The General Pooter Games Thread.

[Kirsten]

I am playing Transistor, I couldn't recommend it more. stunningly beautiful, amazing soundtrack, cool story, unusual combat... plus a female protaganist, and made by the same people who did the absolutely amazing Bastion


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b28sRoiYajs

[Psychosplodge]

I think we need to sit you down & have you play the Original Mario start to finish with no save..... :D

Takes about three minutes doesn't it?

[Kirsten]

played some Watch Dogs today. most of the gameplay seems good, hacking stuff is interesting, cover, combat etc. as solid as you would expect from Ubisoft. Downside so far, the cars don't handle terribly well, and driving seems like it will feature a fair bit. the handling reminds me very much of GTA4, so if you could deal with that you will be ok. personally I just tried a side mission to steal a car and deliver it, only for police to find me immediately, and basically chase me until the car blew up from too many crashes. their cars are better than yours and go faster, and even if you do give them the slip, the helicopter over head wont lose track of you. no idea how you are supposed to escape. plus your reputation decreases for every pedestrian you kill or injure, which in a high speed chase in a busy city with bad handling, is a lot.

[White Tiger88]

Takes about three minutes doesn't it?

More like 3 days ;)

Also is it bad i am hunting "Loot cards" For World of Warcraft????? I think they may or may not be like crack...

[Psychosplodge]

oops (http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/a-bomb-squad-was-called-out-after-a-pr-stunt-went-very-wrong)

[Gotthammer]

D'oh >.<

[eldargal]

Lol, poor journalist. Don't give a **** about Watch Dogs though, got one paragraph into review and it was already talking about female relatives being killed to provide manpain to the protagonist so **** that. Unoriginal in the ****ing 80s it is just unforgivable that games keep using that as a cheap ****ty narrative device.

[Psychosplodge]

Well its already been scaled back for the "next gen" consoles to cope with it.
Sounds massively overhyped to me.

[Gotthammer]

Apparently it's really badly optimised for PC so even people who could run Crysis on full specs are having trouble putting it above medium settings. Something Awful covers (http://www.somethingawful.com/news/watch-dogs-review/) my feelings over the plot of the game.

[Psychosplodge]

So basically they can't produce the graphics they tried to sell it on?

[Wolfshade]

So apparently that site is blocked at work.

[Kirsten]

it looks nice and it is fun. you get to stand near some rising bollards and make cars smash in to them, which is pretty entertaining.

[Kirsten]

playing Watch Dogs. a random dude was snatching a purse or something, so, it being america, and me playing a white dude, I thought the logical thing to do was shoot him immediately. he dropped down dead in the road, car came to a halt in front of him. the driver then just sat there patiently, occasionally being their horn at the dead dude, whilst a queue formed behind them...

[Psychosplodge]

I'm not convinced that americans would queue in that manner.

[Gotthammer]

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

It's real. (http://www.joystiq.com/2014/05/29/mario-kart-8-bringing-mercedes-dlc-to-japan-shocking-imagery-to/)

http://i.imgur.com/ttNiXbE.gif

[Psychosplodge]

yeah thats awesome

[Gotthammer]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/132c58f0cdf551ee4dbe35e8d44f0588/tumblr_n5rf1jRqDV1qjnhqgo1_1280.jpg

No trust.

[Psychosplodge]

none whatsoever, but isn't that part of splitscreen?

[eldargal]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/132c58f0cdf551ee4dbe35e8d44f0588/tumblr_n5rf1jRqDV1qjnhqgo1_1280.jpg

No trust.

I don't get it.:p

[Gotthammer]

none whatsoever, but isn't that part of splitscreen?

Lol yes, but to engineer such a... compensation for it is loony. Sort of like that LAN party pic with the guy duct taped to the roof or whatever it was.



I don't get it.:p

Serious?

[eldargal]

Well I get it is something to do with split screens but the only time I ever played split screen was mario kart on the N64 so...

Or was it Mario Kart or something else... hm.

[Psychosplodge]

I don't think I've seen that one.

[Gotthammer]

EG- hiding your screen in an FPS so the other person can't see you coming :p


Psycho:

http://www.roliga-bilder.org/roliga-bilder/cs_bed.jpg

CRT monitors and Counter Strike - vintage LAN :p

[Wolfshade]

More importantly, who is duck tapped to the rsj?

[Psychosplodge]

brilliant.

[Kirsten]

Mario Kart 8 purchased, free game from Nintendo for registering it on Club Nintendo, ten games to choose from, I went for New Super Mario Bros U

[Kirsten]

playing the new Wolfenstein today. enjoying it so far, quite liking the old fashioned shooting feel. looks nice, story is interesting, the main character actually speaks, which is nice. only issue so far is that there is only a master volume control, no individual controls for speech, effects, music etc. and the sound hasn't been very well balanced. voices are very hard to hear even when stood beside you, and guns are rather lacking in oomph.

[Wolfshade]

Skyrim + City Management = Northern Shadow

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=264849384


Northern Shadow is a first person perspective RPG where you can build and manage your own kingdom. It has both sandbox elements, and a classical RPG story.

Game starts after the great defeat of the Northern Kingdom, at the hands of an unknown enemy. Some of the survivors have traveled to distant lands in hopes of rebuilding the now fallen kingdom.


Features

Your kingdom, your people
Build and improve your own city. Communicate with other kingdoms, negotiate trade agreements and build alliances. Defend your city and your lands.

RPG systems with a skill based focus
In combat, depend on your own skills, rather than statistics on your character sheet. Use spells or weapons, you can play the game your way. Craft weapons for your use, or for your troops.

Living World
Living economy allows you to see the ripples of your own actions all around the world. Your steward will take care of your city while you are gone.

Explore
Discover worlds both above, and beneath the earth. Find precious mineral veins and other treasures.

Gameplay
You can only control your own character. Build your city by talking to your steward, or workers and selecting an appropriate lot from a miniature map. Protect your surrounding lands by ordering patrols and giving special missions to your troops. Troop effectiveness is determined by their training and weapons/armor quality.

Your cities can produce different wares, which you can trade with other kingdoms if you wish, but you have to protect your roads and provide safe environment for traders first. Wage war or form alliances with other computer controlled kingdoms as you see fit.

It is all text based (no voice overs), but has an expanding story with many arcs.

The video looks cool :)

[Gotthammer]

playing the new Wolfenstein today.

Oh that sucks about the audio, I have trouble with background noise so that's a shame :(



Skyrim + City Management = Northern Shadow

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=264849384

Interesting, will keep an eye out for that (or forget and be pleasantly surprised again at a later date).


Also:

https://24.media.tumblr.com/2c88d42e65c30654b9772aa0f4605462/tumblr_mu63pyNzFG1qzxzwwo1_500.jpg

[Wolfshade]

Not really sure about the first person gameplay stylings though.

[eldargal]

Ha!

Northern Shadow looks interesting.:)

[Gotthammer]

Not really sure about the first person gameplay stylings though.

Aye, have to see more of that before I decide. If it's like Divinity: Dragon Commander in that it's an option but not necessary I think it'll be better. And also if you can play as a lady or not :p

[Psychosplodge]

it's not the ideal building perspective.

[eldargal]

It looks like you can switch perspectives. It reminds me of a larger version of Hinterlands with better graphics.

[Wolfshade]

I can't be worse than the building aspect in mount and blade thoughcan it?

[eldargal]

No, no it can't.

