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pauli

pauli

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  • #1
    Welcome to the newer, even more improved GESC random thoughts thread. Here are some ground rules that should help keep me from needing to post those big stupid yellow boxes:

    1: This is not your free Lounge, and it is not a chat room. Please keep the discussion gaming related.

    2: If there's a perfectly good thread for the game you want to talk about, please use it.

    3: Don't be afraid to start a new thread - if you think there's substantive discussion to be had on the subject you wish to talk about, it probably shouldn't get buried in here.

    With those out of the way, back to posting!
     
    Nekojin

    Nekojin

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  • #6
    Trying to play Streamline (the game that was given out free yesterday on Steam), and it's just loading up negative marks against it left and right.

    1.) Have to have a Twitch account and log in to play. (They say they're removing that in a future patch)

    2.) Can't easily join a game - and can only START (host) a game if you're going to stream it.

    3.) Most of the time when I try to join a game, I get dumped into a game that is apparently already over. So I have to exit, and try joining a game again. And again.

    4.) When I DO get into an active game (either one that's collecting players prior to starting, or is already going), 2/3 of the time I get Kicked for no apparent reason.

    5.) When I do finally get down to playing, the gameplay seems fairly limited. It doesn't seem to have the "oomph" that makes games like Rocket League fun.

    6.) There seems to be some weird spectators' betting system in the game - that isn't being used by anyone.
     
    crombie

    crombie

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  • #9
    Well, forum ate my post about breaking through gaming plateaus.

    My most pleasurable experience was in Batman Arkham Origins. Through most of those games I was just a button masher, but then I started to go after achievements. I found out one achievement could only be done before one part of the game. So I had to start a New Plus game. And then I got to the damned brawl in the arena on the boat. Stuck there for days!

    At that point I realized I needed to actually learn combos, and proper button timing. So for the rest of the week I trained in the simulators until I mastered most of the moves. It was like magic. After randomly thrashing about in that fight for so long I picked out the right tempo, and set of moves to win - and BAM beat it no problem.

    The only thing is I still cannot disarm those bastards with knives!
     
    S

    senan79

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  • #10
    Bought a XBox 360 during an Amazon sale last month and Live Gold based on forum recommendation. Was mainly interested in Forza. But now I am spending most of the console time playing Diablo 3. It is surprisingly nice to play.

    I am having trouble playing FPS on the console - specifically Farcry 3 Blood Dragon which is available for free for Gold subscribers. Having moving around and looking through distinct controls feels strange instead of the mouse which does both. If I can't get used to it will download the free version of the game from UPlay and play through it. Do all the FPSs on 360 have similar controls ?

    Also I can't find Halo 2 in the market place. All other games including the original are available. Was it not well received ?
     
    N

    NCPar8hd

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  • #11
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32316391#p32316391:22y0v1ic said:
    senan79[/url]":22y0v1ic]
    I am having trouble playing FPS on the console - specifically Farcry 3 Blood Dragon which is available for free for Gold subscribers. Having moving around and looking through distinct controls feels strange instead of the mouse which does both. If I can't get used to it will download the free version of the game from UPlay and play through it. Do all the FPSs on 360 have similar controls ?
    Click to expand...

    Yeah those are the standard First person controls on the consoles. You will eventually get used to it, if you want to put in the time. Think of the left stick as WASD and the right stick as the mouse.
     
    MadMac_5

    MadMac_5

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  • #12
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32316391#p32316391:17ok6hra said:
    senan79[/url]":17ok6hra]Also I can't find Halo 2 in the market place. All other games including the original are available. Was it not well received ?
    Click to expand...

    Halo 2 was originally an Xbox game, so it never got a 360 release. Halo 1 was remastered and released in 2011 for its ten year anniversary, and Halo 3, ODST, Reach, and 4 were all released natively on the 360. Since Halo 2's remaster was part of the Master Chief Collection, there's no way to play it on the 360 without tracking down a copy of the original disc. Thankfully the backward compatibility works flawlessly for Halo 2, and it upsamples the game fairly well.
     
    breubreubreu

    breubreubreu

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  • #14
    headache said:
    Got in on the Steep open beta and tried it out for a bit. It's very pretty, but I keep expecting controls to be like an SSX game, and getting frustrated when they're not.
    Click to expand...

