Dota 2.

Sorry.

I'm still playing on the Minecraft server occasionally.

>>16728
Sorry. I've not been there, fucking busy at the minute. Do flag up if there's ant them out.

Lego LOTR is great, as it's probably the only game that really does capture the feel of Middle Earth despite it being made of Lego. There's a true sense of geography to it, and even though it's massively scaled down as a map it still feels like you're really going on a trek to Mordor. Definitely the best LOTR game.

At this minute I'm playing Rayman Legends,which I've been playing way too much of. Probably my favourite game of the year, though it's a wee bit too easy in the first 2 worlds, until you unlock the invasion levels which can be rather rage inducing.

Had been playing a lot of Yakuza 4, but am taking a break because I burned out on it after playing ~35 hours of it in two weeks and it does have a tendency to get a bit annoying walking around the city. Also on with Disgaea 3 (fun but far too slow paced), Ni No Kuni (lovely but the combat system is one of those awful mixes between real time movement and selecting commands from a menu instead of true real time combat), Saints Row IV (very fun just to mess about in), and also will be starting Kingdom Hearts HD when that comes out in two weeks to feed my nostalgia.

Honestly, I think I've just got a bit sick of games really.

I used to play a lot, but this year I started to spend far less time playing them. I gave Bioshock: Infinite a go, thought it was awful, gave The Last of Us a go, thought it was mediocre. I've been playing Battlefield 3 recently, but it's not doing much for me.

I think I've just grown out of games or something.

>>16733
Likewise, I can still waste days on grand strategy games though.

>>16733

EVE.

>>16730
>Do flag up if there's ant them out.

u wot

>>16750
Do flag up if there's any problems you want me to sort out.

>>16758
We do seem to be having an epidemic of things disapprom the middle of posts lately.

>>16758

Cheers lad. At the moment everything is running totally smoothly, it just seems everyone's a bit busy at the moment. Be sure to bump the thread when you're back, I've had a few of the users from July say they want back in again.

Maybe in a few weeks we can do a rollcall and have people come back.

>>16764
Funt.

>>16731
Finished Rayman Legends, pretty much. Beat every level, and got most of the Teensies though I have a few Invasion levels left. Also I have like 40 of the Origins remastered stages to do, but I've played them to death in the original game so I don't know how motivated I am to 100% them.

Brilliant game. Pure fun.

Blasted through SR4 over the last couple days, fun as fuck and a great way to appologise for SR3. Now replaying Mafia 2, a great atmosphere but a very empty sandbox.

>>16733
Startingto get that way too after 20 years or so.
Realised that the only New IP Game I've bought this year was Aliens Colonial Marines, everything else has been a sequel or long Running series.

>>16733
I did a similar thing over the last couple of years. Everything was a disappointment, no games hooked me, all the big hyped releases ended up being mediocre at best (Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, RAGE, Skyrim, Aliens Colonial Marines, Saints Row III). Ended up getting a PS3 for the KH remaster because the original is what made me really get into gaming, and got some PS3 exclusive games. Really revitalised my interest in gaming, trying games I never had available to me before, mostly from Japanese devs.

You just have to find that one game that gets you back into gaming again, and it'll go from there.

>>16773
>the only New IP Game I've bought this year was Aliens Colonial Marines
Is that a joke?

Commiserations, anyway.

>>16781
Nope, day one super special collectors edition with the Power loader statue.

Honestly, I think it gets more hate than it deserves. Everyone looks at what it could have been rather than what it actually is.

>>16782

Well... No, I think people look at the millions of bugs and think "I want my money back."

I bought it day one too. The first time I fought an alien it glitched through me and dragged me into some other dimension and then crashed. I just took it back after that.

>>16782
But it's not a new IP, lad. It's a remake of an old video game based on an old W40K board game.

>>16785
The Penny Arcade comic still cracks me up.

"Ok, the way we have it right now, the alien moonwalks into the room, slinks away to the corner, and then he just... vibrates."

"Oh man! That's just like the movie."

I am playing Starcraft 2. Only 3v3s or 4v4s.

Kind of fed up with it though and I don;t really know where to turn. I really don't like 1st person shooters anymore. I have grown out of them it seems.

I have been thinking of trying the Civilization franchise but it seems that you have to devote a huge amount of time to it.

>>16782
>Nope, day one super special collectors edition with the Power loader statue.
I meant that it's a bit of a stretch to call Aliens "new IP".

(>>16789, you had better be on the wind-up.)

>>16793
I was playing Space Hulk, sorry. But all the similarities are there. A squad of space marines fighting monsters on a space station... It's basically the same game. Space Hulk is buggy, too.

Playing Spelunky remake.
So fucking frustrating but I've gotta complete it at least once.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, GTA IV, Supreme Commander, Crysis and QuakeLive

Skyrim and Pokemon HeartGold.

Bought a DS and Pokemon recently, along with Skyrim Legendary Edition.

I'm loving the new armours and the Lycanthropy perk tree. Also, Pokemon is just as good as it's ever been. Last time I played was 10 years ago, which is impressive for a franchise with so many games.

>>16802
I'm a bit upset that it looks like the 3DS won't be able to use flashcards. Guess I'll have to find the money to be a legitimate consumer from somewhere.

Got myself Killer is Dead today.

Weird fucking game. It's to be expected with a Suda51 game but I am extremely disappointed that it was only voted low on various review sites because of gigolo mode and "sexism". The second fucking boss is a buff man wearing only gold chains which was a brilliant boss I might add. Then again the first boss was vagina spiders.

>>16808
I've had the Youtube gameplay trailer of that open in a tab for a week or so now, watched it a few times. Still not sure what to make of it. It looks profoundly odd, even by Suda51's standards.

If I'm completely honest I've never got more than a couple of hours into any of his games. I had Killer7 on the Gamecube, it was obviously a really different and interesting game but I couldn't quite get into it. Same for No More Heroes on the Wii, and for Shadows of the Damned on the 360.

>>16796
Completing it (playing straight through rather than warping) is pretty tough, but you just try getting to the City of Gold. Fucking brutal.

>>16811
I'm still very confused about the dialogue that goes on in it. I've played NMH which had a clear enough plot but KiD is like Shakespeare gone wrong translated into Japanese and back into English concerning how much of it makes sense.

As far as I can tell I am a ghostbuster who moonlights as a male prostitute while occasionally breaking the fourth wall. I got a drill and $5 for fucking one woman, the gum I gave her cost $10 so I guess the drill is nice.

Having another go through L.A Noire now. Bought the Complete edition a few months back after playing the vanilla game on release. Brilliant game if you have a bit of patience, and the extra cases are class. "YOU LIKE TO FUCK YOUNG BOYS, DONT YOU CONSUL GENERAL!??"

>>16814
I got this game based on your description. I just beat the second boss, which was great fun, but I have no idea what the fuck is going on. I read up on why Mondo's arm is robotic, and Suda51 says that Mondo was part of the team that killed Bin Laden and the evil released from Osama's death possessed the original arm so it had to be removed and replaced with a robotic arm. That just creates more questions though.

I'm playing Brutal Doom. RIP AND TEAR. It's fun but pretty difficult, I'm having to take a lot of breaks. Further the HUD doesn't seem to work so I can't count my ammo.

>>16813
I gave up on it, I've beat many challenging games but Spelunky just takes the piss with its random bullshit.

For this thread though, just completed Rogue Legacy earlier, worth a go if you managed to get it in the sale.

After being really annoyed by the Ubisoft's choice of marketing campaign for Assassin's Creed 3, I didn't buy it. It came on Playstation Plus this month so I downloaded it and it's pretty good.

I wish I cared more about the setting though, most of the time I'm having fun, however, and the naval combat is the fucking nuts.

