What games have you been playing lately?

Robert ninja wrote: »

https://youtu.be/ds-DWsO04TI?list=FLSjx34Ub6f6dCh3LIeDXjJw&t=691

Have to agree with most of that and I'm of the vintage that Youtuber is too.

The problem with gaming today stems from the dumbing down of the product for the console generation. Everything that has stymied games in modern times can be linked to that. I, too, remember when games were a challenge and not just a story of x amount of chapters that the player completed in a few days. Some games took weeks or even months to complete. I was thinking of 'Hidden and Dangerous' as that Youtuber was going through his thoughts on the video and I wasn't surprised at all when his thoughts coincided with mine - and although the AI at times could do silly things, on the whole it was streets ahead of what passes for AI in a lot of games these days and at times you really had to think about the situation presented before you and find a solution that wasn't obvious. I just completed both 'Hidden and Dangerous' games about a year ago and was amazed at just how well it stood up. I'd love it if some company struck up a new line of those games.

These days the gamer's hand is held all the way through the experience and it makes for a terribly dull, if attractive, pass time. I remember being very disappointed with 'L.A. Noir' when I played that a few years ago on the Playstation. Here we had a great idea for a game, a 50's cop drama in which the player has to solve various crimes, but the procedure is practically laid out for the player. You don't even have to think about what you're doing. What a wasted opportunity. There wasn't even an option to turn off the hints or "clues" to make the game harder or more interesting. It became a showcase of how unintelligent games were for consoles. Everything was turned down to appeal to the lowest common denominator...while still looking good. I think when it came out for the PC, there were mods to turn off most of the idiot pointers and thus make a game of it, but it was a one shot game. There was no point in playing it again.

The simple fact is, that while the console arena has opened up huge markets for the games industry, it has largely ruined games because difficulty is absent (or merely consists of a boring attrition contest where enemies simply take more hits to kill), AI is Kardashian level of stupid, nearly everything is on rails or the player is literally told what to do every step of the way...all to appeal to a player type that demands instant gratification, easy advancement and more, more, more.

Most of the time the only thing a modern game has going for it is that it's nicer looking than it's compatriot from yesteryear and that's really about it. Sure, there are exceptions. But, they are exceptions to the rule unfortunately.

Guess we'll agree to disagree then. I still think modern shooters aren't as fun to play as older ones. Not that I don't enjoy some modern ones too, of course, it's just that there's some that are popular yet so unfun that it would have to be free for me to even consider sitting down for a session.

Speaking of which I played Payday 2 last night from finding someone to play with from a thread on another site. I won a skin or something and put it up on the steam market. I still don't know if I like that game. All the guns feel weak but there seems to be coop potential if you can get everyone using mics. Did have a laugh riffing on the game, though. Everyone was using mods to get all the DLC without paying for it and the game didn't even kick them despite recognising they were doing it. Found that halirious. Seems like it could be a Resident Evil 5 situation: ****ty AI and overall meh game that is just has too much coop potential to be called bad.

Kopanito All Star Soccer

Its a bit of craic with a few people online, bit laggy tho.

Started playing Quake tonight (plus Ultimate patch).

Must be 20 years since I played it last. It holds up surprisingly well.

Wolfenstein (2009) was the last game I blasted through on the PC at home before jumping over to Twilight Princess HD. I kind of enjoyed it actually, it's not fantastic or anything but it has its moments. What it also has, unfortuantely, is the most annoying headbob I've ever seen in a video game which is triggered when sprinting, something made all the worse with the restrictive FoV. Thankfully both can be fixed with some .cfg editing which made the entire experience more tolerable.

There are also some interesting parallels between it and Singularity although, if forced to chose, I'd consider the latter the better game.

At lunch I've worked my way through Assault Android Cactus, Westerado and Odallus: The Dark Call recently. All ace little titles and definitely worth checking out for varying kinds of fun.

Lego: The Hobbit. A nice little game in the lego style.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I tried to play singularity recently as I heard so much about how great it is. It really isn't that great. Ended up giving up because it just isn't that fun. It really desperately wants to be like Bioshock with all the notes and stuff lying around but the fact is the story is terrible and uninteresting and while the shooting is adequate it doesn't really carry the game. I just had a feeling of ambivalence towards it. Definitely much preferred Wolf 2009 to it.

It's not a brilliant game by any means but I think it gets the love it does because it kind of flew under the radar for many and at least tried to do something different against a background of realistic military style shooters. For me you can throw in the fact that I've always had a soft spot for Raven's output since the original Heretic so I was just happy to see them get something original out the door.

Its development cycle was also rather interesting if you've not read about it yet.

Mostly been shooting deer in TheHunter: call of the wild.

used to play a flash hunting game for hours in college and thought I'd pick it up. Love it. Relaxing while tense at the same time.

CSGO

Overwatch, Overwatch and some more Overwatch. So addictive!

Hitman: Codename 47 - Works well on linux but the fan made patches for the UI don't seem to be activating for me. Oh well. Having fun recording and editing my terrible playthrough. Glad I bought the first 3 games on the gog sale.

Planetside 2 - Still making Auraxis great again with he most hated outfit on the US servers People can do naught but talk sh*t in-game chat and on stream chat. Brilliant.

MGSV/MGO3 - I still play it and I don't even know why. At its core it's decent online outside of the very casual weapon recoil and P2P connection. I suppose there's still just no other online game that mixes non-cartoony hand-to-hand combat and non-cartoony gunplay. I heard MGO2 won't need a modded PS3 anymore so I may try that out.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 - I'm progressing slowly even though I manage to get an hour or more in most nights. Lovely little game. I'll add the fan translations to the sequels because they're full of what passes for 'localisation' these days.

Warframe - The grind never ends. Forma'd Volt Prime again. I've fully committed him to being FAST. He's moves like the Doom guy now. The clan came in top 10% on the latest event and was rewarded gold statue for our dojo. Can't believe that since we barely even tried. I suppose the Warbros magic lives on in us at least just a little bit. Warbos #1

Killing Floor - Still weird ass Russian servers up with like 60 player coop. Gotta love it.

Went back to Fallout: New Vegas after the ultimate edition was like €12 and I saw an article on PC Gamer with the best mods for it at the moment. Literally can't stop playing. For a game that is a decade old it's absolutely incredible.