What video game are you playing?

[Emily Lake]

Bethesda Game Studios announce that that Starfield will be released and is described as a "next generation single player game in development". Starfield will be followed by The Elder Scrolls 6.

Yay!

Well, that's a disappointment. A HUUUUUUUGGGGGEEEEE disappointment. Fallout 76 turns out to be an online multiplayer thing. Thanks but no thanks.

Boo!

 

[Emily Lake]

Well, that's a disappointment. A HUUUUUUUGGGGGEEEEE disappointment. Fallout 76 turns out to be an online multiplayer thing. Thanks but no thanks.

Aw, man.

Ten to 20 years ago, that news would have made me spooge my shorts.

Since then, though, I've made the unfortunate discovery that the kind of game I play can seriously fuck with my ability to get a decent night's sleep. If I play MMORPGs at all, (even if I stop playing hours before bedtime), I sleep a lot less. It gets bad enough that I start to make really bad decisions at home and at work.

I love MMOPRGs, I really do, but it turns out that I'm a person who can't play them and keep his life together.

I feel you on that.

I nearly flunked out of a semester in college playing a MUDD... and that didn't even have graphics! My spouse and I have had a pretty stringent "no online gaming" rule as long as either of us needs to either study or hold down a job. It's gotten to a point, though, where I simply don't have the patience to deal with them - I don't want to have other random people running around in my world. I found it really distracting and annoying that ESO had random "joebob201198343" run across my screen and take a jab at the critter I was trying to stealthily snipe from across a ridge.

 

[Underseer]

Well, that's a disappointment. A HUUUUUUUGGGGGEEEEE disappointment. Fallout 76 turns out to be an online multiplayer thing. Thanks but no thanks.

Aw, man.

Ten to 20 years ago, that news would have made me spooge my shorts.

Since then, though, I've made the unfortunate discovery that the kind of game I play can seriously fuck with my ability to get a decent night's sleep. If I play MMORPGs at all, (even if I stop playing hours before bedtime), I sleep a lot less. It gets bad enough that I start to make really bad decisions at home and at work.

I love MMOPRGs, I really do, but it turns out that I'm a person who can't play them and keep his life together.

I feel you on that.

I nearly flunked out of a semester in college playing a MUDD... and that didn't even have graphics! My spouse and I have had a pretty stringent "no online gaming" rule as long as either of us needs to either study or hold down a job. It's gotten to a point, though, where I simply don't have the patience to deal with them - I don't want to have other random people running around in my world. I found it really distracting and annoying that ESO had random "joebob201198343" run across my screen and take a jab at the critter I was trying to stealthily snipe from across a ridge.

I wrote for IIT MUDD back in the late 80s/early 90s as Wizard Rapunzel. Weirdly enough, that was my first exposure to C++.

 

[Underseer]

I've seen a number of interesting videos discussing the symbolism and themes that cover philosophy in Nier Automata, but I have the reflexes of a geriatric alcoholic turtle with epilepsy, and some of those bullet hell sequences look scary.

How forgiving is that game for an old fart with bad reflexes?

 

[Terrell]

Bethesda Game Studios announce that that Starfield will be released and is described as a "next generation single player game in development". Starfield will be followed by The Elder Scrolls 6.

Yay!

Definitely. While they're a ways off, it's great to hear more single player games. BGS you had me at single-player. "Next Generation" makes me wonder how far that Starfield is away, since it comes first, and the teasers for both Starfield & TES 6 were just enough to know they'll exist in the future. People are already analyzing said teaser for TES 6, and suspect it's in either High Rock or Hammerfell. BGS hasn't confirmed the location as of yet as far as I know. I think we'll see the PlayStation 5 and XBOX "Scarlett" around the time we see Starfield released. TES 6 2-3 years later.

 

[Mumbles]

I've seen a number of interesting videos discussing the symbolism and themes that cover philosophy in Nier Automata, but I have the reflexes of a geriatric alcoholic turtle with epilepsy, and some of those bullet hell sequences look scary.

How forgiving is that game for an old fart with bad reflexes?

You...may want to wait a bit for the price to drop - or check out the price on PS4. It's not Ikaruga or the more serious Bullet Hell shooters like by any means, but if you're too slow, it can be tough until you get past the starting sequence.

On an actual unrelated note, Rerez got a good look at that Xbox controller for people with serious physical disabilities, and it actually looks like a lot of thought went into it.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgBF6OSqbgU[/YOUTUBE]

Me? Splatoon 2 now that the Octo Expansion is out - the stages are shorter than their usual single-player stages, but much more intense, back to Lost Sphear, and briefly back to World of Final Fantasy, which uses something of a simplified FFX battle system. Nothing has seriously held me since I wrapped up SM Odyssey, though.