>>16985
I couldn't stand the frame rate in that game. It very rarely reached 30FPS and it looked like it averaged around 14FPS. Normally frame rate doesn't bother me as long as it's above 25FPS as I've got used to playing on an old PC before I cared about frame rate but AC3 was atrocious.
>>16972
David? He is a fantastic boss. All the bosses are great though. It's rare to see games that offer good bosses. Metal Gear Rising Reveangence was also good in the boss department too. Pretty much every Suda51 and Platinum games have great bosses.

Although there was some misses in KiD. I was pumped up for the demon train boss and it was kind of mediocre. Shame that a lot of games would use that as their final boss.

>>16986

Sounds like the PC port was badly optimised, I haven't noticed anything on PS3 personally.

>>16976

I love Brutal Doom even though it is incredibly difficult. I also use the no-reload mutator because I hate having to reload my weapons every five seconds. As for the HUD, are you using GZDoom or Zandronum? I've had problems running BD in GZDoom.

>>16992
I'm not using a HUD, I'm pretty new to Doom and modding truth be told. I can't find any guides on how to install a custom HUD, it seems to be taken for granted that everyone knows how to mod Doom these days.

Right now I'm 'playing' cookie clicker, might alt+tab and continue with Inferno in a moment.

>>16993

>I can't find any guides on how to install a custom HUD

You don't need to. It's included in the BD pk3 file. Maybe you've got your screen size set to maximum? This has the effect of turning off the HUD.. Or you could be using the wrong/outdated Doom sourceport. Remember, it doesn't work properly in normal ZDoom.

>>16991
I was playing the PS3 version.

There was plenty of frame rate issues with that one. I don't doubt the PC port was badly optimized considering ubisoft's track record. Plus it was very buggy if I remember correctly. You'd think with credits that go on for half an hour minimum there must have been at least more than 5 testers.

>>16994
We really ought to have a Doom thread on /e/ at some point.

I'm playing https://www.youtube.com/v/614akDkzvtE next.

>>16998

I've just started getting into the mapping side of Doom. If my editing abilities suck as much as my playing ability you can expect some pretty shitty Doom levels.

>>16998
It gets fucking brilliant at 15 minutes. Spoils the mod for you though.

>>16998
Good lord.

>>16998
I thought /pol/tards loved the Nazis. Why are they killing them?

>>16976

I've just looked up what Brutal Doom was. The following sold it for me:
>There are several voice acted taunts and one-liners voiced by Chinese Tony Danza, that can be spoken with keys J and K. Many of these quotes are taken straight from the infamous Doom comic,and others from action satire such as "Hail to the King Baby"from Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness".

Now I must have it.

>>17003
I think it's just a general fun-poking of the board's 'culture' of IT'S HABBEDINGS and so on.

>>16995

Really? I wonder what the issue is, I've genuinely not noticed frame rate drops. I'm using the digital copy of the game, opposed to the disk. It's the only thing I would imagine could be a contributing factor.

The most banal shit, from an outside perspective, intrigues me. Clearly I have issues. I do.

Bought the MGS Legacy Collection today, turned out I had a US copy of the game so had to make a US PSN account in order to redeem the code for the original PS1 game. Ended up seeing the huge selection of stuff on the US store that isn't in the EU. After a bit of hassle, managed to buy Persona 3 FES and Odin Sphere for £6 a chuck, so I'll be starting Persona right away. I played about 15 hours of it on an emulator, but lost my save file when I wiped my hard drive, but it's worth going through all that again because it's such a great game.

>>17019
>Odin Sphere
Amazing game. Let me make a suggestion: play it on easy. At release I knew several people who gave up on it because "normal" was so difficult.

>>17020
I don't really like playing games on easy, even if they're too hard. I'd rather struggle my way through on normal, even if it means trying again over and over. Managed to get through the DMC games that way, even though DMC3 is ridiculously hard on Normal (at least for me).

>>17019
The bloke in Graingers warned me first. I feel like a cunt for not buying it now because I like to support them due to their fantastic stock and knack for importing games whilst keeping internet level prices on them.
Got Catherine for £40 months before the EU release, fantastic game.

>>17019
The US store has tonnes of stuff we odnt have, especially in the PS1 game. All the stuff like Suikoden and Legend of Dragoon that people have been demanding for years.

>>17026
I got it from Graingers, best high street gaming store as far as I'm concerned.

>>17027
Yeah, the classics section for the US completely blows the EU one out of the water, especially if you're into PS1/PS2 JRPGs.

The beta of NEOscavenger, some little flash-game-come-RPG where you have to survive a post-apocalyptic max-max style event. Its bloody hard and its less of an open-world RPG, and more of trying to delay the inevitable (dying by bandits, cholera, unlucky events or horrors of the night).

Playing Persona 2 Eternal Punishment at the moment. It's a bit odd, as my previous experience with the series has only been Persona 3. P2 seems like a midway point between the Persona games and the main SMT games. Story seems interesting, the combat mechanics are all good, but it's very difficult. Been stuck on this one boss for a couple of hours now. Keep grinding, but still struggling.

Dead Island Riptide

It's pretty much more of the first game with different locations.

>>17221
Is Dead Island any good?

>>17222
Not him but I thought it was pretty good - kind of a zombie Borderlands. Well worth the tenner or so I paid for it on Steam anyway.

>>17222
Patchy. If you immerse yourself it can be fun. But the problem is after the Resort area, the game stops feeling like a believable place gone wrong.

I played through solo first, I found having random people drop in really pulls you out of it.

>>17224
Also, if you do enjoy it, play the Ryder White DLC. It really fills in a few gaps and might change your mind on a few things from the game proper.

Waiting for BF4, pretty much just playing some Far Cry 3 for shiggles while I wait to upgrade my comp and experience optimum wreckage for 1440p.

I'm playing Long Live The Queen, which is actually really good. I like it.

>>17430
Was just about to post that I was playing it too.

So far I've been murdered by an arrow in the vital organs and death by chocolate. Checklist for deaths are a little less than I expected. Game could do with even more variety though as I can see that eventually you'll 100% it fairly quickly

Dragged down the old Gamecube and CRT TV from the attic, and have been playing F-Zero GX. Greatest racing game ever made, shame the futuristic racing genre is pretty much dead.

>>17438
Not having any of that 30fps bollocks on the Vita.

>>17443
What does the Vita have to do with anything?

Got a Wii U for my 21st, so been playing that. I missed out on the Wii last gen, so I've been catching up on games I've missed. Sonic Colours, Super Mario Galaxy, Donkey Kong Country Returns etc. Also contemplating starting Skyward Sword after finishing Wind Waker HD, as I've had SS since launch but not really played it, but I hear it's not great.

>>17447
I'm pretty jealous, I've been wanting to play Skyward Sword since it came out. Can't really justify the expense of a Wii though. I played through Windwalker and Twilight Princess via emulators - TP was the last game released for the gamecube. My machine can't handle emulating Wii games.

Lads, GOG.com has a good sale on right now. It is first come, first serve. Once they sell out of one game, they are selling another. Very quick turnover. They are calling it an "insomnia sale" as they thinking of the yanks being asleep and staying up during it. Suits us though, no?

>>17450
Really wasn't keen on TP, though I imagine I'd have enjoyed it a bit more on the Gamecube as I didn't like how it used the Wii Remote. The little I played of Skyward Sword was odd. It's the first in the timeline, so a lot of things that are Zelda staples aren't present/only get established later in the story. The structure of the game is unusual too, as there's only one hub town in the sky and then the surface world is like a huge series of connecting dungeons. Something about it just didn't sit right with me, and I don't know what. I need to give it a fair chance, but it's just too different I guess.
>>17451
Thanks for the heads up. Hoping for something I can dip in and out of that will run on my netbook, like Star Control II (an improved version of which is freeware and is great fun http://sc2.sourceforge.net/).

