What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

[Rubin Farr]

Playing the new majora's mask 3d release on 3DS. this port seems even more polished and cleaned up then the ocarina of time port. a lot of tweaks and little things going on to improve the gameplay. the saving and fast travel is a lot more convenient now. the bombers notebook is also greatly improved, giving hints all over the place pushing you to explore certain directions or talk to different people. all of which was in the original game but sometimes it was a bit cryptic and you really did have to talk to everyone/someone at a specific time to figure something. the point out the obviousness of the new notebook does remove a bit of allure and mystery of the original but having already played the original and having spent months on it as a kid trying to 100% everything and really taking my time, i think i might prefer the simplified and friendly version of the game.

 

the graphics have a really nice polish to them as well. textures and colours all look alot sharper and some of the colours really jump out. one thing i really love is the slight modifications to the environment. replacing flat walls of trees with more detailed shrubbery and bushes and etc. the placement of walls. really minor things.. it looks a lot better...

 

this is a fantastic port man. perfect for anyone new to the game or familiar with the n64 version. the improved notebook and hints system really helps my foggy brain remember which direction to go sometimes. only played it for a day and already got bunny ears to help speed things up (this was always a priority for me as a kid when starting a new game.. impatient kid)

The difference in graphics fidelity between Ocarina 3D and Majora 3D really surprised me, like they were never on the same console. OOT 3D still had all the angular, aliased characters and low rez textures for environments. MM looks almost like GameCube era, smoothed polygons, better textures, entirely new artwork in some areas. Hats off to Aonuma's team, hoping the Twilight Princess remake gets this much love.

[juiceciuj]

are they confirmed working on a twilight princess remake? and for what console(s)?

[Guest bitroast]

 

 

Hats off to Aonuma's team, hoping the Twilight Princess remake gets this much love.

 

agreed x100. the polishing and fine tuning going on in this 3d remake is so brilliant it really feels just short of being a new zelda game altogether.

removing the little road blocks and speeding things up in the gameplay really makes a big difference and has turned the good but flawed game into the brilliant classic it always was meant to be :) which is a weird little surprise.

 

what twilight princess remake are you referring to? i've been thinking about this and i can't get my head around where a twilight princess remake would belong. on the wii u ala wind waker, or on the 3ds ala ocarina/majoras.

 

the top down, 2d style zelda games transitioned to the handheld flawlessly. the only thing holding back 3d zelda games from making the transition to handheld was the hardware. now that we have the 3ds pulling off 3d zelda so well, i honestly think i would prefer a twilight princess remake (and wind waker for that matter) sitting on handheld instead of telly/wii u. i think i'd play it more/enjoy it more..

Edited February 23, 2015 by bitroast

[Rubin Farr]

It's probly scheduled for 3DS, they know they need AAA catalogue titles to keep that console chugging along. It's basically their remake console now, although Aonuma is being cagey again, and saying what title gets remastered next is up to "fan demand". I can't see them doing an HD remake, bc most of EAD3 is toiling away on Zelda Wii U. So that leaves 3DS, or its successor.

[Guest bitroast]

well, the 3DS has been given some new life pumped into it with the NEW system release.

traded my 3DS xl for the NEW 3DS xl just last week along with getting majoras mask and holy shit the system upgrade is heavily recommended. the 3d effect is spot on now. been playing majoras mask with 3D on full and able to use gyro for bow etc and it's been a pleasure and amazing to look at the whole way through (the same can not be said for my playing experience with ocarina of time when playing it on the original 3ds xl).

 

i hope more great stuff comes out for the 3DS cos it really is a great system.

looking forward to playing resident evil and monster hunter next (both games i was leaving aside cos i didn't like not having camera support).

Edited February 23, 2015 by bitroast

[juiceciuj]

really hope they add the n3dsmall to usa soon. everytime i'm thinking of entering the 3ds ecosystem nintendo does something to make me second guess it and i had so much fun with my dslite. vita has been keepin' me pretty busy.

 

my vita gets a lot of love lately though. gave rogue legacy a few more tries and it clicked w/me. kinda the same story i had w/boi. didn't care for it all at first but spent a little more time w/it and started to enjoy myself. it does seem like a bit of an excessive grind to get through though. think i'm around lvl 80 and have only beaten two of the bosses ;\

would also totally be down w/a wii u twilight though

[Guest bitroast]

get the XL ! it's like the small one but better suited for people with medium > large monkey hands :)

[juiceciuj]

eh... ionno. i'm def not in the larger category and the dslite was a really nice size for me as far as both playability and portability were concerned.

[Guest bitroast]

ah well, maybe if you get the opportunity to check one out at a shop something, this is me recommending it :) /nintendorepresenting

[Kennylogg Bubblebath]

Valve are unveiling some VR hardware at GDC in a couple of weeks, along with the final Steam Controller design. Should be pretty interesting...

 

http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/23/8094763/valve-steam-machine-steamvr-controller-gdc-2015

[Bechuga]

I'm playing almost all my games on Steam lately so I might well stump up for the console. But don't most PC gamers hate consoles? How are they gonna feel to having a controller instead of mouse / keyboard?

