The General Pooter Games Thread.

[Kirsten]

oh nooo

[Mr Mystery]

Afraid so.

I can do fancy shootin' during the regular games, but I can't do no fancy flyin' in what is the first Star Wars game with Fighters in it for years, what the bloody hell was the point in including them?

If you get a TIE on your tail, all you can do is flail and hope it sods off. No emergency break, no death-defying boost rolling your way out of danger.

Meh to the Fighters, and that was what I was most looking forward to :(

[Kirsten]

seriously? that is a ludicrous oversight

[Mr Mystery]

Just put a rant on Facebook.

If they're saving proper star fighter combat for another game, then fair enough, I guess. The standard shooter bit is fun enough for the entry price.

But.....if they're saving decent star fighter combat as a paid-for DLC, they can go **** themselves.

[Kirsten]

I doubt they are saving anything for anything, I suspect it just isn't there. extra controls and abilities wont be dlc

[Mr Mystery]

Daftest thing?

Controller has four buttons buttons, and four shoulder buttons, yeah?

Well, R2 (hurr) fires your lasers, and R1 fires your torpedoes. L1 does target lock for your torpedoes, and L2 activates your temporary shield.

Triangle, Circle, Cross and Square, the four buttony buttons? Yeah...they don't do anything when you're in a star fighter.

Such a wasted opportunity, especially as that colossal failure detracts from an otherwise really pretty excellent game (oh, and AI allies refusing to pick up Kill Medals, meaning the AI enemies recover their fallen, preventing me from scoring the points for the kills.

The pricks.

Oh, and they're awfully fond of running into you when you're hiding in cover to let your health recover, pushing you into the open and certain death.

Double pricks.

[Kirsten]

that sucks

[Mr Mystery]

I have got a second controller on the way, so will be able to do classic split screen nonsense with my friends, but I'm really quite pissed off at how crap the fighter bit is, to the point I may not bother with those missions at all. It just doesn't feel like your flying.

See the Falcon in the trailer evading the TIEs? See Hera flying the B-Wing prototype in Rebels? That's what I want to be able to at least attempt (to normally be swiftly followed by a terminal cliff/craft interface) when I'm in a X-Wing.

Poo! POO AND POOPYBUMS.

[Kirsten]

just have to play some classic Rogue Squadron again

[Mr Mystery]

Need to get a suitable console to do that.

Shall have a wander to town tomorrow, see what I can sniff up.

- - - Updated - - -

Apparently, the D-Pad does your barrel rolls, and the left stick controls speed.

Not that the ****ing tutorial tells you that.

[Kirsten]

aah, not a total loss then

[Mr Mystery]

Indeed. Shall put it on once I'm back from work, see if knowing this improves things any.

Also, I need a lot of practice at the running about knees bent shooting business. I'm rubbish at the moment!

[eldargal]

I quite enjoyed the X-wing flying, but I've only done the solo training mission.

[eldargal]

Played some Battlefront on the console downstairs, quite fun, don't recommend doing survivor missions solo though, took quite a long time. Also the Endor forest speeder bike training mission is a lot more fun when your computer isn't turning itself off at random points during.

[Morgrim]

Was playing the remastered version of Halo with a friend. She said one couldn't take vehicles inside. So I took that as a challenge and figured out how to cram a Ghost into the building and got it most of the way to the Flood chamber. Except I had to balance it awkwardly on the lift to go downstairs and fell off. Still pleased with myself.

[Kirsten]

I got a warthog stuck in a door frame once because I reckoned I could fit it inside.

[eldargal]

Very impressive.:)

I tried flying an A-wing inside in Battlefront and it turns out no no you can't do that.

[Mr Mystery]

Managed to stash a Harrier in the garage when playing GTA San Andreas.

Couldn't get it out again though.

[Psychosplodge]

I've seen scythes(aircraft) and Magriders(hover tank) inside biolabs(indoor domed infantry fight place) on planetside 2 before. The effort involved in getting it through the door wasn't generally worth it and the devs added extra obstacles when they realised it was possible.

[eldargal]

Played quite a bit of Battlefront last night, when it is fun it is very very fun but when it is bad it is very bad. Mostly sticking with Blast and Fighter Squadron missions. Walker Assault seemed fun and as Rebels it was, but as Empire it was extremely annoying. Perpetually had 3 Rebel fighters in the air at least, and whenever someone got in a TIE it lasted about 20 seconds before being shot down because all three would focus on it. Then they would turn back to shooting people on the ground which meant being out in the open was almost impossible. Out of 5 games Rebels one every time which was good the three times I was a Rebel.

The capture the flag Cargo one sucked because I always seemed to get on teams where people would focus on their k/d ratio and ignore the objectives so we would lose the match and usually because I tried focusing on the objectives I would have a ****ty k/d ratio and still lose so it hardly seemed worth it.

Also encountered an invulnerability bug, shot a Rebel ten times in the back point blank with a baster rifle and he didn't take a bit of damage, no shield or anything. Had a few situation where I would shoot someone 5-6 times and drop their health to 20% and they would turn around and one shot me at full health.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup. Had those issues.

Or re-spawning me three time right in the middle of the rebels.....not fun. Not fun at all.

Still, it's a co-op game I can play with my friends, so not a dead loss. Just feels distinctly unfinished.

[Psychosplodge]

Last night I downloaded and drunkenly played Town of salem It's some sort of guess the murderer game where you have to convince the other players to co-operate and hang people. For some reason the SO spent two hours convincing everyone it was me in every game :(

[eldargal]

Yep, at least with Blast there are no objectives to worry about so its just running about shooting each other and Fighter Squadron is really fun once you figure out the need to decelerate to target and how to evade missile locks.

I haven't tried Supremacy and the droid escort one because I'm kind of leery of objective based games now, but might give them a shot. also Boba Fett seems incredibly overpowered.

I've been playing co-op with my 7 year old cousin who is so much better at it than me.:rolleyes:

[Erik Setzer]

I have got a second controller on the way, so will be able to do classic split screen nonsense with my friends, but I'm really quite pissed off at how crap the fighter bit is, to the point I may not bother with those missions at all. It just doesn't feel like your flying.

See the Falcon in the trailer evading the TIEs? See Hera flying the B-Wing prototype in Rebels? That's what I want to be able to at least attempt (to normally be swiftly followed by a terminal cliff/craft interface) when I'm in a X-Wing.

Poo! POO AND POOPYBUMS.

We need a proper X-Wing/TIE Fighter game again... though it would be better with a joystick, IMO (which isn't going to happen, because kids these days don't seem to know what a joystick is). An X-Wing shouldn't have a shield boost, it should have certain power for shields and weapons and the ability to shift power around, adjust your shields, all that jazz.

Kind of sounds like SWTOR's starfighter matches are better, and those are pretty lacking (but then, they were just tagged onto a ground-based MMO, so I didn't expect much, and they can still be fun sometimes).

[Psychosplodge]

OK town of salem is really fun. Went on for a couple of games pre fallout 4 session last night. Never got round to playing fallout 4.
Even when you lose it can be great. One game I was vocally telling people who the mafia were and begging protection at same time, and they hanged me so I had great fun with the "I told you so" when the town lost. But its was so fun.

[eldargal]

Battlefront's Battle of Jakku DLC launched today, alongside a patch. I have to say it is very good, the new scenario Turning Point is the first objective based game I've had where people seem to pay attention to the damned objectives lol. There is a full on battle happening in the sky and wreckage is everywhere and you are fighting in the wrecks of AT-ATs and crashed ships and it is a fantastic map. The same map is used in Fighter Squadron except you are flying over it obviously and its gorgeous too. There are some other maps used in the regular scenarios which I haven't played yet.

[Psychosplodge]

Town of slaem again, I was running with Gaunts ghosts themed character names, and got serial killer role as lijah fething cuu, also got executioner as gaunt. I lol'd. Probably more than I should have. It would have been funnier if the other players got the references as well.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/5cfOUBF.png

[Mr Mystery]

Starting to enjoy Fallout 4 after a distinctly false start.

Got a mate round tonight, so there may be some multiplayer nonsense had.

[eldargal]

Try Battlefront co-op if you're still playing that, much fun.:)

[Mr Mystery]

Yarp. Nothing like a bit of classic split-screen :)

[eldargal]

Assassins Creed Syndicate is pretty good, the twin main characters are both quite interesting, though the guy is still something of a blank space for white boys to project themselves onto, but Evie is amazing, love her to bits. Game is fun too, same old gameplay but seems to be more polished and the story is fun so far though I haven't progressed far at all.

[Mr Mystery]

Haven't fired that one up yet!

[Psychosplodge]

Haven't fired that one up yet!

Have you played assasins creed before? There you go it's just like that.

[Psychosplodge]

SO just text.
She's absolutely gutted squeenix have ruined the FFVII remake with this "active combat and episodic bull****".

"ruined a classic" "changed battle system that works" "want to squeeze more money out of fans with the won't fit in one game bull****"

All direct quotes from long rant.
Kinda feel sorry for her as it's one of her favourite games of all time.

[Kirsten]

I am quite looking forward to it to be honest, the original is now available on everything with a screen, so I think it is ok to change the remake.

