Video Games

[RobbyPants]

I've been having fun playing Hack Slash Crawl for brief periods of time. It's basically a really watered down version of Diablo, so it's only fun for a little while. Still, it's very easy to just pick up and put down on a whim.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I am very irritated that the video rental place has had their copy of Mortal Kombat checked out since the day they got it. It has been returned several times, I just have bad timing in getting in the store to rent it (and they don't put holds on things, I asked already).

Dammit, I want to see half naked women with giant hooters ripping otu people's spines!

[Maxus]

I got an Xbox points card from some Gamestop thing. I had literally nothing to use it on, so I ended up downloading the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2.

That, at least, was entertaining. I play Paragon, so when a Shadow Broker assassin took a hostage, I got an option to say something along the lines "I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension. I chose one of my squad members to die in a nuclear explosion to destroy Saren's krogan breeding facility. So I hope for your sake that your escape plan doesn't hinge on me hesitating to shoot through a damn hostage!"

That was the Paragon option, too.

[Guyr Adamantine]

I got an Xbox points card from some Gamestop thing. I had literally nothing to use it on, so I ended up downloading the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2.

That, at least, was entertaining. I play Paragon, so when a Shadow Broker assassin took a hostage, I got an option to say something along the lines "I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension. I chose one of my squad members to die in a nuclear explosion to destroy Saren's krogan breeding facility. So I hope for your sake that your escape plan doesn't hinge on me hesitating to shoot through a damn hostage!"

That was the Paragon option, too.

Nice to see Paragon Shepard get some badass lines.

[Stahlseele]

I bruteforced myself through BulletStorm last.
God damn it, but that is one over the top game O.o
Then i played through Portal 2 . . complicated as hell puzzles <-<
Am now waiting for DN4E to finally drop after 14 years . .

[Maxus]

I got an Xbox points card from some Gamestop thing. I had literally nothing to use it on, so I ended up downloading the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2.

That, at least, was entertaining. I play Paragon, so when a Shadow Broker assassin took a hostage, I got an option to say something along the lines "I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension. I chose one of my squad members to die in a nuclear explosion to destroy Saren's krogan breeding facility. So I hope for your sake that your escape plan doesn't hinge on me hesitating to shoot through a damn hostage!"

That was the Paragon option, too.

Nice to see Paragon Shepard get some badass lines.

The whole section in general had a lot of fun lines. To catch up with the assassin, you have to do a car chase.

With a flying car. And Liara making comments and screaming the whole time.

Later, on the Shadow Broker's ship (which is hidden within a perpetual thunderstorm), you have to hold out while some hacker device opens up an access hatch--against the Shadow Broker's personal army of drone, vangards, and engineers.

After a couple...

~Liara~ "Thank the goddess their attacks are disorganized. If they took a moment to coordinate their attacks from both si---"

~Shepard~ "SHUTTUP LIARA"

Of course, the wave after that one has them attack from both sides.

~Shepard~ "You just had to give the enemy tactical advice. You realize we're standing on the roof of the Shadow Broker's ship? There's probably all kinds of surveillance stuff that lets them listen in on us."

~Liara~ "Look on the bright side. Once we deal with all these up here, there shouldn't be too many left inside."

~Shepard~ "Don't get your hopes up, T'soni."

And then you get inside and first thing you run into is about five of them.

~Shepard~ "I TOLD YOU SO."

[Dogbert]

Given how EA has earned my scorn as of late with their draconian policies, I think I'll be skipping Mass Effect 3.

Meanwhile, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood keeps creeping me out with its nice conspiracy.

Also, Hard Corps Rising is a spoonful of Contra nostalgia and non-sensical early 90s anime nostalgia.

[Maxus]

So, doing another playthrough on Mass Effect 2 because I don't have much better to play until L.A. Noire comes out.

Last time, I did Infiltrator. This time, I decided to see what Vangards get.

