That was the first time I'd ever seen or heard of MC Chris and good fucking God, he's annoying. Loud does not equal funny, moron.
I'm suddenly going through another obsession with Civilization IV (my notebook can't play Civ V very well). Played it until about 4 AM last night. Goddammit, why do I let myself get obsessed with this game? It's like The Sims. I'll obsessively play it for about a week or two, then leave it alone for weeks or even months.
I'm suddenly going through another obsession with Civilization IV (my notebook can't play Civ V very well). Played it until about 4 AM last night. Goddammit, why do I let myself get obsessed with this game? It's like The Sims. I'll obsessively play it for about a week or two, then leave it alone for weeks or even months.
GasBandit
Staff member
You've heard of him before, if you watched Sealab 2021. "Hesh wants some sex!"
Or Aqua Teen, he's MC Peepants.
GasBandit
Staff member
AKA Sir Loin, AKA Little Brittle.
Sometimes he cries on YouTube when reddit sics crazy people on him.
Sometimes I think about reinstalling Civ IV. I love Civ V but there were some mechanics in IV that I just loved - plus I miss the 'stack of doom'.
Or just time travel back to the beginning of the game so you don't lose your levels
.Well, you can travel back very close to the beginning. I started over and that's probably best. It's so good. I lent it to my wife now and I'm hoping she'll like it and get into the story/characters so I'll finally have someone to talk to about it. Odds are it will not happen so fast--she's playing Animal Crossing New Leaf at least 4 hours a day, so ... yeah.
Started another playthrough of 999, hoping to get the good ending this time.
ThatNickGuy - I respectfully disagree with your opinion on MC Chris.
Null Ravenpoe - I respectfully disagree with your opinion on games and RPGs.
Null Ravenpoe - I respectfully disagree with your opinion on games and RPGs.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers ... I don't like it. When I read a warning that this was a sillier game than other SMT games, I didn't entirely grasp that meant Japan-silly, which is worse than regular silly. It's to the point of being annoying. Compound that with dungeon crawler elements that aren't as smooth and enjoyable as in Etrian Odyssey IV (granted, this game originally came out in 1997) and the fact that your demons are pretty much on permanent Pokemon-poison, where they get weaker as you go (in these long dungeons) unless you fight more.
I don't know why I picked this up. SMTIV will be out in just 17 days, and I even took the day after off work so I could play it. Gonna return this if Gamestop allows me and pick up something else.
EDIT: It's not that I don't enjoy games of a lighter tone. I play Nintendo games, after all. But this is not charming or funny, it's just dumb and irritating.
I don't know why I picked this up. SMTIV will be out in just 17 days, and I even took the day after off work so I could play it. Gonna return this if Gamestop allows me and pick up something else.
EDIT: It's not that I don't enjoy games of a lighter tone. I play Nintendo games, after all. But this is not charming or funny, it's just dumb and irritating.
You want something to disagree with, Jay, I'll give it to you.
Returned Soul Hackers (despite it being past the time allowed; clerk was nice), picked up Mario Kart 7 for the wife and me.
Returned Soul Hackers (despite it being past the time allowed; clerk was nice), picked up Mario Kart 7 for the wife and me.
Thomas was Alone
I really didn't know what to expect with this game. Could a game have engaging gameplay AND characters without relying on anything else? Surprisingly, yes. At first, you play the game with a rectangle and a square, but soon you start to see those shapes as characters in Thomas and Chris. The cast grows as you progress and each character surprisingly fits the simple gameplay mechanics and each of their core traits.
Yes, you're just moving blocks from one side of the screen to the other, but the narration and character development is incredibly strong.
I really didn't know what to expect with this game. Could a game have engaging gameplay AND characters without relying on anything else? Surprisingly, yes. At first, you play the game with a rectangle and a square, but soon you start to see those shapes as characters in Thomas and Chris. The cast grows as you progress and each character surprisingly fits the simple gameplay mechanics and each of their core traits.