>>17455

Watch a game sell out within 30 seconds at one point. Good luck.

>>17455
See, I loved TP. One of my favourites (or top three at least, after Ocarina Of Time and possibly Majora's Mask). Had a blast playing it, loved the transformation bits etc. I imagine the Wii controller stuff was shoehorned in more than made to feel useful, with it being a new thing.

>>17460
I think once you could transform freely, the game got a lot more interesting and enjoyable. It's just a shame that the start was very slow, and there were quite a few boring sequences like whenever you had to gather light bugs. I think if they'd developed the transforming mechanic more and spent less time trying to mimic OoT it would have been really good.

Right, finished Wind Waker HD last night, great game but it's a shame it sort of fizzles out with the Triforce quest at the end. The ending itself is brilliant as ever, albeit somewhat depressing.

Started Skyward Sword again today, after only having played an hour or so 2 years ago. It's actually really good. The start is horrendously slow, with lots of expository cutscenes, but once you're allowed in the actual overworld it's great fun. Swordplay is excellent, definitely the most engaging combat in a Zelda game. The motion controls work pretty well all in all, I've certainly got no issues with them so far. The little touches like doing an overhand/underhand throw gesture with the Wii remote to throw/roll objects is neat. I'm interesting to see how the story plays out, as I believe this is the game that shows why Link/Zelda are significant in all the other games, and shows the creation of the Master Sword and Hyrule. Though the problem with it being first in the timeline is that it lacks a lot of major elements of the series as they've not been established yet, or they will be established but later on in the game.

Started replaying GTA III.

"Blimey" is all I can say about it.

>>17653
I started replaying Vice City the other day.

Why blimey?

>>17653
GTA III is ace, I wish they'd do a HD remake. With a few bugfixes and an interface update I reckon it'd scrub up nicely. It'd be nice to have the car randomisation fixed as well.

>>17655
Do a search for the size of the maps from III and VC. They're ludiocrisly tiny from a modern perspective.

>>17656
Yeah, but they aren't modern games.

>>17654
>Why blimey?

I think it's the surprise of just how small it is compared to newer editions of the franchise.

Also as >>17655 says, it's aged pretty well considering it's 12 years old.

>>17657
>from a modern perspective

>>17659
Yeah, but they aren't modern games, so it'd be stupid to judge them on such a perspective. Nobody buying a HD remake of GTA III would expect a world size equal to that of GTA V.

>>17660
That's why I put the 'From a modern perspective in'. Are you a native English speaker?

>>17661
Yes, and you're making precious little sense. Do we really want to do this, though? Does it matter?

>>17662
I'm sure absolutely everyone else who read it understood it.

>>17663

I didn't.

I may be a dullard, but that is just my opinion.

Just finished Yakuza 4. Great game, much like its predecessor. Shitloads of stuff to do in it too - my play time was just shy of 40 hours, and I'd only completed around 35% of the game. It's a shame that it's not particularly popular in the west, so Sega aren't planning on localising the fifth game. It's such a unique series and I can't recommend it highly enough - great combat, loads of side quests, main story full of twists and emotional investment, side quests full of wacky Japanese humour. If you have a PS3, you can get Yakuza 3 and 4 and Dead Souls (the non-canon zombie apocalypse sequel) for under £20. You don't really need to play the first two as there is a summary of their plots in the third game.

10/10

>>17700
I played the first two. They were competent enough but felt oddly disjointed, a bit like the developers couldn't quite figure out what kind of game they were making. Maybe they've got their shit together, I might give the later ones a shot at some point.

Gave up on Yakuza Dead Souls, because it's shit. It's a super linear third person shooter, which is a shame because the best thing about the Yakuza games is the combat system which is more focused on fist fights and improvised weaponry than firearms. The fact that Sega localised this piece of shit instead of Yakuza 5 makes me upset.

Got Wonderful 101, so been playing that. It's great. Challenging, and pretty hard to get the hang of, but super fun which is to be expected from Platinum. Quality writing and humour too. Doesn't take itself too seriously.

Also got back into WoW with a friend. Just reached level 45. Levelling is so much more fun than it was back in the vanilla days, and it's good you get a mount at level 20 now instead of level 40. The pet battles are a pretty nice addition too. Not a fan of how oversimplified it's become now though. No talent trees, just picking one of three talents every 15 levels. Also it seems sort of dead, though that might be because most people are in the higher level areas nowadays.

>>17889

I don't know how people manage with WoW and that kind of game. It is such a big time sink. How do they manage to get anything else done?

Been playing Risk of Rain a bit lately.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/248820
From the trailer it seemed like the perfect game I want to play right now, and being co-op is just the cherry on top.
Sadly though, it's just a teeny bit underwhelming, More content and better level design would be perfect, and I'm just hoping they do a content update like Binding of Isaac, rather than go for a sequel

Just replayed Bioshock 1 after Infinite.

It's amazing how poor Infinite is in comparison.

>>17892
That's interesting. I did the same and what struck me was how dull the gameplay is. Bioshock has a more coherent story, and a much more interesting world, but mechanically it really wasn't that great.

>>17893
To me, Infinite started well, but then the whole game becomes a repetitive slog. Stick with the Carbine rifle and the Electroshock vigor to win. Columbia had potential, but never really becomes a character like Rapture did. In a way the game feels like it's more of an advertisement for Elizabeth.

Bioshock 2 was was terrible. The shock was just how awful it had become. The most fun you have is the wandering and admiring the environment, which is quite satisfying. To think this claimed System Shock pedigree.

>>17895
I prefer it to the first. I don't see why it gets so much hate.

>>17896

After seeing so much better out there after years this pales by comparison for me and some others. It'd probably be better to me if I hadn't seen so much already before I got to it.

>>17897
I'm not >>17896 but I also enjoyed the game side of Bioshock 2 a lot more than the first game (I played them both at release). I'd definitely disagree that in 2 "the most fun you have is the wandering and admiring the environment", for me it felt mechanically far more polished. To be fair, though, I remember very little of it, and I can't imagine how it would play today.

>>17898
I too prefer Bioshock 2's combat, felt a lot more satisfying than in the first game and being able to dual wield plasmids and stuff was pretty neat. I also appreciated that you could carry a bunch of weapons at the same time in the first two games, reminded me of classic shooters like Doom and Quake and Half Life. The two gun limit in Infinite was just annoying, and the whole game just felt like a slightly dumbed down Bioshock (which felt like a substantially dumbed down System Shock 2).

As far as settings go, the first game was the best, and I think the second suffered from also being set in Rapture but the areas lacked the originality of those in the first game. Columbia had potential, and the stuff with the founding fathers and the whole idealised America thing was pretty neat and unique, but as the game went on it didn't do much with these ideas and it just became a tedious slog. I still can't work out how they managed to make a flying hyper-stereotypical nationalistic American city end up being so boring.

Story was good in the first game, though I think it gets too much praise. The twist was certainly interesting, but I think the story itself doesn't live up to the quality of the setting. In the second game it was alright, the moral choices you had to make felt tacked on an unnecessary, and one in particular with that big monster man in a tank didn't make sense (doing as he wants and putting him out of his misery ends up counting as an evil action, if I remember correctly). Though the good ending was really well done and got me emotional like. Infinite's story was all over the place. Like the setting itself, had potential to be great, ended up fluctuating between boring and convoluted.

Massively overrated series, though the first two games are fun and interesting. Infinite was subpar. I think I had more fun playing Duke Nukem Forever than Infinite. Which is sad.

>>17902
DNF is better than it's reputation.

>>17902>>17903
You two are crazy, Duke Nukem Forever was fucking shite.

>>17904
It was. But it was still more enjoyable than Bioshock Infinite.