Oh dear god that is fun to rock. I set up my shortcuts for Charge, Pull, and Shockwave. So I have it to Pull (short recharge time) and then I charge them to knock them into Orbit.

I made my cousin crack up laughing at how I handled the Krogan leader in the Garrus recruitment mission. I carried over Warp Ammo, and so I sort of charged, shotgunned him point-blank (twice), which with the Warp Ammo chewed through his barrier and most of his armor, and then I just beat him to death with the melee button.

So if I get the flow right, I can actually continually use my main powers. Mooks get Pulled and shotgunned. Heavies get Charged and shotgunned and beat down. Crowds get Shockwaved. With more shotgunnings happening along the way.

The Infiltrator is fun--mainly because of how little you have to engage in close combat if you don't want to. Tactical Cloak and AI Hacking can screw with a lot of the fights in the game (There's always something fun about hacking the mech in the rear of a group to let it butcher one or two others).

So what impresses me over Mass Effect 2 over Mass Effect 1 is how they enforce different playstyles for the classes I've seen so far. When I play an infiltrator and I can't cure someone's ear infection with the judicious application of a tactical cloak and a sniper round, I'm not doing it right. If I'm playing a vangard and I'm not cackling madly as I throw people around the battlefield and shotgun them as they land, I'm not doing it right.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I broke down and bought Mortal Kombat for xbox the other day (realized with my recent promotion, I can actually afford food AND occasional other extras).

I am enjoying it, it feels similar to old-school MK games. Story mode is cheesy but fun.

[MGuy]

New Mortal Kombat: We ran out of ideas so lets go back in time and rewrite stuff.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

All the ideas that are going to be thought of already have been thought of hundreds of thousands of years ago as far as entertainment goes. I don't see what the big frigg'n deal is considering that I haven't seen a truly new idea in any form of entertainment I've ever seen in my life.

Plagiarism in entertainment is only wrong if you don't improve on the idea you're ripping off, as far as I'm concerned.

[Swordslinger]

New Mortal Kombat: We ran out of ideas so lets go back in time and rewrite stuff.

Not so much running out of ideas as it was bringing back what people liked about the series in the first place.

It's baffling how many companies manage to screw things up by changing the sequel too much so it doesn't even resemble the original game. The 3D MK games tried all kinds of oddball ideas and none of them particularly caught on. People didn't like the new characters, they didn't like the 3D format. They just wanted more of the same.

Personally I love retro stuff. I'm glad to see they got back to the things that made Mortal Kombat good.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I lost a lot of interest in 3 (didn't like the gameplay changes and wasn't overly fond of the new characters), when it went to 3d I lost all interest. Some games do well when converting to 3D (Mario, Zelda), some do poorly in 3D (castlevania), MK in my opinion did poorly.

The new one feels like a hybrid of 2 and 3, and after playing the story mode I like the newer characters (Sindel = HAWTNESS. That is all. Also, Kabal is soon becoming my new main). Furthermore, I'm almost positive I dated Mileena at one point (Skinny, DDD hooters, bad teeth, would jump randomly between acting sexual and acting like a psychotic child, etc.).

[NineInchNall]

So what impresses me over Mass Effect 2 over Mass Effect 1 is how they enforce different playstyles for the classes I've seen so far. When I play an infiltrator and I can't cure someone's ear infection with the judicious application of a tactical cloak and a sniper round, I'm not doing it right. If I'm playing a vangard and I'm not cackling madly as I throw people around the battlefield and shotgun them as they land, I'm not doing it right.

I'm gonna disagree with that one. The playstyle for all classes is

Code: Select all

while (EnemyInRange())
{
	CoverLean();
	if (!PowersOnCooldown()) 
	{ 
		UseBestPower(); 
		// Best power does not depend on situation.
	}
	else
	{
		FireBigRayGun();
	}
	TakeCover();
	while (Damaged()) { wait(100); }
}

That each class has a different best power does not impress me.