[Kirsten]

Oh that sucks about the audio, I have trouble with background noise so that's a shame :(


it is a shame, because the story is actually surprisingly good, the characters have real, believable personalities and you really sympathise with their struggles, and are shocked alongside them at the german atrocities. it doesn't shy away from showing what occupation would have looked like. Berlin in 1960 looks very believable, the gameplay has some cool features and is a lot more varied than many other shooters. I would really recommend it, just needs some audio work. it isn't quite so bad in later levels, but the first one in particular is really bad.

[Psychosplodge]

PC Gaming.... (http://imgur.com/a/v6Q7m)

[Gotthammer]

So for those who don't know, apparently in the newest Mario Kart Luigi is stone cold and will straight up ice a mother****er:


http://youtu.be/03eNODCDdqY

and it has been noticed:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aylDlZ-eyw

[eldargal]

Tried Heroes of Warcraft Hearthstone last night, not bad, not sure what the fuss is about though. I mean it is fun but a bunch of my friends are totes obsessed with it.

[Kirsten]

So for those who don't know, apparently in the newest Mario Kart Luigi is stone cold and will straight up ice a mother****er:


http://youtu.be/03eNODCDdqY

and it has been noticed:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aylDlZ-eyw

epic

[Psychosplodge]

The wench received her copy of tomodachi life today, and I've since then I've been receiving texts about how wonderful it is.

It's apparently really cute, and you can give the gift of Heavy Metal. and then your mii sings :D

[eldargal]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/fd3ac0505862d1948364691a7b22db8d/tumblr_n5uanhuyKk1qb6v6ro2_400.gif
https://24.media.tumblr.com/fdaba0705a3c53e2956f26d4484d4b4c/tumblr_n5uanhuyKk1qb6v6ro1_400.gif
https://31.media.tumblr.com/9e83e5c3cfc16cb0c15810896a407aa7/tumblr_n5uanhuyKk1qb6v6ro3_400.gif
Yesssss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV5w8OFrm6U)

[Psychosplodge]

I have a feeling the first two (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?37238-The-General-Pooter-Games-Thread&p=422240&viewfull=1#post422240) might already be in this thread

[Gotthammer]

http://37.media.tumblr.com/268039e390e489b96fde892b546374b2/tumblr_n4n0ldyNVn1s9iivfo2_r1_400.gif

http://24.media.tumblr.com/b8f2ffb78573bb4090ecce9d2b32854e/tumblr_n4n0ldyNVn1s9iivfo1_r1_400.gif

Audio's NSFW tho:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hMAnj7bA38

[Gotthammer]

ATTENTION FANS: history is our playground and the possibilities are endless. you have told us your opinions and we have heard you LOUD AND CLEAR, and this year, we at ubisoft bring you not one, not two, not even three but fOUR WHITE MEN WITH STUBBLE


https://31.media.tumblr.com/b91c209de545c93d52ada17daa41db52/tumblr_inline_n6v56nLnIn1r0vh69.png

[Tyrendian]

well if that's not an ad slogan that will win the masses over... :D

[Gotthammer]

It's four times as much as the next game!

https://31.media.tumblr.com/af5cc0ee235a9b0337f949c27858919e/tumblr_mhhvzgPVf91qfnsruo1_1280.png

And besides it's a game about a modern person using science to unlock genetic memories of their ancestors who were part of a secret warrior order of assassins fighting the pope's illuminati army of inquisitors or whatever - it'd just be unrealistic to have women or non-white people in a game set during the French revolution as women didn't have anything to do with it & poc hadn't been invented in Europe yet :rolleyes:

[Wolfshade]

You want your cake and eat it!

[Gotthammer]

I dunno, sometimes I think making people work in retail for a year would do society wonders.

I mean firstly it'd hopefully cut down on people being asshats to workers, but also show people that the world is a diverse place. Working a day in a supermarket I'd see men in turbans, women in hijabs and chadors, people in wheenchairs, old people, young people, deaf and blind people. Aside from the whole thing that representation is important it's just incredibly boring and dull from a design and storytelling point of view. Oh yay another grizzed white 30 something dude is angsty and out for revenge because women in his life were threatened/kidnapped/killed. YaaaaAAaAaaAyyyy.... (looking at you Watch Dogs)

Also Marie Antoinette almost certainly never said "let hem eat cake" (or any derivation thereof) as it was never cited by her contemporary critics and the first attribution of the line to her occurred about 50 years after her death. Besides which contemporary accounts portray her as a very charitable and compassionate person who actually acted when made aware of the poor people's reality so it is likely very out of character for her.

[Wolfshade]

My subtle point was that in history there were women.

[eldargal]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/b91c209de545c93d52ada17daa41db52/tumblr_inline_n6v56nLnIn1r0vh69.png

Jesus ****ing Christ Ubisoft.

[eldargal]

Ok so the four stubbly white guys might co-op rather than single player protagonists in AC:U, hope at least they include some ****ing female co-op options.

https://31.media.tumblr.com/c6682dfcc7f2dd066b47dbaa32eb4b6f/tumblr_n6xic6Np3p1qjnhqgo1_500.jpg
Say what you will about EA whoever tweets for them has a sense of humour.

[Gotthammer]

Seems legit given how long it takes to log on.

And the AC dudes I think one is the main dude but you can co-op and get the other three joining you? And they've said you can customise face and gear I think - but not race or gender (yet).

[eldargal]

I really hope they let you customise gender, at least for the minor characters andp referably for the protagonist too. No excuses for companies continuing to churn out 90% white male brown stubble protagonists.

[Tyrendian]

while I totally aggree with you on that, the trailer is (as usual) epic as all hell:

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

[Kirsten]

Aisha Tyler, an absolute icon:

I play.

I've played since I was a little kid.
Since I begged my dad to buy me a Nintendo LCD Donkey Kong, Jr.
Since I blew through three weeks' allowance playing Defender at the laundromat.
Since you were a twinge in the left side of your daddy's underoos.

I've been a gamer since I made friends with a girl in the 5th grade just to get at her Atari.
Since I missed the bus playing Galaga after school.
Since I missed the start of Return of the Jedi playing Tempest in the theater lobby.

You think you know. You don't know.

I've been a gamer since before you could read.
Since I aced midterms after staying up all night playing Evil Tetris.
Since I became dorm champ at Leisure Suit Larry.
Since I double-wielded on Time Crisis 3 at Fuddrucker's.

I was a voice in not one, but two major video game titles.
I hosted the Reach Beta tutorial.
I was a Gears of War superfan panelist at ComicCon.
I hosted the Ubisoft presser at E3 2012.
I didn't do any of it for the money.
For most I got paid next to nothing, and for some, less than that.

I did it because I love video games.
Because I've dreamt since I was a kid of being in one of the games I love.
How many games have you done voices for?
How many cons have you repped at?
Your buddy's Unreal Tournament garage deathmatch doesn't count.

I go to E3 each year because I love video games.
Because new titles still get me high.
Because I still love getting swag.
Love wearing my gamer pride on my sleeve.
People ask me what console I play.
Mother****er, ALL of them.

I get invited to E3 because real gamers know I'm a gamer.
I don't do it for the money.
I have plenty of money.
I don't do it for the fame.
**** fame.
I do it because I love video games.

I don't give out my gamertag because I don't want a mess of noob jackholes lining up
to assassinate me on XBL.
I don't give a **** what you think about my gamerscore.
I don't play to prove a point.
I don't play to be the best.
I play because I love it.