>>17904
I enjoyed it. And it had a credible collectors edition without any "SUPER RARE LIMITED DIGITAL CONTENT".

Super Mario 3D World is really bloody good. Not had a chance to play it multiplayer yet due to no friends, but it's still super fun in single player. Was very apprehensive about the format (same as in Super Mario 3D Land - levels are just getting to the goalpole in time like in the classic 2D games/NSMB, but the gameplay is like in SM64, so it's a mix between wide open 3D levels and linear level design), but it works really well. Probably the best looking game of the year too, and brilliant music. If you have a Wii U, you have no excuse not to get this.

>>17930
That's at least 6 sales guaranteed in the UK then.

>>17932
That's being generous. I think I'm the only person in the country who owns a Wii U.

>>17936

Most people I know don't even really understand what one is. Even the ones with consoles. Disasterous name and design and underpowered. Who would have thought they could go from huge hit to huge flop so quickly?

>>17937
Indeed. Most people I know who bought the Original one used it a few times for Sports etc, then it gathered dust beneath the telly. End of the day, we could be surprised But I don't think there's any saving the Wii-U now. If it had more proper games like Zombi-U then maybe, but Nintendo just want their standard audience of MORE MARIO, MORE ZELDA, MORE METROID!

>>17938

I saw a review of zombi-u. It is a dreadful game. I agree though they do need ones though that are NATIVE Wii U and not ports. That is a waste of time. If you want to play those games you'd get a PS4. They have a niche for family, party and unusual interface type games and they should be ruthlessly exploiting that instead of trying to do old console franchise ports or the lastest Crysis. Without a catalogue of games to tempt you there's no reason to own the console itself.

>>17937
Yeah, they really fucked up on marketing it. Most people I've spoken to about it thought it was just a handheld Wii with a built in screen, rather than its own thing.

As for games, I reckon it'll be like the 3DS - fuck all at launch, then slowly but surely getting more as it goes on. This year's had the a great new Mario game, and a few other more niche titles like Wonderful 101 and Pikmin. Coming up there are some good exclusives too - Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong Country, and they're working on a new Zelda. And they seem to be getting support from more niche companies, with the Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem game in development, and X which will be a spiritual successor to the best received JRPG of last gen. I reckon it'll be like the GameCube, with not a huge amount of multiplat games, but the small library it does have is full of gems.

Also they need a Metroid Prime game, as that'd fit perfectly scanning stuff with the gamepad screen. X

Got a bunch of PS2 games today because I was that way out.
50 Cent Bulletproof - surprisingly well written so far, good soundtrack, mediocre gameplay. Enjoyable.
Def Jam Vendetta - better wrestling than most actual wrestling games.
Yakuza - not played it yet, but played 3 and 4. Apprehensive about the English voices as the rest of the series uses the original Japanese VAs. Though my favourite character in it is voiced by Mark Hamill, which I'd be excited about if his Japanese voice wasn't so perfect.
Hello Kitty Roller Rescue - exactly how one would imagine a platformer based on Hello Kitty to be.
Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga - not started it yet, but it's meant to be the best PS2 JRPG ever and I do like me some SMT.
Killer 7 - it's interesting, it's stylish, but moving around is a chore. Feels like a lightgun game, but a very avant garde one.

Anyway, those should keep me busy for a while.

>>18119
>Killer 7 - it's interesting, it's stylish, but moving around is a chore. Feels like a lightgun game, but a very avant garde one.
That's basically all there was to it as I recall. I really wanted to like that game but it does its damnedest to make that difficult.

>>18120
Yeah, I've found that with a lot of Suda 51's games. They're stylish and very distinctive in terms of aesthetics, but the gameplay is always sub-par.

>>17941
I played ZombiU, and it was actually a decent game. Especially considering that it's a Ubisoft launch game for a Nintendo console (which would make anyone who played Red Steel wary) and that it's another fucking Zombie game.

>>17938
>Nintendo just want their standard audience of MORE MARIO, MORE ZELDA, MORE METROID
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. I'm far happier with that than Microsoft's MORE COD, MORE HALO, MORE TV, MORE DORITOS, MORE MOUNTAIN DEW. Especially considering the stellar quality of Super Mario 3D World and Wind Waker HD. There's nothing wrong with relying on a few core franchises if they're consistently innovative and enjoyable, which Nintendo first party releases always were until the Wii, and so far the Wii U.

Honestly, I wouldn't be very worried if the Wii U. It would allow Nintendo to get out of hardware and be free to focus on those few core franchises. They could be like Sega, but not shite.

>>18122
I honestly think that would be best for them, and everyone. Of course Zelda & Mario are good games, but people dont want to buy a Wii-U for them.

>>18122
*and so far have been again on the Wii U

*Honestly, I wouldn't be very worried if the Wii U never takes off

Good god, I need to proofread more.

>>18123
Yeah, for me it was underscored by how much attention the games got this time around for being "Mario/Zelda's first outing in HD!". That could've been done several years ago if they weren't tied to their own platform.

I remember reading that Nintendo made so much money on the previous generations that they can now lose hundreds of millions a year and still won't go bankrupt for decades. If that's true then surely they'll just limp on with the Wii U and hope that the next one is a runaway success again?

>Of course Zelda & Mario are good games, but people dont want to buy a Wii-U for them.
Everyone I know who bought a Wii did so for Nintendo's games. Did anyone honestly give a shit about the rest?

Currently the Wii U's price is prohibitive, when it isn't I'll get one, and I won't be getting it for any third-party games. It seems like this is a pretty standard response.

We need more competition, not less. I hope Nintendo can weather this storm and that the best ideas from the Wii U disaster can be reused elsewhere. It's a shame they went for an underpowered machine this time. That and the games are mostly crap (their awful repetitive zombie game with shitty load times and gameplay mechanics) or juddering ports even when they are last gen.

>>18125
>I remember reading that Nintendo made so much money on the previous generations that they can now lose hundreds of millions a year and still won't go bankrupt for decades. If that's true then surely they'll just limp on with the Wii U and hope that the next one is a runaway success again?
They have a few billion in assets, but nowhere near the amount of MS or Sony.

I sort of think that an acquisition by Disney or Apple would be the best way forward for Nintendo.

>>18129
You must be joking. Nintendo, the sole innovator of the big three console manufacturers, absorbed into the hulking evil conglomerates of America? And your justification for this is a couple of duff releases? That's like saying Sega withdrawing was a good thing because the Dreamcast not selling well proved they had no good ideas.

>>18129
>They have a few billion in assets, but nowhere near the amount of MS or Sony.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/08/nintendo-valued-as-bigger-company-than-sony-4254425/
>Nintendo now has a market value higher than all of Sony combined

http://www.gamesradar.com/nintendo-doomed-not-likely-just-take-look-how-much-money-its-got-bank/
>Buried in reams of financial data is the revelation that Nintendo have 812.8 billion Yen (£6.7/$10.5 billion) in the bank - enough for it to take a 20 billion Yen loss (£163/$257 million) every year until 2052.
That's where I read it.

>>18129
Their 3DS sales are very good, though. If anything, they just can shift their priorities a bit.

>>18132
Yeah, it's valued slightly higher than Sony on the market, but Sony is still a far bigger company with much deeper pockets. When it comes to hardware, Nintendo are simply unable to operate on the same scale as MS & Sony.

>Nintendo, the sole innovator of the big three console manufacturers
Nintendo have made great games despite their "innovations" in hardware.

>absorbed into the hulking evil conglomerates of America
Why do you believe them to be more "evil" than Nintendo? Why do you think Apple is a conglomerate?

