2012 Video Games Thread

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by oykib

I guess I'm not the only one that read that as, "We just realized that no matter how good our game is, we'll be buried by Assasin's Creed 3, Halo 4 and, of course, COD Black Ops 2."

FWIW.....January and February have become very good 'big title' sales months for that reason. You still get the benefit of all the gift cards/money hitting the store with plenty of expendable money, but you don't have to fight with the glut of big titles that come out in the fall sales period.

[MizzouRah]

Guess that means more time with Borderlands 2!

[mckerney]

Dishonored Release Date “Set” For October 9/12th | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[stevew]

Reviews for Max Payne 3 look pretty good. I will hopefully get it from gamefly.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by stevew

Reviews for Max Payne 3 look pretty good. I will hopefully get it from gamefly.

As excited as I am about Diablo, this is the game I've really been looking forward to. My concern was that the new setting would kill the film noir feeling you got from the 1st two. The first 2 are among my favorite games so I've just hoping Rockstar doesn't screw things up.

The gameplay videos I've watched over the past week or so had made me feel a lot better about the game and I'm happy to see some great reviews rolling in.

It doesn't release until the 29th on PC, which kind of sucks but does give me a couple of weeks with Diablo before it releases.

[mckerney]

Warlock: Master of the Arcane definitely passes the necessary, "One more turn," test of a 4X game as I played through a game that lasted about 8 hours or so this weekend. Despite how addicting it is it does fall short in a few areas.

First, the documentation is terrible and the UI doesn't provide you with nearly enough information. If the system of researching magic follows any sort of tech tree it's completely random. You have a choice of researching 5 spells and after you finish one the next spell added to the pool of 5 seems completely random. There is a little info on what other buildings in your city another building unlocks and what the prerequisites are, but there's some upgrade that just pop up after a while for no apparent reason. The game is desperately lacking some sort of in game encyclopedia, since there's no documentation I could find outside the game about it either.

As far as gameplay goes three races didn't seem like quite enough, though at a $20 price point I'd be willing to pay for more as DLC if they're at a reasonable price. Plus the unit's each race can produce could be stronger as they all seemed completely outclassed by the neutral units you can build by capturing certain areas on the map later in the game, to the point where it didn't seem worth making any of the unit's your race provides. Hoping it's different on another playthrough on a higher difficulty as I was on normal while learning the game.

Enjoyable game that I'm sure I'll be able to sink at least a couple more long playthroughs into it. Hopefully it gets some of the typical Paradox post release treatment before I do though.

[cartman]

Sounds like 'South Park: The Stick of Truth' is going to slip to the 1st quarter of 2013.

[IlliniCub]

Any word on Max Payne? Does it keep the noir feeling? For me that's the biggest selling point in the first two is the atmosphere

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

Any word on Max Payne? Does it keep the noir feeling? For me that's the biggest selling point in the first two is the atmosphere

Metacritic has it at 87, same as Diablo 3.

Max Payne 3 for Xbox 360 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More - Metacritic

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. Sniper v2 is quite fun. Took two guys out with one bullet, love the slow more gore shots of the bullet penetrating the body.

[oykib]

There's a free Wing Commander game that is the culmination of a ten-year fan project. It runs on the Freespace 2 engine. I downloaded it last night. I haven't had a chance to play it though.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Atocep

As excited as I am about Diablo, this is the game I've really been looking forward to. My concern was that the new setting would kill the film noir feeling you got from the 1st two. The first 2 are among my favorite games so I've just hoping Rockstar doesn't screw things up.

The gameplay videos I've watched over the past week or so had made me feel a lot better about the game and I'm happy to see some great reviews rolling in.

It doesn't release until the 29th on PC, which kind of sucks but does give me a couple of weeks with Diablo before it releases.

I was talking to someone who has been playing it that really liked it so far, though didn't ask for much on details on it.

The 35 GB of disk space requirement means they should have high quality textures for the PC version, something that's been lacking in a few releases recently.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Guess that means more time with Borderlands 2!

Willing to spend $150 on it?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Willing to spend $150 on it?