I play.
I've been playing my whole life.
I'm not ashamed of it.
I don't apologize for it.
It's who I am.
To the core.
I'm a gamer.

So to all the haters out there who claim I don't play;
To the GAF dicks,
Gamespot trolls,
To every illiterate racist douchebag on Youtube:
Flame away. Go nuts.
Post every jackass comment your heart desires.
I'll still be playing when your mom's kicked you out of her basement
and you have to sell your old-*** console
and get a real job.

For now, I say to you respectfully,
and I mean this from the bottom of my heart,
GFYS.

[Learn2Eel]

Playstation Blog posted up some screenshots of Bloodborne - for those who don't know, it is made by the same team that did Demon's Souls and Dark Souls (the team that made Dark Souls 2 was composed mostly of junior developers) at From Software. It is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls and can thus be considered a "Souls" game despite it looking to evolve the formula.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5194/14206641977_00580209d8_z.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5523/14206641937_baaef94729_z.jpg

[eldargal]

I look forward to seeing Bloodbornes white, brown haired stubbly protagonist.:p

Oh and Ubisoft responded to criticism about lack of female characters by saying they were cut because they would 'double the resources' needed which is not only bull**** is is misogynist because they would never consider cutting male characters to include female characters. Women are optional and expendable, men are integral. It is the ****ing definition of misogyny and trying to hide it behind busciness decisions is just cowardly. You have the resources to produce four white guys and a massive supportive cast but you can't, you know, re-use ****ign animations from Assassins Creed Liberation and hire a female voice actor? We are expected to believe that Volition can afford 3-4 female voice actors and Bioware can have two female voice actors (in DAI) and motion capture etc. but Ubisoft can't? Bull****.


Edit: Anyone else disappointed that all we saw of Star Wars Battlefront was Endor and Hoth? Like we haven't thought Endor and Hoth a zillion times before in various games? Meh.

[Tyrendian]

Oh and Ubisoft responded to criticism about lack of female characters by saying they were cut because they would 'double the resources' needed which is not only bull**** is is misogynist because they would never consider cutting male characters to include female characters. Women are optional and expendable, men are integral. It is the ****ing definition of misogyny and trying to hide it behind busciness decisions is just cowardly. You have the resources to produce four white guys and a massive supportive cast but you can't, you know, re-use ****ign animations from Assassins Creed Liberation and hire a female voice actor? We are expected to believe that Volition can afford 3-4 female voice actors and Bioware can have two female voice actors (in DAI) and motion capture etc. but Ubisoft can't? Bull****.

Bull**** indeed... sigh...


Edit: Anyone else disappointed that all we saw of Star Wars Battlefront was Endor and Hoth? Like we haven't thought Endor and Hoth a zillion times before in various games? Meh.
well those are the most iconic battles, so it kinda makes sense to get those presentable first... and they do look neat

[eldargal]

Yeah it isn't so much that I don't want them it's that I'd rather see something new first.

[Psychosplodge]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/c6682dfcc7f2dd066b47dbaa32eb4b6f/tumblr_n6xic6Np3p1qjnhqgo1_500.jpg
Say what you will about EA whoever tweets for them has a sense of humour.

Who said they were joking?

Also

http://i61.tinypic.com/2cftw00.gif

[Charon]

I look forward to seeing Bloodbornes white, brown haired stubbly protagonist.:p

Oh and Ubisoft responded to criticism about lack of female characters by saying they were cut because they would 'double the resources' needed which is not only bull**** is is misogynist because they would never consider cutting male characters to include female characters. Women are optional and expendable, men are integral. It is the ****ing definition of misogyny and trying to hide it behind busciness decisions is just cowardly. You have the resources to produce four white guys and a massive supportive cast but you can't, you know, re-use ****ign animations from Assassins Creed Liberation and hire a female voice actor? We are expected to believe that Volition can afford 3-4 female voice actors and Bioware can have two female voice actors (in DAI) and motion capture etc. but Ubisoft can't? Bull****.



While this is a sad response it holds some truth. Its not all as easy as some people would like to think.
No, they would never consider cutting white male characters in favor of anything else. Thats actually a business decision. Their fanbase is mostly white males. If this hard fact changes, their business decision will change. But dont expect them to "donate" any money changing their customer base. If women would make a significant number of their cutomers you could be sure as hell that they would include female characters. Data today is quite good as programs like steam are huge data collectors.
4 white guys are super easy to do. Everything is already done and you just change the skin a bit and get maybe additional voiceactors (and not even this is a "must" as a single voicactor can do multiple voices).
You cant "just use the animations form another game" as they are not compatible in 99% of cases. It might not be obvious but its like saying "you can just take the animations from Streetfighter and put them into Mortal Kombat. Engine is different, coding is different, nearly everything is different.
So you just have to build it completely new. So yes, this would exactly double the cost of the white male. Maybe the can afford that but most likely they dont want to as it would cut their profits. If they would believe otherwise they would change it. Its really all about the money and not some conspiracy to subjugate women through video games. If their customer base would be largely made of black lesbian women you can be sure as hell that their main characters would resemble black lesbian women.

[Gotthammer]

Someone's comments on ubisoft's weaksauce reasoning:


I was going to buy far cry 4 but that is too much financial effort on my part you understand. Unfortunate reality of video game purchases.

[eldargal]

Lol, nice.

[Learn2Eel]

To answer your earlier question eldargal, you get to pick whether your character is male or female in Bloodborne. From Neogaf (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=835121&page=21);



* No, Bloodborne will not leave Sony systems and is not coming to a Sony system other than the PS4 in the near future.
* Yes, it is an action RPG and not a pure action game.
* No, there is no fixed protagonist, male or female. You can create and customize your character like in previous games.
* Yes, there are other weapons besides the cleave-saw and the shotgun. In fact, marketing mentioned guns and cleave-saws plural.
* No, this is not Devil May Cry or a button masher. The gameplay is likened to Souls without a shield or magic and with guns that stagger foes.
* Yes, this is an interconnected world and there is no hub. Thank God.


It turns out there are demo kiosks for Bloodborne at E3 and pretty much all the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm not sure I like this article (http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/bloodborne/preview-3665.html) title though as there's no way the game can live up to it surely;


Bloodborne is Dark Souls meets Resident Evil 4

Sounds like this game will validate my purchase of a PS4 alone, an exclusive Souls game is to die for (haha!).

[eldargal]

Well that is good news.:) LEARN FROM THIS UBISOFT!:p

[Learn2Eel]

On the Ubisoft thing, I find it incredibly difficult to believe they couldn't put at least one female character in. Two males and two females would have been ideal, but not even one female? Even the business argument posted above fails to cover that a significantly higher proportion of gamers nowadays are female, and heck, even most males will be wondering why there are no females among the four main characters.

[eldargal]

It's a nonsense argument. Having a protagonist costs money, it doesn't cost more money having a female protagonist unless somehow you believe male protagonists spring form the ground fully coded, animated and voiced. I mean yes youl can re-use the mocap and animations and stuff for other male characters but you can do that for women characters too. The issue here is they feel it is a higher priority to give people another stubbly white guy indistinguishable from most other stubbly white protagonists rather than use a woman to tell a story.

[Learn2Eel]

That's perhaps the only thing I didn't like about Watch Dogs, Aiden Pearce was do darn generic with his only defining feature being a gravelly voice. I liked his family and the rest of the supporting cast but Aiden himself was really bland.

