Computer Games

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noddy
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Re: Computer Games

Post by noddy »

that trick only works properly for the initial release period, gamers are usually vocal about what they like and dont like once they get their own hands on it and seeing as its only rich kids with money to burn paying early adopter tax, its all cool :)

as for the question, i think movies have more to worry about than games, even the shortest, buggiest game offers more entertainment bang-for-the-buck than a movie and the annoying stuff on intial release (crashes, patches) does blur away once you have settled in to the working game - the top games offer hundreds of hours of gameplay.

i found gta5 in the bargain bin the other day, it took 2 or 3 hours to slowly download and patch before it let me play, was most annoying, however i found i didnt particularly enjoy the missions much and only amused myself in the sandbox for a few hours... which still made it better value than lavender movie remake of a remake done badly by entitled losers who just go through the motions.
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

noddy wrote:that trick only works properly for the initial release period, gamers are usually vocal about what they like and dont like once they get their own hands on it and seeing as its only rich kids with money to burn paying early adopter tax, its all cool :)

as for the question, i think movies have more to worry about than games, even the shortest, buggiest game offers more entertainment bang-for-the-buck than a movie and the annoying stuff on initial release (crashes, patches) does blur away once you have settled in to the working game - the top games offer hundreds of hours of game play.

i found gta5 in the bargain bin the other day, it took 2 or 3 hours to slowly download and patch before it let me play, was most annoying, however i found i didn't particularly enjoy the missions much and only amused myself in the sandbox for a few hours... which still made it better value than lavender movie remake of a remake done badly by entitled losers who just go through the motions.
Yeah, I tend to look at it the same way. If I spend twenty dollars for a game I only play for four hours, it is still a better value than a movie ticket costing sixteen dollars for a one time admission to see a two hour film.

Yet, at the same time, it's part of the reason why these games aren't worth the full value early adopters pay or whatever the price drops to in the discount bin.
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Computer Games

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:
noddy wrote:that trick only works properly for the initial release period, gamers are usually vocal about what they like and dont like once they get their own hands on it and seeing as its only rich kids with money to burn paying early adopter tax, its all cool :)

as for the question, i think movies have more to worry about than games, even the shortest, buggiest game offers more entertainment bang-for-the-buck than a movie and the annoying stuff on initial release (crashes, patches) does blur away once you have settled in to the working game - the top games offer hundreds of hours of game play.

i found gta5 in the bargain bin the other day, it took 2 or 3 hours to slowly download and patch before it let me play, was most annoying, however i found i didn't particularly enjoy the missions much and only amused myself in the sandbox for a few hours... which still made it better value than lavender movie remake of a remake done badly by entitled losers who just go through the motions.
Yeah, I tend to look at it the same way. If I spend twenty dollars for a game I only play for four hours, it is still a better value than a movie ticket costing sixteen dollars for a one time admission to see a two hour film.

Yet, at the same time, it's part of the reason why these games aren't worth the full value early adopters pay or whatever the price drops to in the discount bin.
I'm the opposite. I play the easy level over and over until I can see all the reward QT's. I really want to see the narrative play out.
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

So I took a chance on Okami on the cheap, since its so highly praised, and ended up disappointed:

CC2vSGDaj3E

I don't even know where to start with this.

The beginning is awful- it's about an hour of cutscenes and very slow dialogue textboxes right from the get go with very little control over your character. If it were merely overdrawn and wordy, I could live with it; but the game has a habit of repeating the plot several times. Again, with the beginning. You sit through a 20 minute animated movie about the plot and backstory and yada yada yada. It's a lot to take in, but it's not exactly complicated; you get control of your character, take a few steps forward and then are stuck within another of a dialogue box with this chirpy gibberish voice playing repeating everything that happened in the animated cutscene for a good 15 minutes.

In case the player didn't get it (remakes of this PS2 game apparently let you skip a lot of this) about half an hour later, after the tutorial is supposedly finished, the same character who went over the plot the first time, does so again (this time in a new location,) when you reach the first game location.

This pattern repeats itself over and over again with all story elements. There were about fifteen times where the player is reminded that they are playing an avatar/manifestation of a Shinto goddess in wolf form, and that the non-playable characters don't recognize her. And it isn't merely slow in presentation, it is awfully slow in gameplay. There is very little to do. The puzzles amount to remedial adventure game puzzles. the world is lightly populated, the dungeon-like areas I saw were sparse and uninteresting, and the enemies are easy. You can only update your character with experience points gained from doing sidequests which force you to sit through these long conversations and cutscenes (several times over the time I played, I had to speak with a character 3 or 4 times- or about 20 dialogue boxes- just get to the purpose and info on a sidequest mission,) which amounted to playing from dialogue box to dialogue box every so many minutes.