No

[mckerney]

Bad news about 38 Studios.

38 Studios’ money troubles surfaced last June - BostonHerald.com

Can't say I'm really looking forward to their MMO, but would liked to see the Kingdoms of Amalur series continue.

[mckerney]

And even worse news for 38.

Bottom Of The Ninth: 38 Can’t Pay State Or Employees | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

But it gets worse. 38 also couldn’t make payroll this week, and contractors and temps – in other words, anyone who wasn’t a full-time employee – was given a pink slip. Moreover, in the increasingly likely event that Schilling and co can’t muster the necessary funds, Rhode Island will actually assume ownership of their IPs, as 38 used them as collateral when it originally secured the loan.

The studio, meanwhile, hasn’t actually made an official statement, which – in addition to painting a less-than-promising picture – shrouds the future of Rise of Nations/Legends developer Big Huge Games in question marks. I will, of course, attempt to get in touch with the 38 subsidiary, but odds are, we’ll have answers to all these questions pretty soon – one way or another.

Being out of cash is probably one of those things that isn't good for launching an mmo...

[MizzouRah]

Dragon's Dogma is almost here!

Review: Dragon's Dogma review: The most hardcore RPG on consoles - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

[MizzouRah]

NHL 13 info.. new skating engine and much more..

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nh...ut-nhl-13.aspx

[Scoobz0202]

For those interested, Torchlight 2 is running their beta right now. It's only been going on since Friday and it only lasts until Thursday evening. But, if you go to runic's site and create an account it automatically puts you in for a key. I've read constant stories of people almost instantly, or in a couple hours, receiving a key. It may not come to your email. For all I know, I've had one all weekend, but I went here:
Runic Account Manager
and saw I had one. Downloading the client now. I may only get a few hours of play in it, but I'll at least get to check it out prior to next month.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

For those interested, Torchlight 2 is running their beta right now. It's only been going on since Friday and it only lasts until Thursday evening. But, if you go to runic's site and create an account it automatically puts you in for a key. I've read constant stories of people almost instantly, or in a couple hours, receiving a key. It may not come to your email. For all I know, I've had one all weekend, but I went here:
Runic Account Manager
and saw I had one. Downloading the client now. I may only get a few hours of play in it, but I'll at least get to check it out prior to next month.

I played all weekend, after applying Friday afternoon. Definite purchase. After trying to get my crusty ass computer to wrestle with Diablo and Path of Exile I must say that Torchlight absolutely flies, without even the tiniest hiccup. Looks pretty good, for a 700mb download, too.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

For those interested, Torchlight 2 is running their beta right now. It's only been going on since Friday and it only lasts until Thursday evening. But, if you go to runic's site and create an account it automatically puts you in for a key. I've read constant stories of people almost instantly, or in a couple hours, receiving a key. It may not come to your email. For all I know, I've had one all weekend, but I went here:
Runic Account Manager
and saw I had one. Downloading the client now. I may only get a few hours of play in it, but I'll at least get to check it out prior to next month.

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I played all weekend, after applying Friday afternoon. Definite purchase. After trying to get my crusty ass computer to wrestle with Diablo and Path of Exile I must say that Torchlight absolutely flies, without even the tiniest hiccup. Looks pretty good, for a 700mb download, too.

Just created an account since I'm off tomorrow. Hope I get a key.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Just created an account since I'm off tomorrow. Hope I get a key.

Not sure if this is important, but I read that you need to also be subscribed to a newsletter? I dont recall ever being subscribed to one. But might give that a shot. And check that site I linked to even if you havent received an email.

good luck

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Not sure if this is important, but I read that you need to also be subscribed to a newsletter? I dont recall ever being subscribed to one. But might give that a shot. And check that site I linked to even if you havent received an email.

good luck

Yeah, I didn't subscribe to the email when I created the account, but once I saw that note, I went and edited my account to opt in.

Haven't received an email yet. Gonna keep an eye on the page you linked.

[SackAttack]

Dola,

Still no email and there's no key linked in my account page currently. Hopefully in the morning.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by mckerney

And even worse news for 38.