 

[C_Mucius_Scaevola]

Well that sucks.

Although, to be honest, I'm a bit of a weirdo.

Whenever I play an RPG, I will usually have several restarts before I actually complete everything. The weird thing is, I generally enjoy the early game more than the late game, so I'm in the habit of throwing games away and restarting when it comes to RPGs.

I get that, especially on later play-throughs. I know I've got several Skyrim, Fallout, and Oblivion characters to about half-way then lost interest. I know that part of it is my fault though - I start out intending to play through in a different way, set a bit more of a "character" and really develop what they would do... but I usually find myself falling into my preferred play style partway through. Then it's not so fun, because I've already played that game.

I actually end up enjoying Dragon Age playthroughs more, and I'm more inclined to finish them. I think it's in part because I pick a different character class and race, and that sets different boundaries on the interactions and opens up some different narratives. So I kind of end up forced to play a different character, because the game mechanics make it so.

With Skyrim, etc... I pretty much always fall back into an archer, who sneaks everywhere, and is pretty good at crafting stuff. Ends up being the same game, no matter how different my character looks.

Yes, I too have a habit of discarding characters when I don't like the way they're developing. This time I dumped a level 18 character who was on her way to becoming a great assassin type, because I've done assassins and thieves way too many times already in Skyrim. Now working on a more direct type, one-handed, light armor, block specialist.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Spring 2019 and the release of Total War: Three Kingdoms. It's taken the long enough to get round to the theme, having already done two each of Medieval, Shogun and Rome (arguably three of Rome, with Atilla). Of course, the game mechanics'll probably be pretty much as usual; it's how they'll deal with the story that could make it interesting.

 

[Underseer]

Season 14 started in Diablo 3.

 

[Underseer]

OMG, season 14 has double the treasure goblins. Leveling up is so much easier when you have a constant influx of lewt.

 

[Underseer]

I forgot how much fun the Witch Doctor class is to play. I'm throwing jars full of poisonous spiders at people. I'm summoning pools of zombie piranhas under the feet of my enemies. Yes, I know that the Piranhado rune is objectively better for crowd control, but zombie piranhas are funnier dammit! I'm using the [bad word] zombie piranhas because they're [bad word] funny! [Bad word]!

 

[Underseer]

Muwahahahaha! I found Whimsydale!

Now my pools of zombie piranhas are eating those cute waddling teddy bears and my jars of spider are smearing unicorn blood all over the landscape! Muwahahahahahahahaha!

I'm a monster.

 

[Underseer]

Accidental discovery about Diablo 3.

Those weird jewelry upgrade legendary gems you get from doing greater rifts can be installed into the jewelry of low level characters. I got Boyarsky's Chip and gave it 4 upgrades from a few Greater Rift runs.

Then I gave the chip to a low level Crusader I was leveling up. The lowbie became instantly overpowered. Anything that attacked me instantly exploded. Monsters with ranged attacks were no longer any problem at all, and the only thing I needed Shield Bash for was going after the occasional sprinting treasure goblin.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Zaccaria Pinball. OMG!!! Farsight has done a great job putting together US based pinball machines and tossing them on consoles. But I just discovered Zaccaria thanks to a Steam sale. YES!!! YES!!! Zaccaria made a bunch of machines between the 70s and 80s, solid state and EMs. Which is kind of my poison.

Don't get me wrong, Theater of Magic, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, Circus Voltaire are among my favorite tables, but the older tables are extremely fun as well. With the Platinum pack you get the Retro versions of the Zaccaria tables, which is even cooler. And not retro like Central Park or Jolly Joker which is pretty much two useless flippers and you just watch the ball bounce until it drains. The games have really good and varying designs. Platinum was less than $50 and worth every penny! Farsight, is $30 for 10 or so tables except season one which is a must buy and $30 for about 20 of the best tables ever made.

And while the tables are fun, there are several playing modes, a bazillion unlockable achievements, a story mode. The story mode is great as it gets you familiar with the tables one at a time.

So having a ton of fun playing this.

 

[Underseer]

When I need my pinball fix, my drug of choice is usually Zen Pinball on the Android platform. They have a metric crap-ton of Marvel and Star Wars pinball games.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

When I need my pinball fix, my drug of choice is usually Zen Pinball on the Android platform. They have a metric crap-ton of Marvel and Star Wars pinball games.

