What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

[ambermonk]

Beat HL2 last night (again) and now playing Metal Slug 3. First time I've played any of the games in that series. Very similar to Contra in terms of gameplay, but also doesn't take itself too seriously. Must have missed out on the hype back when it was more popular.

Edited February 18, 2014 by ambermonk

[usagi]

Irrational slimming down to 15 people. :(

http://irrationalgames.com

 

wow. end of an era.

 

it's saddening but I understand Ken's logic. the *shock series has passed into legend and it's difficult to keep doing the same thing under the weight of the expectation to produce something as unique and amazing. he's re-orienting himself and the core team to keep producing great ("narrative-driven") games in new environs. hopefully they find their niche at Take-Two. of course it sucks to lay most of the staff off but he sounds like he's going about it the right way, supporting his people and helping them find new jobs.

 

so I'm ok with it, I guess. and I trust in 2K and hope they will continue to do right with the Bioshock franchise (imo B2 was unfairly slated by some just because it wasn't an Irrational game).

 

I still haven't played any of the Infinite DLCs. I'm curious to see how they'll play out and wrap up the (current) story.

[usagi]

what was more puzzling btw is when Valve had their recent layoffs, about a year ago. I don't think that was even supposed to be made public, GabeN basically dismissed it as no big news. fuck knows what's going on at Valve.

[ambermonk]

what was more puzzling btw is when Valve had their recent layoffs, about a year ago. I don't think that was even supposed to be made public, GabeN basically dismissed it as no big news. fuck knows what's going on at Valve.

I remember that too. I visited their official website yesterday just for shits n' giggles and apparently they have a bunch of positions open for hire. Weird.

No news on HL3 though, obv.

 

As for KLevine, I'm curious about what projects he might have planned for his post-Irrational dev team. SShock 3, maybe? Too early to speculate tho I reckon.

[Guest Milkweg]

 

Irrational slimming down to 15 people. :(

http://irrationalgames.com

 

wow. end of an era.

 

it's saddening but I understand Ken's logic. the *shock series has passed into legend and it's difficult to keep doing the same thing under the weight of the expectation to produce something as unique and amazing. he's re-orienting himself and the core team to keep producing great ("narrative-driven") games in new environs. hopefully they find their niche at Take-Two. of course it sucks to lay most of the staff off but he sounds like he's going about it the right way, supporting his people and helping them find new jobs.

 

so I'm ok with it, I guess. and I trust in 2K and hope they will continue to do right with the Bioshock franchise (imo B2 was unfairly slated by some just because it wasn't an Irrational game).

 

I still haven't played any of the Infinite DLCs. I'm curious to see how they'll play out and wrap up the (current) story.

 

 

Honestly, i couldn't play more than 2 hours of the latest in the Bioshock franchise. Did not draw me in in the slightest and the gameplay was just meh. All the GoTY fluff surrounding totally baffled me. Was a big fan of the first BioShock though.

[Joyrex]

Beat HL2 last night (again) and now playing Metal Slug 3. First time I've played any of the games in that series. Very similar to Contra in terms of gameplay, but also doesn't take itself too seriously. Must have missed out on the hype back when it was more popular.

The entire Metal Slug series is great, and well worth a play through.

 

In other news, Strider (PS4) is pretty good - not arcade like at all, more of a "metroidvania" (I hate that term) explore and backtrack style game. The visuals are good, but are somewhat generic - servicable would be a good word for it. Gameplay is OK, and challenging. Only played for about an hour, so further playing will see if this is overall a good game or not. I'd say it's worth the cost of admission (15USD).

[mcbpete]

more of a "metroidvania" (I hate that term)

It's weird - so do a lot of people, however for me it instantly sums up exactly the kind of game it'll be. Probably helps that Super Metroid and Castlevanis SOTN are my favourite two games.

[ambermonk]

 

Beat HL2 last night (again) and now playing Metal Slug 3. First time I've played any of the games in that series. Very similar to Contra in terms of gameplay, but also doesn't take itself too seriously. Must have missed out on the hype back when it was more popular.

The entire Metal Slug series is great, and well worth a play through.

Yeah I enjoy MS3 quite a bit. I got very close to the end but died too many times and depleted my Continues :(

 

 

 

more of a "metroidvania" (I hate that term)

It's weird - so do a lot of people, however for me it instantly sums up exactly the kind of game it'll be. Probably helps that Super Metroid and Castlevanis SOTN are my favourite two games.