Bottom Of The Ninth: 38 Can’t Pay State Or Employees | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

But it gets worse. 38 also couldn’t make payroll this week, and contractors and temps – in other words, anyone who wasn’t a full-time employee – was given a pink slip. Moreover, in the increasingly likely event that Schilling and co can’t muster the necessary funds, Rhode Island will actually assume ownership of their IPs, as 38 used them as collateral when it originally secured the loan.

The studio, meanwhile, hasn’t actually made an official statement, which – in addition to painting a less-than-promising picture – shrouds the future of Rise of Nations/Legends developer Big Huge Games in question marks. I will, of course, attempt to get in touch with the 38 subsidiary, but odds are, we’ll have answers to all these questions pretty soon – one way or another.

Being out of cash is probably one of those things that isn't good for launching an mmo...

The irony of it is that Schilling has been a vocal critic of bailouts. Do as I say, not as I do. Still sad to see any developer go under. Never played the game but had it on my list of buys down the road. Seemed interesting and innovating.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Dishonored Release Date “Set” For October 9/12th | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Really intrigued by this. Read conflicting info on whether it's open world or linear. Almost seems like a mix. Anyone have more info on it?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Really intrigued by this. Read conflicting info on whether it's open world or linear. Almost seems like a mix. Anyone have more info on it?

From what I've read the world is more like Deus Ex than Skyrim. So it's not linear, but not really open world.

[SirFozzie]

yeah, you guys probably won't see much of me for two months as of July 17th, as MechWarrior Online is released that day.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

Any word on Max Payne? Does it keep the noir feeling? For me that's the biggest selling point in the first two is the atmosphere

I'm curious as well.. anybody pick it up?

[mckerney]

E3 trailer for Quantic Conundrum, puzzle game from one of the creators of Portal.

[mckerney]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...announced.aspx

The rumors were true. Lucasfilm today announced Star Wars 1313, a new, internally developed game in the Star Wars series. Described as a "third person cinematic action adventure," players take control of an unnamed bounty hunter as they explore the depths of the Coruscant underworld.

“We’re excited to share one of the projects LucasArts has been hard at work developing,” said Paul Meegan, President, LucasArts. “Star Wars 1313 dives into a part of the Star Wars mythos that we’ve always known existed, but never had a chance to visit. We are committed to bringing the best gameplay experience and visual fidelity to life and I truly believe the work we are showcasing at E3 will speak for itself.”

Here's a rundown of the game's plot:

Named for Level 1313, a ruthless criminal underground deep below the surface of the planet of Coruscant, the game puts players in control of a deadly bounty hunter as he uses an arsenal of exotic weaponry to hunt down his marks and uncover the truth surrounding a criminal conspiracy. Star Wars 1313 emphasizes epic set pieces and fast-paced combat with a hero who uses human skills and gadgets, rather than supernatural Force powers, to make his way through this dangerous world.

[mckerney]

The More I hear about the new SimCity the less interested I am in it.

GameSpy: SimCity Disappointment: You Won't Be Able to Save, Destroy, and Reload Your City - Page 1

The new SimCity looks amazing, and I'm certainly still looking forward to it, but it comes with at least one major downer. As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a saved game. When I asked Lead Producer Kip Katsaelis if the 2013 SimCity would allow that same pleasure in its Glass Box-powered cities, the answer was a simple, disappointing "No." The online connectivity Maxis has built in means that reloading saved games will be impossible, even when no one else has a city in your region.

[DaddyTorgo]

EA Sports apparently picked up the UFC videogame rights and shut THQ out. So the next EA Sports MMA game (which I thought was superior to THQ's gameplay-wise) will include UFC fighters also.

Hooray!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by mckerney

The More I hear about the new SimCity the less interested I am in it.

GameSpy: SimCity Disappointment: You Won't Be Able to Save, Destroy, and Reload Your City - Page 1

These people clearly have a fundamentally-flawed view of what their customer's want...and I hope they get fucked by it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

EA Sports apparently picked up the UFC videogame rights and shut THQ out. So the next EA Sports MMA game (which I thought was superior to THQ's gameplay-wise) will include UFC fighters also.

