Video game stuff

[paulofilmo]

Some good recommendations guys, thanks everyone.

I finished walking dead s1 the other day. That probably isn't a game either -and gets less gamey as it progresses -interactive film? what interests me more is the near the end I think it became a piece of art. Most of it was just ok, some cool little moments but there comes a moment where I had to choose a dialogue that gave me such a feeling of release and relief, truth. The ending is pretty strong too.
[spoiler]The moment was telling kenny to go fuck himself before we went after Clem, he'd had that coming for a looong time [/spoiler]

I don't like 'walking simulator', First-person-flânerie ?, Dérive-em-up?
I always wanted these kinds of games:

In Fable I sold all my possesions and in only my underpants and a large beard; danced for children, 'gleaned' in graveyards and worked the fight club circuit to give any money I could to the unfortunate. A Chickenchaser Christ or slightly less loud this guy perhaps. Zoe Wanamaker has a nice voice and eventually the game got me to murder everyone and fulfil it's cheesy-revenge destiny though.

I roamed the streets of GT: IV looking for real adventure, I'm not shooting pigeons and murdering prostitutes. There'are no cycles or pleasantries with strangers, no serendipity. I wanted it more; go to post a present but stop and buy a vegan cupcake from a lesbian who invites you to a circus after which you end up in the basement of a south london squat watching documentaries about prison with polish anarchists then in the morning get a juggling lesson before visiting your friend and their mum in hospital. That is, to be more realistic. All it's got's are guns and cars type bullshit. I tried glitching into buildings and parkour too but it seems so hollow.

Shouldn't npc's in this day and age have conversations?, they could use the internets, have them talking tweets or stuff.

What kind of games would Debord make?

I quite liked Proteus; If you replace all the animals and trees and stuff with women? (hint: lisagirl's mini-review). Ok, the link's tenuous but I liked them both, a warmth.

Aww. This is giving me flashbacks. Have you tried looking for this stuff in life? Paganism/Festival circuit/psychonautery/travel, etc. I'd like to say more but I have to go to work in literally 8 minutes.

Is there a good primer on psychogeography? Or, how did you get interested in it?

Gtg

[paulofilmo]

Oh that film was yes.

Yes.

[Spunkie]

Some good recommendations guys, thanks everyone.

I finished walking dead s1 the other day. That probably isn't a game either -and gets less gamey as it progresses -interactive film? what interests me more is the near the end I think it became a piece of art. Most of it was just ok, some cool little moments but there comes a moment where I had to choose a dialogue that gave me such a feeling of release and relief, truth. The ending is pretty strong too.
[spoiler]The moment was telling kenny to go fuck himself before we went after Clem, he'd had that coming for a looong time [/spoiler]

I quite like where telltale games are taking now niche adventure genre. After a while you get to see the seams (especially if you reload and do different choices) but starting from WD series these games at least doesn't fail to create the illusion of choice. Try Wolf Amongst Us

About the -is it a game?- debate; first of all I get this gaming itch I have to scratch from time to time, it's getting immersed in movement of numbers i.e. turn based strategy or strategy in general itch. Apart from that I don't think there is anything particular that defines a computer game. If we decide to consider player input/interaction as the main factor that defines a game then most of games start to come apart to a certain degree. Noone would doubt fps/tps as a staple of gaming, though almost all of the genre works on corridors, as linear as a movie with the addition of few reflex mechanics. If we are gonna exclude this new breed of interactive fiction from gaming, then we better find a term soon, since it has the potential to nurture quality artpieces.

[CMonster]

Just to get a sense of what we all like, what are some of everyone's favorite games from the last console generation? Not restricted solely to consoles of course, but just from that general time frame (and try to keep it to a reasonable number).

-Team Fortress 2 It's a great mix between a highly active casual community and highly skilled/highly competitive play. I've definitely logged more hours into this than any other game. I'll also now skip all the other valve games I've played too much of.
-Payday 2 Crushed the L4D series as my go to for 4 player co-op. It's wonderful at creating the tension I want from a heist, whether its stealth or a full blown fire fight.
-Civ V (especially with the Brave New World expansion)
-Red Dead Redemption Best thing Rockstar has ever done.
-Fallout: New Vegas and Batman Arkham Asylum/City are the three that top my list for 1 time play through stories.
Could probably list a dozen or so retro or indie games I got on steam sales for $10 or less but I'll cut it down to just three.
-Super Meat Boy
-Spelunky
-VVVVVV (this one is the shortest and most simple of the three but there was something about it I really dug)

I've noticed a few big things that are common threads in my favorites. Games that add free content and expand with the community are huge things for both TF2 and Payday 2. They've both found ways to still make money without requiring you to pay for anything. There were a couple free to play games that might have made this list if they didn't eventually fall into the pay-to-win trap that kills a lot of good ftp games. Adding content is a huge plus. Great music also is a big thing for good games, especially the indie games. Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV both have outstanding soundtracks. I also don't buy many games so something that has replayability is a big deal for me. Red Dead and both Batman games that made this list were borrowed and New Vegas was part of a pack of games I got for cheap. Also, if you can get the 8-bit original Spelunky and not the xbla version I would recommend it. Definitely does not look as good or have as many items, but its faster and smoother which I liked.

[ShogunRua]

And, I hate to just keep butting heads, but I also think judging a game by a dollars-to-hours ratio is really shitty. Quality over quantity, after all.

Dismissing a discussion of the price of a commercial product as "really shitty" is, well, really dumb.

