whatchu playing now

Geralt is a better gruff character than Jensen tho.

take the time to break into apartments and wander around and be a dick in new deus ex--the main story is kinda dumb and ends abruptly (imo) but the side stuff is real fun

i was thinking how great it would be if the witcher guys were making the deus ex games instead and then i rememberd that they kinda are!

Can't stop playing pro evo at the moment

The Witness. Started off amazed, now amazed and frustrated, graaargh. Don't want to read the dedicated thread for fear or spoilers.

there was only one puzzle I had to look up in inside. the one where you climb a chain, hit a button and the chain starts moving from right to left... I was going down the wrong alley completely with that one

Ledge if you want some nonspoilery suggestions/advice just let me know! I also hit a wall a few times but was lucky to have a small group of friends that to play through it together and brainstorm.

Anybody else playing Minecraft IP Theft Simulator Dragon Quest Builders? Can't decide whether it's actually a good game or not but I've been playing a lot of it, and it's pretty decent handheld fodder.

xp thanks! I think i've still got enough unexplored terrain to be getting on with for now. i am starting to wonder if it's some kind of self-help course disguised as a videogame though...

wow, titanfall 2's singleplayer campaign is really really good - probably the most fun I've had with a shooter since portal 2?

not that portal is really a shooter but you know what i mean

Titanfall 2 singleplayer is incredibly fun - best single player FPS in years and years

What games is Titanfall 2 most like? It sounds a bit like Crysis, is that right?

Also, what kind of game is Mass Effect and its sequels? Looking for a kind of FEAR/STALKER/MGS5/Crysis type game at the moment, am I barking up the wrong tree with that (and T2)?

mass effect is a bioware rpg, like knights of the old republic crossed w a hasty fps; it's got shooting but i don't think it'd scratch that itch. the bethesda fallouts would be closer, even, i think, and they're nobody's idea of a nice crunchy shooter.

the new DOOM is closer to crysis than to the other games on yr list -- you just shoot stuff and upgrade stuff. a joy to play as long as shooting stuff and upgrading stuff is what you want to do. if you want something more like the complexity, semi-freedom, character dev choices, plot etc of MGS5 or STALKER -- have you played any deus exes?

i think RAGE is an underrated fps -- fallout-style setting w no RPG pretense, shooting shooting shooting, carmack engine.

also mentioning this because mass effect is a pretty old game itself -- if you haven't played half-life 2, half-life 2 is still about as good as linear single-player fps design gets.

Thanks for that. I've tried the first Deus Ex (Human Rev DC) and it didn't grab me, seemed kinda dumb and schlocky - is it worth persisting with? Kinda interested by Doom but is it not a bit one-note? I like the Far Cry-style freedom of Crysis and Doom seems to be that linear style that made me hate the Uncharted series.

Feeling bereft at the moment as Mafia 3 is a load of crap. I'm betting Dishonored 2 will be perfect but it's out of my budget right now. Liked Half Life 2 but not sure if I finished it, got that weird nausea thing playing it but I'll revisit.

And cheers for the Mass Effect warning, will avoid!

I've tried the first Deus Ex (Human Rev DC) and it didn't grab me, seemed kinda dumb and schlocky - is it worth persisting with?

this is the second deus ex actually (first in the recent revival) and yeah it is kinda dumb and schlocky -- if what you mean is, is the plot worth persisting with, no. the fun of playing it does peak in the middle but if you weren't having fun at the beginning i'd guess it's not gonna work for you. the original (PC-only) deus ex is imo a towering masterpiece, of both (broken) mechanics and (schlocky) plot, but it's from 2000 and looks it (actually it looks worse).

Kinda interested by Doom but is it not a bit one-note?

haha, this too is true. it is a satisfying note that is hammered w ever-increasing speed and intensity, tho. i've only played like a fifth of one uncharted but it seemed to be full of cutscenes and pseudointeractive sequences where you press a button to make your guy perform some contextual feat of insane james bondery, and there isn't any of that. it's v much a 90s throwback. nb: i did not finish it, because it was a bit one-note.

rage has some modest open-world stuff actually! also driving. the reviews seemed to wish it had neither but i think part of that may have been them craving fallout. half-life 2 absolutely does not have anything like an open world, but it modulates pace and style and challenge v well.

maybe a borderlands? more experienced people than me could recommend a specific one.

the third actually! the original had an [underwhelming] sequel

oh duh! i've beaten that game, even. memorable.

the fun of playing it does peak in the middle but if you weren't having fun at the beginning i'd guess it's not gonna work for you.

would like to revise this as have just remembered that the very beginning is a long cutscene followed by a bland corridor shooter level followed by a long cutscene. what i meant was the first mission proper, the first time you have to infiltrate a place -- crawling thru ducts, choking out guards etc.. that's when you could be sure whether or not you were interested.

i think the second (new) one is better. i'm near the end and it's well-paced, the levels are interesting [enough], the opening is engaging, the plot is not terrible. it actually gives me some hope that the series will continue to be decent. i'm assuming cyberpunk 2077 blows it away when it comes out but until then and there's never enough cyberpunk RPGs anyway

that is interesting! i used the lukewarm reviews as an excuse to save $60 (then over christmas as an excuse to save $30) but the lukewarm reviews mostly were like "it's more of the same and too short" and that would v likely be the gamecrit reaction to something tightened+refined. will pick it up eventually.