 

The recent indie game Steam World Dig comes to mind - its gameplay falls under the Metroid/Castlevania vein of open-world 2D platformer. Not sure if it's available on consoles or not, but definitely on Steam.

 

As for Routine, it appears Lunar Software just posted an update within the last hour! Sounds like they're still hard at work. (http://www.lunar-software.com/)

[747Music]

The Order: 1886 looks great. Which is a massive understatement. Check out this video which is running completely real-time on the PS4:

 

[youtubehd]2lIG-BI2Vno[/youtubehd]

[Joyrex]

The Order: 1886 looks great. Which is a massive understatement. Check out this video which is running completely real-time on the PS4:

 

[youtubehd]2lIG-BI2Vno[/youtubehd]

It's interesting, since they are going for a 'cinematic' approach (odd aspect ratio that puts black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, and locking the framerate at 30fps so it's closer to film (so they say). XBone purists are crying about how The Order devs intentionally locked it at 30fps and that's OK, but the recent crop of XBone games are all 30fps (because of the lack of developer skill in hitting 60fps) and the PS4 nuts are LOLing at their inferior competitor.

 

That being said, PS4 has sold 5.3 million units to date, ahead of their fiscal year target - and it doesn't come out in Japan until Monday. They'll easily hit 6 million sold by then.

 

Unless Microsoft can turn things around quickly, this generation might belong to Sony.

[autopilot]

[Guest potabo]

Just pre-ordered the new Wolfenstein (primarily for that sweet sweet Doom 4 beta), really hoping it wont be too similar to the bout of MMS titles we've seen for the last decade or so, although it does look quite promising. I'm generally avoid pre-ordering stuff (especially after the most recent Tomb Raider game good lord) but I really feel like this might be worthy of the Wolfenstein name.

[usagi]

along with several other games I'm playing concurrently, last night I started Gone Home, which a friend gifted me.

 

it's a short(ish) point-and-click adventure game set in 1995. you play a 22 yr old girl who comes home to an empty family house after a year-long trip round Europe, and you explore the house finding stuff out about your little sister, mum and dad. anyone played this? it's quite charming, I got a surprising amount of feels from it. the 90s nostalgia! with tapes and cassettes and e'rrythang. certainly brought back memories of my own childhood.

I'm generally avoid pre-ordering stuff (especially after the most recent Tomb Raider game good lord)

 

but that was a good game.

[Guest potabo]

 

I'm generally avoid pre-ordering stuff (especially after the most recent Tomb Raider game good lord)

 

but that was a good game.

 

Well I can understand why people who like it like it, but I personally was quite let down by it and subsequently found a hard time enjoying it. I'm a massive fan of classic Tomb Raider, and while I wasn't expecting anything similar to the old games, I was definitely expecting something different and a bit more challenging.

Edited February 20, 2014 by potabo

[usagi]

I'm declaring a moratorium on criticising present-day games with the old "games were so much better before because they were harder and didn't hold your hand". that may be a legit critique in some cases where the gameplay is so shitty that it destroys the whole experience, however if the other elements of the game stack up favourably, then that complaint cannot be the sole basis for dismissing the entire game.

 

I mean, there is so much more that goes into a game experience than just that. the TR reboot was much more immersive and believable than the previous games, whether or not you feel the gameplay compares favourably (ftr I think it was fine, not spectacularly unique, but "fine" - yes there were annoying QTEs and it was a bit console-y, but I accept that they were trying to appeal to everyone, non-hardcore gamers included). plus they successfully reinvented Lara's character, which was badly needed imo. the previous Laras were just male gamers' wet dreams.

 

all that, to me, is so much more important than just the game being "challenging". but then, I'm usually in it for the story, environment and atmosphere and I can forgive gameplay flaws (cf. Silent Hill 2).

[Guest potabo]

Well of course there's more to games than just that, the lack of challenge was just my primary point (I have quite a few more) as to why I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd like to have/as I was expecting to. I did enjoy the game while I was playing it, the dialogue was pretty nice, the designs of some of the temples and stuff were very interesting, but even while looking at it while disregarding my stance on the old games I still feel it was particularly lackluster. Not lackluster in big ways, but just in many small ways, which once I noticed, I was often reminded off and subsequently had a worse experience thereon. It was a nice change though, especially from Legend and friends, and I feel like it did the series justice.

[Guest]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/17/starcrawlers-kickstarter-scuttles-halfway-towards-goal/

 

Star Crawlers looks awesome. Sci-Fi dungeon crawler with rogue-like elements. Even the narrative changes with each play.

