2014 Video Games Thread

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Sounds like hell on Earth.

I sold Dark Souls literally the day after I bought it. As much as it tickles some folks particular gaming itch, it immediately turned me into a ball of rage.

....now, on the other hand I've probably put over 100 hours into the aforementioned Dragon's Dogma, with a character over level 150, and played through the game half-a-dozen times. I love the hell out of that game, even though there's plenty of easy & valid criticism that could be lobbed its way. Like Dark Souls, it's much more combat focused than more 'traditional' RPGs like Skyrim, but the difficulty isn't anywhere near as punishing. If anybody's interested, and they're around the same price-point, make sure to get the 'Dark Arisen' version which adds a bunch of content.

[Kodos]

I just hate playing games where you have to try the same thing again and again with no save points. Maybe some people like the challenge of it, but to me it is pointless frustration.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

It seems like something I'd be into if I had a lot of time off and could put a lot of focus in. Maybe now isn't the best time. Is there anything kind of like Skyrim and Fable out there? I don't mind long games but playing the same boss for 5 hours doesn't seem like something I'd like to get into right now.

Did you play Fallout 3? And what system(s) do you have?

[RainMaker]

I have a PS3 and Xbox 360. I did play Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Love them both.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I have a PS3 and Xbox 360. I did play Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Love them both.

Since I don't have a console, I can't comment on Dragon's Dogma. But I've heard good things so that's probably a great option.

Have you played Divinity 2? Pretty decent RPG that's available for cheap.

Other than that, I'm in wait-and-see mode on most RPGs. Underrail, Age of Decadence, Wasteland 2 and Divinity Original Sin (probably the closest match to your request) are all in Steam Early Access. Unlike some other genres, I don't see any reason to buy a RPG in EA. Torment and Project Eternity are a long way off.

[Ironhead]

I am playing through Dark Souls at the moment. It is easily the most unforgiving game I have played in a long time. I can't remember the last time I was this paranoid exploring a game. That said there is a certain thrill to exploring the world because I literally have no idea what to expect next.

Let's just say I have died. A lot. Repeatedly. I have never felt any of it was unfair - it is just the game doesn't give you the simple luxuries you have come to expect of most games. This becomes very apparent in the first few minutes of the game when you realize there are no magic guard rails on any cliff/bridge/ledge in the game. If the environment looks like you could fall and die then that is what can happen. The game also doesn't hold your hand in leading you to your next destination. Wander off in the wrong direction and your Level 5 character could come face to face with a giant skeleton or dragon that can kill you in one hit.

A criticism I would lob at the game is that it does a poor job of giving the player even the slightest hint as to how character building actually works. Once you finally understand how it works then it makes sense but for someone new to system it took me a while to understand it. Given the heavy emphasis on combat having an under powered character in an already difficult game would be very frustrating.

Something that is also important to note is that there is no way to truly pause the game. The closest thing you can do is quit and save and the game will always start you exactly at where you last saved. There is no reloading saves though. If you die you start at the last waypoint you reached.

So far I am really glad I have picked this up but as others have said it is not a casual game. I would recommend the game for someone looking for a challenge.

[Blackadar]

Banished Let's Play:

Let's Play: Banished (Pre-Release) - #1 - YouTube

I'm drooling. 3 weeks to go!

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Banished Let's Play:

Let's Play: Banished (Pre-Release) - #1 - YouTube

I'm drooling. 3 weeks to go!

I'm such a quill18 fanboy.. With that said I have been quite excited for this game, but I'm not sure of the replayability of Banished. I will almost certainly purchase it (have to support the sole developer), but I am afraid I will only play through a few times.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I sold Dark Souls literally the day after I bought it. As much as it tickles some folks particular gaming itch, it immediately turned me into a ball of rage.