    Started playing it too, both on PC and on PS4. I'm liking it more on the PS4 - my PC has a weak-ish graphics card (960M, 2Gb), and while some graphics are worse on the PS4 (trees, etc), there's far less pop-in on the latter. No problem, though, this game feels more like a couch game.

    At first, I thought that the open roam aspect would be the best part of this game, but some challenges are just way too good. The open roam is still pretty much fun, but look for the "UbisoftAnnecy's dare" event, I think it's near one of the borders between the mountains, with an orange flag. It's a wingsuit risk challenge with no medal associated to it, just a score value, but oh boy it's good.

    Two negatives, though:
    - The game definitely needs a menu with the available courses, where you can sort it by type, region or difficulty. It's cool to go "seamlessly" from the mountain view to your position and to new challenges (quotation marks due to the amount of pop-in you have sometimes when doing this), but the discoverability of new courses is not great.
    - All the GoPro / Salomon / RedBull ads and events bother me a little bit - not as much by principle, it's just that they feel a bit tacky. Well, at least it's not Doritos and Mountain Dew. :rolleyes:

    All considered, I'm not sure if I'll drop 60E on it. Some parts are really good, and scratch well the mountain sports itch, but I think that I'll wait to see the total size of the mountain range and how the online community develops (you can create and share your own challenges and rides, but I'm not seeing a lot of it here).
     
    B

    Beautiful Ninja

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  • #16
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32319619#p32319619:2ltairh0 said:
    Darkseid[/url]":2ltairh0]replaying Saints Row IV, damn that game gets so much right, just the super speed run abouts make you feel like Barry Allen (the FASTEST man alive)

    the music, the jokes, the bad puns, the shooting (is a bit iffy), but roaming around as a superhero is VERY satisfying
    Click to expand...

    Saints Row 4 is one of the best superhero games ever made, even if it didn't explicitly try to be one. The powers in the game are extremely satisfying and the general gameplay feels great. You're just Mafia Goku, saving the world.
     
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    bluesdrivemonster

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  • #20
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32319627#p32319627:1iodk99m said:
    Beautiful Ninja[/url]":1iodk99m]
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32319619#p32319619:1iodk99m said:
    Darkseid[/url]":1iodk99m]replaying Saints Row IV, damn that game gets so much right, just the super speed run abouts make you feel like Barry Allen (the FASTEST man alive)

    the music, the jokes, the bad puns, the shooting (is a bit iffy), but roaming around as a superhero is VERY satisfying
    Click to expand...

    Saints Row 4 is one of the best superhero games ever made, even if it didn't explicitly try to be one. The powers in the game are extremely satisfying and the general gameplay feels great. You're just Mafia Goku, saving the world.
    Click to expand...
    I agree with this, I loved the powers in the game to the point where my character always did a little jig every time I beat a group of enemies. So I don't get why people, particularly Saints Row fans, don't like the game.

    Anyway I think I'm finally feeling fatigue setting in on Kingdoms of Amalur. I made a beeline on finishing the Mage faction quest and good heavens there are a lot of quest markers I've passed, I'm not sure if I can take on all of them.

    PS: I once again shelved Human Revolution thanks to this.
     
    E

    Elore

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  • #21
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    So I don't get why people, particularly Saints Row fans, don't like the game.
    Click to expand...
    I don't think it's so much that people don't like SR4, it's that it starts out by going up to 11 and then staying there for the rest of the game. SR3 gradually worked its way up to it, and remains more memorable to me.
    I love SR4 and the ridiculousness of it, but I also think it's the weaker game of the two.
     
    G

    Griffehpoo

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  • #22
    Mortus said:
    Played the Steep beta over the weekend. Still have no clue what the hell this game is supposed to be.
    Click to expand...

    You sound like a weird grandpa sometimes.

    It's like any other snowboard/ski game where you do events to get points to go get rewards and go to the next event, only this one is open world so you can fuck around on the mountain freely between events. I think the intent is for the actual game to either be a MMO or a thing you can invite a party of friends to so you can share a mountain.

