General Video Game Thread

[Ganymede]

@deadculture

I did like fighting the Revenant. It was the right challenge at the right time.

[Wizz]

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

@auspice said in General Video Game Thread:

I've tried playing the first Dragon Age so many times. In theory, it should totally be my kind of game... But I just can't. It doesn't capture me at all.

Same. I have played through about half of it a couple times. Something about it just doesn't click. IDK what it is.

When it first came out it was the silent protagonist thing, for me. I played Mass Effect and it ruined silent protagonists in RPGs for me for fucking ever, it just seemed so weird and off-putting to go back to one and I couldn't get into it.

I tried to play again several years later and had a lot of fun, but accidentally went to some DLC content too early and didn't have an older save, so I got stuck, frustrated, and gave up.

[Ganymede]

@wizz said in General Video Game Thread:

I tried to play again several years later and had a lot of fun, but accidentally went to some DLC content too early and didn't have an older save, so I got stuck, frustrated, and gave up.

I wouldn't bother. The Witcher III is eleventy billion times better, as is Horizon Zero Dawn.

[Thenomain]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

@wizz said in General Video Game Thread:

I tried to play again several years later and had a lot of fun, but accidentally went to some DLC content too early and didn't have an older save, so I got stuck, frustrated, and gave up.

I wouldn't bother. The Witcher III is eleventy billion times better, as is Horizon Zero Dawn.

It's good to know your history.

Like today, playing Knights of the Old Republic would be trite, but this is the first time some of that stuff had been tried and pulled off successfully. By modern standards KotOR's pacing is face-plantingly dull, but you can see where Mass Effect 2 started (as I consider this to be the absolute best of BioWare's games).

Or you could just play Witcher 3 and not have to worry about that, because damn that's a good game. Every time I hear the slightest noise of Cyberpunk 2077 out of CD Projekt RED I get goosebumps, even though it probably won't be until 2077 until we see it.

[Wizz]

@ganymede
Eh, "better" is subjective, it's more what kind of play experience you're looking for. I've put roughly three hundred billion hours into Witcher III and I love it, I love the characters and the story and the world, but the quests and fights started to get extremely same-y after the two hundred billionth hour and the absolutely ridiculous inventory/item system made me feel more like one of those weird junk collector ladies from the Labyrinth than Geralt.

I really miss Dragon Age's tactical combat, just thinking about it makes me want to boot it up again.
I've only ever rented Zero Dawn but it seemed pretty fun!

[Ganymede]

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

It's good to know your history.

Sure. By that rationale, we should all start playing TIE Fighter again before we go after SW: Battlefront II. And we should also play Final Fantasy before we hit Final Fantasy XV. And you know I have goosebumps after learning that Star Control II is going to have a sequel in the future.

I was not impressed by Dragon Age's "tactical" combat, likely because I played it on console and I played Mass Effect prior. I've getting more into storyline-heavy games, like the Uncharted series, The Last of Us, and Horizon Zero Dawn. So, the thought of going back and playing through Dragon Age, as much as I liked it, has little appeal. I couldn't make it through Inquisition.

---

@Wizz

Horizon Zero Dawn is so pretty and smooth, it's unbelievable. And sort of difficult. Herds of cattle can really fuck you up, along with giant chickens.

But it is satisfying to take down massive robo-crocodiles. Oh yeah.

[Tempest]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

after SW: Battlefront II.

Random segue.

I don't care if SW:BF2 is the greatest game ever made, I flat out refuse to give them any more money.

BF1 was, by far, the biggest regret I have ever had in terms of a video game purchase.

Like yeah, it was only 60 dollars, but jesus fucking christ, I'd have had more fun just lighting three 20$ bills on fire.

[Ganymede]

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

BF1 was, by far, the biggest regret I have ever had in terms of a video game purchase.

You and me both.

[Thenomain]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

It's good to know your history.

Sure. By that rationale, we should all start playing TIE Fighter again before we go after SW: Battlefront II.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I'm assuming that TIE Fighter and SW: Battlefront 2 have the same studio and same elements and one has a natural progression to the other, and that the word "good" also means the word "absolutely necessary".

Er, sorry, what I meant to say was, "You say that like you didn't tie the two paragraphs together."

@Thenomain said not long ago:

Or you could just play Witcher 3 and not have to worry about that, because damn that's a good game.

Because of all the latest games of the Story-Telling RPG Genre that I have recently played, Witcher 3 wins hands-down.

EA has been leaving all of BioWare's money on the table, lately, and that's just, well, that's depressing.

[Ganymede]

@thenomain

I liked Mass Effect: Andromeda. I'm disappointed that they are leaving it.

TIE Fighter is one of those game game-changers, so to speak. It really was one of the first games I played which had Primary and Secondary Objectives for missions, and it was a fantastic flight-sim. It was better than X-Wing as far as playability, and it led to the very cool X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter game, which was very enjoyable.

So, if Battlefront 2 isn't close to it, well, that's sad because TIE Fighter came out 23 years ago.

Anyhow, I do like The Witcher III a lot, but Horizon Zero Dawn is just so enjoyable it's hard to put into words. It's nice to hunt monsters down and investigate myths, but it's also really fun to use primitive weapons to herd robo-animals and robo-dinosaurs to their doom.

[Monogram]

Just a reminder that the first big DLC for Horizon is coming out in five days.

[Ganymede]

@monogram said in General Video Game Thread:

Just a reminder that the first big DLC for Horizon is coming out in five days.

I haven't even made it to Daytower yet. Shhh.

(I am, however, Level 23.)