I have been playing The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. got it on PC when it was early access and loved it, now it is free on Xbox One this month with Gold membership. seem to have had a glitch though, played it on Thursday, came back to play some more on Friday, and the difficulty had ramped up and the enemies had respawned. it feels as though the difficulty setting has gone up, but you can't change it once the game begins, so I can't see what it is on now, or bring it down again.

[Psychosplodge]

She wanted a straight HD remake. Hates the new battle system from last couple of games. Phone is still buzzing with vitriol. Not a happy bunny

- - - Updated - - -

"guy now running things has a boner for action based combat and its ruining what they were"

[Kirsten]

I do sympathise, but for those without the nostalgic attachment, FFVII is quite hard to get in to these days, I can understand Square wanting to modernise it and bring it to new fans.

[Psychosplodge]

I've not got that nostalgia cause I had a N64...

[Kirsten]

likewise

[Kirsten]

I was really looking forward to Just Cause 3, but apparently it has utterly horrific technical issues on console, and I am not sure my PC will run it.

[Psychosplodge]

I did see a post on r/pcmr that shows it a good two or so points higher on IGN's PC review than the consoles.
But really Just cause 2 was horribly broken - playable yes, but still horribly broken.

[Mr Mystery]

First one put me off for life. Awful, awful vehicle physics.

I'm in my leetle tank, bombing it along. Just for laffs, decide to run over a Scooter rider.

Net result?

Scooter rider slightly wobbles, my leetle tank and I wind up upside down in a tree. On fire.

Just......no.

[Kirsten]

Just Cause 2 was amazing. don't know about the PC version but it was spectacular on Xbox 360. so much fun, loads to do, huge, ran perfectly. so incredibly disappointed to hear that 3 chugs horrifically. apparently the framerate drops below 30 any time you try to do anything adventurous, and the load times are so awful that everybody avoids doing any crazy stunts because dying is such a chore. When I heard the initial reports I decided to wait until it was patched, but a lot of the issues sound like they are so fundamental I don't know if they can actually be patched.

[Psychosplodge]

I played it on PS3 and PC.
On both the AI and physics were all over the place.
On PC I had to borrow an xbox pad as all the aerial stuff was literally unplayable with a mouse and keyboard.

It was great fun. It was also far too easy.

[Kirsten]

one of the best open world games of the last generation, sticking people together with the hookshot, or sticking pursuing vehicles tot he road so they flipped over never got old

[Psychosplodge]

oh dear

http://i.imgur.com/YtWXx25.png?1

[Kirsten]

still, Ace Combat 7, which will be awesome.

[Psychosplodge]

I haven't played one of those since it was still called air combat.

[Kirsten]

I absolutely loved Assault Horizon, still my go to air combat game, so fairly excited for 7

[Erik Setzer]

SO just text.
She's absolutely gutted squeenix have ruined the FFVII remake with this "active combat and episodic bull****".

"ruined a classic" "changed battle system that works" "want to squeeze more money out of fans with the won't fit in one game bull****"

All direct quotes from long rant.
Kinda feel sorry for her as it's one of her favourite games of all time.

Totally understandable. It sounds like they might be making a reasonably fun game, but it's not an "HD remake" like they told everyone it was. That's a complete remake of everything but the story.

The one thing about all that stuff that would bug me even if they'd been up front about redoing the game mechanics as well as graphics is the "episodic" stuff. Are they seriously going to split up a game and sell it in multiple pieces suddenly? The original was one game, there was no need for it to be "episodic." Why would the remake need to be split up?

[Psychosplodge]

Its starting to sound like a new game wearing the skin of a supposed classic.

- - - Updated - - -

https://40.media.tumblr.com/883a13e90fdb9d52e13efe71c101a1c2/tumblr_nw4gi19MWw1r3k73wo1_540.png

[Path Walker]

I do sympathise, but for those without the nostalgic attachment, FFVII is quite hard to get in to these days, I can understand Square wanting to modernise it and bring it to new fans.

I totally agree with this, I liked the original but I don't have the time or patience to slog through that game to experience the story, the game on its own is not enough fun to keep me going, believe me I've tried several times. I think modern audiences are the same, it's not realistic to expect people to sit through a 70+ hour game anymore because these days we have the tools to show most people don't do that, I wonder if we had the same analysis tools as we do now, how many people gave up on FF VII and where?

[Charon]

Totally understandable. It sounds like they might be making a reasonably fun game, but it's not an "HD remake" like they told everyone it was. That's a complete remake of everything but the story.

The one thing about all that stuff that would bug me even if they'd been up front about redoing the game mechanics as well as graphics is the "episodic" stuff. Are they seriously going to split up a game and sell it in multiple pieces suddenly? The original was one game, there was no need for it to be "episodic." Why would the remake need to be split up?

That is because consumers have changed. If the game does not instantly reward you it already failed.
It has basically gone from '"enjoy the game a good story and cutscenes are your reward" to "the game is basically the unwanted obstacle that prevents you from watching a movie"

Just look how Dragon's Lair was received by the gamers. It was a desaster. An interactive film with no gameplay worth mentioning.
Todey we see Until Dawn where the "game" is pretty much "move forward, press X, watch cutscene -> repeat" and the "game" is selling. There is a reason why delvelopers go for grafics and story while the real opponent and difficulty is nowadys "handle the ****ty interface". It shifted from enjoying the game to enjoying the story and any interruption, or gods forbid playing the same game for for longer than a week, is unwelcome.

[Psychosplodge]

Heavy Rain? Beyond Two souls? Very little actual gameplay.
Even God of War is just button bashing followed by QTEs.

[Mr Mystery]

God of War is superb button bashing though.

[Psychosplodge]

If you like button bashing...

[Mr Mystery]

And I do!

Also, Deadpool game has a next-gen makeover. Might pick it up if the price is right (under £20 for my tastes)

[Psychosplodge]

See I played about three levels of that and got bored. I think Streets of Rage was the last button basher I actually enjoyed.

[Mr Mystery]

Deadpool I played for the comedy. It's a middling game, but very, very funny.

[Tyrendian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qHZG1-rEg
oh YES SOOO MUCH YES

[eldargal]

Nice.

[Erik Setzer]

I need to really get back to playing through X-Com. It's just a bit of an awkward experience for me since the copy I have I'd bought my dad for Christmas, and that Christmas night he went back in the hospital and never got out (five days later he passed). But I love X-Com and the newer versions are pretty good updates of, not vast changes to, the original formula.

In other news, Battlefront is $40 right now. I think I might get it with it being 33% off like that. Seems a more reasonable price.

[Kirsten]

looking good, I will have to upgrade my PC though

[Kirsten]

Penny Arcade is on point today

16690

[Psychosplodge]

So I've just done my first Insomnia festival.
It was quite fun.
Absolutely ****loads of retro games to play.
Had a go on the htc/steam VR headset playing Elite Dangerous. the immersion was amazing. I was surprised at how good it was.
The razor bus had a 5v5 Arena totalwar game to play. Got a steam key for the beta for trying it. Was enjoying it, but we didn't defend the flag well enough.
Played an aplha build of a world of warships clone in space ships so it was 3d manoeuvring in an asteroid field.
Was a good weekend.

[Kirsten]

I have been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X all weekend, it is ludicrously addictive, even more so than Fallout. I have done pretty well this year, bought Bloodborne without knowing anything at all about it, loved every second. bought Xenoblade knowing nothing about it, loving that too.

[Psychosplodge]

https://36.media.tumblr.com/969145ef0daabc38a527d64a6e7e0877/tumblr_nzgkqvVEYs1sh8jqmo1_540.png

[Tyrendian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NXY89WsxY

[Kirsten]

ha, that is fantastic.

I picked up Starwhal and Nidhogg on Christmas Day, both of which are awesome. Starwhal is an absolutely hilarious multiplayer game anyone can get in on regardless of whether or not they are gamers, and is brilliant. Nidhogg is trickier, at its' heart a very simple control scheme, with a lot of tactics. also very addictive.

[Gotthammer]

against my better judgment I bought Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. I had heard that for the first time I could go through the entirety of the Campaign as a woman and well apparently that’s good enough for me to buy a game.

But the point is that the game does not change the character interactions or relationships regardless of your gender. Some people view this as lazy writing and that’s probably true but it has resulted in something I view as a plus.

There is a romance in this game. Its pretty contrived and you’ve seen it a hundred times before, BUT because the character interactions/relationships are the same regardless of gender; PLAYING AS A WOMAN MAKES THE STORY ABOUT LESBIANS.

CoD: Black Ops 3 managed, through straight up laziness, to give create a B-movie, action-flick ABOUT LESBIANS.

A game I expected NOTHING from has made me happier than Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I had high hopes for.

What upside-down world is this?

Incredible

[Kirsten]

I have been playing Just Cause 3, was a little wary after all the reviews about serious technical issues, but it hasn't been a problem at all. thoroughly enjoying it.