    It looks very pretty, but there are some issues. Keyboard and mouse are functional, but it feels like it was meant much more for a controller. Case in point, the default controls for dodge on wingsuit are J and L...where your movement controls are WASD. It's remappable, but it's a rather stupid decision when you have a left and right click that could easily perform the same action. The physics skew a little too close to real life for the arcadey controls. You don't get a ton of air off of anything that's not a ramp specifically made for jumping, and you can't do ridiculous wingsuit transitions like SSX because you have to be standing still to switch modes. There's only one trick button and it seems to do a random grab/pose whenever you hit it. You also have a pretty limited window to affect your spins and flips before you wreck. There doesn't appear to be any kind of arcadey grind mechanic or rails for that purpose, which is disappointing. The crown turd of the show is parasailing, which is just awful and feels like it was put in because they had four buttons on the D-pad and were desperately searching for a fourth winter sport to stick on it.

    Still, the races (both on ground and in the wingsuit) are fun and convey a good sense of speed. It feels good to land a solid trick, even though the snowpark sections don't have the kind of frantic pace you'd see in a point spam winter sports game. It's all just a little too slow and clunky for my taste, and probably not nearly sim enough to satisfy someone looking for a realistic snowboard/ski game. It lacks personality, and the kind of spectacle I'm used to in these goofy winter wonderland games. On that front, I can echo Mortus's sentiment in that it looks like they weren't sure what audience to appeal to, so they didn't skew too far in any one direction.

    The open beta is free. I would say give it a shot to see if it appeals to you, but don't go in expecting Amped or SSX.
     
    Frosty Grin

    Frosty Grin

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  • #23
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32321725#p32321725:3an88eme said:
    Griffehpoo[/url]":3an88eme]The crown turd of the show is parasailing, which is just awful and feels like it was put in because they had four buttons on the D-pad and were desperately searching for a fourth winter sport to stick on it.
    Click to expand...
    Initially I felt this way too, but then I changed my mind. The main reason it's there is that it's the only way to go upwards. It's very liberating in free roam. And the events can get pretty fun too, once you get the hang of it.
     
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    bluesdrivemonster

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  • #24
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32321655#p32321655:1k7smls4 said:
    Elore[/url]":1k7smls4]
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    So I don't get why people, particularly Saints Row fans, don't like the game.
    Click to expand...
    I don't think it's so much that people don't like SR4, it's that it starts out by going up to 11 and then staying there for the rest of the game. SR3 gradually worked its way up to it, and remains more memorable to me.
    I love SR4 and the ridiculousness of it, but I also think it's the weaker game of the two.
    Click to expand...
    I've read that it's just supposed to be a DLC for III turned into a full game. I agree the whole setup is pretttly ridiculous from the get-go, but even then I'm looking forward to V which is supposedly going with
    time travel
    .
     
    JustBreathe

    JustBreathe

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  • #25
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32321655#p32321655:1b3wfb7n said:
    Elore[/url]":1b3wfb7n]
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    So I don't get why people, particularly Saints Row fans, don't like the game.
    Click to expand...
    I don't think it's so much that people don't like SR4, it's that it starts out by going up to 11 and then staying there for the rest of the game. SR3 gradually worked its way up to it, and remains more memorable to me.
    I love SR4 and the ridiculousness of it, but I also think it's the weaker game of the two.
    Click to expand...
    I've read that it's just supposed to be a DLC for III turned into a full game. I agree the whole setup is pretttly ridiculous from the get-go, but even then I'm looking forward to V which is supposedly going with
    time travel
    .
    Click to expand...
    If memory serves, I think a lot of it was supposed to go into Enter the Dominatrix, then they were just like "shit we went too deep".

    On the subject of Steep, I just want them to remake SSX 3.
     
    krimhorn

    krimhorn

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  • #26
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32322907#p32322907:3re6gm78 said:
    JustBreathe[/url]":3re6gm78]
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32321655#p32321655:3re6gm78 said:
    Elore[/url]":3re6gm78]
    bluesdrivemonster said:
    So I don't get why people, particularly Saints Row fans, don't like the game.
    Click to expand...
    I don't think it's so much that people don't like SR4, it's that it starts out by going up to 11 and then staying there for the rest of the game. SR3 gradually worked its way up to it, and remains more memorable to me.
    I love SR4 and the ridiculousness of it, but I also think it's the weaker game of the two.
    Click to expand...
    I've read that it's just supposed to be a DLC for III turned into a full game. I agree the whole setup is pretttly ridiculous from the get-go, but even then I'm looking forward to V which is supposedly going with
    time travel
    .
    Click to expand...
    If memory serves, I think a lot of it was supposed to go into Enter the Dominatrix, then they were just like "shit we went too deep".
    Click to expand...
    Yeah, there's definitely a lot more there than would have been in a DLC (which, a "Making of documentary" DLC is available that goes into what that DLC would have been like). Might have been better to have been presented as a stand-alone expansion rather than a "sequel" though.