[Charon]

I mean yes youl can re-use the mocap and animations and stuff for other male characters but you can do that for women characters too.

Sure you can do that. But it looks ****. It looks totally half assed and the next issue would be "ubisoft doesnt even devote ressources in creating female characters, they just reskinned the male characters"
Vote with your wallets. I didnt buy a single Ubisoft game after their desastrous DRM and I still live well without their games.

Personally games without a character generator of some sorts are a big minus in my book. As I really hate the generic short hair wannabe gangster male look. Give me long hair and some make up already dammit...

[Learn2Eel]

I think what eldargal meant is that they can re-use the mo-cap they have done with women before, i.e. the actress that played the female assassin in Assassins Creed: Liberation (I forget her name, I barely remember any characters in these games lol).

[eldargal]

Aveline. And my point was if they can't reuse mocap for women the ycan't reuse it for men, either. Which means mo-capping needs to be done, so why not make it a woman? Every game since Brotherhood has had female assassins in the background who were animated and one assumes mocapped, but it is too much effort for a protagonist? It is no kind of excuse, it is just a cover for misogyny. Bioware had fully voiced male and female protagonists for ME1-3 and ME3 sold around 4-5 million copies in total.Volition has managed to have 3 separate voice actresses for SR2-4, each game selling around 3-4million copies.. ACIV sold 10 million copies and we are supposed to believe that Ubisoft couldn't afford to allocate the resources to create a female protagonist? Don't make me laugh. These are flimsy excuses meant to cover the companies disregard for women, nothing more.

[Charon]

Honestly dont know if the could do it. Maybe ist a coding thing, maybe even a license thing, maybe something completely different. I really dont want to defend them but the more than common "they could easily just do Y and they dont do it because they hate X" spreads everywhere. Doesnt matter where you work there are always people who will tell you that "you can easily do that!" when in reallity you cant.

In this game first of all you want to create a finished game you can sell (here you can blame them that the story is about a white male but that seems to be their target audience).
If you have that you can devote your ressources to features.
And yes having a customizeable protagonist or even a female equivalent in a story originally written for a white male protagonist is a feature here. You dont need that for a finished product.
If you dont have any more time or ressources you cut out features first (sorry no multiplayer for example)
If you still have no more time and ressources you cut game content (KOTOR 2 for example where entire levels and even the ending where cut out)

Most people have a hard time to imagine what amount of work, time and money go into the (perceived) simplest things in a game.
TONS of concept art for characters. Meetings to approve/expand on some of the concept arts. Another ton of artwork for the choosen concepts -> Here we did not even program a single piece of code or just think about actual graphics... we are still at concept stage! This can easily take weeks of the graphic department just for a single ingame character.

It all sounds incredibly easy as customer while in reality its tons of work and money. These are just business calculations. As it the choice of the protagonist. At the end of the day they want to sell their product.
If they cant sell their product, their target audience will shift (or they just go bankrupt as there are just a very few studios that can recover from an absolute disaster).




Aveline. And my point was if they can't reuse mocap for women the ycan't reuse it for men, either. Which means mo-capping needs to be done, so why not make it a woman? Every game since Brotherhood has had female assassins in the background who were animated and one assumes mocapped, but it is too much effort for a protagonist? It is no kind of excuse, it is just a cover for misogyny. Bioware had fully voiced male and female protagonists for ME1-3 and ME3 sold around 4-5 million copies in total.Volition has managed to have 3 separate voice actresses for SR2-4, each game selling around 3-4million copies.. ACIV sold 10 million copies and we are supposed to believe that Ubisoft couldn't afford to allocate the resources to create a female protagonist? Don't make me laugh. These are flimsy excuses meant to cover the companies disregard for women, nothing more.

Sorry but this is just nonsense. We can expect that ubisoft could afford it. Point taken. But also we can say that they do not want to cut their profit by implementing a "feature" that wont (in their mind) raise their income significantly.
Just because I could afford something that does not mean I have to afford it.
If you really think that a gaming company just hates women and doesnt want their money at all then there is something wrong with their business plan. And im quite sure there was a cost-benefit analysis before they decided to drop it.

[eldargal]

Of course they could do it, if they wanted to. We know that because other games do it. Smaller AAA developers with lower sales than Ubisoft and AC. But they have to want to. Ubisoft don't, so they won't. The reason they don't want to is because they are a male dominated company in a male dominated industry in a male dominated culture. They don't give a **** about telling womens stories because they aren't viewed as important.

The issue is that the white male gamer is not even a majority of their demographic. 47% of gamers are women, over 40% of console gamers are women and a good portion of the male demographic is not white.
The misogyny comes in viewing a female character as an optional feature. The story for Unity didn't spring out of the ground fully formed, nor was it handed down from on high. People wrote it. Those people made choices about the focus, who the protagonist should be etc. They view male as a default so the protagonist becomes male, to do something else is deemed an extra and requiring of extra effort which is untrue. A protagonist requires effort, the gender is irrelevant.

Co-op is included, with four Whitey McStubbly characters to choose from.

It is not about underestimating the amount of effort or resources involved, it is about criticising the choices of how those resources are allocated. Ubisoft clearly do not think those resources deserve to be allocated towards creating female protagonists, that is sexist. It is as simple as that. The resources ivolved in creating a protagonist are the same regardless of its gender. They chose to make it male because they are male in a male dominated company in a male dominated industry catering to a demographic that is actually extremely diverse. This is not sustainable, but while it lasts it is extremely offensive and upsetting.

No, it is not nonsense. They could have had a female protagonist. This isn't a ****ing feature, it is a choice. They chose not too because they would rather do what 90% of games do and cater to a small percentage of the demographic that is like them, white men. No on at Ubisoft is sitting there thinking 'grr I hate wimmins' they simply don't care about women and telling their stories. Because women are devalued, their stories are not worth telling and using a woman to tell a story is some kind of optional extra rather than a legitimate option in their minds.

[Charon]

Actually, the amount of women playing games is even higher (52%) as you can see here

http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/esa_ef_2014.pdf

BUT (and this is an important "but")

This includes ALL games. And we also have data that there are generes and even playstyles that are prefered by women (statisticly speaking).
"Only" 30% are in action games and that in an evironment where action games just make up a very tiny fraction (45% of games are non social/mobile games like farmville or angrybirds and 30% of that are action games).
So yes. The company makes a choice based on the demographic of "their" gamers. And they happen to be male of a major part.
Bioware may have a complete different demographic playerbase and thus they cater to them.

[eldargal]

"I don't like the assumption that all people who play games want big chainsaws and women in bikinis. It's like, really? Not all gamers are teenage boys, and even teenage boys want more than that," Raymond said.

The interviewer said that protagonists of many popular video games often are "husky voiced, emotionless *******[s]," and Raymond seemed to agree.

"It's got to change, right?" she said, pointing out that even traditional action movies have evolved to a point where their main characters are more narratively complex.
The (woman) head of Ubisoft Toronto, sadly ironic (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-boss-not-happy-with-the-assumption-that-gamers-only-want-chainsaws-and-girls-in-bikinis/1100-6418995/). Also according to that article AC has sold 76 million copies in total now (I,II,Brotherhood, Revelations,III, Liberation,IV) so I scoff at the notion they couldn't afford a few days work from a handful of animators, some textures, a voice actor and a bit more mocap.