[Wolfshade]

Just downloaded the long war mod for XCOM because it wasn't quite brutal enough before :S

[eldargal]

Incredible

*adds it to my buy list*

[Erik Setzer]

I ended up snagging a few games on sale. Battlefront was 40% off, so I opted to take the plunge, because at that price it's not terrible. (And it's been about as fun and frustrating as online shooters tend to be, with the added bonus of being Star Wars and looking & sounding awesome.) Witcher III was half off... I'm not sure if I should play the first two before diving into that one or not. Wolfenstein: The New Order was something like $8, and I'd heard it was fun. And then there's NBA 2K16, at 1/4.

Ah, NBA 2K... I grabbed 2K15 at a really low price and thoroughly enjoyed its "career mode" (aka "MyCareer"). I'm not even a huge basketball fan, but it was fun enough for me to buy the latest incarnation. But something unfortunate happened this year. Spike Lee happened.

Now, Spike Lee might be a great director and make amazing movies and all (I'll take the word of others for that). But video games? No. NBA 2K16's MyCareer mode gets hijacked by Spike Lee's "Livin' Da Dream" (yes, spelled like that). You have to spend the first 6-7 hours of the mode with a little bit of game play and a LOT of cutscenes, effectively a ridiculously long movie/"documentary" about your player with Spike Lee leading it (because of course he had to be in the game). Never mind the shoddy writing and the "twist" that was blatantly obvious. This mess of a long movie meant that no matter what you called your player, you had to deal with people calling him "Frequency Vibrations" or "Freq" for hours of dialogue (including your parents referring to you by a nickname, and never using your real name, so that your mom calls you "Frequency" to the media... WTF?!?). And you have no choice in what the player does through all this drama, so you have to sit and watch him make terrible decisions that end up with him cut from his first team at the end of his rookie year, all the while screaming at the computer than he's a freaking idiot. (Bonus: I ended up re-signing with the team that cut me, and the game makes no reference to that. The script has him talking about moving, even though he doesn't have to. It doesn't even reference really what happened for him to be cut, much less his overcoming that.) Because you have to sit through Spike Lee's story, you can only play eight out of 82 games in your rookie season, effectively making it a wasted season. And then, much like how you see "behind-the-scenes" of the motion cap actors before it starts, it ends with Spike Lee and the actors all introducing themselves and spending several more minutes pumping up Lee's ego before finally releasing you to the REAL MyCareer mode.

It's sad, because the real mode is full of all kinds of stuff. You can get endorsements to make money, practice to become a better player, hang out with other players to earn bonuses, spend time with the fans to get more love from them, all kinds of good stuff outside of playing games. It's great. And the funny thing is, though the game won't mention this, you can actually go into the options and change your nickname so announcers use one you prefer... so really, once you get into the real MyCareer mode, it's like that seven hours of your life you wasted never happened.

The appeal of a sports game's career mode is to make up your own story about your personal player. Having all choice taken away from you so you can sit through hours of a cliche-ridden movie is just not cool. I can pretend it didn't happen, but I'll always know that's time I can't get back.

[Erik Setzer]

Played a lot of Battlefront the past few days... It's like every other twitch shooter, which means I'm not amazing at it, and even more annoying because the "Deluxe" edition sold the most powerful weapon in the game for $10 (forget the emotes and all, the DL-44 is what people wanted). Since I didn't pounce on spending $8 extra for that during the sale, I'd now have to spend $15 to get it, or keep on slogging through the ranks until I get to pretty much the top level, all the while being murdered by low levels with the most powerful weapon. It really hurts game enjoyment when you realize people paid their way into a serious advantage. Other than that, it's been pretty fun. I killed Boba Fett while playing Han Solo (in a capture-point scenario), so that's one notch for me.

Last night it popped up the dogfights as the random scenario to play, so I gave it a go. While it's not a true simulator or anything, I had a blast with it and found I'm a lot better with that gameplay. I caught on pretty quick to controlling speed in order to reverse direction faster (and there's those maneuvers, but I never remember they're there). While in other scenarios I'm usually relegated to trying to help complete the mission of grabbing drop pods or something, that's a gameplay mode I can shine in, and I got a bunch of points and leveled up from 9 to 13 (sooooo slow). It's not a true sim, but I enjoy it. Only complaint there is that "heroes" might be even more OP, with the Millennium Falcon especially wreaking havoc the moment someone gets it.

[Kirsten]

yesterday I finished Just Cause 3, loads of fun. next I think will be Tomb Raider, then possibly finishing off The Witcher 3, then probably Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

[Erik Setzer]

I think I should try playing Witcher 3 rather than doing more Fallout 4 playthroughs right now. Also some others games I got on Steam, and I finally plugged in all my Humble Bundle Steam codes.

But I also just got Disney Infinity 3.0, with some of the Star Wars characters, and have been having a lot of fun with that. Mostly playing Rey so far, but it's fun to switch to Kylo when I need to cut open a door, or I screw up and get Rey killed temporarily. Using Kylo to kill Stormtroopers is rather amusing.

I got Just Cause 1 and 2 from a Humble Bundle. Think I'll play them a bit while waiting for JC3 to drop in price.

[Psychosplodge]

I got sid meir's pirates. Best £1.49 I spent this steam sale. It thoroughly distracted me from FO4.
Also in this sale got the survivalist (I think) a post apocalypse zombie game not played much but seems interesting.
And the latest saints row DLC, should be interesting.
Also got a Wii U for xmas. That's loads of fun. Mariokart 8 is pretty decent, especially as you now have a small chance to defend against blue shells if you're lucky.
Mariomaker is so frustrating, I can't believe I used to be pretty good at supermarioworld and yoshi's island etc. I suppose we just don't have real platformers anymore.
Also got Windwaker HD and Splatoon, but not played them yet.

[Erik Setzer]

And the latest saints row DLC, should be interesting.

Which DLC?

The last release that I know of is Gat Out of Hell, which is actually a standalone game (and they only charged for it like it was, so kudos to them for that). It's pretty fun, I need to get back into it and finish it up. The flying is a bit weird for me, but only really problematic if I want to try to do the flying racing activity. Almost worth it just for the musical number (and then Gat later shutting down another one before it starts).

[Psychosplodge]

Ah thats the one I meant, I thought it was an add on for four.

[Erik Setzer]

Ah thats the one I meant, I thought it was an add on for four.

No, it's similar play style and sort of carries on the story, but you can play it without having SR4.

[Psychosplodge]

https://i.imgur.com/esQCKaR.webm

doesn't want to embed like the youtube ones will. The facility in Unreal engine.

[Psychosplodge]

Got Xenoblade chronicles on Saturday. Took best part of three hours to do the intro and "training" quests ffs. This is a game I bought to play online with the SO ¬_¬.
Apart from that it seems a pretty decent game so far. I get the impression I'm about at the point where I'm just going to be let loose to do as I wish in an open world setup.
Also the wifi on the wii u is absolute ****e, so ordered the stuff to make a wired connection.

[Kirsten]

Really liking xenoblade

[Psychosplodge]

Do you find the wifi more sensitive than the wii's?

[Kirsten]

I just bought an ethernet cable almost immediately to be honest, so not sure

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah I've got an adaptor and switcher on order to solve the issue.

[Erik Setzer]

This week, at Humble Bundle (https://www.humblebundle.com/), you can pay $15 (part of which goes to Action Against Hunger, you can choose how much) to get all of these:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
(plus Elite Soldier Pack and Slingshot Pack)
XCOM: Enemy Within
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Civilization III Complete
Civilization IV Complete
Civilization V
Sid Meier's Starships
Civilization: Beyond Earth (and Exoplanets Map Pack)
Coupon for 33% off C:BE Rising Tide DLC
Ace Patrol Bundle
More stuff unannounced

If you haven't got XCOM, Civ V, or Beyond Earth yet, it's a good deal. If you don't have multiples of the games listed, it's a freaking amazing deal.

They also have their Weekly Bundle running for a couple more days, about $5 for some FMV gamers, including Her Story, which got on multiple Top 10 Games of 2015 lists, so getting one of the best games of the year according to some folks with some classic games for $5 is a nice deal.

$20 for both and you're set with a lot more games to play. If you already have a game, you can just gift the new copy to a friend.0

Stuff like this is why I have a metric assload of games on my computer.

[Tyrendian]

yep, first amazing HumbleBundle in a while, but what a slammer that is! That might just be their best ever in terms of playtime for money - one can easily sink a hundred hours plus into each of the CIV games and XCOM (yes yes I did... dont look at me like that, XCOM2 will be even worse I reckon)

[Psychosplodge]

I'm almost tempted, but I've already got a chunk of it, and so many things to play already... Maybe next time.

[Morgrim]

I can't run Beyond Earth on my current computer, but tempted to grab it for when I get a better one. That and XCOM are the only games I don't have in that Bundle. Hm. Decisions, decisions.

[Psychosplodge]

I want beyond earth, but based on civ v I want it in two or three years when theres a "complete" edition.

[Erik Setzer]

Well, I think you can gift the codes for games you already have, so you might be able to save on the games you don't have, and then also get codes to give to a friend who doesn't have a particular game so you can play against each other or something. I'm considering doing that myself.

[Psychosplodge]

I can't get struggle to get irl friends to commit to an hour playing anything, so a hundred hour game of civ V? Not going to happen...