It was just awful pacing.

There were some things I thought the game did alright, enough that I stuck with it for as long as I did. The camera was great, the controls were smooth, and obviously the art-style was interesting. Though the battles were easy, it was fun- and I didn't mind that battles took place in a separate battle area module- I just wished there were more enemies to get a good pace going. I didn't mind the cutesy and sly characters, and I could see why some people really buy into it. They are far from the worst (for the most part) I've ever come across in displaying personality. I did end up with the impression that it didn't get much better than it did, and so I don't understand the praise of the story/characters that this game elicits.

But that pace- I got a good 6 hours into the game, spread across a few weekends, when I just had enough and went online to read some impressions to see if I was missing anything.

The most helpful (and rationalized?) review was by someone who enjoyed the game very much but admitted that it doesn't "start to get good" until 15-20 hours into the game and that the last section was a bit too much. Then he said that the upcoming dungeon area I left off at was the first real dungeon in the game and it was meant as a tutorial- that bit of info was it for me. I'm six hours into a game, one not all that complicated, and I've still yet to reach a "real dungeon" and need to go through another tutorial this far in?

And all I can say is, "who has 15 hours to waste to get to the good part of a game?" That makes the game sound absolutely self-indulgent and terrible. It's not worth it.

So its reviewers and backers seem to have thrown any good sense about the game out the window because of its unusual style.

It is just another video game that wishes it were a novel or movie. And that is the most disappointing part, because I was looking forward to playing a video game.
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YMix
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Re: Computer Games

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Right now I'm playing Darkest Dungeon and having a good time... even though the turn order can be infuriating at times. Still, the game is a bit easy. If you're not a novice at small group tactics, you should pull through without any problem.
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noddy
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Re: Computer Games

Post by noddy »

i just bought a little 320x200 lcd screen and some different micros - im going to make myself dinky little oldschool portable game.

i cant choose betwen loderunner or a rogue like for my first effort.
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

noddy wrote:i just bought a little 320x200 lcd screen and some different micros - im going to make myself dinky little oldschool portable game.

i cant choose betwen loderunner or a rogue like for my first effort.
loderunner ;)
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

I think we can safely conclude that noddy has been buried under his tiny, tiny electronics- a tiny electronics landslide perhaps- somewhere out there in the Australian bush. #RIPinPeace
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Re: Computer Games

Post by Typhoon »

NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:So I took a chance on Okami on the cheap, since its so highly praised, and ended up disappointed:

CC2vSGDaj3E

I don't even know where to start with this.

The beginning is awful- it's about an hour of cutscenes and very slow dialogue textboxes from the get go with very little control over your character. If it were merely overdrawn and wordy, I could live with it; but the game has a habit of repeating the plot several times. Again, with the beginning. You sit through a 20 minute animated movie about the plot and backstory and yada yada yada. It's a lot to take in, but it's not exactly complicated; you get control of your character, take a few steps forward and then are stuck within about a good 15 minutes of a dialogue box with this chirpy gibberish voice playing repeating everything that happened in the animated cutscene.

. . .
Given that the last computer game I played was "Super Zap*" on a CDC supercomputer mainframe back when I lived in the Midwest, I'm hardly in the position to provide comment. Still it seems that the authors could have simply provided a link to the Wikipedia page for the Japanese Shinto myth for the curious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu

and gotten on with the game.

*Super Zap was a line editor game that started by stating that purpose of the game is to discover the purpose of the game.
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noddy
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Re: Computer Games

Post by noddy »

NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:I think we can safely conclude that noddy has been buried under his tiny, tiny electronics- a tiny electronics landslide perhaps- somewhere out there in the Australian bush. #RIPinPeace
not quite, just working 12 hrs a day 7 days a week preparing demos to to stop my company from going under and not particularly succeeding.

i do have my screen/micro/joystick soldered together ready for a loderunner port however, so not all bad. laugh. sigh.
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

noddy wrote:
NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:I think we can safely conclude that noddy has been buried under his tiny, tiny electronics- a tiny electronics landslide perhaps- somewhere out there in the Australian bush. #RIPinPeace
not quite, just working 12 hrs a day 7 days a week preparing demos to to stop my company from going under and not particularly succeeding.


i do have my screen/micro/joystick soldered together ready for a loderunner port however, so not all bad. laugh. sigh.
Priorities!
YMix wrote:Right now I'm playing Darkest Dungeon and having a good time... even though the turn order can be infuriating at times. Still, the game is a bit easy. If you're not a novice at small group tactics, you should pull through without any problem.
I think I'll be checking this out
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

Typhoon wrote:
NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:So I took a chance on Okami on the cheap, since its so highly praised, and ended up disappointed:

CC2vSGDaj3E

I don't even know where to start with this.