[Tyrendian]

Bioware may have a complete different demographic playerbase and thus they cater to them.

that argument only works if you assume their regular player base (which I am a part of, including the stubble :)) will like the game more because the protagonist is male rather than female - i.e. because they get "generic white male stubble main character" number X rather than someone interesting, like in Freedom Cry and Liberation. And that I do find unlikely to work out in favor of them - sure they might lose out on a few customers, but I'd imagine they'd gain more than that from people (and not even necessarily girls...) like EG...

[eldargal]

Female led Tomb Raider reboot just reached the 6mil sales mark, exceeding estimates (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/once-an-underperformer-tomb-raider-nearing-6-million-in-sales/1100-6418162/). But you know, female protagonists cost more and boys don't buy them or something?

[Charon]

that argument only works if you assume their regular player base (which I am a part of, including the stubble :)) will like the game more because the protagonist is male rather than female - i.e. because they get "generic white male stubble main character" number X rather than someone interesting, like in Freedom Cry and Liberation. And that I do find unlikely to work out in favor of them - sure they might lose out on a few customers, but I'd imagine they'd gain more than that from people (and not even necessarily girls...) like EG...

Sadly it doesnt work that way. Its no question of "do they like the generic white male stubble more than an interesting character?", the real question is "do they like the generic male white stubble ENOUGH that we dont have to spend additional efford and ressources on creating an interesting character?"
And as long as the answer the this question is "yes", it wont change.


Female led Tomb Raider reboot just reached the 6mil sales mark, exceeding estimates. But you know, female protagonists cost more and boys don't buy them or something?

Never said that. I said an ADDITIONAL protagonist costs more (and how many we do have in Tomb Raider?). I also never said "boys dont buy it". So please keep it civil.
Also Tomb Raider is a successful franchise and already was before the reboot. I played it too, its a solid game (apart from a few hickups) but I really dont care what gender the main character has as long as the game/story is good.
In DA2 you could choose your gender freely and the game was still ****. Thats why im not waiting for DA3. I also enjoyed ME1 and 2 but didnt like ME3.

[Gotthammer]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/661896c96209d5df0d5278b2f93070e6/tumblr_n6zmmsjomM1r0smpxo1_1280.jpg

[eldargal]

Charlotte Corday:
http://www.artrenewal.org/artwork/273/273/14047/charlotte_corday-large.jpg

**** Ubisoft.

[Tyrendian]

and an Assassin in a striped cloak would look absolutely hilarious... :D
anyway, enough (justified) complaining maybe? it's not like Ubisoft will read this here discussion... ;)

[Psychosplodge]

Someone tweet the beginning of the conversation at them :D

Anyway anyone seen this?
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27793770)

[eldargal]

and an Assassin in a striped cloak would look absolutely hilarious... :D
anyway, enough (justified) complaining maybe? it's not like Ubisoft will read this here discussion... ;)

Yeah will probly continue it in the feminism topic now.

Edit: Ok just one more because this is important, teh animation director on ACIII, Mass Effect 1-2 and many other games calls out Ubisofts bull****:
https://24.media.tumblr.com/1a7a85f380cbdfb3910777c972053e35/tumblr_n70d13GfFy1qaa3tho1_500.jpg
1-3 days extra work to add female players in a development cycle lasting hundreds of days.

[Mr Mystery]

'Eres a thought for Ubisoft, and indeed people in general.

People. Like. Choice.

Will a female protagonist necessarily mean increased sales from female gamers? I dunno.

Will a female protagonist necessarily mean decreased sales from socially maladjusted men-children hating women from their mother's house? I dunno. Possibly I guess.

But hey. As I said, people like choice. So give it to them. Because those who object that the choice for a female sprite is there? You probably don't want them associated with you anyways.

[Wolfshade]

People. Like. Choice.

You obviously haven't been reading teh unbound argument...

[Mr Mystery]

No, people like choice.

But some people don't like others having choice.

[eldargal]

There is a petition to Ubisoft about the issue (http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/ubisoft-discontent-at-lack-of-representation-in-ac-unity-protagonists), please sign it at least it might make them reconsider this attitude in future.

Edit: Oh and share it with any friends or whatever that might be interested.

[Kirsten]

http://www.theonion.com/sponsored/townsperson-in-online-rpg-universe-figures-shield,101/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview%3A1%3ADefault

[eldargal]

There is a new Entertainment Software Association survey on the video game industry (http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2014.pdf) out covering 2013. I've addressed the feminist aspects here (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?32827-A-Crash-Course-in-Feminism-Mk-II-(or-why-everyone-should-be-a-feminist)&p=429301#post429301). 48% of gamers are women, up 1% on the previous year and another survey found 37% of console gamers are women.


But there are other interesting thingies:

3% of video games released are Strategy and 31% are Action.
38% of best selling video games were Strategy and 3% were Action
7% of games are RPGs, 12.5% of best selling games were RPGs
2.3% of games released are Casual, 28% of best selling games are Casual
Sports gamres are 12% of those released and 0.3% of best sellers. Lol.

Interesting that Action games are the biggest chunk of the industry but not particularly well performing while strategy games are quite a small part and the best performing.

[Wolfshade]

I wounder how much of this is to do with re-playability.

A strategy game you can replay loads of times as there is no "right way" to do something. Whereas Action games tend to be more one dimensional, follow this narrative and complete the level by performing these actions.

RPGs as well have this great re-play ability (or the better ones) and allow you to complete a task different ways.

How many of the sports games are just FIFA n+1 or PES n+1 which each year just produce a re-skin of the existing game and not make any fundamental improvements?

[Psychosplodge]

:eek:

http://i.imgur.com/2djjFBh.png

[Gotthammer]

Yours?

[Wolfshade]

Consoles can be suspended from Xbox Live for a number of reasons including, but not limited to:
•Console tampering: Physically opening the Xbox and modifying it to play illegitimate software.
•Online fraud: Attempting to social engineer users, take over Xbox Live accounts, or other fraudulent activities.
•Repeat egregious violations: Multiple actions taken on accounts on the console by the Enforcement team for disrupting the service or impacting users.

Customer Support for Xbox Live cannot undo an Xbox Live suspension for a console. Xbox Live console suspensions may also include permanent suspensions of Xbox Live accounts as well.

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/consoleban
Hmm,

[eldargal]

Lern2PC.:p

[Psychosplodge]

No, but its shocking they do this.

[Wolfshade]

Is it?

These are our rules play by them or GTFO.

More importantly OpenXcom has just released v1.0 so you can play XCOM on 64bit machines :) http://openxcom.org/2014/06/openxcom-1-0/

[Psychosplodge]

That you can't open it to dust or replace fans/heatsink compound?

[Gotthammer]

You can do that, it's people who mod them so they can rip full games to the hard disk and play non x-box games they target since they don't actually buy anything.

[Psychosplodge]

Ah I see

[Wolfshade]

Should water cool...

[Path Walker]

If you open it up then you void the warranty, as you would for most electrical items, but you won't get banned from XBox Live, because they'll never know that you've done that if you don't install anything to let it to install pirate software. Its not really shocking, its part of the terms of using their online service that you pay for the games you play using that online service, Steam is the same.

[Psychosplodge]

Well it would be possible for them to have a tamper switch, like in alarm systems, not being that familiar with the hardware, and the screenshot just mentioning a repair...
You don't pay to play online with steam only to buy games.

[Wolfshade]

Like the Euro Trucker guy who uses a community annoucement flaw to send people to a harlem shake (?) video

[Psychosplodge]

Just seen that on reddit.
Something about they hadn't patched the flaw so he demonstrated it?