[Morgrim]

Turns out that the bundle is in 3 lumps, and you get a code for each lump that unlocks all the games you don't own in that section.

And then they put one XCOM game in each lump. So instead of being able to give the Civ games to a friend and keep the Beyond Earth and XCOM games, I had to use all three codes myself.

[Erik Setzer]

Wow. That's weird.

I've had some reasonably pleasant games of Civ V with a friend, but the last one we played pretty much to completion ended with me wanting to smack him repeatedly with his own monitor. We agreed to, once we'd wrecked the rest of the world, meet in a specific location with our armies and then go at each other. I parked my armies there while building up, and he asked me to confirm I was parking them there as agreed. I said yes... and he dropped nukes on them and started trying to nuke my cities. I set my empire to proper war production and started flinging nukes at him along with setting up an air force and missile defenses. He decided to quit (at least, unlike my dad, he admitted he was ceding the game to me, but in a cheeky way).

After a while, though, I was begged not to use America any more. Seems my expansionist attitude gives me a huge head-start for the later phases of the game. :D

[eldargal]

So, does that Mordheim video game have female soldiers for human warbands or is it just limited to Sisters of Sigmar as a faction?

[Kirsten]

just fired mine up, loads of customisation options for appearance, but not gender. Sisters of Sigmar only unfortunately :/
four factions to begin with, and the humans have to be a specific province as well unfortunately, all reiklanders. personally I would want a Nuln female gunpowder army.

[eldargal]

Aw.:( What about Chaos? Thought I saw some enboobened cultists or something in a video.

[Kirsten]

hmm, I didn't check chaos. it is definitely a game that needs a lot of DLC in my opinion, you could do an awful lot with the tabletop version, would be good to see it available in game.

[Psychosplodge]

Still not got that. Hope they're going to add some more warbands to it though.

Spent most of the weekend on Xenoblade chronicles. It's really hard. Or I'm really bad at it and doing it wrong. Or both.

[Kirsten]

Maybe both

[Psychosplodge]

I was learning towards both.

I suppose I should RTFM it, and probably watch some youtube vids.

[Kirsten]

The missions are really hard to guess the difficulty of. You have to be careful where you go as well.

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A

This is insane.

[Psychosplodge]

The missions are really difficult to guess the difficulty of. You have to be careful where you go as well.

Yeah I was wandering down a level appropriate path and then suddenly surrounded by aggressive angry level 40 stuff. Or a big thing popped up out the desert and attacked me completely without warning again everything else was low level :(

[Kirsten]

yeah that happens. I find as well that some missions actually require to go a long way out of your way, past some ludicrously high monsters. a story mission in the night forest place in the north west requires you to take a ludicrous route that seems highly improbable, flies in the face of every game experience. no guidance as you go further and further from your objective, past monsters and bosses you can't hope to tackle, all to go up a tree and double back on yourself.

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah the first one I tackled in there, going to find some scientist, you had to wander a segment west in order to go any further north as it was impossible to pass the pseudo crocodiles.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/pK6WxC4.png

[Erik Setzer]

And since you can use either a gamepad *or* a mouse and keyboard on the PC, it has a far better range for gameplay options. So PC still wins. :D

(That said, I still like my Xbox and, when it's working right, Wii.)

[Psychosplodge]

In case you aren't aware there seems to be amassive one day sale on GW stuff on steam :eek:

[Psychosplodge]

Some interesting references (http://heroes-amongst-us.tumblr.com/post/138133092312/elementalisman-captainpoe-pokemon-20)

[eldargal]

In case you aren't aware there seems to be amassive one day sale on GW stuff on steam :eek:

Yup, just bought Mordheim.

[eldargal]

Mordheim is fun, also seems more intense than the tabletop version lol. Took a few warband attempts to get the hang of it but doing quite well now with Sisters. Just running a 4 person warband at the moment, usually send an unarmoured sister running about nabbing warpstone while the other three turtle up and charge through the middle of the map, usually can take out the first enemy I meet with focused attacks before their buddies catch up and usually they are spread out so I can take a second down or get them to quite low health before they can bring 2-3 peeps up against mine. Much fun.

[Psychosplodge]

I need to get it, but I want more warbands.

[eldargal]

It could do with more, but its not bad with 4. No DLC at all yet so hopefully some will be forthcoming in the next few months and will include some new warbands.

[Psychosplodge]

I'm stuck on the Xenoblade chapter 4 boss ¬_¬
But I don't want to lower the difficulty to beat her, looks like a leveling up murder spree is on the cards at some point this weekend.

[Kirsten]

Nightmare she is. I spent a while killing the same few beasties just before her over and over. I had just changed class so had only one skill to use. Had to add a few more

[Psychosplodge]

Spent a good hour on a murder spree, levelled up, third attempt after killed her, which was the first time since levelling up where I didn't lose a NPC killing her henchmen. As soon as there was four of us on her at a higher level we walked it.

Then went on a a good exploring session in the desert planting probes. Did you find the bottomless pit?

[Kirsten]

I didn't, not been in a desert

[Psychosplodge]

Ah, sorry. Yeah I've not been to much of Noctilum but been to most of the desert to the east.

[Kirsten]

Nasty stuff that way

[Psychosplodge]

Very, very nasty stuff. I die a lot, to single hits. But I wanted the miriam. I just spent enough time dodging and taking the long way. Even managed to get one point that was surrounded by level 40 prone by creeping up and dropping off a cliff at the right time in their patrol. Then died instantly and respawned there so had to fast travel

[Morgrim]

Bah. My kittens should be summoning Leviathans by now, but I keep getting slowed to a halt somewhere around the outer parts of my star system. Apparently I need to throw enough kittens into the cycle of reincarnation to get the higher Metaphysics first, in order to get enough unicorns to boost my Black Liquid Sorrow.

And then I shall summon the elder gods! All shall purr in despair!


(Yes I am still playing Kittens Game)

[Psychosplodge]

don't mention the kittens.

Everytime you mention the kittens I lose a fortnight of more productive gaming.

[Mr Mystery]

I've been playing Freeblade.

It's kinda fun for a freebie, and so far little sign of pay2win nonsense,

[Erik Setzer]

After seeing so many videos for it on outsidexbox's YouTube channel and it being on sale for $20, I grabbed Dying Light over the weekend. Blew pretty much my entire Sunday on it, and still have so much game left to play. Zombie killing, parkour style running and climbing, quests to do all over the place... it's pretty fun. Combat is ridiculously tough early on, even more so than it would be for my apparently awful gaming skills, but it's mostly bad with the enemy humans (until you get a gun and just shoot the buggers in the head). It does feel insanely tense when you get surrounded by zombies or find yourself out at night (when the nastier ones come out to play). The story is a bit cliche in places, but not terrible, and you see cliches in most game stories (even sometimes in the best stories). If you can get it for a good price, definitely worth snagging. If that genre's your thing, it's not bad at close to full price (or full price, if you're not a bargain seeking lunatic like me).

[Psychosplodge]

https://41.media.tumblr.com/25f14fd291c6cae4f0b51c1350f7f45f/tumblr_o1zblm7Z7F1rwnp75o1_1280.jpg

[Erik Setzer]

Yeah... There's some games on PlayStation I'd like to play, but since they're only on PlayStation, I can't, and I'm not going to rush out to buy a PS4 just for a handful of games. My PC runs games so well that I haven't even gotten many for my XBox One since I got it... I believe so far (not counting free downloads) I've gotten Madden NFL 16 (which came with it), Halo Master Chief Collection (to play with a friend), and Disney Infinity 3.0. That's it. There's other games I enjoy that are available for it, but also for PC, where I've got a combined 5TB of space right now, and can run games better, and can mod the heck out of them, *and* can usually get them cheaper through sales on Steam, Humble Bundle, etc.

Paying $400 for a PS4 just for a few games like Uncharted or The Last of Us seems like folly.

[Psychosplodge]

https://36.media.tumblr.com/95a472367cd99e7e0f2e15d9b99d2202/tumblr_o1leh3oS4B1uoy2m4o1_540.jpg

[Psychosplodge]

https://41.media.tumblr.com/da5358304e96fa5fc7a8a0faa0ed7caa/tumblr_o1yaazPwmI1syka6qo1_540.png

[Tyrendian]

So XCOM2 is out, and it's awesome! Not without its flaws (certainly needs a performance patch or two, and especially the camera needs work, plus I've had one semi-minor bug so far), but the feeling they've managed to create is amazing. So many little details, like your best soldiers showing up in Wanted lists scattered around cities...

[eldargal]

Oh yay, been looking forward to it but have a bunch of games I need to finish before I play it.

