whatchu playing now

Git yer Streets of Rage 2 on

Tempted by City Skylines too, what's the general comparison to Sim City 5? Is it actually better?

The road laying in Sim City looks a bit glitchy from the LP's I've seen.

Sid Meier's Starships

anyone else?

how is it?

wizard's lizard + vertical drop heroes = both good

Cities Skylines lots of fun but too easy in vanilla I think, particularly if you've played sim city 4. Yes, it's better than Sim City 5, mainly because you can actually create cities, not just high-rise hamlets.

just reinstalled my old copy of simcity4 and played for a bit, man I think I recall even SC2000 being more accessible and fun than this.

About to try 3000 instead now...

how is it?

i'm glad i held off on answering this until i finished a playthrough. at this point it feels like:

civ: civ rev :: civ rev :: starships

being a glass half-empty kind of person i'm probably focusing too much on the problems with it, but i'd still say it's worth checking out for civ rev fans. it's just disappointing because the guts of an amazing game are there, but some things seem unfinished or unpolished or just off.

just from the concept and a familiarity with civ you can get a feel for what it's like - you start with a planet which generates resources (energy to upgrade your ships, metal to build improvements to the planet, science to unlock tech tree upgrades, food to build additional cities on a planet/increase resource generation multiplier). you build a small fleet and then travel to nearby planets to complete missions.

the missions are the fun new exciting part, at least for me. they consist of turn-based combat, often with a generic objective (escort missions, survive for x turns). if you go into it expecting a super-deep tactical turn-based combat, you'll be let down. but it's deep enough to hold your attention. torpedos in particular are fun - you launch them at a certain trajectory and then have the power to manually explode them as they're flying during the second and third turns after launch. the "terrain" of the battlefield is made up of asteroids which can't be traveled through, or shot through effectively by lasers and cannons (torpedos can fly through them, though). anyway, it's not axis & allies or anything but it's engaging and fun.

completing missions gives you resources and other upgrades, and also increases your influence on that planet. increase a planet's influence to 4 and they become part of your empire. at first the map is pretty empty and you're just adding planets to your empire as quickly as possible. soon the map starts to fill up with competing civilizations, and things get antagonistic.

so far, so good. an hour in and i figured this was going to land near the top of my coint & plick 2015 ballot. but then the problems start to become more noticeable.

a big problem, almost gamebreaking one, is the way that war works on a meta-level. unlike the civ games, where you have tons of different units marching around the map, starships only features a single fleet per civilization. in one way this simplifies things in a pleasant way, as you only have to worry about your single fleet moving around from planet to planet. but if also makes taking over another civilization ridiculously easy. all you have to do is invade their home planet. the enemy's fleet will show up there, if they aren't there already. you fight a single (admittedly entertaining) battle pitting your fleet against theirs. if you win, you get all of their territory and planets. if you're one of the first civs to do this, you become ultra powerful because you suddenly have double the resources and territory of anyone else. it's just kind...weird. i guess it accelerates the pace of the game but winning that easily is almost a letdown.

then the other oversights pop up:

- there's no way to pull up a ledger, civ 5 style, that displays how you're doing in comparison to everyone else. the information is being tracked - in the super-simple diplomatic interactions you can get them to divulge all sorts of stuff - it's just not easily accessible.

- tiny thing, but so stupid: in the spaceopedia, certain entries that should be alphabetized (like lists of wonders or types of cities or planet upgrades, of which there are dozens) aren't alphabetized. it's tough to explain why this is annoying but if you ever play it you'll know what i mean. it's just a ridiculous oversight.

- no multiplayer. i'm guessing there are reasons for this (i would go into it but this is way too long already) but it's still disappointing.

- wonders are overpowered to an occasionally gamebreaking degree. i'm all about the wonders and i certainly benefited from them, but some of them are just way too strong and make you nigh-unstoppable.

- there's no leaderboard that shows how many times you've won, as which civilization, which difficulty, etc. you get one simple gameover chart that shows population over time (and even then the axes aren't labeled?!?!?), and then after you go to the main menu it's gone forever. ?? why??

anyway, as usual i complained a bunch but this is actually a really fun game. it's got the "one more turn" thing happening for sure, and after i won my first game i immediately started up a new game on a higher difficulty and a different civ. that's a good sign, i think. it's a $15 ipad game so that's sure to turn off many people, but if it's ever on sale it's worth picking up.

thanks dude. i will pick it up at some point but based on this i am ok with taking my time to get to it.

yeah, i'm also hopeful that they'll release a patch that makes a bunch of obvious improvements. stuff like being able to name the ships in your fleet, for example.