[Wolfshade]

Yeah, apparently he pointed out the flaw and the steam support guy he spok with didn't do anything.

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr2GdRBDOmU

[Psychosplodge]

Stolen from reddit, someones wallet realised the sale had arrived

http://i.imgur.com/hgJo6aT.jpg

another case

http://i.imgur.com/d8aAPGQ.jpg

[Wolfshade]

Steam sale argh why do you hate me Gabe!

[Wolfshade]

Titalfall F2P this weekend at Origin

[Psychosplodge]

eww origin.
Though apparently turns out I have an account from when I signed up to the EA account to get the dlc for dragon age on the PS3. They're doing the google thing and just signing you up for the rest of it...

[Wolfshade]

On a recent survey when asked why people had origin accounts the answer was given "So I could unlock my DLC for Dragon Age" by all receipiants

It's why I have my origin account.

[Psychosplodge]

I can believe that.

[eldargal]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/02f5daf71c235debbff77fa3c20dbb33/tumblr_n7h8uvnlps1qcxzu2o1_500.png
#burn

[Kirsten]

awesome

[Wolfshade]

That's my kind of response :)

[Psychosplodge]

So the SO bought assassins creed pirates on Saturday, which obviously leads to me playing at being a pirate assassin all Sunday, while singing Alestorm songs.
While I'm just about able to take on two brigs at once, frigates are still a big NO :D

[eldargal]

AC:Black Flag is great fun. Wait until you try and take on one of the four legendary ships though hehe.

[Psychosplodge]

Well I'm currently working on upgrading the ram so I can close with the enemy quickly :D

[eldargal]

Prefer shooting them well up personally.:)

https://38.media.tumblr.com/a7b53b373550e8a84f60ef41eab8fd66/tumblr_n7hxeknRAn1svktoco1_500.png

[Psychosplodge]

That works too. But the aim is to come in on smaller boats, damage to the point where it is instant boarding, or one volley the board.
All about efficiency :D

[eldargal]

Well if you like smaller boats I guess, personally I like ones with a bit more booty.;)

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah but they shoot back, and then I have to get new crew, and I've just got this one working correctly.
You know how difficult it is to get new help?


Also this explains pyroland

http://i57.tinypic.com/1o146r.gif

[eldargal]

Order crew to take cover before broadsides hit, it slows damage down but keeps 'em alive.:) Plus you can always capture some smaller ships after and replenish crew numbers.

[Psychosplodge]

True. but the ram is cheaper than new cannons as well :D
I'll get cannons as well at some point.

[Wolfshade]

I remember playing a merchant shipping game, it was very old, set in the napolionic era. The more cannon and shot you had the less you could transport, and consequently, so there was a trade-off between defense and cargo. However, if you didn't have any cannon, then pirates and enemy nationals would not fire on you, instead they would come alongside and try and board. So rather than taking any cannon, I took as many marines as I could, the consequence of this was that enemy ships would always try and board and fail, so then in the ensuing battle I would take their ship instead.

It was exploiting AI behaviour, but given the game running in Dos Box moved too quickly to aim and shoot cannon it was a good compromise!

[Psychosplodge]

What game was that? sounds interesting.

[Wolfshade]

High Seas Trader, available where abandonware exists I would imagine.

[Psychosplodge]

http://www.myabandonware.com/game/high-seas-trader-24p

5MB? Don't think I'll bother afterall :D

[Wolfshade]

There was one review said that the excel spreadsheets are almost visible thats how thin and one dimensional this is

- - - Updated - - -

There is 1869 or something similiar which is very close but slightly more full, or Port Royale

[Psychosplodge]

I considered east india company but I can't remember why I didnt in the end.

[Kirsten]

because they were dissolved in 1874? :p

/history joke

*fistbump*

[Wolfshade]

Should have picked Hudson...

[Psychosplodge]

That must be why :doh:

[Wolfshade]

So day 6 of steam sale, so far my wallet has survived....

[Psychosplodge]

Spent about £15 last night on stuffs and another couple this morning.
Got five cards though :D

[Wolfshade]

Actually, I sold a card and made 5p :)

[Psychosplodge]

only 5p? I sold my duplicate for 16p :D

[Wolfshade]

mine was from an old game and it was average price, it has been on sale for months.

[Psychosplodge]

Oh I thought you meant one of the summer ones

[Wolfshade]

Nah, so it might be a sticker...

[Psychosplodge]

Confirmation (http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/170479-ubisoft-massive-sweden-leak-on-division-downgrade/) consoles are killing the games industry.

[eldargal]

Bought FTL, Dark Souls 1 and the HD Age of Empries II. Not had a chance to play them.

[Kirsten]

planning to buy Age of Mythology

[eldargal]

FTL is addictive as hell, played it last night.><

[Charon]

FTL is addictive as hell, played it last night.><

THIS.
When I bought it a few months ago I spent like 30 hours playing without pause...

[Psychosplodge]

Yep sounds about right.
Just remember Fire your weapons manually!

[Charon]

Depends... on weapons with a high rate of fire it doesnt pay. you probably even lose damage if you dont hit every timing exactly.

[Psychosplodge]

nah because auto fire usually waits just long enough for them to raise their shields again. It helps to concentrate all your weapons fire at once.

[Psychosplodge]

Downloaded a L4D2 mod last night called something like "totally innocent" no description of what it did, but the user comments were hilarious.
Turns out it replaces all the posters, pictures, billboards, vending machine frontage etc with hentai :eek:

[Charon]

nah because auto fire usually waits just long enough for them to raise their shields again. It helps to concentrate all your weapons fire at once.

Generally, yes. But for weapons like th Vulcan end up with a 1 sec recharge rate. If you fire that thing manually while managing your crew you just end up losing tons of damage.

[Psychosplodge]

Vulcan? Is that post patch? I don't recognise that weapon.

[Wolfshade]

GOG.com is giving away free games every couple of hours.

Currently Alan Wake's American Nightmare

[Charon]

Free? it says 80% off when I log in...
But got an Point and Click Adventure for free... Beneath a steel sky. #retrofeelings

[Wolfshade]

It was free but expired 11 minutes after my post.

[eldargal]

Bit disappointed in FTL. Great time limited scavenging and exploration game with many different strategies to take down ships and so forth and then it ends with a boss battle where you really need to have certain loud outs and equipment not to mention a fully upgraded ship. Which I never get enough scrap to do even exploring as much as I can and slowing enemy fleets as much as possible. Plus complete pot luck with weapons. Mehhh. Shouldn't have been a boss fight like that, should have been something more in keeping with the rest of the game.
Wish they made a sandbox version where it was just you evading the authorities scavening against increasingly tough opposition or something.

[Psychosplodge]

Wish they made a sandbox version where it was just you evading the authorities scavenging against increasingly tough opposition or something.

That's what I said, a survivor mode where you just keep going as long as you can

[eldargal]

Yeah maybe with an option to 'win' at the end of each map (not sector) so you can warp home or keep going sort of thing, going on makes it mroe difficult but can get higher and higher score and such.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/o2m9D9p.jpg

[Wolfshade]

The simulation market is awash with great sims, like Tractor Simulator, Euro trucker, train, flight etc, but now!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=274135797

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/3296947906196755137/3D105E2924C34191872B2FB678ABDFFC53DC7815/

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/9SCx2cY.png

[Kirsten]

hasn't actually been anything yet to tempt me in this Steam Sale so far.