>>18134

>Apple, Nintendo, Microshaft, Sony, etc

All of them are up to the exact same walled-garden faux-monopoly nonsense. I do my best to avoid giving any of them money. We are marching towards a future in consumer electronics that is abhorrently, desperately bleak in terms of end-user freedom. Gone are the days you bought a gadget and could amuse yourself playing with it, fiddling and tweaking to your heart's content.

These days you can't even set your bloody clock without signing up for some form of EULA- And as they tighten their user-friendly, socially integrated noose around our ballsacks, I have a very nasty feeling that companies are actually going to start enforcing some of that shit we mindlessly clicked "I agree" on over the years.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-thinking-about-new-business-structure-studying-smartphone-market/1100-6417194/

Looks like Nintendo read this thread or maybe they just read the $250 million loss forecast for the fiscal year:

>Nintendo is thinking about forming a "new business structure" that could incorporate smartphone initiatives, president Satoru Iwata said today as part of a press conference addressing dismal Wii U sales. It was also during this conference that he vowed not to resign as top executive.

>Iwata did not elaborate much on the bespoke "new business structure," but pointed out that addressing the smartphone market is "not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone."

Translation: it's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone until we announce it at E3.

I seriously doubt that Nintendo will be making hardware at all by 2020.

>>18132
This is why it's irrelevant that Nintendo can make a $257 million loss every year for decades. If their response to this loss was "It's fine, we can do this for years!" their shareholders would fuck off at lightspeed. Sony fucked up last generation, and Microsoft fucked up the generation before that, but they're both big enough and diversified enough companies that they could, as you say, limp on and hope their next console turned their gaming fortunes around. Nintendo simply doesn't have that option.

>>18151
>If their response to this loss was "It's fine, we can do this for years!" their shareholders would fuck off at lightspeed.
... which means nothing. The shareholders can't force Nintendo to give their money back. If they want to pull out, the best they can do is sell their shares and take the hit in value themselves. Even if the price collapses, they can just turn around and say "fuck you all, we've got 800 billion yen in the bank".

>>18152
Do you seriously not understand why a company is in trouble when its stock prices plummet?

>>18153
Yes, I don't understand why a company would find itself at risk at a time when it has enough cash on hand to sustain itself for around 40 years. That's plenty of time for them to turn things around, and if they can't manage it in that time then they'd fully deserve to fail.

As with many people in this thread I've gotten a bit bored of gaming recently.

Still enjoying GTA V Online and will get all the DLC as and when. The Walking Dead I've bought the season pass for, now I just have to wait months for the next episode.

Also have Planetary Annihilation (made by the guys who did Total Annihilation) on my laptop though it's on the cusp of the recommended system requirements and struggles a bit. However the game is still in Beta and I have noticed massive improvements as they continue to update it, so am hopeful the final product will run a bit more smoothly.

pic related, it's the new Stargate style thing they've recently released. - ERROR - file too large, I'll just post something not related then.

The only thing I'm planning on getting down the line is Watch_Dogs, I see little point in getting a new gen console at present.

>>18155
I have this issue, looking forward I dont really see much on the horizon I care for. I'll still stick with my establishes series though, and if Valve manage to release anything.

>>18157

It appears, on paper at least, that gaming has never had so much choice.

I would still rather pay for Minecraft on PS3 because I know it's good and I can take it anywhere I go now, rather than get buyers remorse everytime I try something new.

The only thing I'm looking forward to is Dark Souls 2 and even then I worry they will have dumbed it down.

>>18158

Actually, this reminds me.

Anyone on here happen to get Minecraft PS3 edition?

PSN: TheBoab2002

2002 was the year I managed to soil the loins of 2 different women on the same day. Terrible name, but such is the folly of youth.

Started playing skyrim again
I found some naughty mods, otherwise I wouldn't bother. It's always nice accidentally walking in on Ralof nailing Gerdur while her husband reads a book 5 feet away

>>18160
This reminds me. I finally got a computer capable of Playing Fallout 3 without dying if I set anythign above extra low.

Infinite mods here I come.

>>18161
I would skip that and play NV instead. Get you the GOTY version with all the DLC and pre orders off TPB and have fun. It's pretty okay, I've never actually bothered modding it given the vanilla game seemed perfectly fine to me.

I've recently completed the first No One Lives Forever game which was a lot of fun, can anyone on .gs recommend the sequel?

>>18162
I have both, endlessly replayed on the 360 and bought dirt cheap on Steam awaiting a decent computer. Much like 75% on the stuff in library lol.

>>18161>>18162>>18163
NV is a great game by itself so mods (other than performance mods) aren't entirely necessary.

Meanwhile Skyrim is so bland it needs mods. I think maybe I should look into modding. I have an idea for a naughty mod and suggesting it to modders won't get it done. I did hear one Bethesda game recently got a mod that actually fixes all the bugs and there was a big deal about that but I can't remember for the life of me which one it was. For all I know it could have been NV which Bethesda didn't even creat.

>>18164
>I have an idea for a naughty mod

>>18154
The best illustration of why this is wrong is probably to ask you to point to an example of a publicly traded company reporting an annual loss for decades. It doesn't happen. Shareholders revolt or companies are taken over long before that point is reached.

Don't mistake the fact that Nintendo's assets would equal a loss of millions for decades for the idea that they actually can lose millions for decades. That's not a viable business strategy in any way.

>>18166
>probably to ask you to point to an example of a publicly traded company reporting an annual loss for decades
Starbucks didn't make a profit on its UK operations for over 10 years.

>Shareholders revolt
Again, you seem to have missed the "fuck you, we don't need you" part. They have more than enough money in the bank to just go back to the drawing board and work on their next wave of projects.

>>18167
Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) Limited is not publicly traded, and is/was engineered not to turn a profit for tax reasons, paying royalties and high interest rates to other Starbucks subsidiaries in countries with more favourable tax regimes. How you came to know about its reported profitability but not the reasons behind it I don't know.

A company doesn't need its shareholders? I'm not sure you understand the relationship between them at all.

>>18169
In any country outside Japan, you might have a point.

God help me lads. I've started playing Euro Truck Simulator 2.

>>18167
>Starbucks didn't make a profit on its UK operations for over 10 years.
I do hope you don't actually believe this.

>Again, you seem to have missed the "fuck you, we don't need you" part. They have more than enough money in the bank to just go back to the drawing board and work on their next wave of projects.
You seem to have missed the part where Nintendo is owned by its shareholders. They don't get to go back to the drawing board if they get thrown out and replaced.

>>18170
There was a cultural passivity of shareholders in Japan, but that's changed dramatically in the past ten years. Besides that, half of Nintendo is owned by foreigners so it's irrelevant to a degree.

If Japan is such a unique case, perhaps you can give an example of a company traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange which has made a loss for decades.

>>18172
https://www.youtube.com/v/4rnJ11DNM8k

This made me tempted to try it out but so far I've resisted the urge.

>>18173
it's a genuinely unexpected love. And being able to stream various local radio stations as you drive is part of the charm.

I just drove 20 tonnes of woodshavings from Sheffield to Rotterdam listening to the Rick astley hour of 80's classics on Heart, took half an hour of real time, but felt great.

The longest run on the game takes about 3 hours to do properly.

>>18173
Any excuse;

https://www.youtube.com/v/J1_tE5MxjYA

>>18173
>You seem to have missed the part where Nintendo is owned by its shareholders.
Yes. Shareholders whose options include "keep shares" and "sell shares", but notably do not include "get money back from company" or "tell company what to do". The worst that can happen is that the shareholders sell up, the market loses confidence, and the company has difficulty raising more funds, but since Nintendo has decades worth of cash in the bank, this isn't something they need to worry about.

>They don't get to go back to the drawing board if they get thrown out and replaced.
But of course we all know this won't happen. Nintendo is a company with a long track record of success, with the occasional failure. No amount of displeasure amongst the shareholders is going to make that happen. As we saw during the "Shareholder Spring", all that'll come out of it is the board turning around and saying "thanks, we'll take that under advisement".