I started Vanquish this weekend. I didn't know what the hell was going on for the first hour or so, but man, what a ride. Like, it literally feels like some crazy, immersive amusement park ride. I'm sad to read that it's such a short game and that I'm apparenly halfway through it already. I hit a similar "I don't know what the hell is going on here" wall pretty early into playing Bayonetta but I think I need to give it another shot now. Or Revengeance, maybe? Batshit and busy as hell but ridiculously fun.

finally played thru grim fandango over the past 2 weekends, was enjoyable though it never really reached the high points of the monkey island games for me

now i'm trying to find other good point+click adventure games that i might have missed out on. i've played all the classic lucasarts ones now and most of the old sierra ones but not a lot of others

first of all: i have no mouth + i must scream

also: beneath a steel sky, broken sword, the longest journey, full throttle, gabriel knight, blade runner, freddy pharkas, various telltale games?

also maybe check out this blog for more suggestions:
http://advgamer.blogspot.com

Ha I was going to suggest B.A.T too, (on that blog), but I found it a bit shit really. Nice visuals though.

LIve set by YOB from January. Pretty heavy stuff innit?

thats a useful list thanks. have played full throttle but none of those others iirc

CITIES: SKYLINES

having such a good time. imagine if someone took simcity 4 but made it better and more user-friendly and gave you more control without overwhelming you with choices, rather than producing whatever the awful series of compromises that the new Sim City turned out to be.

do any of you know of any cities:skylines youtubers that aren't annoying as shit

um, I kinda like Sips ones. But I could see how some would find him annoying.

do any of you know of any cities:skylines youtubers that aren't annoying as shit

Finished Infamous (a game I put on hold for like 5 years- frustrating AI, monotonous grimness, a bug that still hasn't been fixed making it impossible to 100% one of the islands), breezed through the sequel (so much better in almost every possible way; still falls down a fair bit on the story front) and started the PS3 version of Resident Evil 4. It's my first time playing it ever, and while I'm terrible at it, I'm nowhere near as game-breakingly awful as I was at the first RE (my only other experience with the series) so hopefully that won't keep me from enjoying what everyone says is one of the best action games of all time.

Had a similar experience when I first played RE4, as I was so bad as at the old REs as well and ended up loving it. I'm pretty sure the opening village sequence is brutal and treacherous by design, forcing players into learning the new style, sadistically punishing you for trying to survive the same way you did in the old games. (I think it's brilliant)

i played RE4 for the first time on the wii and never really felt totally comfortable with the motion/wiimote controls, which is why i kind of cheated and just killed every boss with the rocket launcher. one of the best games ever though.

I loved the wiimote pointer controls, suspect they made the game easier than dual thumbsticks tho

love re4 so much - probably the most relentlessly thrilling game i've ever played

I hit the ceiling of my competence almost immediately- Nhex, you're goddamn right about that village. First attempt I tried sneaking off to the side, thought I'd found a spot where confrontation was inevitable, and started some shit on my own terms, thinking (foolishly) the point of the sneaking was to get me to a good place to fight. Took about 40 pitchforks to the face and restarted the area. Second time, I committed to the sneaking, made it a bit farther, literally jumped when I crossed a mumbling pitchfork lady's sightline and she shrieked at me, fucking RAN until I made the intimate acquaintance of a gentleman with a chainsaw. This game is not fucking around.

Heh, yup, it's all a trap. Your sneaking days are over! Get used to busting ass all over the ambiguously Spanish landscape.

I noticed that the game helpfully fills in the map for you in advance, including the next objective (whatever the fuck it is; I managed to bumble into two locked doors and a yokel with a flour sack on his head and a chainsaw in my neck). Next try I think I'm just going to make a mad dash for the marked objective and see what happens- that chainsaw guy can take so many shots to the face and kill me so wuickly if he gets close that engaging with him at all means I'm having to deal with a massive mob of bumpkins with farming implements. Who can spawn BEHIND me wtf

Oh, and while the sneaking bit managed to desensitize me to the regular enemies' mumbling (MIERDA and SIN MADRE and whatever), that Silent Hill-y drone when they're slowly closing in still gets under my skin way too easily...

After a while of not playing a lot of diff. games... i've actually played plenty of games played in the past coupla months.

