What are you playing?

Dave

Staff member
Okay, PoE is pretty fucking good. I love that when you are at inn and recruit people, you actually make them like you are creating a new character. Really allows you to feel invested in them. So far this game is pretty awesome.
 
I made a dwarf paladin. I really hate making my starting person a squishy in these kinds of games. Especially when you can get a wizard party member pretty early, or just make one at the inn.
Brofist for my fellow dwarf paladin.

I repeat what everyone else has said, this game is pretty great.

Okay, PoE is pretty fucking good. I love that when you are at inn and recruit people, you actually make them like you are creating a new character. Really allows you to feel invested in them. So far this game is pretty awesome.
Huh, I didn't try that, I just figured it would be some generic NPCs, so when I a hit a tough spot in the ruins I just backtracked a bit, deciding to go around and meet more of the permanent companions, level up and come back.
 
Yeah, my problem seems to be an OVEReducated workforce. The regular industry zones want low education workers, and thanks to my abundant placement of schools and education policies, I might be a little low on derps.
It's almost like capitalism requires the exploitation of an uneducated, essentially rightless underclass to support itself...

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GasBandit

Staff member
It's almost like capitalism requires the exploitation of an uneducated, essentially rightless underclass to support itself...

View attachment 17859
Actually it's more like a good illustration of how central planning/government doesn't understand the repercussions of it's actions and policies, and how they strangle productivity and business ;) After all, Soviet PhDs don't wanna plunge toilets, either.
 
Office is Industry for the highly educated. I solved most of my traffic problems by using a lot of one way streets. Seperating Trucks coming in from the outside for the industry zones from the cars wanting to go to the residential zones.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Office is Industry for the highly educated. I solved most of my traffic problems by using a lot of one way streets. Seperating Trucks coming in from the outside for the industry zones from the cars wanting to go to the residential zones.
My actual city streets are pretty good so far as traffic goes. I designed the layout efficiently and have plenty of busses and subways. It just seems to be getting off the highway that connects to the outside world that seems to be the problem. The offramp is always crammed.
 
I really, really want the cloverleaf and 3-way intersection to be place-able on top of existing highways. My cloverleaf building skills suck.

Also, is the office zone that unlocks at the same time as high density residential and high density commercial considered a type of industry? Because that requires educated workers, as well.
You can just delete the highway, place the cloverleaf, then connect it up. Close enough.
 
YAAAAAAAAAAAaaarrrggghhh I finally killed the Blood Starved Beast. Feels good.
Since I don't know what that is, you've gotten ahead of me. We'll see where I get tonight.

I feel bad for Mike at Penny Arcade--he was stuck on the two werewolves on the Great Bridge enough that he quit and unquit a couple times before beating them. I'm not saying I pity him over how you could drop a couple mollies to get rid of them, or "git gud" or anything like that. I feel bad because you can totally bypass them without engaging them. Cross one part of the bridge, double-back over the other. You don't have to touch them. But then, I know people pitied me the same when I went through Blighttown in Dark Souls, as Ashburner put it, "the big boy way." Which I will never do again for the rest of ever replaying Dark Souls.
 
My actual city streets are pretty good so far as traffic goes. I designed the layout efficiently and have plenty of busses and subways. It just seems to be getting off the highway that connects to the outside world that seems to be the problem. The offramp is always crammed.
If you use one way streets,you can upgrade them to 6 lane offramps.
 
Since I don't know what that is, you've gotten ahead of me. We'll see where I get tonight.

I feel bad for Mike at Penny Arcade--he was stuck on the two werewolves on the Great Bridge enough that he quit and unquit a couple times before beating them. I'm not saying I pity him over how you could drop a couple mollies to get rid of them, or "git gud" or anything like that. I feel bad because you can totally bypass them without engaging them. Cross one part of the bridge, double-back over the other. You don't have to touch them. But then, I know people pitied me the same when I went through Blighttown in Dark Souls, as Ashburner put it, "the big boy way." Which I will never do again for the rest of ever replaying Dark Souls.

If you get to this boss in the new area that you unlocked and get as frustrated as I did, I uploaded the recording of me beating him:



As far as Mike goes---I hated those two wolves too, until I ran back into the house and also discovered I could get them stuck there and kill them. This game definitely pushes the frustration buttons, but not in such a way that I want to stop playing. It's a very, very good game.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Since I don't know what that is, you've gotten ahead of me. We'll see where I get tonight.