[Kirsten]

wont run on my current machine, going to build myself a new pc over the next few months and then play it

[Tyrendian]

Oh, and there's ample opportunity for all kinds of crazy characters to join your squads, sometimes quite by accident.
I had one random recruit, put him in my squad for the first time, and burst out laughing because he looked so outrageously weird... add to that the fact that he, again completely randomly, became a Specialist class (oh yes he's special! those are your mixture of tech genius and medic) with the nickname 'Glitch', plus twitchy behaviour, and a few minutes in the character editor later he also has bright yellow smileys on his armour and gun, and a legend was born.
Another one appeared, Beanie on his head, thick-rimmed glasses, pale serious face - and I immediately knew I'd nickname him "The Professor" (maths/phyiscs/chemistry professor apparently, since he's become my premier Grenadier, chucking grenades and toppling buildings like there's no tomorrow)...
And then there's one of my Sharpshooters, started off as a perfectly normal soldier from Germany with long black hair and a bit of a gaunt face. Took a serious wound one mission, which changed her attitude radically to be very brooding and grimfaced - a few minutes in the character editor later she was 'Geist' (German for ghost, with matching sniper rifle named 'Gespenst' = spectre; it was late in the night and I didnt have any better ideas okay?), all in black and dark grey, long hood over her face, which is additionally painted with a skull motif - holy hell even I am scared of her...

I'll see if I can add a few screenshots later when I get back to playing again :)

[Psychosplodge]

I watched TB's WTF video, love the customisation options. Was hilarious having dodger carrying a gun named strippin, and vice versa. * then when strippen had to kill alien zombie dodger using dodger I lol'd*

Got Mordheim in the sale last night. Played a good 3 hours when I should have been in bed after 1.5. The game doesn't like parody MLP chaos warbands though. Magister "Dusk Shine" banished from mage collage after a rule 63 accident was brutally murdered by skaven on his first outing.
losing your leader in the first game really makes funding the warband difficult for the replacement.
Got one leader, one mutant, one archer, and two c/c henchmen one with a greataxe and one with a sword/dagger combi after he went out of action first battle and lost all his gear ¬_¬.
It is rather nicely done, but it seems so hard to find warpstone.

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bM04s6sHbY

[Psychosplodge]

Not often you get developer confirmation consoles are holding back gaming (http://archive.is/ik9Xa)

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PkdLMIz-Ys


Aired on SVT2 (Swedish national public TV broadcaster) at 2016-01-30. The concert starts at 05:25.

Before the concert starts, there is a short interview in Swedish, where one of the musicians (Håkan Björkman) talks about his experience of the show. He is not that much into videogames, but says that he appreciated the Mega Man music alot, and that it required alot of stamina to play that suite.

The singers name is Sabina Zweiacker. The announcers name is Orvar Säfström. The conductors name is Charles Hazlewood.

And yes - We know they spelt Nobuo wrong.. :)



Journey - I Was Born For This: 06:00
Assains Creed IV: Black Flag - Suite: 14:05
Amiga Medley: 19:30
Final Fantasy IX - Suite: 28:40
The Last Of Us - All Gone No Escape: 38:10
Super Mario Suite (17 different parts!) - 42:15 And a personal favourite is at 45:06 and a few seconds forward! That face. :)
Bloodborne - Suite: 53:40
Megaman - Suite: 1:02:15
The Legend Of Zelda - Suite: 1:11:54
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Dragonborn Comes - 1:31:05
Final Fantasy VI - Aria The Mezzo Carattere: 1:37:55

[Psychosplodge]

If you get the chance Gott you should go see final fantasy distant worlds.

[eldargal]

I watched TB's WTF video, love the customisation options. Was hilarious having dodger carrying a gun named strippin, and vice versa. * then when strippen had to kill alien zombie dodger using dodger I lol'd*

Got Mordheim in the sale last night. Played a good 3 hours when I should have been in bed after 1.5. The game doesn't like parody MLP chaos warbands though. Magister "Dusk Shine" banished from mage collage after a rule 63 accident was brutally murdered by skaven on his first outing.
losing your leader in the first game really makes funding the warband difficult for the replacement.
Got one leader, one mutant, one archer, and two c/c henchmen one with a greataxe and one with a sword/dagger combi after he went out of action first battle and lost all his gear ¬_¬.
It is rather nicely done, but it seems so hard to find warpstone.

Apparently the Chaos cultists are a really difficult starter warband. But yep losing a leader early basically means starting again lol.

- - - Updated - - -



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bM04s6sHbY

Ooh.

[Psychosplodge]

Apparently the Chaos cultists are a really difficult starter warband. But yep losing a leader early basically means starting again lol.



Not yet, I'm still struggling on, seeing where I can go with it.
I've found empire mercs easy to kill as long as you mob their leader, was unlucky against sisters when they passed their rout check and I failed mine. Only faced skaven in the disastrous first outing. But used their mob tactics since. Probably need a spare body I can through lots of agility on to go scavenging away from the fighting.

[Psychosplodge]

missed the warpstone target for the second delivery. :eek:
Completed the first "real" mission. First attempt at it was a lot better than the second where I beat it. Only lost the first cause the deamon you have to escort died trying to corrupt the bell, whereas the second attempt where I beat it resulted in three injuries :(
Lost the first two c/c dudes to death, one in batle, one because I couldn't afford to treat his wounds.
Also got a Norse hero. This dudes charge damage is insane.

[eldargal]

Not yet, I'm still struggling on, seeing where I can go with it.
I've found empire mercs easy to kill as long as you mob their leader, was unlucky against sisters when they passed their rout check and I failed mine. Only faced skaven in the disastrous first outing. But used their mob tactics since. Probably need a spare body I can through lots of agility on to go scavenging away from the fighting.

It depends how much gold you have in reserve and how much luck you have with warpstone lol. In my first playthrough I probably spent too much on equipment and then had terrible luck with warpstone, only managed to nab fragments and a few shards, no clusters, so I was struggling to make weight for the first shipment and couldn't afford to sell warpstone so I couldn't afford a new leader.


missed the warpstone target for the second delivery. :eek:
Completed the first "real" mission. First attempt at it was a lot better than the second where I beat it. Only lost the first cause the deamon you have to escort died trying to corrupt the bell, whereas the second attempt where I beat it resulted in three injuries :(
Lost the first two c/c dudes to death, one in batle, one because I couldn't afford to treat his wounds.
Also got a Norse hero. This dudes charge damage is insane.

Does the weight amount fluctuate or does it keep going up I wonder? My first shipment was 75 weight, the second 115, if it keeps increasing at that rate there is no way I could keep up lol, I'd have to be bringing back 20-30 weight of warpstone a day just to meet shipments and pay wages lol.

[Psychosplodge]

I barely made the first weight, but lost five days with an injured leader of the second shipment, I think the second shipment was around 100 for me.

But the third is about 150 which apparently has a 25% increase because of missing, and while I've seen a some good clusters I haven't had unengaged bodies to claim them.

[Tyrendian]

phew... had my first flawless XCOM2 mission in a while (well ingame while... irl probably Saturday or maybe Sunday) thanks to a clutch performance by the entire squad. Really feels like it was the Soldiers that won that, and not me... Mission was to protect a data tap that the Aliens were trying to destroy, which inconveniently spawned on the other side of the map, so no bunkering around it - have to rush there. Tough, but standard XCOM fare these days - the game feels a lot more fast paced than EU/EW. So, off we go...
First, my top Sharpshooter ('Geist' that I mentioned above) single-handedly decimates two entire groups of enemies, killing four (two via headshots and two via her venom rounds on their turn) and severely hurting the two biggest ones. Lategame Sniper-specced Sharpshooters can for one turn define a cone-shaped Killzone and shoot anything that moves in there - which happened to be those two groups of Aliens in this case, didn't miss a single shot. Squad narrowly proceeds to wipe out the remains without giving them a single shot, with the help of a few well-placed grenades to remove enemy cover. At this point, the device I was trying to protect had already taken a lot of damage, but luckily I knew it was from one of the groups I'd just wiped, and it hadn't gotten shot the last turn.
So, I think I've got a little time and space to reload, set up and wait for the rest of the baddies. Well, no - this is is XCOM you doofus. I move closer to the objective, and with almost my last move I take a step too far and run into another group of enemies - among them a towering Sectopod; imagine a Wraithlord and you're not far off size wise, and also toughness. So that thing, and a few buddies, trigger and are now threatening not only the objective, but also got a couple of my guys horribly out of position, and me desperately scrambling for options. So I look at the two soldiers that still have moves left for this turn. One's a certain Jean-Luc 'The Captain' Picard that I had created for fun and trained to be a Psionic - pretty much the mage class of XCOM, with random "spells" you can unlock by letting the guy/gal meditate for a few days. He's got one very fitting ability that in this case saves someone's bacon: Inspire, giving one squadmate an extra move - which gets him out of the enemy sights and into cover. Phew. The other is my very special Specialist 'Glitch' (also mentioned above), who's flanked by the Sectopod, but also has one chance: he can try to hack the darn thing by sending his little Germlin drone in. So, I either move him into cover but pretty much give up on completing the mission and also risk the Sectopod annihilating someone, or I go for the money. Which I do. Gremlin flies in, hacking interface pops up - ocarp, 49% chance to stun the thing for two turns. Well, it's not like I have a choice... click, beep beep... And he gets it! Boy, I almost jumped out of my chair! Most clutch hack I've had so far. So, the Sectopod's buddies wail on the device a bit, but its gigantic plasma cannon is thankfully silent. Now what... I've still got to kill the thing plus company, and that's gonna take a lot of firepower (Sectopods have something like 50-60 health plus four armour damage reduction, while even endgame weapons, which I'm slowly getting now, do around 8 damage, 12 with a crit). Well.. long story short, a flurry of grenades and bullets later the house that this whole fight had taken part in is a smouldering ruin but Glitch finishes off the last enemy with a stylish headshot. So, I'm already very very happy with the result - but during debriefing, a whopping three of the six Soldiers that went on the mission recieve their Colonel (=max-rank, with correspondingly awesome abilities) promotion. Ironically, neither Glitch nor Geist is among them, but they'll get there very soon I'm sure.