The beginning is awful- it's about an hour of cutscenes and very slow dialogue textboxes from the get go with very little control over your character. If it were merely overdrawn and wordy, I could live with it; but the game has a habit of repeating the plot several times. Again, with the beginning. You sit through a 20 minute animated movie about the plot and backstory and yada yada yada. It's a lot to take in, but it's not exactly complicated; you get control of your character, take a few steps forward and then are stuck within about a good 15 minutes of a dialogue box with this chirpy gibberish voice playing repeating everything that happened in the animated cutscene.

. . .
Given that the last computer game I played was "Super Zap*" on a CDC supercomputer mainframe back when I lived in the Midwest, I'm hardly in the position to provide comment. Still it seems that the authors could have simply provided a link to the Wikipedia page for the Japanese Shinto myth for the curious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasu

and gotten on with the game.

*Super Zap was a line editor game that started by stating that purpose of the game is to discover the purpose of the game.
See, that sounds interesting. This was supposed to be a loving adaption of the Amaterasu mythology and gently having fun with Japanese culture. Maybe it plays better in Japanese, though I didn't come across anyone who suggested as such. I think the problem is the director. His games are usually fun control/gameplay wise, visually interesting and different from the usual standards but always ends up too ambitious for his own good. His storytelling is weak and after playing a number of his games, you get an impression that he doesn't realize that.
Last edited by NapLajoieonSteroids on Sat Aug 01, 2015 12:31 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Computer Games

Post by YMix »

I've been playing a lot of Invisible, Inc. Good stuff.
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
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noddy
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Re: Computer Games

Post by noddy »

i decided to try the radioactive russian simulator - stalker pripyat.

only played a little bit, not sure ill persist.
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Re: Computer Games

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noddy wrote:i decided to try the radioactive russian simulator - stalker pripyat.

only played a little bit, not sure ill persist.
Try this:

Image

"Krîm naș" means "Crimea is ours".
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Re: Computer Games

Post by YMix »

American Teens Having Less Sex According To Study

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — American teens are having less sex, especially boys.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed roughly 2,000 boys and girls, 15 to 19 and found the percentage of teens who reported they had sex at least once has dropped significantly since the 80s. The decline for male teens was greater than female teens.

MORE: Bay Area Couple Says They Were Attacked By Lyft Passengers Sharing Ride

In 2013, 44% of teenage girls surveyed said they had experienced sex, compared to 51% in 1988.

For teenage boys, the drop was more dramatic. In 1988, 60% reported they’d had sex compared to only 47% in 2013.

Changing sexual mores could explain the overall decline, but one expert believes it is because teens are better educated about sex. Dr. Brooke Bokor, an Adolescent Medicine Specialist at the Children’s National Health System says their smartphones may provide a private, comfortable space to access information.

“They’re looking on the web,” Bokor told the Washington Post. “They’re looking for guidance from parents, guardians and physicians. They can and will make positive decisions for their own health, both sexual and otherwise.”
Actually, they're looking on the web at porn. And playing computer/console games.
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Computer Games

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

YMix wrote:
American Teens Having Less Sex According To Study

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — American teens are having less sex, especially boys.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed roughly 2,000 boys and girls, 15 to 19 and found the percentage of teens who reported they had sex at least once has dropped significantly since the 80s. The decline for male teens was greater than female teens.

MORE: Bay Area Couple Says They Were Attacked By Lyft Passengers Sharing Ride

In 2013, 44% of teenage girls surveyed said they had experienced sex, compared to 51% in 1988.

For teenage boys, the drop was more dramatic. In 1988, 60% reported they’d had sex compared to only 47% in 2013.

Changing sexual mores could explain the overall decline, but one expert believes it is because teens are better educated about sex. Dr. Brooke Bokor, an Adolescent Medicine Specialist at the Children’s National Health System says their smartphones may provide a private, comfortable space to access information.

“They’re looking on the web,” Bokor told the Washington Post. “They’re looking for guidance from parents, guardians and physicians. They can and will make positive decisions for their own health, both sexual and otherwise.”
Actually, they're looking on the web at porn. And playing computer/console games.
A Playstation style controller would be a great benefit to oral sex.
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YMix
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Re: Computer Games

Post by YMix »

Nonc Hilaire wrote:A Playstation style controller would be a great benefit to oral sex.
We're getting past that point.