....now, on the other hand I've probably put over 100 hours into the aforementioned Dragon's Dogma, with a character over level 150, and played through the game half-a-dozen times. I love the hell out of that game, even though there's plenty of easy & valid criticism that could be lobbed its way. Like Dark Souls, it's much more combat focused than more 'traditional' RPGs like Skyrim, but the difficulty isn't anywhere near as punishing. If anybody's interested, and they're around the same price-point, make sure to get the 'Dark Arisen' version which adds a bunch of content.

Dragon's Dogma is one of the best games I've ever played.. played it for a few days straight until I finished it, a feat that rarely happens for me.

[Abe Sargent]

Who's found a relic (In M&M X)? THis guy!!!

Looks like its an item that gains XP with you and will level up abilities as it does (quick guess).

EDIT - Great item, keeps on leveling as I play - its the best item I have by FAR in teh game. Anybody else past the (light spoiler)

Spoiler

freeing the Duke quest from teh castle?

EDIT2 - Took me 13 hours to get to the next town. That's not too bad

[Edward64]

More on GalCiv3

Galactic Civilizations 3 Community Interview – Part 1 - SpaceSector.com

Kordanor, adarax: Regarding multiplayer, will there be simultaneous turns or IGOUGO turns? If there are simultaneous turns, will the orders be executed right within the turn or will they be executed “between” turns? Will there be a special lobby for multiplayer? Meaning, will Steam be required or another platform for that purpose? And, will there be LAN multiplayer?

Ray: Galactic Civilizations III has simultaneous planning (ship design, planetary projects, ship path planning, research and tech tree choices, etc.) and sequential execution (battle, discovering anomalies, colonizing planets, etc.). Currently right now there are no plans for a separate LAN multiplayer; all multiplayer will go through Steam.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I'm such a quill18 fanboy.. With that said I have been quite excited for this game, but I'm not sure of the replayability of Banished. I will almost certainly purchase it (have to support the sole developer), but I am afraid I will only play through a few times.

Given that the developer said it would take days to fill up a larger map, a few times would be more than sufficient to get your money's worth.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Edward64

More on GalCiv3

Galactic Civilizations 3 Community Interview – Part 1 - SpaceSector.com

GalCiv 3 isn't on my wish list yet for a couple of reasons.

1. Gal Civ 2 was a technical achievement, but lacked any personality whatsoever. The tech tree in particular was duller than dishwater - laser 1, laser 2, laser 3, etc. It felt like I was playing a spreadsheet. Never mind the random map generator never worked worth a shit in terms of providing even a remotely balanced start. One map wouldn't offer any usable worlds, meaning it was game over from the start. Another would give you 5 or 6, including some awesome worlds, meaning you had the game won after 30 turns. Simply put, the game wasn't much fun or balanced. The ship-builder was interesting, but that was the only real fun thing about the game. Distant Worlds blows Gal Civ 2 out of the water.


2. Stardock's record with releases lately has been DISMAL. Remember the Elemental fiasco (and Wardell's refusal to honor his own refund policy)? Demigod's servers were unusable on release and the game never worked right for a number of people. There was another disastrous release as well, but the name escapes me. Even Legendary Heroes was bumpy as hell and that was the 3rd release for essentially the same game. Anyone who pre-orders this is just asking for trouble because the recent track record is awful.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Sounds like hell on Earth.

As someone who likes Dark Souls, this is actually a pretty good description of it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

PS+ games for February revealed. Still can't believe they give away all these games. I haven't played any of them, so a big coup for me.......

PS Plus in February: Outlast, Metro: Last Light, Payday 2 | Joystiq

[Groundhog]

Played NBA 2K14 last night on the PS4. After having played it on PS3 already a ton, the gameplay improvements/tweaks were more noticable than I expected. Playing against the Pacers, they were absolutely hounding my wings on defense, and interrupting my set plays. Dodgy passes into the key are much harder too.

The game is absolutely gorgeous, but there's one thing that bugs me, and that's the fact that there's no 'normal' multi-season mode, and no non-scripted MyCareer mode. I can't see myself ever starting a new player in MyCareer because I don't want to sit through all the cutscenes (with no ability to skip them) again.

