Videogames

I haven't really played any new videogames in years. I still enjoy a bunch of old retro-games I used to play in the early nineties, but I just can't seem to find the time and dedication to even try any new games. I think the last three games I've played are: original DOOM, Mega Man 1 (on NES emulator) and Day of the Tentacle (on ScummVM). I used to play a lot of turn-based strategy-games, but don't have the time for them anymore. I might occasionally play some console beat-em-ups, but I find my reaction-time is getting worse every time I try them.

That said, just today a friend of mine gave me this awesome link: http://machinarium.net/demo/

I don't think I've been this interested in a videogame for a long, long time.

-Villain
 
In what kind of game would you classify Heavy Rain, Plintus? From what you say, I believe the story and the "casting perfomance" must be great. Am I right?
 
"Heavy Rain" isn't actually a game. It's the worst parts of every shitty action game ever made packed into a package without any redeeming value.

Except that it takes those elements, so irritating in conventional gameplay, and actually crafts something decent out of them. Or something.
 
That said, just today a friend of mine gave me this awesome link: http://machinarium.net/demo/

I don't think I've been this interested in a videogame for a long, long time.

-Villain

Machinarium is FANTASTIC! I'm not a gamer at all, but this is just phenomenal. The atmosphere, characters, music, humour and general vibe is addictive beyond words. It's like a cross between Peter Sis and that Wall-e movie. No dialogue, just cool robotic sounds and thought bubbles.
 
In what kind of game would you classify Heavy Rain, Plintus? From what you say, I believe the story and the "casting perfomance" must be great. Am I right?

Something like an interactive thriller, "actors" and "acting" are great, and all little things you do create this "connection" to characters and what's going on.

One of a kind experience, not for everyone.

I do believe that's the Thinkgeek aprils fools joke.

And the iPad might be the april fools joke of Apple......

I really hope it's not. HopeD :D

And as of iPad - it seems to be real, unless they stuffed that box that's in my bedroom with stones (it's quite heavy).

Yeah, I ran out and picked a 16 GB one to test as you already know ;)
 
Wow you're a hateful one aren't ya.

Welcome to the board, I see you're new here :lol:


In any case, I just got Just Cause 2 on Thursday and it hasn't left the PS3 since, sooooooo HUGE but gets very repetitive fast, but I can still dig it cos the free-roaming is nuts and did I mention it's HUGE.
In any case, I think GU sums it up pretty perfectly:
http://www.gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20100402


As for old games, ugh, I don't wanna go there, I've played everything major and most minor since like -93 on the PC and most console games on the big consoles, except Dreamcast, which no one I know had when I was a kid. So, I've played almost every game mentioned in this thread, some obsessively.

I will say one thing for BG1 and 2 tho, I plan to play thru them again, I have them on 2 DVDs with the expansions on 2 CDs (no, not copies, I actually got them again before I left for Ireland) and I plan to use this awesome mod for the first one: BG1tutu.
It takes the engine of BG2 and makes it work for BG1, with everything that comes with it like Kits and so forth. It's awesome.
And of course I will have other mods too, but that is the main one.

As for the new BioWare games, not that into the tunnel runs. Mass Effect seemed like 1 big tunnel connected to another. Haven't checked 2 out yet, but hearing Joystiq praise it as the best game ever has turned me off it completely, don't they know that MSG4 is the best game ever. Fuckers.
And of course my Xbox360 is back in Finland :erk:

Dragon Age threw me off as soon as I started it and from what I saw my buddy play it. I think I'll stick to BGs, call me old fashioned but I like the AD&D world and mechanics much better than BioWares "Hey we don't have the D&D license anymore, let's make a game that steals one of their worlds, renames everything and call it Dragon age just to pull in all the people that want a new D&D game" effort.

Really, how hard is it to make a game like BG1 or 2 in scope when we have games like GTA4 and MGS4, not to even mention WoW.

I think my next game will be GoW3, tho I will have to finish GoW2 first, but at least my sister found it among my games. I may go back to GTA: SA as well.
 
Picked up Metro 2033. Yeah, it's got this authentic atmosphere, and shooting isn't that bad (still have a problem hitting targets, maybe all BC2 training where you have to aim a little higher from a distance), the worst part is sound. Of course I'm playing with Russian voiceover, and some of the voicing is absolutely terrible. Like, they are fucking "acting". Awful. But some of the "actors" are scarily authentic - one secondary one at least, that sounds like someone who was formerly incarcerated.

English subtitles don't go sentence by sentence, and they are not accurately translated. Surprising, since game is quite detail oriented. And yes, it does a good job creeping you out. Quite submersive overall, I must say, and very well done. Won't be worth a second run through, probably, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

As for the new BioWare games, not that into the tunnel runs. Mass Effect seemed like 1 big tunnel connected to another. Haven't checked 2 out yet, but hearing Joystiq praise it as the best game ever has turned me off it completely, don't they know that MSG4 is the best game ever. Fuckers.
Those are 2 completely different games (and MGS4 not really for everyone (oh those cutscenes!)), ME2 waaaay better than the original, no more endless Maco runs and the whole game levitates more to action and characters. It's extremely well done (well, it's BioWare).

