Games, games, games (Read 276484 times)

Grubes · May 14, 2015, 10:53:58 am

I have played the board game which is very good.
I heard the computer game was very long but heard very good things about it

JamieG · May 14, 2015, 03:29:45 pm

Ori and the blind forest looks really good. I really love a platformer. Unfortunately it isn't on ps4. I believe when they refer to it being metroid or metroid-vania they are referring to the games from the NES, SNES and PSone era. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroidvania In these games there are branching paths and hidden area which are only reachable once you have received a certain skill or equipment. Therefore there is lots of exploration and back tracking. Guacamelee was a really good example from quite recently which i enjoyed.

Witcher 3 look amazing (its getting excellent reviews). I am just always wary of the time commitment big RPGs require to get the most out of them. Still I think i'll make an exception for this one, getting a bit tired of Far Cry 4. Really good fun, but gets repetitive after awhile.

hstmoore · May 14, 2015, 03:58:57 pm

If you like Ori then give Rayman: Origins and Rayman: Legends a try.

They're very similar in that they're both side-scrolling platformers with excellent artwork, but with Rayman games you can play multiplayer (up to 4 players, really good fun with a few friend) and there are more extras (such as mini-games and collectibles) which contribute towards it being a bigger game.

The Rayman games also have a big focus on music. Each collection of levels on the Rayman games has a 'music level' where your actions in the level trigger the music...

JamieG · May 18, 2015, 01:42:06 pm

Hi hstmoore,

Yeah the wife and i played some Rayman Legends and really enjoyed it. The multiplayer is good until the levels get quite hard, when it is hard to keep together without one player dying. The music levels we got were very good.

Started playing a bit of hohokum, which is free with ps plus last night. Totally weird, but very nice music and kind of weirdly relaxing. :-)

Jamie

Fiend · May 27, 2015, 02:26:58 pm

It truly has been great gaming weather this May

Dawn Of War II

I played DOW years ago and enjoyed it, can't remember that much about it though. DOW2 takes the 40K RTS genre in a different direction by removing the base building and army reinforcing aspects and replacing them with smaller squad micro-management and RPG-progression elements, and I certainly like this. It makes for a fresh experience that's more RTTactics than RTS, whilst the loot-collecting and squad upgrading is highly addictive (arguably more fun than the main gameplay!). I do find the key controls, small reticle and squad selection a bit clunky, even after essential rebinding (who the fuck makes a game with mouse and keyboard controls, puts the hotkeys around QWERTY and the camera controls on the fucking arrow keys???? No I don't have a third hand FFS), but aside from that the general functionality is good and it's pretty easy to get into but challenging enough, particularly to do the missions efficiency. Theme-wise it's pure 40K cliches, with plenty of interaction and talking heads in-between missions to keep the whole thing coherent - if you like 40K then this will definitely hit the mark, if you're not familiar with it the tight focus of the game and tactical/RPG combination is well worth a look anyway.

God that's a fucking boring review. I need a shit.

JamieG · May 27, 2015, 05:23:07 pm

I bought the Witcher Wild Hunt and wow! Maybe I am easily amazed, but this game has fully got its hooks into me.

Pros:
Fantastic story and characters, even the sidequests, all set in a dark world (think game of thrones) where things are very grey and decisions have real consequences.
Fun combat and quite challenging on the hard difficulty. On mini-bosses you can't just button mash, you need to plan your strategy and be quite defensive.
Gwent (the inbuilt card game). For some reason I find this compelling. Like when i got into poker in Red dead redemption.
The world is very pretty and feels properly lived in. Details everywhere and it is vast. Almost overwhelming!

Cons:
Really not many at all.
Slightly rough framerate on the ps4 sometimes.
Few weird bugs etc
Sometimes the camera is a bit wayward.

Zods Beard · May 27, 2015, 07:30:37 pm

Dark Souls 2.

JamieG · May 27, 2015, 08:13:40 pm

I played Dark Souls 1 and enjoyed it up to a point. I got the the undead burg and then had had enough. I just found it a little to punishing for my liking and also I prefer my main story and bit more up front. Dark Souls story was very obtuse and hidden in item descriptions and character chat. I see that Bloodborne has been getting good reviews but am a touch wary after burning out on Dark Souls.

Some described The Wither Wild Hunt as Red Dead Redemption set in a fantasy medieval world and that kind of makes sense to me. I loved Red Dead and am really enjoying the Wither so far.

Fiend · May 27, 2015, 08:17:53 pm

Quote from: Zods Beard on May 27, 2015, 07:30:37 pm

Dark Souls 2.

Unplayably broken PC port. Wasted £20 and 2 hours trying to get it to work, then deleted it.

Fiend · May 29, 2015, 06:50:35 pm

Dawn Of War II - Chaos Rising mission pack.

All of the above, and more. This enhances very nicely on DOW II with a basic but solid Chaos-orientated plot, more exposition, a bit of intrigue, some cool new settings, and some neat new gameplay stuff including higher levels, a psyker, and a corrupt-vs-pure meter with associated mission specifics. A spot-on addition to the game and TBH I wish it was longer, the premise and settings are enough to have made a game-length out of it.

Now down to: Alien Isolation & Metro 2033 Redux.