The thing to remember is that Japan has respect and obedience at the heart of its culture. Regardless of what you may think, this hasn't really gone away, and isn't likely to go away any time soon. You don't speak up against those who are above your station unless you have some status which allows it. As a prime example of this in action, Japan's credit rating is on the slide - they're at A+ with a very negative outlook, and the only thing that's keeping them from sliding faster is the willingness of people inside the country to continue buying the bonds out of a sense of duty.

>If Japan is such a unique case, perhaps you can give an example of a company traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange which has made a loss for decades.
Olympus lost money for almost 20 years. The whole thing only came to light when they appointed a foreigner as their CEO who, unused to the whole "don't question your betters" thing, saw things he didn't like and politely asked the board what the fuck was going on. They sacked him for questioning them. The shareholders did nothing - board members were charged with fraud, and most of them didn't even stand down until forced to by their conviction.

>>18176
>Shareholders whose options include "keep shares" and "sell shares", but notably do not include "get money back from company" or "tell company what to do"
If you don't understand how shareholders have weight, I don't know what to say.

>since Nintendo has decades worth of cash in the bank, this isn't something they need to worry about
You keep saying that, but that doesn't make it true.

>Nintendo is a company with a long track record of success, with the occasional failure
Every large company that exists has a long track record of success until they fail totally. That's how they continue to exist, lad.

>The thing to remember is that Japan has respect and obedience at the heart of its culture. Regardless of what you may think, this hasn't really gone away, and isn't likely to go away any time soon. You don't speak up against those who are above your station unless you have some status which allows it.
Sorry, but the duty-bound culture of grorious Nippon is changing: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/business/worldbusiness/22iht-revolt.4684811.html

And as I said, half of Nintendo's shareholders aren't Japanese.

>Olympus lost money for almost 20 years. The whole thing only came to light when they appointed a foreigner as their CEO who, unused to the whole "don't question your betters" thing, saw things he didn't like and politely asked the board what the fuck was going on
Okay, yeah, if, like Olympus, the management of Nintendo successfully committed fraud on a massive scale and hid their losses from their shareholders they'd probably be okay to rely on their assets for decades. Your point?

Just think for a moment. Your point is that shareholders' reactions to a failure of a company to make a profit are irrelevant in Japan, and the evidence you cited for this is a Japanese company going to criminal lengths to hide losses from their shareholders. Does that not make you reconsider your position at all?

>>18177
>If you don't understand how shareholders have weight, I don't know what to say.
I think you're misunderstanding here. Nintendo shareholders have nothing to block. There is nothing going on that they need to be asked about. There is no acquisition, no sale, no new appointment, no nothing - just the entirely internal decision to move on and focus on their next console, which does not have to go before the AGM. Just as Sony had to do when the PS3 was years late and overbudget. Also just as they themselves had to do after the fiasco that was the Virtual Boy.

>You keep saying that, but that doesn't make it true.
They have stacks of cash in the bank. They can undertake the R&D work for their next console entirely at their own expense (and conceivably the one after that). What makes you think they need to secure any more outside investment right now?

>Your point?
That you're talking a load of scaremongering bollocks.

>>18178
>and the evidence you cited for this is a Japanese company going to criminal lengths to hide losses from their shareholders
No, the evidence for this was that when a Japanese company was revealed to have gone to criminal lengths to hide losses from their regulators, the shareholders did nothing.

>>18179
>No, the evidence for this was that when a Japanese company was revealed to have gone to criminal lengths to hide losses from their regulators, the shareholders did nothing.
What on earth are you talking about? Let's go through this step by step. First, why do you think Olympus hid their losses?

>>18180
I repeat
>the shareholders did nothing

>>18181
Yes, and I have no idea what the fuck you're trying to imply by that. So I'm asking you why you think Olympus hid their losses.

>>18181
Just indulge him lad and we'll get this over with.

The only company you can name that survived multiple years of consecutive losses without investors intervening is one which hid those losses from shareholders. Think about this.

>>18182
>Yes, and I have no idea what the fuck you're trying to imply by that.
If it was widely reported that some directors in a company you owned shares in was doing something criminal, do you think you might try to do something about that?

>So I'm asking you why you think Olympus hid their losses.
The reporting seems to suggest that the intention was to deceive the authorities by covering up corrupt payments. The deposed boss seemed to think that some of these were going to the Yakuza.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-16/the-story-behind-the-olympus-scandal

Now, if you could give us some hint as to how any of this is going to stop Nintendo working on a new console in the near future, that would be great.

>>18185
>The reporting seems to suggest that the intention was to deceive the authorities by covering up corrupt payments. The deposed boss seemed to think that some of these were going to the Yakuza.
No, the reporting suggests that Yakuza were implied to have maybe perhaps been part of the loss concealment, which was never proved as far as I know. At no point has anyone suggested that this was all some ploy set up for the purpose of sending money to the Yakuza. From your own fucking article:

>An investigation conducted by Olympus and released on Dec. 6 described the transactions as an attempt to hide investment losses going back decades. The massive overpayment for assets and lavish fees, totaling at least $1.6 billion, were, in other words, a fraudulent attempt to cover up previous bad investments by a series of Olympus presidents, dating to the bubble economy of the 1980s. What is remarkable is how the investigation would echo Woodford’s assertions about the board, going so far as to conclude that “the core of [Olympus] management was rotten and those around them were also contaminated. … Shifting losses off the books and trying to cover them up over a long period of time is the behavior of those who do not understand compliance.”

If Olympus had come clean in the 80s and 90s when it was internally known that their investments hemorrhaging money, there would have been no need to hide their losses or involve the Yakuza. They decided to hide the losses. Because companies that post massive losses don't stick around.

>Now, if you could give us some hint as to how any of this is going to stop Nintendo working on a new console in the near future, that would be great.
It's not relevant, you're right, so you probably shouldn't have brought it up, no?

Does this mean that you now understand that claiming that the ability of Olympus to survive for years without making a profit by failing to post their losses means that Nintendo can fail to make a profit for decades and survive just fine is nonsense?

Most reporters wouldn't talk about who they were hiding the losses from because they assume that the reader is not retarded at least vaguely familiar with how markets work and why losses would be concealed, but a few stories mentioned it in passing. Knock yourself out:

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=olympus+%22losses+from+investors%22

>>18186
>No, the reporting suggests that Yakuza were implied to have maybe perhaps been part of the loss concealment
It's almost like you didn't even read the post you're quoting:
>The deposed boss seemed to think that some of these were going to the Yakuza

>Because companies that post massive losses don't stick around.
So if they run out of money but don't tell anyone, they can stay in business?

>It's not relevant, you're right, so you probably shouldn't have brought it up, no?
You're the one who claimed that apparently Nintendo wouldn't be able to move on because the shareholders would get the shits and sack the board and put a stop to it.

>>18188
Yes, some payments were perhaps going to the Yakuza. Those payments were for the shady shit that they were getting up to in order to conceal their losses from investments which occurred decades before any involvement of the Yakuza is alleged to have happened. Maybe you should read the article you fucking post.

>So if they run out of money but don't tell anyone, they can stay in business?
You can make a massive loss and avoid investor intervention if you don't disclose it, yes. That is precisely what happened in this case, so I don't know why you're asking that unless maybe you fundamentally lack an understand of what went on and how it went on, but that couldn't be true, could it?

>You're the one who claimed that apparently Nintendo wouldn't be able to move on because the shareholders would get the shits and sack the board and put a stop to it.
Shareholders could get the shits and sack the management, put the company on a different course (such as developing for mobiles, scrapping hardware entirely etc., essentially transforming Nintendo as a company), could arrange a takeover, or, if Nintendo's ability to return to profit is in doubt and the aggregate worth of their shares actually falls below the value of the assets of the company, liquidation could look like an attractive prospect.