Wow.
XCOM2.
Is.
AWESOME!

[Psychosplodge]

That sounds nailbitingly tense

[Kirsten]

inevitable game of the year Earth Defense Force 4.1 out this Friday. might try and finish the Fallout 4 story missions before then.

[Psychosplodge]

So I wanted something less brain intensive last night, so I finally got round to playing Gat outta hell.
omg its so much silly fun. Also I think I love Kinzie :D

And I'm impressed it pulled my SR4 character out of the saves for the cutscenes

[Kirsten]

Kinzie is brilliant

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah easily the best character from the series.

[Gotthammer]

https://40.media.tumblr.com/12d2d2b9de90a5e1b91edf9d82fa75af/tumblr_o2awohRY3A1qdmip9o1_1280.png

[Gotthammer]

https://40.media.tumblr.com/d29a4ccd5ec7a5f763cc4480c8562738/tumblr_o2cj8bwrCg1ubh1kvo1_1280.png

http://40.media.tumblr.com/fda8abd86befeb2f1ffcfee4afeca92a/tumblr_o2czew1bHE1trmlpwo2_540.jpg

https://41.media.tumblr.com/719218303723d5d9c745a2f5c00217db/tumblr_o2clg8DQXc1qcq7qdo2_1280.png

https://40.media.tumblr.com/8c4e8ce43b7515488b85f30aabe4c19e/tumblr_o2cq7tsVaz1qm72o6o1_540.png

https://36.media.tumblr.com/5866b7dde4487ed49b41317883e40b76/tumblr_o2cq7tsVaz1qm72o6o2_540.png

http://36.media.tumblr.com/1f8daf1ab355020f656b4eb6baf98179/tumblr_o1cqnsjg8W1s3kdbto1_540.jpg

http://40.media.tumblr.com/e1481e3adda843aeb68b43372783306d/tumblr_o1cqnsjg8W1s3kdbto2_540.jpg

Also how to make your own Yarny (http://www.unravelgame.com/unravel-make-yarny-guide.html):

http://www.unravelgame.com/content/www-unravelgame/en_US/unravel-make-yarny-guide/_jcr_content/par/pagesection_3/par/pagesection/par/image_26.adaptive.full.medium..jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN-3Lnpu9ys

[Psychosplodge]

Thats adawbs.

[Kirsten]

decided to push on with some Fallout 4 story missions, and reached a point where all three factions want me, but I don't necessarily want them. can't find an independent option this time though.

[Erik Setzer]

decided to push on with some Fallout 4 story missions, and reached a point where all three factions want me, but I don't necessarily want them. can't find an independent option this time though.

It's *possible*, but incredibly complicated. I saw a video where a guy pulled it off, but it's way too many steps for me to bother with.

[Erik Setzer]

Sick as heck (and still not sure how I am in other areas of health), so I needed something that wasn't stress-inducing (like Dying Light, Wasteland 2, NBA 2K16, etc. are). Remembered I had Cities: Skylines, and fired that up to play for a bit. Three hours of lost time later, I think I'm hooked.

Still trying to figure out various things. Made some serious mistakes, like stupidly putting high-density zoning in areas with 2-lane roads, which makes it hard for traffic to get through the area. I think that also contributed to issues with fire despite nearly saturating the area with fire departments. I'm also a bit confused with the train station, because they're telling me to connect it to outside rails, but there aren't any in the area to connect it to, so it's kind of sitting there doing nothing.

[Psychosplodge]

Kirsten, as far as I'm aware the closest to a neutral playthrough is siding with the minutemen, then you apparently only have to kill the institute. Not that I've even met the institute yet.

Erik, I had to make overcomplicated oneway systems to get anywhere on cities. Still ended up with a massive traffic jam at the major junctions of the entrance and exit to the commercial and industrial zones. Bus routes and tubes reduced the traffic, but even railways didn't meaningfully reduce industrial traffic.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/HoFdkRf.jpg

[Erik Setzer]

Erik, I had to make overcomplicated oneway systems to get anywhere on cities. Still ended up with a massive traffic jam at the major junctions of the entrance and exit to the commercial and industrial zones. Bus routes and tubes reduced the traffic, but even railways didn't meaningfully reduce industrial traffic.

I picked the area with a highway crossroads with some plains surrounded by forest with a river and lake. That highway is the biggest issue. It split my town up, and I couldn't seem to just build road going over the highway with overpasses, so every time I had to cross them, it'd create a new intersection that led to traffic backing up horribly on the highway. I had to make sure every area of town had at least its own schools, fire station, clinic/hospital, and police station.

I never quite figured out the bus system, so I think my town's bus routes are about as chaotic as the all-too-real bus system in the city I live in. I think the subways will help, but they're not cheap.

I feel like I'm spending all my money building new roads and basic services for new districts to expand the city, and can't afford to build some of the more advanced buildings.

Also, I could be wrong, but given the way the river is starting to look downstream of the sewage pipes, I think building a dam anywhere in the area would probably lead to some kind of environmental breakdown that will poison the people of my city worse than Flint, MI. I'm already concerned about how the industrial district seems to be creating a barren area around it... trying to make sure further industry is separated from the rest of town, but that's not terribly realistic, nor is it easy to do with traffic and all. Adding bus lines and a metro station would probably help with that, and maybe a six-lane road...

So many lessons to learn on the fly!

- - - Updated - - -


Kirsten, as far as I'm aware the closest to a neutral playthrough is siding with the minutemen, then you apparently only have to kill the institute. Not that I've even met the institute yet.

Ach. You're right. The "good" ending (spoilers in the video) still ends up with the Institute destroyed. Garvey's comments on that are kind of gold, though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah until I cracked the making money bit I really struggled. Can't remember what I did now, so I'm screwed if I start a new city.

I built a damn well upstream of the sewage outlets and take my water from before. I ended up demolishing most of the highway and rebuilding it in a position that better suited my city at the time. Same with the trains.

[Tyrendian]

Yeah until I cracked the making money bit I really struggled. Can't remember what I did now, so I'm screwed if I start a new city.

I built a damn well upstream of the sewage outlets and take my water from before. I ended up demolishing most of the highway and rebuilding it in a position that better suited my city at the time. Same with the trains.

fun fact, you can literally power your city with sh!t. As in, once your city is big enough to produce the required amount of filth, you can use sewage outlets to power a dam (or just add extra juice to an existing one).
oh and also, it's been posted in here before, but the story of the City of Hullchester Part 1 (http://imgur.com/a/T0Wfb) Part 2 (http://imgur.com/a/aKIvx) is always good for a laugh :)

[Erik Setzer]

Holy crap!

Literally!

[Erik Setzer]

My first city was an exercise in trying to play catch up like crazy, and I finally just gave up, but had about 15 hours invested in it. It just hit a point where it was in a death spiral, spewing out money like crazy without bringing in people to pay taxes to pay for all the stuff I hadn't already turned off.

Started a second city, and it's going well so far. Been doing my best to make sure traffic patterns are good. Most streets are six-line roads with trees on the side, for maximum traffic and minimum noise pollution. Dropping services in every neighborhood. Set up public transit and make sure to route every new neighborhood I add. There's a set of about a dozen incinerators kind of isolated (while sort of being in the geographical middle of the city) for garbage, and power is produced by a trio of nuclear plants. Got trains and ships so far, hope to get planes soon. The funniest thing was when I decided to enact two city-wide regulations that saw a nice chunk of incoming people (and money): Legalized recreational drugs, and free public transit. Less traffic, people can get to just about anywhere in the city free, and they can legally smoke weed (but pay taxes on it). So far, it's all been working pretty good, and I haven't had to juggle zoning too much. Had to give up on riverside commercial in one place (relatively thin strip between road and river, the shops kept closing), so de-zoned that area, and I swapped industry out for all offices. I *might* add some industry later, but right now aside from the incinerators and the small amount of gunk pushed out of the water treatment plants, the city has no pollution, and has plenty of jobs, energy, water, living, commercial, entertainment, public transit, all kinds of amenities, and continues to grow the population and budget. Don't want to jinx it, but it's doing surprisingly well!

Now that I have a better hang of things, I might get the DLC. Anyone got that? If so, does it add enough to be worth it? It's on sale for $7.49 (if it's still on sale in the morning).

[Psychosplodge]

Nope not got the DLC.
I was zoning groups of blocks so I could slightly tweak individual areas, like no highrise on the waterfront and such like.