Hooray!

Even if the EA Sports game was the better one as you suggest, this is yet another instance of EA killing the sports genre with these exclusive agreements. Hard to get excited about that.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

These people clearly have a fundamentally-flawed view of what their customer's want...and I hope they get fucked by it.

Chances of me buying this game are hovering around zero right now. Very disappointing.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Even if the EA Sports game was the better one as you suggest, this is yet another instance of EA killing the sports genre with these exclusive agreements. Hard to get excited about that.

Pretty much. And I love how not too long ago (couple years?) Dana White was saying "Fuck EA Sports. I'll never work with them. THQ is putting their business on the line with us. I appreciate them" (Paraphrased like a mofo).

Money talks.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Pretty much. And I love how not too long ago (couple years?) Dana White was saying "Fuck EA Sports. I'll never work with them. THQ is putting their business on the line with us. I appreciate them" (Paraphrased like a mofo).

Money talks.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/15490/ufc-...o-game-war.mma

"I'm telling you straight-up, I'm at war with them right now. That's how I look at it."



I guess EA won.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Chances of me buying this game are hovering around zero right now. Very disappointing.

My chances aren't even hovering.

[mckerney]

Lollipop Chainsaw is out tomorrow, should be getting it on release day from Amazon. A few decent reviews for it so far, hopefully it's as good as it is absurd. Or at least something to pull me away from Dota 2 for a while as it'll be the first PS3 game I've played in a while.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Lollipop Chainsaw is out tomorrow, should be getting it on release day from Amazon. A few decent reviews for it so far, hopefully it's as good as it is absurd. Or at least something to pull me away from Dota 2 for a while as it'll be the first PS3 game I've played in a while.

Let me know what you think.. looks kind of cool actually.

[jeff061]

Anyone try this Krater game on Steam? Looks pretty interesting. Wondering how far $15 goes with it.

[Matthean]

I was already a fanboy, but I haven't been keeping up due to school. Now that's over I can get back to playing. Anyway, a perfect example of why Path of Exile is going to kick ass.

[dubb93]

I was reading around the internet that Max Payne sold terribly(word "flop" in every article). The initial order was for 3 million, sold roughly 400k in the first month. That is less than half of what LA Noire sold in the first month.

Expect some serious retail mark downs.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Let me know what you think.. looks kind of cool actually.

Beat Lollipop Chainsaw today. It's a lot of fun, though not very long. Took me 6-7 hours and that's with playing on hard and not being very good at it. You have to like button mashers, which I enjoy from time to time though I'm typically completely rubbish at them. I thought the boss battles were excellent, though in between some of the levels dragged at times. There were a few mini games that were fun the first time around but them were brought back again either later in the level or in the next level where I really wish they'd come up with another mini game instead. Plus the game goes with the, "press the buttons in the order they appear on screen QTE," way too many times for my taste, including every time you're using the severed head to control a zombie. It seemed like a big miss because it turned part of the game that could have been really interesting if done right into something I dreaded every time it came up.

Storywise it was pretty much the b movie type of stuff that I'd hoped for and that you'd expect from a plot about a high school cheerleader fighting zombies with a chainsaw and the decapitated head of her boyfriend. It's pure camp that manages to go from plenty of groan worthy moments to also being genuinely funny.

If you don't think you'll be able to get replayability from playing the levels again for score or time attack you will probably want either wait for a sale or rent it as there's not a great deal of content otherwise and it can easily be beaten in a weekend. And if you don't enjoy button mashing combos you'll probably want to skip it. Even though I can't recommend it to everyone it's a good game which I really enjoyed.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Anyone try this Krater game on Steam? Looks pretty interesting. Wondering how far $15 goes with it.

I haven't gotten far enough into it to tell you how far it goes for $15. I'm a little over an hour in and it's left a pretty good first impression on me though. The set up for the world seems very interesting so far, you're head of some mercenaries just arrived in post nuclear apocalyptic Sweden. The economy seems largely based around digging for remnants of the old world and such activity is controlled by the first few families to settle the area, though your introduced to the faction of free diggers who try and operate outside their control. It seems like a good basis for the story to me, though I can't tell how far they go with it.