Although it doesn't take long to earn enough VC to adjust your rotations in MyGM mode, why can't I play the normal MyAssociation mode that has been in the game since the beginning? It takes a long time to sim a season due to the numerous times you interact with players/owners/etc., and if I'm just looking to blow up and rebuild a team, I just want to sim without interruption.

The AI draft logic is still attrocious. I had the #4 and #7 picks, and there was a 7'3 C who looked like the player of the draft (no workouts pre-draft sucks, too - that was where I generally got a feel of whether a guy will work with my style of play). I considered trading #4 and #7 to move up to #1 but decided to wait and see... He fell to me at #4, with 3 PFs/Cs going ahead of him, all projected as mid-1st rounders or lottery (rather than top 3), and all rated 68 or 69 overall. My guy? 80.

Then I grab a PF at #7 who was a 72 overall - higher than the 2 guys that went off the board after my first pick - but there is still a PG on the board who was rated top 3. I didn't scout him once though so I held off... Come pick #13 he's still there and the team picking there offers me the #13 for my 72 ovr #7 selection and my #24 pick - I take the deal, draft the PG - 81 overall, the top rated player in the draft.

The 3rd best player in the draft went #16, a 74 overall rated PG. The lottery only had 1 player selected who wasn't a PF or C. Obviously one draft isn't a great sample size, but this aligns with what I saw in the last gen.

Generated players look great however - I especially like the variation of arm lengths, torso lengths etc. and my rookie PG looks like he could fly with the wingspan he's got.

[Eaglesfan27]

I don't have as big of an issue with the draft logic. Teams whiff on guys who their scouts see as better. They may see a better potential in some of those guys. I got a guard at 3rd spot in the draft who had an overall 8 points lower than everyone else but his potential was a 97 which I think was highest in the draft.

[Groundhog]

In this case none of the top 3 guys were high potential players - I don't recall specifics, but they were all around 2-star prospects post-draft. I'm hoping it's a one off and it does happen in real life (like the 2013 draft, for example).

[Groundhog]

I like the fact that we only have one scout now though. On PS3 I hired 3 scouts with all high-potential ratings and set it to auto-scout. Come draft time, I had a very good read on the first rounders. I did the same thing this time around and I was just lucky that my scout targetted the guys I was interested in, and I didn't have any 'potential' ratings revealed. I still scored big time in the draft, but there was some luck involved.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

In this case none of the top 3 guys were high potential players - I don't recall specifics, but they were all around 2-star prospects post-draft. I'm hoping it's a one off and it does happen in real life (like the 2013 draft, for example).

FWIW, I'm in my 3rd season and the CPU took the clear best player in 1 year and arguably the best player in the other year. However, I did get Jabari Parker to fall to me 5th overall and I'm having a blast building my 76ers around him

[JonInMiddleGA]

Idle thought: playing COD:Ghosts at 7pm (eastern) is a totally different experience than playing at my usual hours of like 11p-3a.

Earlier in the evening I'm actually competitive to downright decent. Late night/overnight I'm fodder for other people's K/D.

I don't think I'm playing differently, it's just an entirely different class of opponents.

[nol]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

The AI draft logic is still attrocious. I had the #4 and #7 picks, and there was a 7'3 C who looked like the player of the draft (no workouts pre-draft sucks, too - that was where I generally got a feel of whether a guy will work with my style of play). I considered trading #4 and #7 to move up to #1 but decided to wait and see... He fell to me at #4, with 3 PFs/Cs going ahead of him, all projected as mid-1st rounders or lottery (rather than top 3), and all rated 68 or 69 overall. My guy? 80.

Then I grab a PF at #7 who was a 72 overall - higher than the 2 guys that went off the board after my first pick - but there is still a PG on the board who was rated top 3. I didn't scout him once though so I held off... Come pick #13 he's still there and the team picking there offers me the #13 for my 72 ovr #7 selection and my #24 pick - I take the deal, draft the PG - 81 overall, the top rated player in the draft.