[Psychosplodge]

only grabbed a few myself, because lets face it they'll be on sale again and can't play everything at once...

[Wolfshade]

I have avoided it, temptation is best avoided.

Plus making headway in getting a new PC.

[Psychosplodge]

Woohoo!

[Gotthammer]

https://31.media.tumblr.com/40649dfaeefa2e660c4a87bf89a69984/tumblr_n7r7xx4qVT1tnyky2o1_250.gif

[eldargal]

Lol.

[Gotthammer]

Pokeour:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/5fda2cbe49906cb2592861c926dabb48/tumblr_n22059MXok1s29bhho1_500.gif

http://31.media.tumblr.com/59530dd8131bc18e1cee2229b98cfa89/tumblr_n22059MXok1s29bhho2_500.gif

http://37.media.tumblr.com/7eb3ef51f22639646a890d5720fa37e9/tumblr_n22059MXok1s29bhho3_500.gif

http://38.media.tumblr.com/bf2390384e93d1856f5d868a7126efec/tumblr_n22059MXok1s29bhho4_500.gif

So they could put Pikachu in Assassins Creed but...

[eldargal]

Lol, nice.

Assassins Creed Liberation/Feminist Facestab is on Steam sale right now too if anyone be interested.

[Psychosplodge]

i'm bored of assassins creed games, if it wasn't for the piracy bit I wouldnt be playing black flag...

[eldargal]

I am annoyed with them for other reasons.:p but yes the piracy in Black Flag is fun.

[Tyrendian]

got Banished yesterday at 25% off, couple of hours before it went to -50% *argh*
decently fun game, gotta say - but I don't think I've ever seen a game where the Steam forums were quite as toxic and divided (and that's really really saying something...) hardly a thread there that doesn't devolve into shouting matches between haters and supporters...

[Wolfshade]

got Banished yesterday at 25% off, couple of hours before it went to -50% *argh*
decently fun game, gotta say - but I don't think I've ever seen a game where the Steam forums were quite as toxic and divided (and that's really really saying something...) hardly a thread there that doesn't devolve into shouting matches between haters and supporters...

It was like being on a 40k forum all over again

[Tyrendian]

yeah kinda... :D

[Kirsten]

hurray, Age of Mythology 40% off, that will do

[Tyrendian]

I'm kinda curious about Frozen Endzone... looks like something of a port of BloodBowl (i.e. turn-based football-like) but with refreshed rules and robots (not sure about the latter but the trailers do look quite nice)

[Kirsten]

'frozen endzone' sounds like a euphemism for refusing sex...

[Psychosplodge]

'frozen endzone' sounds like a euphemism for refusing sex...

lols.

http://i62.tinypic.com/344b5zb.gif
http://i57.tinypic.com/4vi6o9.gif
http://i61.tinypic.com/ofpy5c.gif

[eldargal]

So some guy can animate that but Ubisoft can't animate a female character.:p #stillbitter

[Psychosplodge]

Well obviously it was much easier as they're all male...

plus no idea who animated it as it was just on tumblr unsourced *shrugs*

[Kirsten]

lols.

http://i62.tinypic.com/344b5zb.gif
http://i57.tinypic.com/4vi6o9.gif
http://i61.tinypic.com/ofpy5c.gif

we're knights of the round table, we dance whenever we're able...

[Psychosplodge]

On second thoughts, let us not go to Whiterun, for 'tis a silly place

[Psychosplodge]

http://i60.tinypic.com/28sr5p1.jpg

[Wolfshade]

Fallout 3 clocked in 24 minutes....

[Psychosplodge]

Well I know you can force the end mission by triggering tranquillity lane but how would you be high enough level to complete it? :confused:

[Wolfshade]

I have no idea, there is a youtube link but I can't watch it at work. It takes about half that time to get through the intro...

[Gotthammer]

Similar how you can do FO2 in about 15 minutes (which I've done) - you exploit all the high end gear and huge XP giveouts so you powerlevel a few skills (energy weapons/speech) and rely on being gifted/stealing power armour. In FO3 the last mission isn't that hard as you have loads of backup and you can avoid the last fight with high level speech.

[Wolfshade]

That's my weekend sorted

[Kirsten]

I have been playing quite a range lately. Sniper Elite 3 on PS4 which I am really enjoying, being a long time series fan. Mission I just finished I killed 27 guys with 25 shots in the final section, then sniped the driver of a panzer before blowing it up with a panzershreck. Viscera Cleanup Detail on Steam, where you go around cleaning up after a generic alien killing spree. Imagine you are the janitor going in after Isaac from Deadspace, so you pick up body parts and shell cases and throw them in the incinerator, fix the bullet holes in the walls, and mop up all the blood and alien goo. bit silly, somehow more engrossing than it ought to be... Age of Mythology Extended Edition on Steam. fun to go back to, but it hasn't been improved anything like enough to justify the price really. I got it for 40% off in the sale, and it is still £5 too much really. good for nostalgia, and fun playing an Age game again, but should have been given a bigger graphical overhaul for the price. Gunhound Ex on Steam, side scrolling metal slug type game where you control a mech. seems good, I like these sorts of games, especially when there are customisable mechs, but I can't beat the second level mid way boss, nightmare :/ gone back to playing a bit of Space Hulk too with the Deathwing expansion being announced, I do enjoy it. so easy to lose a load of terminators very quickly, you always end up clicking the end turn button and realising you have left a hole in your perimeter, or a genestealer survives the overwatch hail and slashes up all your mans.

I was slightly surprised by the announcement that Cliff Blezinski is founding a studio and releasing games, not because of the announcement itself, but because we have known that for months, long before the announcement was made, but everybody seems to have forgotten? I like him and the stuff he has done, but his new studio is going to be entirely disk free online multiplayer games, so my interest drained away to nothing.

[Psychosplodge]

Spent the weekend being a pirate again, schooners now fall to a single ram which is helpful.
And acquired heavy shot, which means hunting frigates is stupidly easy, unload a Heavy broadside into them, two swivel mount shots, cross their T unload second broadside, then two more swivel shots and usually the third broadside puts them into boarding condition, only the first is heavy.
Took up capturing forts and frigate hunting in the east.
Definitely more profitable than the northern waters I'd been raiding last time.

[eldargal]

Wait until you get south with all the men o' war floating about full of lewt.

Got my mother and aunts playing Tomb Raider, so funny watching them flail helplessly during some of the scripted scenes at the start where Lara is falling and getting injured and whatnot.

[Psychosplodge]

orly?
If frigates are this easy now, maybe a Man-o-war will be a challenging but achievable feat? maybe in a fortnight when I'm at the wenches again I'll have a sail south :D

[eldargal]

Yeah they are a bit tougher, really damaging broadsides, lots of armour and mortars which necessitate lots of course changing. You also start to see tougher convoys with a man o'war and two or three frigates and that sort of thing. Not impossible but it makes for some fun encounters. Found any of the legendary ships yet?

[Psychosplodge]

I've had one attempt against the one in the far northwest, which didn't go well, and I've got the map symbol visible for another in the north east.
Assume the other two are equally positioned in the south?

[eldargal]

From memory yup. I managed to sink one but finished the campaign and stopped playing before finishing the rest.:rolleyes:

[Psychosplodge]

Campaign? pffft I have no interest in the campaign, this is the closest yet to the pirate game I've been waiting years for.