[Erik Setzer]

Nope not got the DLC.
I was zoning groups of blocks so I could slightly tweak individual areas, like no highrise on the waterfront and such like.

I've zoned neighborhoods, but all I've done on an individual neighborhood basis so far is apply a bonus for small businesses on a low density commercial zone that was having trouble keeping shops. It was my original commercial district, and no matter what I did to make sure people could get to it and even placing some residential zones relatively close, they kept complaining about not enough customers. The boost helped keep shops open, and I think paid for itself in doing so.

The highrise on the riverfront idea sounds good. Especially since I tend to also put roads right along the river.

[Psychosplodge]

So finished the main quest in Gat out of hell, loved the ending. Got to do the other endings at some point.
The aura is massively overpowered when fully upgraded. Spent a couple of hours grinding the activities and collectibles afterwards. Got three islands cleared I think.

[Kirsten]

still need to play that

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah whoever it was on here talking about saints row games that finally got me to play it. Thank you :D

I mean I'd played the console version before but not the quests. just the free roam killing stuff and blowing **** up, but the story is actually quite fun.

[Kirsten]

yeah I completed the main game for 4, just never did any of the DLC

[Psychosplodge]

When I started it I did three, then four+some dlc straight away, then went back to 2, decided it was terrible, mostly because its so unstable, you eventually get used to the weird controls. Then bought this in the xmas sale, but was playing fallout 4, then got distracted by mordheim, and xenoblade, but I've been ill for the last week so needed something about more "mindless".

[Kirsten]

I liked 2, it has an actual plot, unlike the others :p

[Psychosplodge]

I was quite enjoying it once I got used to the wonky controls, I preferred 3 tbh out of them all. But 2 kept crashing to desktop on me so I didn't finish it.

- - - Updated - - -

Like every 30-40mins max it was like gaming at the turn of the century again.

[Kirsten]

3 had a lot going for it, other than the story just being a rehash of 2. 2 had some really dark moments, alongside the silliness, and it actually worked well. it had pretty good writing really.

[Psychosplodge]

I do regret dismissing them as just another gta clone for so long, they're more like a gta parody turned up to 11.

[Kirsten]

I am really hoping that if they make another they take elements from 2, 3, and 4. 4 was fun, but I didn't really like the super powers and I didn't like the constant darkness and red everywhere.

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah, we've done the red/dark thing lets go back outside. Maybe remake 2 in the modern engine even. The super powers were a fun novelty but I wouldn't miss them.

[Kirsten]

a remake of 2 I would be up for.

the super powers would have been interesting later in the game, but it made no sense that you start with a mission to steal and mod a car, then the very next mission makes vehicles redundant.

[Psychosplodge]

Yep.
As much as I love flying around the map like a bird, it has made it ridiculously easy.

[Kirsten]

hard to see where they could go for 5 though, what do you do now after virtual reality alien invasion and trip to hell?

[Psychosplodge]

Well post the gat out of hell ending they could declare one cannon and have the saints starting again from scratch?
I mean they manage to retell almost the same story every few years on gta.

[Kirsten]

that is true

[Erik Setzer]

I was quite enjoying it once I got used to the wonky controls, I preferred 3 tbh out of them all. But 2 kept crashing to desktop on me so I didn't finish it.
Like every 30-40mins max it was like gaming at the turn of the century again.

IIRC, SR2 was a horribly done port, it was originally done just for consoles. Kind of like recent WB games, where that company got so sick of the bad ports that they're now just flipping off PC customers (if you bought Mortal Kombat X for PC, for example, you won't get the DLC, because it's too much effort).

I originally got the games on XBox, picked up a Saints Row 2-pack with the first two games for $20 because it looked interesting, SR1 was fine but SR2 really drew me in. SR1 had no voice for the player's character, and the controls were probably a bit too close to GTA, which I just can't get used to for some reason. SR2 is when they started really finding their own direction, took off with it in SR3, and then decided to soar in SR4.

- - - Updated - - -


Yep.
As much as I love flying around the map like a bird, it has made it ridiculously easy.

That's a problem with most games that have alternate methods of transport, it's either easier or more fun to use the other. Like in Arkham Knight, it's a lot more fun to swing and glide around the city. I've been playing Just Cause 2 (was on sale), and it's faster to drive a vehicle, but a lot more fun to grapple around everywhere. But in games like Saints Row, the cars offer more than just transport, like customization, and radio (except you could do that outside the car in SR4, too).

Wouldn't mind driving being relevant again. It's fun to drive like a sort-of-maniac and rack up Respect doing close passes and skidding through the turns. (It is NOT fun, EVER, to try to drive legally in these games.)

[Erik Setzer]

This looks intriguing:

http://gamerant.com/endciv-fallout-meets-simcity-game/

A post-apoc city management game that also mixes in a bit of Civ elements. Could be pretty fun. I'd certainly give it a go.

[Psychosplodge]

Seems a cash in on the settlement building. I'll wait and see what happens with it, if its done right it could still work.

[Erik Setzer]

It's already been greenlit, so that's one step in the right direction.

It's an interesting concept. Not sure if a small studio will be able to realize all that they want to do with it, but I guess we'll see.

[Psychosplodge]

So it looks like reasonably priced gaming laptops might be a thing soon

http://i.imgur.com/x81Z6GN.jpg

[Kirsten]

started Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin on Xbox One, ahead of Dark Souls 3 coming in April. so good, but so very tense. all of the time. there is an obelisk in game that tracks the total number of deaths. it is approaching 57 million now.

[Erik Setzer]

The game Party Hard was included in Angry Joe's top 10 games of 2015, and looked fun from watching him playing it. It's only $12.49 normally, pretty small amount, but right now Humble Bundle's weekly bundle has Party Hard and other stuff for $8, so you can say over 33% and get a bunch of other stuff, plus help charity. I snagged it, pretty light download relatively speaking (under a gig), it even runs in a window. But it's fun. Pretty tough, though. As someone with annoying noisy neighbors, it's a nice way to blow off that steam. For those unaware of the game's premise, you're playing a guy sick of noisy party-goers who goes around various parties killing everyone, but you have to be careful not to have witnesses or have people spot bodies just lying around, or the cops will come along. Not so easy when there's often 50+ people and it's hard to get one alone (or catch multiple people where they can't escape). Plenty of environmental stuff to use, and it randomly generates the crowd and environmental stuff, so good replay value.

And it's played up as a bit of a joke, not just playing a murder-suicide simulator like Hatred.

[Tyrendian]

for those that haven't tried it yet, Cities:Skylines is on a free weekend right now - no better time to check it out if you have any interest in city-builders!

[Erik Setzer]

for those that haven't tried it yet, Cities:Skylines is on a free weekend right now - no better time to check it out if you have any interest in city-builders!

Also pretty cheap on sale. And the latest expansion had some free upgrades. Both expansions are worth getting... you can get them and the core game for less than a AAA title, and it'll provide a LOT of fun.

[Erik Setzer]

Another recommendation: Shoppe Keep. Saw a post about it on Facebook from PC Gamer, and decided for the low price ($7 USD), it was worth checking out. It's been pretty fun.

The basic premise is you run a store in a fantasy setting, selling to adventurers. Starts off small, just one room and some very basic gear. As you sell more, you level up and gain access to better furnishings to display stuff and more gear, and you can also spend gold to get a couple of extra rooms to increase your sales space.

Each day in the game is four phases: An untimed Build Phase, then five minutes each for Morning, Day, and Evening, at the end of which everyone still in the shop will run out and go home and the doors will close, starting a new Build Phase. Traffic really picks up in the Day and Evening. You have to go around sweeping and repairing the shop, too, or overused furnishings might fall apart and people will get sick of all the dirt on the floor. You also have to watch out for thieves, who'll grab your items, and then you have to chase them down and try to kill them without killing bystanders to get your stuff back. (At the moment, it's a bit hard to spot them in a crowd, though, because sometimes a paying customer will take off running, which makes them look like another thief.)

I've put a few hours into it (already well worth the price) and expanded my shop to two rooms with all furnishings and Warrior Tier 1 (no Druids, Mages, or Rogues coming in to shop yet... that'll take time). Got tables, armor and weapon racks, counters, and shelves stocked with all kinds of stuff, and I try to start each day with a lot of spares in stock so I can run around restocking shelves quickly as people buy. There have been times it's been super hectic, and I'm selling health potions literally as fast as I put them on the shelves (I place one and it disappears in a sale). There's also times that it's pretty quiet, because what people want tends to change from day to day.

There's not much "action," but it's still a really fun game, mostly calming, and a pretty low price, so you get lots of value out of it.

Not everyone's cup of tea, certainly, but for some folks, it can be a lot of fun.

Still in Early Access, though, and they do warn you that. I haven't had any serious issues, just one with a guy clipping through a wall, but out of hundreds of people, just having one do it is pretty good. Probably some balance stuff to work out, but overall it feels pretty polished. As opposed to Street Fighter V which is charging you $60 for a game that still doesn't have a lot of its core features (and will charge you more for DLC down the line).

[Mr Mystery]

Anyone got Just Cause 3 on the PS4?