The 3rd best player in the draft went #16, a 74 overall rated PG. The lottery only had 1 player selected who wasn't a PF or C. Obviously one draft isn't a great sample size, but this aligns with what I saw in the last gen.

If you don't want to break immersion, you can just pretend that these guys are gay or admitted to smoking pot in college or something like that

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Idle thought: playing COD:Ghosts at 7pm (eastern) is a totally different experience than playing at my usual hours of like 11p-3a.

Earlier in the evening I'm actually competitive to downright decent. Late night/overnight I'm fodder for other people's K/D.

I don't think I'm playing differently, it's just an entirely different class of opponents.

That makes perfect sense. The casuals are on earlier, while the hardcore clan wars players stay up later.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

That makes perfect sense. The casuals are on earlier, while the hardcore clan wars players stay up later.

Yep. It's not really a new revelation for me or anything, I've known late play was a handicap for me but I think the difference is the most pronounced with Ghosts compared to all the previous installments in the franchise.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by nol

If you don't want to break immersion, you can just pretend that these guys are gay or admitted to smoking pot in college or something like that

...or that the Cavs have picks #1-#3.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, the map pack that just dropped for COD:Ghosts might be one of the best they've ever done IMO.

"Fog" (aka Friday the 13th themed, complete with Jason as a field orders reward) is one of the cooler ideas they've had ... the one that's kinda like a mini-boardwalk/seaside resort area plays much better than most maps ... the old map they re-skinned is comfortably familiar & fun to (re)play. The 4th one I've only played -- poorly -- once so I'll reserve judgement.

Not an experience changer or anything, you either enjoy the game or you don't & this won't change that, and the map packs are still too expensive really ... but as map packs go I have to admit that I liked this one.

[stevew]

Oh man, they re-made Scrapyard. Loved that fuckin map. Makes me reconsider playing the game again. I was on the edge of selling it back.

[Abe Sargent]

Getting close to the end of the game in M&M X. I think I have entered one of the game-ending dungeons. It's a labyrinth of 5 levels that you can't leave once you enter until you are finished with it. We'll see if that's actually the case or not, but you know, yay. Here we go.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

Oh man, they re-made Scrapyard. Loved that fuckin map. Makes me reconsider playing the game again. I was on the edge of selling it back.

Yeah, I think it's actually about the right amount of nostalgia without being entirely reliant upon that to simply be a good playable map.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I bought season one of the Pinball Arcade tables on the PS4 since I've hit a slow patch while waiting for Infamous and The Show. I've had some of the tables on the other consoles, but you can tell a big difference in the redesigned versions of the tables on the new console. So well-defined and easy to see the targets, ramps, etc. It's also nice in that it's easy for my young kids to play. Really enjoying it.

Just saw that the developers re-upped the agreement with Bally and Williams. Excited to see what other tables they bring to the game in the future.

[nilodor]

We picked up a Wii U before christmas so the wife and I could have some games to play together and we've been having lots of fun. Last night, after the superbowl, we broke out 5 player super mario and I don't think I've laughed as much in a year as I did in the about 3 hours we (wii?) played. It was incredibly fun, even playing as the fifth player where all you get to do is add block for people to jump on and activate 3up moons (which always caused a mad scramble and made complete bastards of my friends). It's a shame that the system is doing so poorly and that third party providers have basically abandoned it because nintendo makes some well designed games that are fun solo or with lots of people.

[Abe Sargent]

Jut beat the game. Had about five hours left in it from where I thought it was - no bad. About 50 hours all told.


I enjoyed the game, and it was worth the $25 it costs, but there were a few issues with it that a polish would have helped. Felt like a good quality beta to me in many ways. A few examples:


In the end scenes, you are presented with the results of your choices in various quests. But for a few quests, you get both results.

Another example is that when you don't have certain classes in your class (Crusader is a good example), you don't get quests to finish things even when you could. So, for example, if you head to one dungeon, you clean it out, and are told by the person at the end what to do in order to fix things, but you don't get the promotion quest, so you can't actually hand the person the items needed.