Zen makes some smooth running tables, but they just don't speak to me. I've tried, but have gotten spoiled by Farsight, then Zaccaria. I prefer real world remakes (if I can't play the real thing).

 

[Underseer]

When I need my pinball fix, my drug of choice is usually Zen Pinball on the Android platform. They have a metric crap-ton of Marvel and Star Wars pinball games.

Zen makes some smooth running tables, but they just don't speak to me. I've tried, but have gotten spoiled by Farsight, then Zaccaria. I prefer real world remakes (if I can't play the real thing).

I admit that the quality of gameplay on their tables are wildly variant, but when I play pinball, it's only for short periods of time anyway.

 

[prideandfall]

FFXV: 5/10 maybe? 4/10?

this game couldn't be more homoerotic if it was just a 15 hour long video of 8 dudes blowing 9 dudes, but very specifically in a hipster twink kind of way.
the combat system is atrocious, the camera is a literal product of satan, the controls and input responsiveness are like a 3 wheeled shopping cart with down syndrome, the story makes even less sense than a typical FF game, the RPG elements are all stupidly convoluted, and the fundamental design philosophy behind the game is flawed to the point of being irredeemable - this is basically Final Theft Auto: Fantasy City, and it absolutely just does not work.

but, as with most square products and the final fantasy series in particular, i still find myself playing every chance i get for hours and hours at a stretch, being very reluctant to ever put it down, and being eager to pick it up again.
i'm not one to hang on nostalgia or brand loyalty for its own sake so i don't think this is some left-over love of FFVII or anything, i think square just somehow manages to keep fucking up more and more with every iteration of the FF series and yet still hasn't made one so atrocious it isn't compelling to be playing it at least within the context of being a gamer and having a game to sit down with.

but, as an action-RPG with an open world full of side-quests with a basic skill-tree system where you kill monsters to get points to unlock new abilities... with limited equipment management and basically solo combat with some AI helpers you can call in to sometimes do something useful (if you're extremely lucky and the fucking controls actually work or the god damn AI is actually present and responds)... FFXV is just a sad, pathetic cast-off exoskeleton compared to god of war, which is everything this FF iteration is trying to be but so unimaginably better it's ridiculous.

square cannot handle this kind of open-world design, they simply don't have the coders for it or the right notions about how to approach it. this game pretty much killed all the joyous fanboyism i'd manage to garner for the FF7 remake.
i desperately wish they'd go back to turn-based strategy but i fear that, like the RTS, that is just a genre of gaming that nobody seems to care about anymore.

 

[Underseer]

FFXV: 5/10 maybe? 4/10?

this game couldn't be more homoerotic if it was just a 15 hour long video of 8 dudes blowing 9 dudes, but very specifically in a hipster twink kind of way.
[...]

Out of all the reviews I read of that game, not one mentioned homoeroticism, and certainly not in the opening sentence of the review.

It's almost as if you are fixated on the concept of homoeroticism for some reason.

Is there something you would like to tell us?

We won't judge.

 

[Mumbles]

FFXV: 5/10 maybe? 4/10?

this game couldn't be more homoerotic if it was just a 15 hour long video of 8 dudes blowing 9 dudes, but very specifically in a hipster twink kind of way.
[...]

Out of all the reviews I read of that game, not one mentioned homoeroticism, and certainly not in the opening sentence of the review.

It's almost as if you are fixated on the concept of homoeroticism for some reason.

Is there something you would like to tell us?

We won't judge.

I mean, it's meant to be a guys' only adventure, so there's that...but then as soon as you get to the mechanic girl any "homoeroticism" goes out the window.

I'll admit that I didn't get very far into the game at all, and that's largely because I far preferred World of Final Fantasy over it - it has it's own shortcomings, but obnoxious combat isn't among them. Octopath Traveller looks like it'll be good as well, from the demo, and Lost Sphear and I am Setsuna both reek of older and generally better Squaresoft design.

 

[prideandfall]

FFXV: 5/10 maybe? 4/10?

this game couldn't be more homoerotic if it was just a 15 hour long video of 8 dudes blowing 9 dudes, but very specifically in a hipster twink kind of way.
[...]

Out of all the reviews I read of that game, not one mentioned homoeroticism, and certainly not in the opening sentence of the review.

It's almost as if you are fixated on the concept of homoeroticism for some reason.

Is there something you would like to tell us?

We won't judge.

out of a review of over 400 words you picked one that, really, existed solely for the sake of a crude joke, and made a 4 line reply out of it. if either of us is fixated on the concept, it's clearly you.

but to be fair, "metrosexual twink" would be a better term.