[mcbpete]

Looks like with this final build they've finally put Cinematic Mod to rest, so am playing through this 11 year old game again looking oh so lovely and new:

 

 

 

No idea how it maintains such a good frame rate on my old laptop too ...

[usagi]

No idea how it maintains such a good frame rate on my old laptop too ...

 

they did a really good job making Source scalable. I'm due for an HL2 replay too. damn, it's been over 10 years. if we can get new AFX, surely the next HL can't be long now.

[ambermonk]

Good old HL2, as much as I hate to say "old"

Even when I played it on a low-end desktop right after its release, I was still floored by how amazing it was at the time.

Valve seem quieter these days, but I'm sure they haven't folded. I heard a couple of years ago that Left 4 Dead 3 was in the works with a new engine - "Source 2" I believe.

[Rubin Farr]

Here are some discount codes for anyone wanting to pick up Resident Evil Revelations 2 for PC:

 

http://www.dealzon.com/deals/resident-evil-revelations#resident-evil-revelations-2-complete-season

[Squee]

Good old HL2, as much as I hate to say "old"

 

Even when I played it on a low-end desktop right after its release, I was still floored by how amazing it was at the time.

 

Valve seem quieter these days, but I'm sure they haven't folded. I heard a couple of years ago that Left 4 Dead 3 was in the works with a new engine - "Source 2" I believe.

 

Yeah, people have found references to the Source Engine 2, L4D3, HL3 etc. in various data files in DOTA updates. It's kinda exciting, but it's been so long since HL2 so there's no way it can live up to the hype - unless they do something sick! I think in some ways I would rather speculate about what HL3 might be than actually play it.

[mcbpete]

I haven't played HL2 for so long that playing this new CinematicMod version is like playing it brand new again. Haven't got far at all (the second picture I posted was the last place I reached before bed) but the initial chase through the flats and out through the window: birds flapping around, helicopter whizzing by, music dynamically shifting depending on the situation, god rays drifting between the buildings ... just amazing. Don't care if HL3 never happens - this is my HL3 !

 

Just a shame the CM team never found a way around the episode separation - they've always planned to make HL2 + Ep1 + Ep 2 into one big thing but the source engine wasn't having any of it ....

[juiceciuj]

sorry. hln00b here. never played hl at all but own orange box ps3(mainly played portal a few times and tf2) and own hl 1 & 2 on steam. do you need to play hl1 to know what's going on? also if i were going to dive in is it worthwhile to implement these mods and play it on pc vs ps3? are they pretty easy to implement on the steam versions?

[chronical]

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on PCSX2, shit is tight

[Stock]

sorry. hln00b here. never played hl at all but own orange box ps3(mainly played portal a few times and tf2) and own hl 1 & 2 on steam. do you need to play hl1 to know what's going on? also if i were going to dive in is it worthwhile to implement these mods and play it on pc vs ps3? are they pretty easy to implement on the steam versions?

 

 

I didn't finished HL2 yet, but I know I enjoyed it a lot because of the HL1 references.

You don't really need to play HL1 tho, because the stories are not really tight together. But playing HL1 will help you having a better understanding of what's going on in HL2 for sure.

 

Anyway, HL1 is one of the best games ever so you should play it.

[mcbpete]

Plot of HL1 - you test a crystal thing, it causes a rift in space and time - military try and contain it all including nuking the factility , you try and escape from it all and go to a world a close the rift. (but more amazinger)

 

So no, you really don't need to know what's going in HL1 on to enjoy HL2. I definitely would recommend the PC build with the CM mod though - the PS3 build really was quite shonky in the frame rate department IIRC it was an early PS3 release so they were still getting to grips with everything.

 

The mod itself is very easy if you have it on steam (do you have the additional Ep1 & 2 on the PC as you'll need them for this mod to work). Download the torrent and latest mod patch/update here - http://getsio.net/ext/cinematicmod.com/Torrent/ (CinematicMod_2013_final.torrent & HL2_CinematicMod_2013final-1.01.torrent ), unrar, run the setup, then the patch setup, and you're done.

 

N.B. The mod is bloody big though, we're talking like 50/60 gig once fully installed - so make sure you've enough HD space ...

[juiceciuj]

fuck me 50/60 gig? that's gonna take ages to dl but i should have the space. i think i have all the expansions for both games from some ridiculous steam sales.

[mcbpete]

Ah, no it expands to about that size, think the download (including the patch torrent) is around 10-15 gig

[Perezvon]

Jee, how come it's this big ? It's like twice the size of Max Payne 3

[mcbpete]

The textures are the biggy - some of them are insanely detailed even when standing right up to the objects. It's now got a really huge soundtrack as well (like I said, from what I've played so far all the themes appear to be dynamic based on the action). Don't forget it's a mod for the two episodes as well - It's a pretty huge project.

 

Just make sure you use the default character models, most of the alternative skins in the 'character pimper' tool are