As far as gameplay you control a squad of three mercs from four different classes I've seen so far. Combat is ARTS style with each merc having 2 abilities and a gadget once you pick one up. I am left wanting more classes and abilities, because of the most part every merc in a class has the same abilities with there only being a different in stats (you can modify the abilities as you level them up though). It could just be the starting mercs though, the ones you begin with and are able to hire right away can only level up to level 5 though the overall cap seems to be 15. I'm hoping there's more variety than what I've seen so far.

The permadeath for squad members is very intriguing to me. I haven't face that much danger yet though. Mercs level up pretty quickly (I'd hit the level 5 cap on my starting mercs within the first hour), so I'm hoping it's because later on death becomes a real threat and you need to retrain new mercs fairly quickly.



One note to add, it seems like Krater wasn't quite ready for release when it came out with reports of bugginess and mutliplayer isn't working yet. I haven't run into any major bugs or crashes myself though. The developers say they intend to keep adding features in, as the Steam store page says, "the game comes from a long test phase with weekly updates of the Steam build that has improved gameplay, added content or new features. This will continue even after release and you can expect free expansions that add or expand on game mechanics, locations, player characters and enemies," though I believe there were complains of the same developer failing to support their past release Lead and Gold.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Beat Lollipop Chainsaw today. It's a lot of fun, though not very long. Took me 6-7 hours and that's with playing on hard and not being very good at it. You have to like button mashers, which I enjoy from time to time though I'm typically completely rubbish at them. I thought the boss battles were excellent, though in between some of the levels dragged at times. There were a few mini games that were fun the first time around but them were brought back again either later in the level or in the next level where I really wish they'd come up with another mini game instead. Plus the game goes with the, "press the buttons in the order they appear on screen QTE," way too many times for my taste, including every time you're using the severed head to control a zombie. It seemed like a big miss because it turned part of the game that could have been really interesting if done right into something I dreaded every time it came up.

Storywise it was pretty much the b movie type of stuff that I'd hoped for and that you'd expect from a plot about a high school cheerleader fighting zombies with a chainsaw and the decapitated head of her boyfriend. It's pure camp that manages to go from plenty of groan worthy moments to also being genuinely funny.

If you don't think you'll be able to get replayability from playing the levels again for score or time attack you will probably want either wait for a sale or rent it as there's not a great deal of content otherwise and it can easily be beaten in a weekend. And if you don't enjoy button mashing combos you'll probably want to skip it. Even though I can't recommend it to everyone it's a good game which I really enjoyed.

Thanks, I'll pick it up when it's on sale.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

EA Sports apparently picked up the UFC videogame rights and shut THQ out. So the next EA Sports MMA game (which I thought was superior to THQ's gameplay-wise) will include UFC fighters also.

Hooray!

FWIW, THQ sold the license to EA. We'll see how much longer THQ stays around.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by General Mike

FWIW, THQ sold the license to EA. We'll see how much longer THQ stays around.

I suspect THQ was losing money on the deal. I know their first game was a smash hit, but the second sold pretty poorly. So poorly they had to reconsider the business model and went from an every year model to an every 18 month model.

Anyone get the sales figures on UFC 3? I haven't looked it up, but I would suspect it wasn't exactly a smash hit and that led to them selling the license.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I suspect THQ was losing money on the deal. I know their first game was a smash hit, but the second sold pretty poorly. So poorly they had to reconsider the business model and went from an every year model to an every 18 month model.

Anyone get the sales figures on UFC 3? I haven't looked it up, but I would suspect it wasn't exactly a smash hit and that led to them selling the license.

THQ is in rough shape financially. They've been losing money and their stock is trading at about $.70 a share. Selling the UFC rights and closing the studio that had been making the game is a sure sign it wasn't doing well, they'd want anything that's even the least bit profitable, which hasn't been much besides Saints Row 3 for them lately.