the end. There's only one ending to the game, and although each case has different endings, the end result of each one is the same. There's no real risk here. You simply cannot "lose" the game.

 

[E-bortion]

I think of games like LA Noire more as "interactive movies" than anything.

 

[Liverslapper]

me gusta

 

[Enemy242]

well that's not so bad, i can understand that; i thought you guys meant there were no branching paths whatsoever. obviously the game took a lot of work to create and doing all that work with the facial animations and dialogue for so many scenarios would be really fucking tough; i don't expect to lose (though in mass effect 2 i straight up did lose the first time beause my e ntire team including shepard died, i was dumbfounded) but i wouldn't want everything to end up playing out the same way if i did totally different things. either way i'm pumped for it.

november is going to be a badass month for sure. i plan on playing morrowind/the witcher 2 2.0 until la noire, then skyrim the entire month and then during the steam christmas sales i'm hoping i can get arkham aslyum and arkham city on sale (never played either, hear they're amazing, totally want to) and that'll last me along with other ones like bf3 until spring when the other badass games start to come out.

anyone know anything about any new computer hardware coming out i should look into? my rig is perfectly fine and runs everything great and pretty much the only upgrades i can do would create a smalll performance boost if anything, but i'd really like to upgrade it if there's some new shit out that can make me run games on max settings with even more amazing performance. any news on gfx cards? or new cpus? or maybe some sort of new ram technology? obviously intel recently released their stuff (i have the i5 2500k and man that shit rules and yet is so affordable) but i hear amd is coming out with some sick ass processors.

 

[Talking Backwards]

Your best bet is:

http://www.hardocp.com/ (especially the forums)
http://www.bit-tech.net/

I don't know how old your PC is, but I typically do a completely new build every 3-4 years, but never actually upgrade "parts" simply because the motherboard is usually the limiting factor on the kinds of processors you can use anyway, and mine are already overclocked. If a huge boost to graphics cards arrives midway through, I'll consider that, but before the 580 GTX, the last time anything "great" came out was the 5850 and before that the 8600. Unless you plan on buying a new power supply and another graphics card for SLI/Xfire or have the bottom of the barrel processor your motherboard can handle, you would probably only see any meaningful difference with an entirely new system. Of course you could get a small boost from an SSD if you do not already have one, but they aren't really worth the cost yet.

I'm still using an i5-750@3.8 ghz and do not forsee anything "requiring" better for a few years. I'll be able to run both Skyrim and ME3 at the maximum settings without and major drops in framerate (i.e. never below 40). I'm not getting BF3 though, so YMMV.

Oh, and you really do need to play the Batman games. Of course I can't really comment on City yet since I haven't played it (although it's sitting at the 94% average), the first was one of the best single player games of this generation of consoles. The PC version is supposed to have added nice touches if you have an Nvidia card, but I'd rather play those games on the console since you won't be getting that much better on the PC and it just feels more natural.

 

[Enemy242]

yeah my pc is maybe a year old, maybe 2 years old at the max so i don't really plan on building a completely new one, just getting a new graphics card and processor if something insane comes out. i cycle through computers in that i have a main computer for everything else, then one for gaming, and whenever i have a new one built for gaming i use the old gaming computer for regular things and just put the old computer in the closet/part it out to friends. it works pretty well and i constantly have things performing like i desire.

i am definitely pumped for the batman games, but i'm for sure going to wait until sales on them. i hear they are great though so i'm not worried; right now my biggest anticipations would be skyrim and battlefield 3 as i can't fucking wait to see how good those look on my pc at max settings and i'll be pouring all my free time into those for sure.

also for anyone into deus ex human revolution, the new dlc came out today. it's fairly pricey at $15, but i think its a pretty good deal considering they reworked the graphics engine to tweak it, added in new gameplay elements, the dlc is supposedly 5 hours minimum in length, it has tons of new areas and side quests and it got pretty great reviews. i will most definitely be downloading that this afternoon when i get home from class and playing that shit in one marathon setting from 3 pm - 10 pm.

 

[Liverslapper]

Playing The Witcher 2. The graphics are amazing. Here is a screenshot

 

[Enemy242]

Yeah I've long since beaten The Witcher 2 and it is truly an amazing game. CD Projekt Red are a great development team that make great games and treat gamers with respect as opposed to almost all of the other ones just milking the shit out of us. I'm going to start replaying the game probably next week to try out all the new modes/new difficulty level/new items and whatnot; it's crazy how they added sooo much and yet it's a free update (supposedly even updated the graphics engine a bit which i can't wait to see), they truly respect and appreciate their customers and I love it. There aren't enough developers out there who still stick to the PC for massive steps forward in what you can do and treat gamers with respect.

The only thing I had an issue with was the Witcher 2 wasn't perfectly optimized and even on my beast rig I could have some problems with item pop-in depending on how I had the draw distance set (too close and it'd pop in, too far and the framerates could stutter and cause pop ins); but that is not nearly a big enough complaint to offset the rest of the amazing things about it.

 

[El Stormo]

RAGE ending spoiler! (scroll past really fast to avoid )

























What a fucking lame anticlimax ending. No end boss, just some lame-ass mutants you had to play Survival with. I didn't even have to break out the Pulse Gun, the Authority MG took care of everything. No tension, no nail-biting, just a shooting gallery with occasional dodging. And the ending cinematic was possibly even lamer. Not cool, id. Not cool.




















/Spoiler