[mcbpete]

Currently 15 hours through Torchlight. It's just Ginormo Sword with a less ginormous sword and 206% more graphics. Oddly compulsive though - clickedy click, clickedy click.

[Guest]

Currently 15 hours through Torchlight. It's just Ginormo Sword with a less ginormous sword and 206% more graphics. Oddly compulsive though - clickedy click, clickedy click.

The first one? Second one is supposedly better and it has multiplayer. A lot of people prefer it over Diablo 3 (which was pretty disappointing imo).

[baph]

what was more puzzling btw is when Valve had their recent layoffs, about a year ago. I don't think that was even supposed to be made public, GabeN basically dismissed it as no big news. fuck knows what's going on at Valve.

 

 

I want to believe that Valve hasn't totally lost the plot, but....

[mcbpete]

The first one? Second one is supposedly better and it has multiplayer. A lot of people prefer it over Diablo 3 (which was pretty disappointing imo).

Yeah - the first. I'm playing major catchup on my Steam collection - I got it on one of the humble bundles about a year or so ago but never played it.

[Guest]

 

The first one? Second one is supposedly better and it has multiplayer. A lot of people prefer it over Diablo 3 (which was pretty disappointing imo).

Yeah - the first. I'm playing major catchup on my Steam collection - I got it on one of the humble bundles about a year or so ago but never played it.

I understand! I have dozens of Steam games I never installed as well.

[Rubin Farr]

 

 

The Order: 1886 looks great. Which is a massive understatement. Check out this video which is running completely real-time on the PS4:

 

[youtubehd]2lIG-BI2Vno[/youtubehd]

It's interesting, since they are going for a 'cinematic' approach (odd aspect ratio that puts black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, and locking the framerate at 30fps so it's closer to film (so they say). XBone purists are crying about how The Order devs intentionally locked it at 30fps and that's OK, but the recent crop of XBone games are all 30fps (because of the lack of developer skill in hitting 60fps) and the PS4 nuts are LOLing at their inferior competitor.

 

That being said, PS4 has sold 5.3 million units to date, ahead of their fiscal year target - and it doesn't come out in Japan until Monday. They'll easily hit 6 million sold by then.

 

Unless Microsoft can turn things around quickly, this generation might belong to Sony.

This gen will definitely belong to Sony, all they have to do is launch PS4 in japan, where Xbone isn't even a factor and boom. They win this one.

[747Music]

 

The Order: 1886 looks great. Which is a massive understatement. Check out this video which is running completely real-time on the PS4:

 

It's interesting, since they are going for a 'cinematic' approach (odd aspect ratio that puts black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, and locking the framerate at 30fps so it's closer to film (so they say). XBone purists are crying about how The Order devs intentionally locked it at 30fps and that's OK, but the recent crop of XBone games are all 30fps (because of the lack of developer skill in hitting 60fps) and the PS4 nuts are LOLing at their inferior competitor.

 

That being said, PS4 has sold 5.3 million units to date, ahead of their fiscal year target - and it doesn't come out in Japan until Monday. They'll easily hit 6 million sold by then.

 

Unless Microsoft can turn things around quickly, this generation might belong to Sony.

 

 

I was reading that the PS4 is outselling XBone by a ratio of 1.5:1 in North America and 2.5:1 in Europe. I'll try to find the article and report back. But yeah, even the new Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes comparison video shows the PS4 version being the superior version. That, plus, MGSV will be 1080p on PS4 and 720p on XBone, Xbox 360, and PS3. Thief follows suit.

 

[youtubehd]60FqLOMOPgU[/youtubehd]

 

Watch full screen in 1080p and you can spot the difference in certain aspects from the PS4 version to the XBone version. Notice the sky on PS4 uses a different shader/lighting technique than the other versions, including Xbone. The detail of objects far away in the draw distance is noticeably better on PS4.

 

The Xbone is a decent system, and I'm sure the people who buy it will be just fine with their purchase. But clearly the winner here, in terms of strength and numbers, is PS4.

 

It's rumoured that Amazon might be buying out the Xbox. If true, perhaps they can do a better job than Microsoft... who knows?

[Guest]

while more detailed, I'm underwhelmed with this new generation compared to the last graphically. Definitely not a big enough paradigm shift to warrant an upgrade atm imo, maybe when ps4, xbone exclusive titles start coming in.