[eldargal]

Yeah but I got bored just sailing around taking pirate ships also I think you need to progress to a certain point to unlock certain ship upgrades.

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah, I can't get the diving bell yet.
Discovered if you swim onto a stationary ship, kill all the crew then attack with your ship it goes straight to boarding and you just have to destroy the flag.

[eldargal]

Yep and you need the diving bell to get schematics to unlock more upgrades.:)

[Psychosplodge]

Suppose I'll be campaigning again at some point then.
What really annoys me is some of the achievements require previous games or multiplayer to unlock, so even if I achievement whore it I can't get them all :mad:

[eldargal]

Yeah I hate MP achievements. Didn't know some required previous games though?

[Psychosplodge]

Do you not need to unlock all the outfits for 100% completion?
Some of the outfits require you to have uplay data from various assassins creed games to unlock them.

[eldargal]

Oh, didn't know that. I have all the previous games so.:p

[Psychosplodge]

I have access to them all, which isnt the same, even if I actually bought them they aren't mine so I didn't get the one use codes. :p

[Wolfshade]

Did everyone get their free keys for Dino-D-Day? http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/07/02/free-steam-key/

[Kirsten]

I got annoyed when I spotted a Man O War at a point where I couldn't beat it with my ship. I parked quietly behind an island, swum to the Man O War and boarded it, killing all the crew and taking the flag. nothing happened, so I swum back to my ship, magically there are crew aboard the Man O War again -.-

[Psychosplodge]

Right so I won't try that with a man-o-war :D

I managed to fix my ingame voice on planetside 2 last night by completely uninstalling it and doing a fresh install, BT is going to love me for that :D

[Wolfshade]

You BT? N00b

- - - Updated - - -

I thought you would be all PlusNet and for yorkshire and all that jazz

[Psychosplodge]

Nah unlimited infinity, 40meg download speed.

[Wolfshade]

I'm sorry for your slow speeds.

[Psychosplodge]

Why what do you get?

[Wolfshade]

I have a 6 month trial at 152, then it downgrades to 50.

Better than my brother-in-law who is at about 2 thanks to copper only connection.

[Psychosplodge]

Is that direct fibre?

[Wolfshade]

Yup :D

[Psychosplodge]

We don't have that option.

[Wolfshade]

3rd world problems.

[Psychosplodge]

No that's the problem, they only installed it in all the worst slums in the city for some reason.

[Wolfshade]

Because when you are sitting around all day on yer arse getting paid to lay about, you need quick internet to play battlefield n. More disposable income, or at least income spent on the wrong things...

[Psychosplodge]

Well the council do look after certain areas to make sure they keep voting for them

[Kirsten]

just seen an ad for Warmachine Tactics on Steam. I quite like Warmachine, but nobody else around here will really play it. So I thought, hmm, that seems handy, PC version of a turn based tabletop game, like Space Hulk, can't be expensive. £49.99, and it isn't even finished yet. yeah... no.

[eldargal]

Leaked gameplay footage from Arkham Knight:
https://33.media.tumblr.com/8c7a285a06b1a208c702b20ce23c9140/tumblr_n8h2106VDs1siqbpvo1_400.gif

[Psychosplodge]

If someones tried adding me on steam send me a PM so I know who you are cause I've got a friend request from someone I've never played a game with and don't recognise the screen name :D

[Wolfshade]

Banioshed mod support on its way, apparently.

[Psychosplodge]

Cool. It didn't come down enough in the steam sale for me to justify buying it when i probably won't play it before the next steam sale.
plus even worse i'm probably going to be stuck console gaming for at least a week, maybe two. :(

[Wolfshade]

I am hoping for either a tax rebate or a bonus to get a new pc otherwise I am just going be gaming on a laptop :(

[Psychosplodge]

oh noes, that sounds far more longterm issue :(

[Wolfshade]

Well the problem is an error with gfx card, but I am not sure if the root cause is an issue with the psu.

[Psychosplodge]

could be.
If you have capacitors on the gpu they're the cheapest potential fix and might give you similar rffect of a power issue. I bought a pair a few years back, one working, one prone to crashing under heavy load, changed all the caps for the same solid state ones and cured it.
One time a gpu blew up and we lost the right hand quarter of the display :D

[Wolfshade]

sounds like too much of technical solution changing capacitors

[Psychosplodge]

lols the postage costs involved mean its probably not worth you sending, or I'd give it a go...

[eldargal]

Banished was 75% off at one point in the sale I thought? Mods will be fun, like to see things like missions or goals added or even a military element. Buildings if not combat.

[Psychosplodge]

Never saw it below 40%, but like I said theres always the next one.

[eldargal]

Fairly sure I saw it at 50% an 75% or 66% at least. Didn't pay that much cos I paid full retail for it.:)

[Psychosplodge]

I realised I've never played or even installed about 50% of my games.

[Wolfshade]

Was there a meme on another page something like spent hundred punds on steam sale, goes and plays team fortress 2...

[Psychosplodge]

True story...

Yes there was. And it happens. Gotta get those hats.

[Wolfshade]

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/885220845151123001/785CE4BA458897736D087F1E0E670D89C0D7049D/

[Psychosplodge]

But he has a noble towering amassement of hats!

[Psychosplodge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgYwsM5UkXs

[Wolfshade]

Mount & Blade : Warband free to play until Sunday.

[Psychosplodge]

I've still got to swap coolers :(

[Gotthammer]

https://38.media.tumblr.com/6ff2bbe994e6ba077e728f1d97e862be/tumblr_n8k1lraM7a1suggjpo1_500.jpg

[Kirsten]

lol, I'd buy that copy. in Game we had somebody trade in a copy of Fifa 12 where they had made their own sleeve and put Emile Heskey on the front, it was very popular...

[eldargal]

Won a rancor mount in SWTOR casino, 0.09% chance. feeling smug
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=9934&d=1405255186

[The_Gonk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgYwsM5UkXs

That was awesome!

[Psychosplodge]

Who said romance was dead (http://spookyhouse.tumblr.com/post/91915997984/so-my-boyfriend-did-a-thing)?

[Gotthammer]

Awww that's so wonderful :3


Also:

http://38.media.tumblr.com/db91b1f034bb35321f19519b23103db1/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo1_250.gif http://31.media.tumblr.com/13e1d433951b1f0a5563d04c8280385d/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo2_250.gif

http://31.media.tumblr.com/a1185f6dcf5ed763ffbbe17edbb7f3ff/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo3_250.gif http://37.media.tumblr.com/b8a2a28970fd01e798254fc419073312/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo4_250.gif

http://37.media.tumblr.com/78102c0ad784acd64592924f8dbf4215/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo5_250.gif http://31.media.tumblr.com/9218f8cb72bce5298a4ff1df5bebf43e/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo6_250.gif

http://38.media.tumblr.com/65224b2fc1b7314ad53f41e77f6edb0e/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo7_250.gif http://31.media.tumblr.com/590177c546ed1a1b95a35cc290c9f2db/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo9_r1_250.gif

http://38.media.tumblr.com/a3ed692a36c3155de86a4aa55c438ca6/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo8_250.gif http://38.media.tumblr.com/d744452d1a6e5c65bb0fb3b5c0dcaff4/tumblr_n8pzc5B3j11qf5hjqo10_r1_250.gif

So ten female characters and one character from a game where they could be male or female, and Smash Bros retains that choice.

[eldargal]

May have to get a Wii (note to self: check if we already have a Wii).

[Psychosplodge]

Wii u?