I'm kind of tempted as its £32.00 on Amazon, but I still have bad memories of the exceptionally wonky vehicle physics in the first one (drive tank at top speed into a moped. Moped wobbles and drives off, tank goes flying and lands upside down in a tree)

[Kirsten]

I have it on Xbox One, thoroughly enjoyed it. much better story and characters than two, stunningly beautiful scenery, just so much fun start to finish.

[Psychosplodge]

If it's as horribly broken as 2 when it comes to spawning enemies it'll get old quickly.

[Gotthammer]

Pokemon Sun & Moon is real, so now we’ll all be saying Pokemon S&M and idk how to feel about that

https://40.media.tumblr.com/5b78a39ab4a034cc7f9ba77c04b83cd2/tumblr_inline_o35jeghSab1qidt9p_540.png

https://41.media.tumblr.com/524ecff3447e769de1aa21f0115aa7a3/tumblr_inline_o35xwr5qoQ1qe53v3_540.jpg

https://41.media.tumblr.com/5a671794ace4e980157221d707c69b9c/tumblr_inline_o35xwtIgWk1qe53v3_540.jpg

https://36.media.tumblr.com/b8d33f5d3551be4e3f9c06f6c09ad3e9/tumblr_inline_o35xwu4T1U1qe53v3_540.jpg

https://41.media.tumblr.com/e4615fb36e074a8e13ca1f808adf66c4/tumblr_inline_o35xwuLYrr1qe53v3_540.jpg

[Kirsten]

yeeeeeees

[eldargal]

Suddenly Pokemon is more interesting to me. *goes to find her horse crop*

[Kirsten]

:p

[Psychosplodge]

Suddenly Pokemon is more interesting to me. *goes to find her horse crop*

They hurt!

apparently it's not my turn to pick so i'm having sun :(

[Erik Setzer]

Anyone got Just Cause 3 on the PS4?

I'm kind of tempted as its £32.00 on Amazon, but I still have bad memories of the exceptionally wonky vehicle physics in the first one (drive tank at top speed into a moped. Moped wobbles and drives off, tank goes flying and lands upside down in a tree)

I kind of want to get it just because of all the funny shenanigans I see the Outside XBox crew get into with it, like ramping a tank off a "sky fortress" and jumping out at the last second.

[Psychosplodge]

Achievement grinding on saint's row 3 last night, realised not going to be able to get them all cause you can't multiplayer anymore, or upload your character :(
damn you THQ.

[Kirsten]

That's annoying. The only game I ever fancied getting all the achievements on, you had to have played in the beta. And I didn't.

[Psychosplodge]

I mean I don't achievement grind a lot. But occasionally when they seem reasonably doable I'll have a go. I mean I had half the TF2 ones, then they keep releasing new ones...

[Mr Mystery]

Still greatly enjoying Freeblade.

Up to level 33 as a Knight, and about three chapters to go. Whilst you can very much pay2win, it's by no means necessary - everything can instead be achieved by grinding in the game. As the levels themselves are short, that's not the chore it sounds.

Though I have to admit I did make a £14.99 purchase of Gold. Given I've been enjoying the game and playing it loads, seemed a fair price - and that gold did make things a bit easier!

If you've got a suitable platform for it, definitely give it a bash :)

[Kirsten]

Sniper Elite 4 announced yesterday, coming this year. very excited.

looking like a good year for gaming really, Earth Defense Force earlier, Twilight Princess HD just come out, Dark Souls 3 soon, The Division looks promising, XCOM 2, Uncharted 4, Fire Emblem, Star Fox Zero... I am somewhat curious about Farcry Primal too

[Psychosplodge]

Interesting to watch both the cynical brit's, and the other cynical brit's takes on xcom2. TB seemed to like it. Yahtzee seemed to think it a lazy cash in on the first one. At least that was my impressions from their videos.

Star fox zero? please tell me its a wii u game and back in an arwing? :D

I did discover mass effect 3 is on the wii u for about £8 new the other day, so I might get to play the third installment afterall. Won't be the same without my PC shepard though but oh well.

[Kirsten]

Star fox zero? please tell me its a wii u game and back in an arwing? :D

yes and yes

[Psychosplodge]

you can't see it, but I'm doing a happy dance right now.

It's a good job I now work mostly alone.

[Kirsten]

it is looking really good, same sort of approach as Lylat Wars, same enemies etc. like Star Wolf. but looks lovely, some vehicles changes, tank looks cool. I am pretty excited. out April 22nd, so not far away

[Psychosplodge]

Very nice. Don't think it'll be afull price purchase for me though, the N64 version was it lylat wars? I completed in a single sitting without losing a life so I've always been wary since (luckily I'd only rented it from blockbuster- remember when you could do that?)
Although i was a lot better at flight sims back then than I am now as used to play more. hmmm.

[Kirsten]

well Lylat Wars had multiple routes, easy medium and hard, and secret routes. plus targets for getting gold on every level, I played it for years, was only one gold medal short.

[Psychosplodge]

oops so I "completed it" and never realised there was another way? what a muppet.

[Kirsten]

three ways standard :p

the third route had a much bigger Andross fight at the end too, and a submarine level instead of the tank level.

[Psychosplodge]

That sounds awesome...

[Kirsten]

it was really good. Zero is taking the same approach it seems, multiple routes to the boss. so don't just do one and stop :p

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah, I'm not quite that oblivious these days

[Kirsten]

are you suuuuure?

[Psychosplodge]

I was, now I'm not so sure

[Kirsten]

hehehehe

[Mr Mystery]

As long as there's a 'SHUT UP, WING MATES' button, I might just get a Wii U for that.

[Psychosplodge]

A mute slippy button is essential.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/HSdexK7.jpg

[eldargal]

Elder Scrolls Online is 50% off on Steam apparently, kind of tempted to get it but not really sure.

[Kirsten]

I haven't tried it, kind of interests me, but I am suspicious that it can't offer what it claims to.

[eldargal]

Yep. I keep thinking 'why not?' but then I remember it doesn't support mods, and a ES game without mods is like something without something integral to that something.

[Kirsten]

couldn't have put it better myself :p

[eldargal]

:p

[Psychosplodge]

Aren't there still rumours it's going f2p?

[Kirsten]

I don't know, they dropped the monthly sub didn't they

[Psychosplodge]

I think so. But I'm sure I read something about them going free to play and spamming cosmetics to sell.

[eldargal]

There have been rumours it would go F2P since it launched lol. Hopefully buying it now will give a premium version if it does happen to go F2P.

[Psychosplodge]

Ah, fair enough.

[Mr Mystery]

Yep. I keep thinking 'why not?' but then I remember it doesn't support mods, and a ES game without mods is like something without something integral to that something.

Bacon buttie without HP.

Toast without Marmite.

Jimmy Carr without an entirely unjustified smug, self important expression?

[Psychosplodge]

HP on a bacon butty is heresy. Bread, butter, bacon. The 3Bs intergral to a bacon butty. :rolleyes:

And don't get me started on marmite

[Erik Setzer]

ESO is B2P. Just grab the core game and that's it. If you think of it like an ever-expanding single-player game, you won't be too disappointed. It does feel kind of odd, because it's almost familiar but not quite with how it works. Lack of fast travel like the normal TES games have can be a bit meh at times. It's not bad, but it's not exactly amazing either. At the right price, I'd say it's worth getting to provide some entertainment.

On the single-player MMO front, thought, SWTOR is probably a better option.


On a different note... I finally fired up This War of Mine on Sunday for the first time. My first game ended last night. It was kind of a disaster. Apparently I need to make weapons before beds, and arm everyone. Survivors get sad when they get raided, but also get sad when you go and take stuff from any location that other people are occupying. And if you have to get in a fight, your survivor will be mopey as heck. I might be able to make it work better on another attempt, but it's super-depressing and, added to the difficulty, that makes it not an ideal choice for just trying to relax after a long day at work. Even Cities: Skylines isn't that stressing.

[Mr Mystery]

HP on a bacon butty is heresy. Bread, butter, bacon. The 3Bs intergral to a bacon butty. :rolleyes:

And don't get me started on marmite

You don't know nuffink, you don't.

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSSkz6iDPvM

[Psychosplodge]

That'll sell well over here :D

[Kirsten]

Aww yeah, my new pc arrives this afternoon

[Psychosplodge]

Not building yourself?

[Kirsten]

Was going to, but it just wasn't any cheaper for a good spec machine.

[Psychosplodge]

I suppose the shipping on every part adds so much to it?

[Kirsten]

Not too bad really, but I had a list of parts drawn up, then found a pre-built one maybe £100 more with roughly the same stuff. So I went for that as it had a warranty and stuff with it.

[Psychosplodge]

ah. :D

After much grinding last night I managed to get the rarest saints row 3 trophy :D

[Kirsten]

Fun

[Psychosplodge]

Yes searching for cars with passengers to take hostages is possibly the most exciting gameplay mechanic ever

[Kirsten]

yeah that does sound fun

[Psychosplodge]

oh dear

http://i.imgur.com/VrhEjrI.jpg

and the corrected version

http://i.imgur.com/4GO2Kk8.jpg

Though how old must it be looking at the consoles?