Even assuming you're the special 1 in a 1000 snowflake for whom price per gameplay doesn't matter (and in reality, you probably aren't), that doesn't invalidate the consideration for the overwhelming majority of gamers.

Would you pay $100 to watch a 30 minute short film? Even if you were told it's one of the greatest shorts ever made? No? In that case, you care about price per hour, too.

By the way, I'm not opposed to paying $20 for a 1-1.5 hour experience. However, it has to be something really fucking amazing and unique. Journey is an example of a short game (although it's actually longer and has slightly more replay value than Gone Home) I happily paid $20 for. Journey is one of the best, most original games of the last few years.

Gone Home is mechanically inferior to dozens of free Flash games in the same genre.

I think Gone Home has a lot of strengths. Firstly, it does an amazing job capitalizing on a subversive aesthetic. A dark stormy night, an empty and thought-to-be haunted house, an unhappy family. It uses horror tropes to build expectations, and then sweeps the rug out from under you.

Like I wrote in my last post, it looks superior to, and the overall presentation and aesthetic is much better than those free Flash games. For a commercial release that multiple full-time employees worked on, that's a minimal expectation, not a sign of quality, let alone greatness.

The lesbian storyline gets a lot of criticism as well, usually in the same terms you put it ("it wouldn't be so special were it a girl and boy").

And yet, it's a criticism you were completely unable to respond to, merely invoking the meaningless phrase

But the game deserves credit for its genuine feminine sympathies, which - at the risk of sounding like a social justice warrior - is something all too uncommon in this particular medium.

which, by the way, is an absolutely insane statement, given the number of games where the lead protagonist is female or where one has that option. I would say many modern games are trying very desperately to have "genuine feminine sympathies".

It's also a nice dose of 90s nostalgia.

Yeah, just throw in a bunch of pop culture references to a recent era (not a long-gone one, but one within the lifetime of most gamers, to get the Full Pandering Effect) and your game doesn't even have to possess any interesting mechanics or ideas!

Just to get a sense of what we all like, what are some of everyone's favorite games from the last console generation? Not restricted solely to consoles of course, but just from that general time frame (and try to keep it to a reasonable number). As for me:

In general, I like very difficult 2D platformers or adventure games that one can play for endless numbers of hours. In fact, I agree with two games CMonster mentioned;

-Super Meat Boy
-Spelunky

Additionally, I loved

-Super House of Dead Ninjas
-Awesomenauts
-Spectromancer (CCG. used to be one of the best players in the world at this; should really get around to playing Hearthstone)
-Binding of Isaac
-Realm of the Mad God (a bullet hell fantasy MMO; stopped playing when new owners of the property, Kaboom!, made a ton of shitty decisions)

Thinking of buying Shovel Knight soon.

[CMonster]

The Binding of Issac is gonna be my next purchase the next time it goes on sale on steam. Ed McMillan is a pretty cool guy worth supporting and anything with music by Danny Baranofsky is something that interests me.

[VinegarBob]

In general, I like very difficult 2D platformers...

You should give 1001 Spikes a go.

[Ag0stoMesmer]

@paulofilmo -i'll pm you some links or something later

@CMonster VVVVVV simple!, had me tearing my hair out, reflexes ain't what they were

@SMB players -only tried the flash SMB -you guys are hardcore

I couldn't get into Civ V, not just because it's a nationalism simulator , I should give it more time. I enjoyed Civ Rev on the 360 though, a new one of those would be cool.

@spunkie
I generally play city-builder or strategy stuff, and rocksmith. Quick blast on super hexagon or SF if I'm feelng twitchy. also casual/music games, Rez back in the day but, beat hazard, audiosurf, that kind of stuff
Liked X-com too.

Got a soft-spot for Sine Mora and Jamestown

Took me months to play through the 10-ish hours of walking dead, I think because of its mechanics. If I want to watch a film I watch one, If I want to play a game I play one, I'm far less often in the mood for its in-between-ish style. Maybe it's just habit. I'll bear wolf.. in mind when the discounts roll 'round

[paulofilmo]

Sweet beans!

Are you all looking forward to the new Res Evil game?


Stanley Parable was funny — cheers!

Question time:

Is it possible to play the Soldier of Fortune 2 demo on an old linux machine?

Argh. Google suggests no.

Are there any worthwhile ambient games for the iPad?

Grazi!

[CMonster]

@CMonster VVVVVV simple!, had me tearing my hair out, reflexes ain't what they were

I couldn't get into Civ V, not just because it's a nationalism simulator , I should give it more time. I enjoyed Civ Rev on the 360 though, a new one of those would be cool.

@spunkie
I generally play city-builder or strategy stuff, and rocksmith. Quick blast on super hexagon or SF if I'm feelng twitchy. also casual/music games, Rez back in the day but, beat hazard, audiosurf, that kind of stuff

First, when I say VVVVVV is simple, that does not mean it lacks clever and occasionally incredibly difficult level design. Also, a 2D platformer that is definitely worth more than 1 play through so I would suggest it to you Shogun. You won't get as much replayability out of it as a Super Meat Boy or Spelunky, but if on sale you can probably get on steam for ~$2-$3.

Second, I would suggest giving Civ V a bit more time if you like strategy games. On high difficulties it actually becomes quite challenging and there are a ton of different community mods and play styles that are fun. A personal favorite of mine is to do 1v1 on the easiest difficulty vs a computer and try to build every wonder in the game in the fewest turns possible. A whole different kind of challenge than playing on the highest difficulty.

Third, I also enjoyed Super Hexagon, Audiosurf, and Beat Hazard. All quality choices.