Fiend · May 31, 2015, 11:48:35 am

Looks cool:

Also downloaded Lords Of The Fallen, inferior DS/2 clone but apparently playable in the PC version.

TheTwig · May 31, 2015, 01:36:23 pm

Nearly finished playing Dying Light, pretty neat game though in all honesty it seems too easy. If you know what you are doing with these kind of games then it seems a total waste of time doing anything other than the main story line, not enough challenge or interest to make it worth it. Looking forward to playing Witcher :D

As an aside, does anyone else pirate games and then buy the good ones to support the developers? Back before torrenting etc I was totally sick of buying games and finding out they are a pile of crap 1 hour into the gameplay and feeling conned

Fiend · May 31, 2015, 02:04:18 pm

No I am as ethically pure when it comes to games / books / music as I am with climbing

.

My view is that someone has put a lot of work into making it so deserves payment for it, as well as the blindingly obvious that it's quite simply theft and I'm amazed anyone can be so stupid to think otherwise. Plus a lot of this stuff can be ridiculously good value for the price, there's plenty of £20 games I've got 60 hours of fun gameplay out of - having said that I do often wait for prices to go down as I'm not often in a rush for the latest release, Dying Light @ £40 on Steam can lick my sac.

However I have been a bit stung by my own honesty and the cretinous lack of demos in many modern games (how fucking hard is it just to shove out one small level for people to download and see the game actually works okay??). Dark Souls 2 (although I really should get a refund as it's non-functional product on the PC), Grey Goo, Divinity Original Sin, Dead Island, Endless Space - a lot of money wasted on games that really need a Try Before You Waste £30 On Bollox option. Then again if you watch enough Youtube videos you can generally get a good enough impression.

Derek Mild · May 31, 2015, 05:40:10 pm

All I've played for the last few years is DOtA 2 online, now that is sad

Fiend · June 02, 2015, 10:26:15 am

Most exciting gaming news this year...

Super-SYKED!!

You guys really need to play XCom Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within if you haven't and get ready for this...

JamieG · June 02, 2015, 04:00:23 pm

Quote from: TheTwig on May 31, 2015, 01:36:23 pm

Looking forward to playing Witcher :D

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this game. So good! It has properly sunk its teeth into me. I'm verging on obsessed. You are in for a treat. :-)

Zods Beard · June 02, 2015, 09:43:33 pm

I am very jealous of people playing Witcher 3.

Fiend, is it that bad? I heard the 1st DS's was awful on PC but the sequel was better. I've a few friends who haven't said its a piece of shit.

Still Dark Souls 2.

Baldy · June 02, 2015, 10:51:08 pm

FWIW I really enjoyed DS1, with the primary annoyance being that GFWL completely ruined the experience for me - no messages/invades/friends.

I tried playing it once, and gave up when I sucked - but on my second attempt (6 months to a year later) I stuck with it a little bit (and avoided the Dark Knight unlike the first time) and really got into it... I haven't played in a while, and now I'm scared to go back and hit that learning curve again...

Make sure you have a game pad though before trying to play.

Fiend · June 05, 2015, 11:54:36 am

Zods I know plenty of people who get on fine with DS/2, I do have a strong aversion to spending more time downloading patches, user-hacks, 3rd party fixes and everything else to get rebindable controls than to actually play the game (and get the graphics right) - coming from a strictly PC & FPS background, having that basic functionality is fundamental to me.

Baldy · June 05, 2015, 01:13:26 pm

I'd recommend picking up a wired 360 controller Fiend.

You can rebind any of the keys you want then - outside of the game.

If you prefer a keyboard then there isn't much I can say though...

Fiend · June 05, 2015, 02:14:20 pm

M+KB4LYFE, bitches!

TheTwig · June 06, 2015, 09:55:09 pm

Holy crap Xcom2 ! :O :O :O that trailer is sick!

I've just started playing Witcher 3 and honestly the graphics are totally sick. I've got an ok pc with a SSD and it runs absolutely fine on low/medium settings. Rendered cut scenes look more 'real' than 'real' life. Skyrim on steroids. Just spent 10 minutes wandering around collecting herbs and marveling at the landscape. What a hippy :\ There are ghouls that need slaying!

TheTwig · June 06, 2015, 10:30:08 pm

Low graphics settings

JamieG · June 07, 2015, 05:32:03 pm

TheTwig you are in for a treat! What a game! Insert superlative, insert hyperbole, etc etc . . . . :-)

Best game i've played in years (definitely straight into top ten). It is massive and long too, but i just am not getting bored, if anything i'm getting more drawn into the story and characters!

TheTwig · June 09, 2015, 10:54:40 am

Quote from: JamieG on June 07, 2015, 05:32:03 pm

TheTwig you are in for a treat! What a game! Insert superlative, insert hyperbole, etc etc . . . . :-)

Best game i've played in years (definitely straight into top ten). It is massive and long too, but i just am not getting bored, if anything i'm getting more drawn into the story and characters!

It's in one of those categories of games where it really is enjoyable to complete every little thing in it, and explore every single corner. Even pretty good games like farcry, fallout, WOW (in the old days..), elder scrolls etc haven't kept me this interested in the little side stories.