There are a few odd things like that here and there.


A few decisions I disagree with - the inventory management system is worse than the innovative one in Might and Might 6-8. You need to have some races in order to trigger certain quests or some areas. The game is badly missing Town Portal, a spell in virtually every edition. The final level is needlessly long (it took me like 45 minutes for that one stupid floor). Some puzzles were obscenely hard.

One issue - you barely get any more XP for fighting tough, hard monsters than you do for the lower level ones. That's an odd feeling.


However, the game gets a lot easier as things progress. I think it might have been because I was touring the world when I was supposed to be finding this dungeon. I grabbed relics from a few dungeons and leveled up fighting monsters a few times. Then I moved back and finally found the dungeon I was supposed to be looking for, but by that time, I had fully explored regions of the map. By that time I was a bit overleveled I guess, and I was easily able to wade through folks. And because lower lvel foes give you virtually the same XP, I kept it almost the whole game. It wasn't until Chapter IV that I was really stopped by folks, and not until the final dungeon that I was killed again for the first time since my first 5-10 hours of play.


It's a fun game. However, it has literlally no redeeming plot - it's all 2 dimensional characters cut in sterotypical fantasy light. Nothing is new, different or exciting. And that's part of its charm. This is an old school RPG with an old school plot. It's an old school game with grid based movement and turn based combat.


So enjoy it!



EDIT - i just spent about another hour post-game finishing up a couple of quests and such. But I'm basically done now. So, yay!


Yay!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

EA announced today that the World Cup version of FIFA will only be available on last-gen consoles (PS3, 360). No current gen versions will be available on PS4 or XB1.

[DaddyTorgo]

This

Save 10% on Masters of the World - Geopolitical Simulator 3 on Steam

http://www.masters-of-the-world.com/news.php

looks cool, but I have no idea who the developer is, so I'm going to wait. Quite likely it's a pile of turd unfortunately (although I really really hope I'm wrong).

[Eaglesfan27]

Anyone play Horizon? I'm going out of the country for a week for a business trip and there is going to be a lot of downtime, so I'm looking to pick up 1 or 2 more games for my laptop before I go. Trying to decide if this 4x game is worth giving a shot.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

This

Save 10% on Masters of the World - Geopolitical Simulator 3 on Steam

Masters Of The World

looks cool, but I have no idea who the developer is, so I'm going to wait. Quite likely it's a pile of turd unfortunately (although I really really hope I'm wrong).

By all accounts, the game is buggy. That's forgivable...

...the DRM, however, is not. It was 2 (now 3) lifetime activations. Change your BIOS and there goes one. Swap out your video card and there's 2. There's no reason whatsoever for this kind of DRM and its going to cost these guys big time.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Anyone play Horizon? I'm going out of the country for a week for a business trip and there is going to be a lot of downtime, so I'm looking to pick up 1 or 2 more games for my laptop before I go. Trying to decide if this 4x game is worth giving a shot.

I haven't played much since the last beta release.. it isn't doing much for me yet.

Do you have Pandora? Probably the most 4x played game for me right now.

Slitherine Ltd

[Groundhog]

After a solid week+ of NBA 2K14, I definitely retract my draft class statement. I finished my season 3 of rebuilding/fast sim, and my most recent draft (completely random generated) was 'real life 2014 draft' strong. There were 5 guys rated 80 or better, and a few quality picks outside of that. One 82 OVR was a steal at #16, but the others fell in the top 10 picks. I randomly generated some draft classes just to test the type of talent levels that are typical, and I never saw one this strong.

At first I hated the fact that the individual defensive settings have been dumbed down but, surprisingly, the points of emphasis feature works pretty darn well. The AI even seems to be fairly smart with their use of it.