Yes, you're just moving blocks from one side of the screen to the other, but the narration and character development is incredibly strong.
I'm currently playing Joe Danger: The Movie (aka Joe Danger 2)
Joe Danger has been on consoles forever, but it's finally out now on steam. It's currently on sale, $12 for Joe Danger 2, or $15 for Joe Danger 1+2 together. You play as a stuntman, and have to navigate through crazy tracks as fast as you can (on motorcycles, snowmobiles, jetpacks, even unicycles) while putting on as big a show as you can, doing tricks, and collecting stars and other collectables along the way. It sounds dumb, but in practice it is a lot of fun, and offers a lot of challenge. If you ever enjoyed Tony Hawk style games, or games like ExciteBike, you'll enjoy this.
Joe Danger has been on consoles forever, but it's finally out now on steam. It's currently on sale, $12 for Joe Danger 2, or $15 for Joe Danger 1+2 together. You play as a stuntman, and have to navigate through crazy tracks as fast as you can (on motorcycles, snowmobiles, jetpacks, even unicycles) while putting on as big a show as you can, doing tricks, and collecting stars and other collectables along the way. It sounds dumb, but in practice it is a lot of fun, and offers a lot of challenge. If you ever enjoyed Tony Hawk style games, or games like ExciteBike, you'll enjoy this.
GasBandit
Staff member
It kept me up waaay too late last night... but I think I can finally ignore the surface in my gnomoria game for the most part. Here it is fall of year 5, and I have a simple entranceway trap that makes bad guys think they have an easy route into my fortress. But when they step on the pressure plate, mechanical walls rise up to block the main route, and close the hatch on a trapdoor that leads to an alternate "door" leading in. So bad guy stops for a half second when his face hits an instant metal wall, turns around, sees another metal wall behind him, oh look there's a door over there...
He steps off the pressure plate, onto the hatch. Hatch opens. Bad guy free-falls 10 levels to a special corpse stockpile I labeled "The Sudden Stop." SMACK. Watching the invasions roll in is like... pachinko. They all dribble down into the hole, and now I'm drowning in iron and steel to smelt, had to double my smithing capacity to deal with it all.
At first I was elated because I was owning full-steel-clad goblins and two-headed ogres. Then I was sad because "Oh no... did I just beat Gnomoria?" Then I was happy again because I remembered there are still 102 deep, dark, hellish levels of "fun" below me, chittering, skittering, just waiting to be dug up.
Just have to remember to flip the switch to turn the traps off on the 5th day of each season till the merchants arrive, then turn em back on.
He steps off the pressure plate, onto the hatch. Hatch opens. Bad guy free-falls 10 levels to a special corpse stockpile I labeled "The Sudden Stop." SMACK. Watching the invasions roll in is like... pachinko. They all dribble down into the hole, and now I'm drowning in iron and steel to smelt, had to double my smithing capacity to deal with it all.
At first I was elated because I was owning full-steel-clad goblins and two-headed ogres. Then I was sad because "Oh no... did I just beat Gnomoria?" Then I was happy again because I remembered there are still 102 deep, dark, hellish levels of "fun" below me, chittering, skittering, just waiting to be dug up.
Just have to remember to flip the switch to turn the traps off on the 5th day of each season till the merchants arrive, then turn em back on.
Fair enough.
I guess to elaborate: when your character is supposed to be a beginner or relatively weak, then yeah, that's fine. That's part of it. But when you're playing an established badass, you should feel like a badass. You shouldn't be "The Most Feared Dark Knight In the Land" and still take 4 rounds to kill a baby slime monster.
GasBandit
Staff member
I thought an underrated game that accomplished this in a novel way was the old Megatech software pc game Knights of Xentar, a sort of 90's Dragon-Quest-meets-Porky's JRPG that got a huge makeover by the localization team (it was originally Dragon Knight 3), and you could even special order a key disk that made it a hentai game...