[Thenomain]

@monogram said in General Video Game Thread:

Just a reminder that the first big DLC for Horizon is coming out in five days.

...

Hey, Gany, I'm coming over to borrow your PS4. I promise to be quiet and also not spoiler too loud with how awesome it is.

[Ganymede]

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Hey, Gany, I'm coming over to borrow your PS4. I promise to be quiet and also not spoiler too loud with how awesome it is.

You stay away, or my attack kitty will lick you affectionately with his sandpaper tongue.

[Thenomain]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Hey, Gany, I'm coming over to borrow your PS4. I promise to be quiet and also not spoiler too loud with how awesome it is.

You stay away, or my attack kitty will lick you affectionately with his sandpaper tongue.

Does he/she pirate cat? I'm a fairly good trainer on that.

#lifeskills

[Monogram]

@ganymede You poor thing. You don't even know the glory of taking on two Thunderjaws at once.

I remember when I would run screaming from a pair of Bellowbacks. But then I realized the glory of the Blast Sling.

...and then I ran into my first Stormbird and didn't know what rage really was in regards to this game.

[Jaded]

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

BF1 was, by far, the biggest regret I have ever had in terms of a video game purchase.

EA/DICE has some serious design and development issues when the game from 12 years before is better than the one that you're remaking based on that game.

I suspect that DICE will follow all of the other EA casualties into the ditch in the next couple of years.

[Faceless]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

TIE Fighter is one of those game game-changers, so to speak. It really was one of the first games I played which had Primary and Secondary Objectives for missions, and it was a fantastic flight-sim. It was better than X-Wing as far as playability, and it led to the very cool X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter game, which was very enjoyable.

Yes. I can remember the sense of wonder I had at that young age, watching my stepfather play TIE Fighter. He would give me an opportunity to play, coaching my super young self through things at my side? That was a fucking privilege! By that time I was already enjoying Star Wars as a new generation of fan, but it only made me all the more interested in the... everything to do with Star Wars. The Star Wars flight-sim games weren't my first dip in the proverbial PC gaming pool, that'll come in a moment. But TIE Fighter/X-Wing/X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and even the Balance of Power expansion(I mean come on, throwing yourself at a Super Star Destroyer? Sploosh) are what made me love it all the more. In the films, often the space battles and dogfights are my favorite parts! So I'll always have love for those games and may very well pick them up someday in the future, because the nostalgia engines are kicking into gear.

They weren't my first PC game ever played though. Not counting random school, classwork learning-based games like motherfuckin' Number Munchers. TIE Fighter was played around the same time, but wasn't the first that I was exposed to. My stepfather and his brother were getting really into PC gaming at the time(hell, it was with them and their friends/coworkers that I had my first overnight LAN party) so I played what they played, basically. Command & Conquer was my first. It was my first RTS and first PC game. It has a special place in my heart. Which pains me, because it's fallen so far from grace. The story of the games became fairly cheesy, very quickly. Which isn't so much a problem, I can deal with cheese mostly. I bought Command & Conquer 4 a couple years back, super excited to play it, and made it through maybe three or four missions before I just put it away from my fingers. It just didn't have the draw like the early games did(and still do) for me. It had gone too far down the science fiction path for me.

I've been playing Total War: Warhammer II since it released and have been enjoying it. I enjoy a few of the different factions but seem to focus on the Dwarves, Dark Elves(cold one knights, yo), and High Elves the most. They're the groups in those worlds that I've always had the most interest in, so naturally I tend toward them in the game!

In more modern days what I really want is Warcraft 4. I don't mean some quasi-3d Warcraft III quasi-expansion. I mean a Tides of Darkness style RTS where I can base build strategically, army amass, and slugging match with a capable AI. That's all I really want. I don't need cut scenes. I don't need too much polish. I don't need polygon characters. I don't even need a super immersive story - I loved Warcraft: Orcs and Humans(the third game I ever played!) and Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness(and there's the fourth!) because they were engaging and at times challenging! When I need to focus on a task, I even put the Tides of Darkness soundtrack on because it's background noise that I enjoy but am so familiar with that I can not be distracted by it. So that's what I want: Warcraft IV.

[Wizz]

Man, I'm not even sure what my first computer game was. My dad had computers in the home for work and I spent a lot of time on them as a little kid with my friend, who was a little older and very geeky and lent me his floppy disks. Probably King's Quest 5, or Space Quest 5. I fuckin' loved adventure games.

[Arkandel]

When I got my Amstrad 6128 my only experience with games was through the arcades, and it was supposed to just be a coin-less one-time investment to let me play the same stuff at home; instead it launched by programming career, but I didn't know that at the time and it's not relevant here.

Back then I didn't even know you weren't supposed to pirate games. It wasn't frowned upon, it just... all the kids like me used to go to one of several computer stores, where they had these big lists of titles, and for a (pretty affordable) fee you could get any of them copied to a floppy disk and take it home with you.

That meant I had a huge list of titles within a few months and I barely played most of them, but the ones I did... man. Taipan! comes to mind, Gauntlet of course (for so many hours), Bard's Tale, every single thing Sierra online was putting out but special mention needs to be given to Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail, end those text-only adventure games... damn. I still remember how I finally solved a riddle in Gnome Ranger 2; Ingrid's Back and it's been like... twenty five years ago since?

Oh and Loom. Loom was so good.

Then once I got a PC, I still remember the original Wing Commander on my VGA which was like... 11 floppies? But I had a hard drive to copy it to, guys! All 40 MB of it ("what are you going to do with all that space man? That's for professional computers" the person at the store had counselled me) and my friends were marvelling at the graphics. One of them went, "holy shit, it looks just like Star Wars!".