Or maybe Nintendo could just do fuck all for forty years without repercussions because BIG PILE OF MONEY. Maybe that's how markets work and everyone who isn't you is getting it wrong.

>>18192
>Maybe you should read the article you fucking post.
OK, let's break the quote down for the retard in the room:
>The deposed boss
As in him, not me
>that some of these
as in some, as in not all
>seemed to think
was not certain, but thought it sufficient to request police protection

>You can make a massive loss
Yes, because "make a massive loss" and "run out of money" are totally the same thing.

>Shareholders could get the shits and sack the management
Good luck with that. When was the last time this happened anywhere? Now when was the last time this happened in Japan?
>put the company on a different course
Good luck with that. Shareholders decide 70-30 at the AGM to abandon hardware and focus on mobile. Board says "yeah, whatever". (This happened over here a couple of years ago.)
>could arrange a takeover
Too much cash in the bank for that.
>liquidation could look like an attractive prospect.
Again, good luck with that. Perhaps then you could move onto BT, whose market cap varies between a half and a third of the value of its assets.

>Or maybe Nintendo could just do fuck all for forty years without repercussions
Nobody has seriously suggested that. Are you done scaremongering now?

This is a hilarious cunt-off lads, keep going. I have little knowledge of business and company law so I don't know who is right, but it's great reading.

>>18193
>OK, let's break the quote down for the retard in the room:
Jesus, the irony. Okay. Yes, Michael Woodford suspected that Yakuza were involved in the concealment of losses. Nobody, however, has ever said, until today, that Olympus had started concealing losses in order to hide payments to the Yakuza from authorities. They were concealing losses from bad investments made in the 80s and 90s to stop investors from shitting themselves. Elements of the Yakuza may have been part of this cover up. I have no idea how or why you would dispute this if you had actually read your fucking article, or any article about Olympus, or even Olympus' fucking wikipedia entry.

>When was the last time this happened anywhere?
Off the top of my head, Occidental had a well-publicised ousting of their chairman last year. If you're interested in more recent occurrences, I suggest you fucking google it. It doesn't happen every day, but it's far from unheard of.

It would certainly take something exceptional to happen in Japan. A failure to make a profit for decades (which, you'll remember is what you were originally suggesting is feasible) is beyond exceptional.

>Good luck with that. Shareholders decide 70-30 at the AGM to abandon hardware and focus on mobile. Board says "yeah, whatever". (This happened over here a couple of years ago.)
You can add "refuses to acknowledge shareholder votes" to the exceptional circumstances in which even Japanese management would be ousted.

>Too much cash in the bank for that.
It doesn't matter how much cash they have in the bank you twat. If shareholders want to they can arrange a takeover with or without the consent of management. Whoever wants to buy the company just has to buy enough shares. That's it.

>Again, good luck with that. Perhaps then you could move onto BT, whose market cap varies between a half and a third of the value of its assets.
BT makes a profit, and whatever that asset figure is probably includes intangibles and excludes liabilities.

I do hope you're trolling and/or a child. I pray to god that no adult is so moronic as to not realise they're wrong in this situation or, worse, is too petulant to admit it.

>>18194
You know it's a good one when you see a lot of
> Message too long. Click here to view the full text.
as you scroll past.

Just sat and played through the original Portal again.

When P2 showed up, people complained because of the way it had been made into more of a character based story rather than testing etc, but how else could they have done it? Make the same game again? Sure in some way it catered to the LOL CAKE crowd, but in other it was pretty dark.

>>18201

I liked wandering through the environments in Portal 2, but the thing that got on my nerves was yer man Cave Johnson and his slightly-too-wacky persona.

Basically GLaDOS was too good in the first game and difficullt to match up to.

I'd like to think they had other options than filling it with the wacky TF2 style humour that they did. Portal was quite dark with dark humour that shone because it was used sparsely. P2 was like an American version of that kids TV show where they poured brightly coloured goo onto the losers. It was fun, but completely incongruous for the Half-Life universe.

>>18204
Ahh I did love the Abandoned aperture areas, just wish it showed a bit more of the place.

>>18205
Kind of annoyed they never really say anything about the surface. During the battle against Glados at the end of Portal she hints about things being crazy up there, and then P2 is XXXX years later and ignores it.

>>18201
Still quite proud of the fact that when it became clear that the cake was a lie, as it were, I managed to react perfectly. I think whenever I play it again I always managed to miss the jump first time.

>>18207
Quite. Still, I want to forgive that on the grounds that it would be involved with the main Half-Life plot in some way and that becomes very difficult if they haven't finished writing that yet. They might write themselves into a hole that would require retconning to fix, which is worse.
Doing something similar to the way HL1 intertwined Blue Shift and Opposing Force was an option, but maybe too much of a departure from the setting Portal.

>>18209>>18208
I think it's inferred that Portal plays out around the time of the Combine being around. And P2 being set way after, but then we have the issue of the Borealis.

>>18210
What issue? The Borealis disappeared before the Combine invaded, and clearly doesn't return to its drydock by the time of P2, though I don't know why you would expect it to.

>>18211
I dont expect it to return, unless of course that happens in HL3.

>>18212
So what issue?

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Managed to keep myself alive up max to three days so far. Then usually something kills me.

Is anybody playing this? I installed it the other week after a mate told me about it. I don't normally care for fantasy or Warcraft, but this is actually a pretty well made card game. The "free-to-play" model isn't as ugly as it is in a lot of recent games (Robocop/Dungeon Keeper on iOS for example) either.

>>16725
Finally decided to replay Final Fantasy 9 after a decade or so. Only went through it the one time back then, despite playing through 7 & 8 countless times.

>>18216
Yeah, quite a bit. I haven't had to spend any real cash moneys on it either. I pretty much just play a few games every day or two to do the quests and save up for an arena run once or twice a week.

>>18218

Same here. I am enjoying it but haven't spent a penny as I don't think the game is worth spending any money on.

Don't know what Blizzard are playing at really. Putting quite a lot of resources into free-to-play game, letting Starcraft2 die a slow death and their new game Blizzard of the Storm appears to be trying to compete with LoL and Dota.

>>18219
I get the impression that the free to play model usually gets money from about 20% of the playerbase, and within that 20% are some poor souls that fall for the paying aspect hook line and sinker.

It may be part of a larger strategy though, relating to the client programme that you start the games through. If you have a few shit games of sc2 then you might quit out and play a few rounds of cards instead.

>>18220
>I get the impression that the free to play model usually gets money from about 20% of the playerbase, and within that 20% are some poor souls that fall for the paying aspect hook line and sinker.
There's actually a good portion of people who will pay, but not [i]that[i] much, but within the paying portion of the userbase there is a group of people who will pay an extraordinary amount. In the FTP industry they're termed whales.

Here's a great article that goes into quite a bit of depth about the phenomenon, and associated ethics of exploitation.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/195806/chasing_the_whale_examining_the_.php?print=1

It contains what is simultaneously the most hilarious and the most depressing quote I've ever read in games journalism:

"It got so bad that at one point Steam actually blocked my credit card, thinking I was some sort of account scammer, and I had to open a support ticket to tell them, 'No, that really is me spending whatever savings I have on this stupid game with fake hats.'"

>>18221 I find the most interesting thing about this phenomenon is how someone will end up spending more money on incremental payments in a F2P game than they would have for buying a fully priced game, even factoring in DLC and expansion packs.

Games like TF2 have become examples of pure consumerism, creating a huge demand out of thin air for items which nobody previously wanted or cared about.