“Teledildonics” patent used to sue six nascent cybersex companies
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Computer Games

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

YMix wrote:
Nonc Hilaire wrote:A Playstation style controller would be a great benefit to oral sex.
We're getting past that point.

“Teledildonics” patent used to sue six nascent cybersex companies
I remember getting into "no hands" posting contests on modem based BBS systems.

Arse Technica :P
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”

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Re: Computer Games

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:
YMix wrote:Right now I'm playing Darkest Dungeon and having a good time... even though the turn order can be infuriating at times. Still, the game is a bit easy. If you're not a novice at small group tactics, you should pull through without any problem.
I think I'll be checking this out
Well, it seems the developers heard my complaint. The latest build is much harder. :|
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

YMix wrote:I've been playing a lot of Invisible, Inc. Good stuff.
this one is on my list, it looks like a whole lot of fun
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Re: Computer Games

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:this one is on my list too, it looks like a whole lot of fun
I like it a lot, but remember that it tends toward Rogue-style randomization. You're going to lose games through no fault of your own, but at least you can simply retire your agency and get experience points and unlock new agents and programs.
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

Let's see, I've tried out a whole bunch of games I got on the cheap in recent months. Since I've been busy with a lot of downtime in between, I've gotten a chance to rip through them, so where to start?

Boom Blox- a wii game I saw for 2 dollars that I was always interested in trying out. It's hook was it was designed by Stephen Spielberg. There really isn't much more to say about it, it's a physics based puzzle game where you basically have to throw bowling balls at the structures presented and fulfill whatever the objective is for the level/mode for a gold/silver/bronze medal. You pick a barnyard animal for your avatar and these square shaped animal cheerleaders watch you as you play the game. There is a good amount of stages and modes in the game as well as a pretty generous create your own stage mode and various other goodies to keep someone occupied. The game is awfully quaint and cute. I'd call it twee but I don't think it's excessive or done with affect- it was clearly designed by someone like Spielberg (a video game outsider) who was trying to make a kiddy/family friendly game with a budget EA crew. And it's pretty fun for what it is. The physics work really well and some of the puzzles get clever, if not extremely challenging. My one gripe would be using the Wii remote to toss the ball. I think the controls are pretty good overall, and this game is one of those that works real nice with motion controls; but I did find that on some of the puzzles I tried, I really had to whip my wrist like I was really tossing the thing in order to get the proper speed/arc/what-have-you on the ball. I imagined the wiimote slipping very easily from my hand into the the television set and was surprised that EA decided to leave it like that. On the flip side, I can't imagine it being tweaked any differently without losing the physics aspect of the whole game. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it but found it easy to suggest for a whole group of people to try their luck. People with a lot of video game experience and those without, took to the game pretty quickly and had a lot of fun with it- which in my book is a big plus.

TpMkCF3AdMY

SteamWorld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt- now here is a console type game that almost gets it right. Most reviewers have said it is some combination of a Metroidvania with Dig Dug or Spelunky; and while I haven't tried Spelunky, the game does resemble the other two a bit. You play as Rusty, a steampunk robot who rolls into a Wild West (for Robots) town to inherit your late uncle's mining operation. Your uncle was up to something unusual in the mines and perished as a result of it and so to get to the bottom of it, you...ummm...get to the bottom of those mines.

The game has plenty of charm from its imitation of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone of the Man With No Name trilogy to its fun use of steampunk to a great method of ludonarrative which got the environmental story across effectively without bogging down the game or coming across as preachy. It's brisk pacing and great controls makes it a nice pick up and play game that doesn't overstay its welcome while attempting to encourage replays.

Of course, none of that is the meat of the game, which is where this comes out...okay. The enemies are easy, the game only has one (simple) boss and while the randomly generated mines require some foresight in planning your dig downwards and light management (your lamp burns out after an amount of time and the mines become pitch dark), nothing in the game really rises to a challenge. It's like they made sure the gift box was wrapped perfectly but forgot to place an actual gift in the box. Since it is so short, and maybe it was the reason for the length, it never feels repetitive or like a chore while playing the game but in hindsight, it doesn't really live up to its potential and fails to actually entice replays.

And while I initially liked it enough to keep on eye out for Image&Form's next game, I've been soured by the studios ideas for the series going forward. They are adding all those things that these designers always get wrong from console gaming, which suggests that the good (and okay-ish) in this game was something they merely lucked into.

Fe-9OPMUz4w
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Re: Computer Games

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

VflX3Xof_9s
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Re: Computer Games

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:VflX3Xof_9s
Proto-Joust?
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”

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