    On the subject of Steep, I just want them to remake SSX 3 1080.
    Click to expand...
     
    C

    Chito

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  • #33
    I love Overwatch, and I generally enjoy MP gaming more than anything; but I'll be honest: I find myself wishing for a grand, single player experience, AND the time to enjoy it properly. I just don't have the time for that, AND my multiplayer games. I am somewhere halfway through Skyrim, halfway through Mass Effect 2, and find myself wanting to go back to them, but never make the time. The multiplayer stuff is just too easy to jump in. I want to play the Witcher games at some point, finish up the ME games, dip my gaming toes into a bunch of other things, but what do I do? Fire up some Overwatch, Hearthstone, Rocket League etc. Lately I've felt the itch to try Elite: Dangerous again, hell, I bought the first DLC and never even logged in...another universe awaiting exploration - if I could just make the effort to plug in the HOTAS again...but yes, a multiplayer one (well, sort of....).

    Random thoughts of a conflicted gamer...
     
    D

    donlo

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  • #35
    I have the opposite issue, at $50+ I don't think I'll get enough out of Overwatch to make it worthwhile and lack of an SP mode makes that even more so. It's probably why all my MP gaming (all 3 hours or less a week of it) is dominated by free-to-play stuff.

    But Overwatch looks so cool I've been on the verge of getting it for a while now. If I had a RL friend that was into it then that might tip the scale but PUGs in TF2 and Battlefield games has turned me off heavy team based games with random strangers.
     
    Andara

    Andara

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  • #36
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32327483#p32327483:1y359et7 said:
    donlo[/url]":1y359et7]I have the opposite issue, at $50+ I don't think I'll get enough out of Overwatch to make it worthwhile and lack of an SP mode makes that even more so. It's probably why all my MP gaming (all 3 hours or less a week of it) is dominated by free-to-play stuff.

    But Overwatch looks so cool I've been on the verge of getting it for a while now. If I had a RL friend that was into it then that might tip the scale but PUGs in TF2 and Battlefield games has turned me off heavy team based games with random strangers.
    Click to expand...
    Get it. We have enough Arsians on at most hours, that you should be covered for at least moderately decent teamage regardless of your location.

    It's shockingly fun, even with crap puggie teammates. Though with only 3 hours of time per week, it's going to take quite a while to get your money's worth out of it.
     
    Mister E. Meat

    Mister E. Meat

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  • #38
    Grim Dawn is criminally underappreciated. I backed it on Kickstarter, kicked the tires a bit during the betas and then mostly forgot about it for quite a while. Crate has done a good job differentiating the character builds and skills and while it does suffer from a lot of the normal Diablo-genre, with a lot of undifferentiated enemies and too much useless loot, the core feedback loop is satisfying.
     
    T

    tritriagain

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  • #39
    I love Grim Dawn. I got it on Humble Bundle after reading about it in the forums. I'm not a coordinated enough player to Guild Wars or anything that requires use of all your fingers and toes to battle, so this is up my ally. It's not too easy either. I beat Diablo III in two weeks. The loot can be excessive - but I got excited when I put on those soiled pants and started throwing poop bombs at the enemy. Sometimes you need to feed your inner 5-year-old even when you are 40. :D
     
    Hound of Cullen

    Hound of Cullen

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  • #40
    [url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=32332029#p32332029:3binm683 said:
    tritriagain[/url]":3binm683]I love Grim Dawn. I got it on Humble Bundle after reading about it in the forums. I'm not a coordinated enough player to Guild Wars or anything that requires use of all your fingers and toes to battle, so this is up my ally. It's not too easy either. I beat Diablo III in two weeks. The loot can be excessive - but I got excited when I put on those soiled pants and started throwing poop bombs at the enemy. Sometimes you need to feed your inner 5-year-old even when you are 40. :D
    Click to expand...
    I should pick it up again. I ran a character through the story, and started a second, then set it aside in favor of the Titan Quest reissue and D3's Season 8. I know they've made some changes since my first go-round. Hmmm.... maybe this coming four-day weekend...
     
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