[NineInchNall]

I just installed Homefront ('cause I got it as a 2fer with Metro:2033).

I also just uninstalled Homefront, 'cause it's pretty blech. It felt like playing some Tea Partier's masturbatory fantasy.

[Maxus]

I got L.A. Noire today.

It's interesting. Only just started, but...

1) During interrogations and interviews, you have to choose whether someone's lying, telling the truth, or they're not telling the full story. You need to go around the scene, talk to people, check stuff, to find out points to bring up during interviews. They do have better body language than you see in video games, but the only two interviews/interrogations so far have been a lady who was pretty obvious, and a guy who was...easy to tell, just had to pick the right point to press him on,.

2) It does feel like detective work. You find an S&W revolver? Go to the gunstore with a serial number. Find out it's a special-order item, pick the serial number off the ledger, find the suspect's address. (Okay, this is the first one. It's a sort of half-tutorial).

3) I suck at the driving.

[Maxus]

So, after some more L.A. Noire, I'll give this advice to anyone who tries it:

1) It's not super actiony. You're playing as a cop--if you're shooting people, you likely did something wrong. Nonetheless, there IS some gunplay.

2) And some action. A lot of it is chases--foot chases, car chases, tailing someone. It can get tense. there's ways to end a chase early--say, you're chasing a perp on foot. Aim at him and keep the aim on him until a meter fills in, and you'll get his attention with a warning shot. I actually like this--you go from patiently examining a dead body's pockets and checking trash cans for murder weapons, and a minute later you're running after someone.

3) Missions are basically self-contained episodes. So far, anyway. One case, you're investigating a car found with a lot of blood all over the front seat, abandoned in a parking lot. The next, a hit-and-run that killed a man. I haven't seen any overlapping characters, besides you, your partner, and other policemen.

4) Investigation is surprisingly complex. You have to find relevant items/facts, and have to bring them up when you interview people. So the rape victim initially says nothing happens? Well, you happened to find her torn underwear earlier, so you can call BS and bring that up. But you have three options--Believe Them, Doubt Them, and Call BS. If you call BS, you have to have some sort of evidence handy. That's what trips me up--I about always tell when someone's lying, but it's tough to tell whether nudging them into telling the truth or bringing up something I've found is the right answer.

5) You unlock crazy antique concept cars as you go along. Stuff like a Stout Scarab.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Terraria is awesome, and it has been eating up large amounts of my time. That is all.

[Lago PARANOIA]

I love Bowser. He's my favorite video game character.

Of course that should be pretty obvious by now.

[Kaelik]

I love Bowser. He's my favorite video game character.

Of course that should be pretty obvious by now.

But how does that compare with your favorite game being Chrono Cross?

[Lago PARANOIA]

You wrong for that, Kaelik.

[Cynic]

So I spent the day on my dad's new hp laptop. HP apparently has some sort of deal with wildtangent. I played a lot of Fate. It's a decent diablo-clone. Just more like Torchlight than diablo. You can spend a couple hours on there but then you get bored and you give up.

[Blasted]

So I spent the day on my dad's new hp laptop. HP apparently has some sort of deal with wildtangent. I played a lot of Fate. It's a decent diablo-clone. Just more like Torchlight than diablo. You can spend a couple hours on there but then you get bored and you give up.

The same guy made both Fate and Torchlight. Torchlight is very much a sequel.

[K]

Anyone have any good iPhone games?

[Orion]

// Best power does not depend on situation.

What difficulty did you play on, incidentally? I'm not gonna say the game is super deep or anything, but a lot of the powers are really only useful on Hardcore and Insanity. You can get through the normal game spamming one power a lot more easily.

Your script is also a little inaccurate in that sometimes you want to use your power and then shoot a fool, but sometimes you want to shoot a fool and then use a power. Maybe I'm easily amused, but that variation feels different to me.