>>18222

In Hearthstone you buy packs of cards from a shop and get a random selection of cards. 40 packs (a small amount of packs given the difficult of finding rare cards) currently costs £34.99 which is virtually the price of an A List title.

But the game has 'Gold' cards so people seem to spend a fortune to get every card in gold. Obsessive compulsive disorder I suppose.

>>18223
I suppose it works out cheaper than playing actual trading card games though. For £34.99 you could get 9 or 10 packs of Magic The Gathering cards, which will get you 135-150 cards total. With Hearthstone, it's 40 packs of 5 cards, meaning you get 200. You lack the physical aspect which will turn some people off who like having actual tangible cards, but it's more convenient because you can play online and you don't have to carry around boxes of cards.

Magic The Gathering is really expensive if you want to play at a high level. Some cards sell for hundreds of pounds, which is ridiculous. Also it's hard to get into for someone like me who lacks the time and money to invest in determining the best possible decks and acquiring all the individual cards. I like the art work though.

>>18224
That's why I just stick to playing Planeswalker.

Well, you also get gold through beating challenges and just playing. As long as free-to-play stuff has that pitched right so that the grind isn't too harsh, it's not a problem. Some games mitigate with a coin doubler purchase. The real problem is stuff like the recent Dungeon Keeper remake, which just seems like a money sink if you want to have any kind of functionality.

The trend of microtransactions in paid games is more problematic to me than the FTP business model though. Paying an upfront cost of ~£45 and finding out that half the game isn't on the fucking disc and requires you to get your wallet out is taking the piss. There are cars in Forza 5 that cost more than the actual game. Paying a couple of quid for horse armour in Oblivion was a huge controversy not that long ago. It's strange how attitudes can change in such a short space of time.

Although that was 8 years ago come to think of it. Oblivion is an 8 year old game. Fuck me.

I just added it all up and I've spent £150 on Hearthstone. Whoops. I have 10/36 legendaries and dust for one more. So free!

>>18227
Preorder bonuses and retailer exclusive content are problematic too. Preorder bonuses for requiring you to put the money down and buy the game before reviews come out, and retailer exclusive content for depriving you of certain things depending on where you choose to shop.

I don't mind it too much if it's just an extra costume or a weapon skin or something, but when it's an extra mission or playable character it's very troublesome.

I just bought Banished on Thursday and managed to spend 30 hours on it already. Err. Oops. I generally like city builders and it's a good wee game for that, with more chance of everyone dying.

Also played the Titanfall beta a lot over the two nights I had access to it, it's great fun. I wasn't really paying attention to it before I got a chance to play, as it just looked like CoD with knobs on. Fortunately they're some really nice knobs. Could probably be better without CoD style gunplay but I can't complain too much.

Decided to try out the Assassins Creed lot. Picked up the first 2 and the PSP game for £7 total. Enjoying the first so farm heard they get a bit strange as the series goes on but we'll see.

>>18291
The first game is incredibly repetitive, I enjoyed the first hour but all the following hours were just me doing the same shit over and over again. It put me off so much I've never really been back to the series.

It looked fucking lovely when it came out, mind. Probably still does.

>>18292
The first game is basically a tech demo for what they accomplish with the second. ACII, Brotherhood and Black Flag are excellent games, you're missing out if you haven't played them.

Revelations and III are skippable. Also, don't take the plot of any of them seriously, it's fairly dumb and you'll only end up disappointed.

>>18293
The plot, and especially the dialogue, were pretty fucking dire in the first game. A lot of it felt a bit surreal, like the person who wrote it didn't actually know what human interaction was but thought, fuck it, I'll wing it, they won't notice. I can't remember the exact scene but I think that early on the protagonist is kidnapped, wakes up, and within a few lines of dialogue he and the "sexy blonde doctor" (who is working for the shadowy organisation) ease into this sort of mildly flirtatious back and forth conversation. Seriously? That's your natural response to being drugged and kidnapped and held against your will?

I did try II but it didn't grab me, to be fair I probably didn't give it enough of a chance.

Just note that AC4 could have just been released as Black Flag.
Cut out the modern day gubbins and it's essentialy the best Pirate game ever.

>>18294
The whole Desmond/sci-fi aspect is uniformly terrible in all the games, unfortunately. It's a shame that the decent notes of the story (mostly in Ezio's arc) are weighed down by that baggage. Then again, without that present day element I seriously doubt an idea for a series set in the Crusader-era Levant, Renaissance Italy etc. would make it off the drawing board.

By the time of Black flag I think the devs had the same feeling. It takes itself far less seriously than its predecessors and (mild spoiler) they get all meta and start taking the piss out of themselves by writing an evil Montreal-based videogame developer into the plot.

II is quite slow to start (it sort of has to be to introduce the myriad mechanics which weren't present in the original), but once it gets going it's one of the strongest games of the last generation, in my own humble opinion.

>>18295
Ubisoft certainly seem to be aware of that.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-07-ubisoft-polls-interest-in-a-non-assassins-creed-pirate-game

>>18297

Sucks that they're apparently responding to the success of creativity and innovation by doing that. The game resulting from the data polled from that telling them what to make, when to make it and what to do may be commercially successful as a result... but will it have any soul to it?

>>18328
How dare they ask what people want! That's so commercial!

>>18291
I'm now working through Brotherhood, it's a bit repetitive this one and not a lot seems to be happening. You can see why it's a spin off instead of AC3 proper. Also the story's gone a bit daft now.

>>18330
It's gone daft now? I thought it was from the very beginning. 'We can time travel through your DNA!!'

>>18331
Thats was a fair bit of Sci Fi stuff. But now ANCIENT GODS FROM BEFORE TIME WANT TO WARN YOU, AND ONLY YOU IN THE FAR FUTURE, THROUGH YOUR ANCESTORS.

>>18332

Vague canon spoilers ahead, nothing very meaty though:

The whole deal of the Precursors is that they are literally incomprehensible to the feeble human mind, so you can hand-wave quite a bit away by saying "they're dead smart innit". I don't like that Minerva directly addresses Desmond, as unless they can time travel (hinted at in AC1) but that brings up even more daft plot holes. I choose to interpret the hologram as sophisticated enough to transmit a code that makes the human brain think "oh that's my name" and she's really addressing just "whoever finds this" rather than literally one exact person. Making you think you'd been addressed by name would be enough to convince you to follow their instructions, which is what the Precursors were good at, since they did create the human race as bipedal cattle.

I'm not sure why I took the time to defend this, actually. It really is silly.

>>18333
"OOH EEES DSMONDE?"

Big free update to FTL came out this week. First impressions are good, it feels a lot more polished and the few added UI features seem really useful.

>>18384
Oh for fuck sake. Goodbye 100 more hours of my weekends.

Planescape: Torment. I missed it back then. Some dialogues are fucking hilarious. And to this moment I wonder what has Morte been doing with that harlot I bought him for five hundred coppers.

>>18385
Considering the amount of time I've spent playing FTL, which is bordering on 30 hours you'd think I'd have actually completed it once on easy, but no. The amount of times I've gotten to the final boss only for him to push my shit in is fucking ridiculous. It's still so much fun to play though.

>>18387
> Considering the amount of time I've spent playing FTL, which is bordering on 30 hours

30 hours isn't that long in the life of a hardcore gamer.

I got obsessed with the X Series of space simulators last year, and on X3, between the Terran Conflict missions and the Albion Prelude ones, according to steam, I played them over 3 actual months of real time.

It was when I tallied that up and realised how much the game had me, that I had to quit it. Like fucking crack that stuff.

>>18388
Of the nearly 200 games in my steam library, FTL barely cracks the top 20 in gameplay time. There are a bunch of games I haven't bothered installing or have less than an hour of playtime that I've picked up from Humble Bundles.