MyCareer sucks at this point if you don't play PG as the AI does not run plays... Even if you are a PG, I find 40-50% of the time I can't call a play. Seriously, this same bug been in this title far, far too often. Not everyone wants to play as a shot hungry, ball hogging PG who does nothing but call for screens.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Anyone play Horizon? I'm going out of the country for a week for a business trip and there is going to be a lot of downtime, so I'm looking to pick up 1 or 2 more games for my laptop before I go. Trying to decide if this 4x game is worth giving a shot.

I'm not hearing great things. It seems to be just "ok".

Again, for space 4x games, you can't beat Distant Worlds.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I'm not hearing great things. It seems to be just "ok".

Again, for space 4x games, you can't beat Distant Worlds.

How do you like Pandora after the latest patch?

I like making the alien life aggressive as it makes it harder to get your city going.

Distant Worlds is great too.. the AI is quite good.

[markprior22]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

MyCareer sucks at this point if you don't play PG as the AI does not run plays... Even if you are a PG, I find 40-50% of the time I can't call a play. Seriously, this same bug been in this title far, far too often. Not everyone wants to play as a shot hungry, ball hogging PG who does nothing but call for screens.

Yeah, this sure is disappointing. I usually play as a SF and find myself running around trying to set picks, come off screens, etc. The 360 version had the same issue and it was fixed in a patch. Hope they'll do one more patch that includes a fix for this. Really ruins the experience and it's my favorite mode to play.

[mckerney]

Bravely Default launches in the US today, but it looks like Amazon didn't do release day shipping for it and I won't get my copy until Monday.

Played through episode 2 of The Wolf Among Us the other night. The only complaint I had was that it felt a bit short coming in at about 80 minutes of playtime for me, other than that it was a great second episode. Still enjoying it more than I did the first season of The Walking Dead through the first two episodes.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

How do you like Pandora after the latest patch?

I like making the alien life aggressive as it makes it harder to get your city going.

Distant Worlds is great too.. the AI is quite good.

To tell you the truth, I haven't played it much lately. My game time has been taken up by XCOM, Civ V, Distant Worlds and Starbound.

And Banished is coming out in a week and a half.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

This

Save 10% on Masters of the World - Geopolitical Simulator 3 on Steam

Masters Of The World

looks cool, but I have no idea who the developer is, so I'm going to wait. Quite likely it's a pile of turd unfortunately (although I really really hope I'm wrong).

This will probably hold you over until the other one comes down in price. It's 50% off this weekend......

Save 50% on Democracy 3 on Steam

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

This will probably hold you over until the other one comes down in price. It's 50% off this weekend......

Save 50% on Democracy 3 on Steam

Yeah - I saw that, thanks. Anyone played Democracy 3?

[NobodyHere]

I've only played 2.

Democracy 2 is great fun for several hours. However once you figure out which policies work/don't work then the game loses it's luster.

I am curious for opinions on 3 though.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Yeah - I saw that, thanks. Anyone played Democracy 3?

Yeah, but I didn't much care for it. The assassination mechanic is absurd (the first half dozen of my games ended with me getting assassinated) for supposedly modern countries, the cause-and-effect engine isn't all that good, the economics portion of it is too limited and just overall the game is pretty "meh". Once you find a winning strategy, then all you need to do is repeat it for any other country you play. It's actually a pretty poor game overall.

[General Mike]

Lego The Lego Movie video game

[Blackadar]

First one who wants a copy of Sid Meier's Railroads gets it. Decent game. Just PM me your Steam Account name.

The only condition is you have to trade something back - a game, a steam card, something.

[Berger]

Has anybody here played Project Zomboid? I've had it for quite a while, but haven't played it a ton as I'm waiting for the npc's and metagame to be finished up for singleplayer. I'm also waiting for MP, which they've just announced should be up pretty soon.

I guess the servers are up and running and you can see some gameplay here. You can check out the blog update here.

I'm super excited about this one as I'm a sucker for survival games, with or without zombies, for that matter. This game is very well designed and with multiplayer coming soon, I think it could go to the next level. Highly recommended.