I feel bad for Mike at Penny Arcade--he was stuck on the two werewolves on the Great Bridge enough that he quit and unquit a couple times before beating them. I'm not saying I pity him over how you could drop a couple mollies to get rid of them, or "git gud" or anything like that. I feel bad because you can totally bypass them without engaging them. Cross one part of the bridge, double-back over the other. You don't have to touch them. But then, I know people pitied me the same when I went through Blighttown in Dark Souls, as Ashburner put it, "the big boy way." Which I will never do again for the rest of ever replaying Dark Souls.
I have a hard time feeling sorry for Mike because, if the strips and news blurbs are accurate, he's the kind of gamer that would be torment for me to interact with. He's emotional and overreacts, he cares more about the graphics and presentation (but he calls it the "art") than the gameplay, he is completely uninterested in any story or plot, and there was a time (though he seems to have gotten better about it) where he had absolutely no patience for any game that didn't provide attacks to button presses in a 1:1 ratio. My antipathy for him is then multiplied by the art direction he's taken the comic (and the last two strips are good examples of it, and I've LONG griped about how he started drawing teeth as sine waves). When I think about him flailing about ineffectively against the two werewolves, growing progressively more nerdragey, it just makes me want to throw him in a pool and stand on his head until the bubbles stop.
 
I have a hard time feeling sorry for Mike because, if the strips and news blurbs are accurate, he's the kind of gamer that would be torment for me to interact with. He's emotional and overreacts, he cares more about the graphics and presentation (but he calls it the "art") than the gameplay, he is completely uninterested in any story or plot, and there was a time (though he seems to have gotten better about it) where he had absolutely no patience for any game that didn't provide attacks to button presses in a 1:1 ratio. My antipathy for him is then multiplied by the art direction he's taken the comic (and the last two strips are good examples of it, and I've LONG griped about how he started drawing teeth as sine waves). When I think about him flailing about ineffectively against the two werewolves, growing progressively more nerdragey, it just makes me want to throw him in a pool and stand on his head until the bubbles stop.
....that might actually make for a hilarious strip.
 
Yeah I can't really identify with the PA guys anymore. They seem so disconnected from the average person playing games sometimes.
As far as the playing of the games, I can usually identify with where Jerry is coming from (on Gabe, I'm with Gasbandit). But from viewing gaming as a whole, yeah, there's a disconnect going on in different ways from both of them.[DOUBLEPOST=1427500777,1427500546][/DOUBLEPOST]
As far as Mike goes---I hated those two wolves too, until I ran back into the house and also discovered I could get them stuck there and kill them. This game definitely pushes the frustration buttons, but not in such a way that I want to stop playing. It's a very, very good game.
I may check out the video at some point, but I'm trying to get through this one without guidance where I can. My first trip through Dark Souls felt like I was constantly scouring for advice.

Another funny thing with Mike and the wolves is that while he complains about not being able to get them on the stairs, you actually can do just that, funneling them down one and then the other.

I'm already seeing news articles about how From made a huge misstep in not giving difficulty options, an easy mode, etc. to make the game accessible to more people. That is not the point of these games. There are tons of games already like that. If what I hear is true, this is easy mode compared to New Game+, which the makers of the game were struggling with.
 
My antipathy for him is then multiplied by the art direction he's taken the comic (and the last two strips are good examples of it, and I've LONG griped about how he started drawing teeth as sine waves).
I absolutely hate how the worst part of the Trenches seems to have bled through into PA: those horrible, horrible, deformed and miscolored noses. I seriously think his art looked a LOT better a few years ago (not the beginning of the strip, obviously :) )
 
I absolutely hate how the worst part of the Trenches seems to have bled through into PA: those horrible, horrible, deformed and miscolored noses. I seriously think his art looked a LOT better a few years ago (not the beginning of the strip, obviously :) )
It's an art style that's become increasingly popular over the last few years, especially on Tumblr blogs. The idea is loosely based on the concept of "color zones" on the face, reddish colors being the focus around the nose and cheeks. Normally, you'd keep the colors a little less sharp, but for whatever reason this WC Fields level nonsense is all over the place and looks ridiculous.
 