- Danganronpa: must-own for VITA owners. Super weird and interesting and unique.
- Danganronpa 2: starts less good than 1; ends as good as 1.
- Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward: escape the room vs. weird bonkers timey-travelly-shit, kinda stupid but I was genuinely rivetted through the end
- Dragon Age Inquisition: is almost work but not quite
- OlliOlli2: I finally realized this is fun. Liking it more on Vita than on PS4.
- Final Fantasy Type-0: yet to really put time into this. may be not-garbage but I am not yet convinced.
- MLB15 for PS4: whoa mama look at those graphics.
- marvel puzzle quest: because i hate myself?

legend of dungeon is fun and awkward and i don't know what i'm doing?

www.swordandwhip.com
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation via PSP)
Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis via Dreamcast)
Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2 via PC)
Grand Theft Auto V (PC)
Dark Souls I & II (PC)

Gave up on Resident Evil 4 (I'm way too much of a chickenshit for this game), tried Castlevania: SotN, loved it but found that it will cheerfully let you play for 45 minutes without ever finding a save point and blunder straight into an unwinnable boss fight. Right now I'm working on the PS3 port of No More Heroes, which I'm also terrible at, but manageably so.

I really, REALLY don't know what I think of No More Heroes. The levels are (barring the odd amusing setpiece) really flat and bland, the endless mook fights are seemingly just there for you to rampage effortlessly through even on the higher of the two starting difficulty levels, the between-mission menial jobs get old long after they've made Suda51's point, and the assassination side missions are bizarrely poorly suited to the game- the time limits make it hard to fight defensively, but the tiny parking garage they all take place in makes it easy to get surrounded if you play aggressively and nearly impossible to recharge your weapon; they're essentially the worst of all possible worlds as far as the game's combat goes.

And then I hit a boss fight and realize that, holy shit, the combat in this game is really fucking good, and it would be nice if I got to use it and think about it more often. Even apart from the wonderful anti-antihero (if that makes sense; Travis is just such an absolute cock that his sheer unlikeability becomes weirdly fascinating) and gratuitous weirdness that seems like a pisstake of MGS games (RAP WITH ME, JENNIFER), the fights are really tightly designed and clever, the Shinobu fight especially.

heh. yup, that sounds like a Suda 51 game.

Does anybody use Grouvee or Dpadd?

Here's mine:
http://www.grouvee.com/user/ryan.hupp/

It's been pretty helpful getting me to prioritize my fucking ludicrous Steam sale/late console generation buying spree backlog and to knock out a few major indie games (Thomas Was Alone, Gone Home) while I dutifully slog through the AAA games I'm mired in (Final Fucking Fantasy XIII, Far Cry 3, Mass Effect 3 which has been on hold for almost two years at this point)

oh boy

you know those fliers that get handed out near places where you can gamble? "if you keep playing and you've stopped having fun, you have a problem"?

i sympathize with you TT. i'm still really bad at prioritizing the insane ever-growing backlog... sometimes it feels like the longer it's been in the shrinkwrap/queue the hardest it is to just sit down and play it
i hadn't heard of those two sites, but I remember when backloggery.com started

yeah, dang. i keep presuming at some point i'll get fired and have to move back in with my mother and THEN oh boy

I did finally crack open Bayonetta today. Damn, that's some entertainment. Basically, everything they did in God Hand but even more blown up.

Splatoon is so much fun, every part of it feels incredibly polished, from the balance to the controls to the soundtrack to the mini NES squid games that you can play while waiting in the lobby. It's like they mariokarted the shooter.

I tried playing Super Mario Sunshine last night for the first time. Um..... ehhh..... Sorry if anyone likes it but it is easily the worst mainline Mario game I've ever played. Chasing that kidnapping evil Mario was fun for about 10 seconds and when I couldn't get him and had run through the level for the 6th time in a row, just shut it off. Yuck.

The intro cinematic is funny, with the Princess seeing weird shit in the distance, with Mario going to jail, etc. Also I am playing on emulator on PC, I wonder if I am missing out by not using the GC controller.

Never really liked 3D Mario until Galaxy tbh. 64 was fine but I'm too old school when it comes to the plumber.

i remember that intro level being stupid, but at least get to the hardcore "space" levels before you dump the game - that's where the game really shines (get) IMO
i think you are honestly missing something without using the original GC gamepad, but that's almost always kind of a problem with emulation when it comes to unusual controllers. but those first-party GC games really feel fit to those kidney beans and triggers

Yeah it said to 'lightly' press a button to shoot while running, which I couldn't get to work. Do I need to eff with X-Input controls for this?

invisible inc

i'm messing w/ watch_dogs right now which is nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be. the nice thing abotu playing overhyped, underdelivered games a year late is that you kinda adjust your expectations and have a lovely time.

xp Invisible Inc will totally be mine... the second it hits a humble bundle.

it's so good.