And MGS4 got 10/10 on GameSpot when it came out, I haven't seen any recent game on there that was higher than 9.5, so "best game ever" statement actually stays true =)

Dragon Age threw me off as soon as I started it and from what I saw my buddy play it. I think I'll stick to BGs, call me old fashioned but I like the AD&D world and mechanics much better than BioWares "Hey we don't have the D&D license anymore, let's make a game that steals one of their worlds, renames everything and call it Dragon age just to pull in all the people that want a new D&D game" effort.

BioWare put it this way: they didn't have to adopt pen and paper rules for a game and developed system better suited for that (oh, the BG1 with D&D2 (?) rules where the best armor was -10 or something?) Plus AD&D had 2 more editions since then and the latest I've seen of that was bullshit. So why use and PAY for something that took 10+ years to more or less finalize instead of hiring some game designers and revamping the whole thing they saw fit?

BioWare put a ton of time in to this setting, and it's not a replica - besides dungeons and dragons, I guess - of AD&D. The game clearly not based on rolling dice (correct me if I'm wrong here) and lore is quite substantial.

And "acting" and characters (besides some annoying voices with French accent here and there) are stellar. Dialogues are a blast, too.
 
Gamespot reviews suck.

I always check those and IGN's out, and they don't suck - pretty much all the time on par with what I'd rate the game. They are to the point and flesh out what the game is about, pros and cons and really helpful to consider buying it new or wait till price drops or just get it used eventually at "buy 2 get 1 free".

But how would you know their reviews suck if you don't have time to play the games?
 
But how would you know their reviews suck if you don't have time to play the games?

Well, they're written with an annoying lack of any trace of sense of humor. For instance, Gamespot's review of GoWIII is an education in how to take yourself way too seriously: a badly disguised glorification of violence in the game that tells you nothing whatsoever about changes in gameplay since GoWII. Don't get me wrong, I'll play the GoW saga for the gore as much as anyone else, but I don't need a short essay written about it, as I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy it all by myself when the time comes.

But I agree with you that both Gamespot and IGN get the job done when it comes to pointing out blatant flaws or exceptional perks in games. As a rule, I don't need a review to tell me if I'm going to like an RTS or a shooter, but it's useful to know whether it's horribly done or stellar. Everything that falls inbetween depends too much on how a game clicks with you: I have enjoyed immensely mediocre games that no one remembers and were far inferior to similar titles in the same genre. Examples would make me blush so I'll pass for now. ;)
 
But how would you know their reviews suck if you don't have time to play the games?

I don't trust a store to review games for me. Capitalism at its best, "hey kids, we're gonna give this game a good score, come on in and buy it yuk yuk yuk." Please. Metacritic/IGN/video game review aggregate whose URL I cannot remember are all preferable to Gamespot.

And Rahvin's right, only you know your personal tastes (and only you can prevent forest fires).
 
Well, they're written with an annoying lack of any trace of sense of humor. For instance, Gamespot's review of GoWIII is an education in how to take yourself way too seriously: a badly disguised glorification of violence in the game that tells you nothing whatsoever about changes in gameplay since GoWII. Don't get me wrong, I'll play the GoW saga for the gore as much as anyone else, but I don't need a short essay written about it, as I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy it all by myself when the time comes.

Correction: I don't READ reviews, I watch them :D They are shorter and more to the point, written reviews aren't doing it for me.

But I agree with you that both Gamespot and IGN get the job done when it comes to pointing out blatant flaws or exceptional perks in games. As a rule, I don't need a review to tell me if I'm going to like an RTS or a shooter, but it's useful to know whether it's horribly done or stellar. Everything that falls inbetween depends too much on how a game clicks with you: I have enjoyed immensely mediocre games that no one remembers and were far inferior to similar titles in the same genre. Examples would make me blush so I'll pass for now. ;)

Oh the fail called inFamous - FUCKING 9, GAMESPOT??? That's the worst piece of shit game I ever played. [Prototype] that came out around the same time was head and shoulders better than that abominably unbelievable fucking... "game". Fucking HATED it.

I don't trust a store to review games for me.

It's GameSPOT, NOT GameSTOP/EB Games :D I don't pay attention to those from Amazon, EB Games or AppStore. media is sold out, naturally, but it's nice to see some people giving lower marks because game sucked according to them (and being allegedly booted from GameSpot as a result).
 
It's GameSPOT, NOT GameSTOP/EB Games :D I don't pay attention to those from Amazon, EB Games or AppStore. media is sold out, naturally, but it's nice to see some people giving lower marks because game sucked according to them (and being allegedly booted from GameSpot as a result).

I haven't slept more than three hours in a single night in the past week because I've been sick. So I apologize and my mistake. The pink elephant next to me told me what to write.
 
New Splinter Cell is lame as shit. Bleh.

Kicking ass in Just Cause 2 - 14 hours in, 16% complete, it still kicks all kinds of ass, something I didn't expect from this game, but the scale, man! It's fucking epic!

And yeah, decided to unwrap my God of War 3 in a few months :D