It's an art style that's become increasingly popular over the last few years, especially on Tumblr blogs. The idea is loosely based on the concept of "color zones" on the face, reddish colors being the focus around the nose and cheeks. Normally, you'd keep the colors a little less sharp, but for whatever reason this WC Fields level nonsense is all over the place and looks ridiculous.
It does. I mean, for an artist who really likes to mention quite often how much he's grown and evolved as an artist and "gotten better", I can only say I think

plainly looks better then


And in general! I mean, the ears and noses are horrible, but even the gradients instead of fills and such feels off. The mouths are over-designed, and some other things are...well, not different at all, 5 years further (the hair could be a copy from one to the other). The bigger eyes, the....well, yeah. Sorry - 2010 was prettier to my eyes.
 
It does. I mean, for an artist who really likes to mention quite often how much he's grown and evolved as an artist and "gotten better", I can only say I think

plainly looks better then


And in general! I mean, the ears and noses are horrible, but even the gradients instead of fills and such feels off. The mouths are over-designed, and some other things are...well, not different at all, 5 years further (the hair could be a copy from one to the other). The bigger eyes, the....well, yeah. Sorry - 2010 was prettier to my eyes.
I wouldn't say it's worse, it's just different and now more stylized. Of course, if you don't like the style, then that's perfectly fine, but it's not a sign of the artist getting worse.

I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but I can see it's a specific cartoony style he's going for.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Savegame got corrupted. Fuuuuuuuu.

Ah well, starting over, maybe this time I can get the streets down better, and not have bus stops choked with hundreds of people.
 
Ori and the Blind Forest is released.

"Man, this game is incredible. I don't know if anything is going to be able to beat it this year. This will probably be my game of the year."

Pillars of Eternity is released mere moments later.

"GET FUCKED ORI!"
 
YAAAAAAAAAAAaaarrrggghhh I finally killed the Blood Starved Beast. Feels good.
I reached it tonight. Got it halfway down, died. A little past half, died. Then I helped another guy beat it, but by then I was spent.

Asking for help is much easier in this game than in others. You don't lose Insight upon death, and you can gain it on your own (not just when the game offers Madman's Knowledge), so playing with others can be a smooth and frequent experience. That said, I really don't want to do that a lot because it takes away from conquering these challenges alone.
 
Bloodborne: What's dead? The motherfucking Blood Starved Beast is dead! And me, a few times, but it died last and that's what counts. I had to go off and farm antidotes and blood echoes to by them, only to discover three sitting behind the altar once the boss was dead. Doy.

Also summoned my first Chalice Dungeon and the beast the boss of its first layer. It's such an odd, interesting concept, and now I can't wait to see what else it has in store.
 
Crash Drive 2. Mostly the flash version.

Oh. My. GOD. Addicting.

Too bad my hand hurts from driving using the keyboard buttons.
 

fade

Staff member
I gotta tell you guys, this city game you're describing sounds just awful. What's next? Accounting, the game! Middle Manager! "Yo, dude, I rolled an 18 on GANTT charts when I created Bob in sales!"
 
I gotta tell you guys, this city game you're describing sounds just awful. What's next? Accounting, the game! Middle Manager! "Yo, dude, I rolled an 18 on GANTT charts when I created Bob in sales!"
It reminds me of the Simulator fad of the last year or two. Truck, Farm, Train, etc. They look boring as balls, but people ate them up regardless.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I gotta tell you guys, this city game you're describing sounds just awful. What's next? Accounting, the game! Middle Manager! "Yo, dude, I rolled an 18 on GANTT charts when I created Bob in sales!"
Few things are as satisfying as observing a smoothly functioning system of your own design. But I guess it's not an itch everybody gets. I actually generally like business/management sims.

I'm the kind of guy who was disappointed Recettear would actually require you to grab a sword and go adventuring - I was sold on the novel premise of a game based on you running your own item shop in fantasy town. But the designers of the game made it in such a way intentionally as to make it impossible to make your loan repayments successfully without becoming an adventurer yourself.

I'm the kind of guy who very quietly played the hell out of Princess Maker 2 in the middle of the night, because it was such a robust stat/training/management game. My fictional daughter/princess grew up to become General of the Army, incidentally.

Desktop Tower Defense was like electronic crack to me for about a year.

And auugh god Gnomoria? I could do nothing but play that all day, every day... but I'm worried I might stop feeding myself and die in my office chair.
 
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