Anyway, it begins with you, the hero of the past two games, resplendent in the ultimate armor and weaponry from the previous game... drunk as hell in a ditch where local thugs clonk you on the head and take all your gear and sell it to a travelling salesman, leaving you naked and unarmed. Stealing a knife from somebody's kitchen and dressed in nothing other than what nature gave you, you embark on a 15-or-so-hour bawdy romp through a fantasy world full of fearsome monsters, monstrous evil, obvious plot twists and buxom wenches... and some of the worst voice acting you ever heard.
I'd say I miss playing it, but I know it's just nostalgia and the game did NOT age well from 1994.
Are you talking about Kingdom Hearts because he's literally a little kid thrust into a world he doesn't understand with a weapon he has no real practice with.
I think the only trope like that that's always bothered me is the one where you start with this huge moveset and hit like a truck, and then you're "downgraded" by getting hit in the head and getting amnesia/forgetting shit/etc.
Ugh, every Alucard/Soma Castlevania did this and it pissed me off. Also the Metroid series.
Sometimes it does take me out of the immersion though.
The best example I can think of right now is Deus Ex. I'm a bio-engineered, nano-augmented, highly-trained super soldier. I'm being sent alone into very hostile territory, where I'm supposed to rescue a captured ally and interrogate the enemy leader. I cost my creators fifty billion credits, and they feel confident enough in my abilities to send me in without any backup.
Oh, and I can't hold a gun steady or make it shoot straight.
That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
When your character is supposed to be a novice, and you're learning as you go, then starting weak is perfectly fine. When you're supposed to be a force to be reckoned with already, you shouldn't start that weak.
I was speaking in general. But yes, as I said directly in that post, if your character isn't supposed to be a badass, then starting weak is appropriate. When you're supposed to be a powerhouse, starting off weak is stupid.Gilgamesh said:
For example, (non-RPG example) Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. You start off with basic gear because your player character, Captain Titus, does an emergency assault drop and half his wargear gets blown away during. He presses on with a combat knife and pistol anyway, and carves a bloody swath from the minute you take control. As he picks up better weaponry, he gets deadlier, but as a demigod like centuries of battle experience, he's formidable from the onset. And that's awesome to play.
figmentPez
Staff member
Not only that, but you have no idea what higher level augmentations or training will make you capable of.
Seriously? I work for a top secret agency and have access to top medical doctors and trainers, and they can't tell me what augmentations are available or what training can teach me to do?I still say doing a Superman game like Prototype would be totally boss. Start the game with all the powers, showcase them, then do something in the story that strips them all away, down to Golden Age levels (strength, super tough, leaping) and you need to earn them all back again.
Or even without a story element to strip them, start the game in present-day Metropolis but have the main chunk of the game be a sort of flashback leading up to the last couple hours or so. Start with a teenage Clark adjusting to his powers and not knowing what they all are, dealing with disasters in and around Smallville, moving to other spots around the world as he learns more of his ability, Fortress of Solitude as a sort of main hub, etc.
That is a great idea for a Superman game.
Not being able to see through solid objects is more realistic?
I pretend I have that kind of value, but really, I get at least level 1 before anything else. Then some fun toys, and then level 2. It's just too handy a skill to ignore unless you're going for the no-powers achievement.
It's sort of the problem that Detective Mode had in Arkham Asylum. It's just too useful to pass up and not using it can not only make the game harder, but frustratingly so at points.
It's definitely a balance problem. Without it, planning an assault can be infuriating and result in many do-overs. With it, you can make a foolproof plan and tackle any obstacle. So there's never a reason to not use it.
So they should have made a reason to not use and adjusted the difficulty of the situations when using it would be a problem.
GasBandit
Staff member
Or made it so it didn't invalidate the entire art team's contribution to the title, to paraphrase Yahtzee. All these gorgeous, moody, dark scenery and artwork I NEVER SAW because I was in skeleton-punching mode.
For what it's worth, I bet the guy who made the skeleton models was VERY happy.