anyway obligatory me being like, BUT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A GREATER VIDEO GAME OPENING THAN LIBERTY ISLAND IN DEUS EX (2000) AND IT IS OF OPEN FIELD WEST OF A WHITE HOUSE LEVEL IMPORTANCE.

titanfall 2 is brilliant though the game it's most like in terms of gameplay-loop is probably the original CoD4. the campaign is really surprisingly good but the MP is just stellar

this video gives good summary of the MP beginning at 9:13 (talks about the SP beforehand too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TW3ceuTWEQ&t=615s

long cutscene followed by a bland corridor shooter level followed by a long cutscene

this is exactly right! seemed like every other dumb shooter. i'll give it another hour or so and see the rest picks up. not heard of RAGE so i'll look into that. and yes, loved borderlands. doom seems a bit too straightforward - im guessing it's like CoD where it's kinda fun but it feels like you're on a railway track and mustn't/can't make any deviation.

i've got this quantum break game that sounds interestingish but the whole opening bit of zero fun and constant exposition for what felt like hours has put me off massively. pure deep loathing of anything that relies so heavily on cutscenes and dreary plodding about with no 'game', especially when most games are written so badly when it comes to plot/dialogue. (despite turning out to be crap, mafia 3 does have fairly decent writing behind it, or not offensively bad writing anyway).

have you played the saint's row games?

What games is Titanfall 2 most like? It sounds a bit like Crysis, is that right?

the magic of titanfall 2 (singleplayer anyway, i haven't yet touched the mp) is that it's basically two very different shooters in one. you play as a titan pilot who fights either on foot or in a giant mech bristling with weaponry and both are immensely satisfying in their own right.

on foot you have the ability to chain slides, double-jumps and wall-runs to make graceful lines through levels, which feels super-slick and exciting, and in the mech you're basically unstoppable until you meet another titan, where it becomes more of a cat-and-mouse war of attrition where you have to balance various offensive and defensive powers.

the singleplayer story is pretty straightforward point-a-to-point-b shooter but it's exceptionally well-designed and there is one section, where you have to manipulate time to solve puzzles alongside the shooting, which is genuinely one of the most inventive and delightful fps levels i've ever played. seriously, it's good enough that i'd play a whole game based on that mechanic.

am no longer a gamer, but i have a bizarre addiction: there's a scene of youtubers who do really quite serious endurance-style racing within GTA V. organized multiclass hour-long events, carefully designed courses with pit lanes, socially-enforced rules about faults and incidents, teams with season standings, the works. it's completely bonkers and i find it really soothing to watch. i'm not a motorsport fan, at all. help me.

one of the heavyweights, a kid from london, had to bow out about a year ago - carpal tunnel

link

http://www.youtube.com/user/hwkabro
http://www.youtube.com/user/denholmsmith
http://www.youtube.com/user/GUN1T123
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW4MVaPzScGzMSk26aexHTg
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUow7wUq2sSRL2Bz3-kqNew

Titanfall's more of an on-the-rails experience than DOOM, tbh. I liked it less than most of the ilxors here, but it's a solid game.

I stand by DOOM as the best pure FPS of this generation, but your mileage may depend on how adrenaline-y/twitch-y you like it. Definitely more wondering around looking for secrets/keys/powerups and less of that funneled-down-a-hallway feeling. Recommended playing on a notch above the default difficulty to get the most out of it.

xp it's hypnotic for sure.

TF2 MP is best in class

Yeah I'm speaking solely of single player FWIW. Haven't spent much time with the MP yet.

have you played the saint's row games?

many moons ago i played one and couldn't get into it, seemed like a dumber GTA with nothing else to it. i've not thought about that series for years though, are recent ones better? (was saying recently how GTA:VC and SA were two of the high points of my gaming life, so engaging and sheer *fun*. the last couple have been so dreary and bloated, either bleak as all hell (4) or ruined by sneery unfunny writing (5). considering trying the new PC version of GTA5, mind.)

it just has this really rewarding gameplay loop that's perfectly calibrated to deliver the require dopamine micodoses at perfectly spaced intervals. it has a STEEP learning curve tho and can be very bewildering to new players. if you've never played TF1 before there are a lot of little systems to learn, and that's just for the core gameplay i.e. before you've even thought about all the little tips, tricks and glitches that always come with these games. anyone has any questions feel free to fire away I'll try my best to answer them (I only have about 50 hours down right now. think I'm G3?)

seems like respawn are quite a decent dev too: listening to the community (particularly the hardcore youtubers who put down the most time and have the most insight) to deliver changes to make the game better. and committed to free gameplay DLC (i.e. maps and weapons though there are non-gameplay altering paid-for skins) for the life of the game (though with EA involved I'll believe this when I see it)

Yes 100% play the most recent Saints Row they went into full satire and it's v fun and v satisfying. Also have you played Just Cause 2?

thanks for the replies btw. i've decided to check out Doom, Rage (looks mega like borderlands from what i can tell) and the latest Deus Ex Mankind (looks a bit nu-splinter celly, which i love).

i think the last game i truly loved, other than Inside, was Alien Isolation. craving something with that kind of claustrophobic intensity and unforgiving difficulty - similar to why i enjoyed FEAR and STALKER so much, and possibly Manhunt years back. MGS5 had a hint of it before it became boringly monotonous.

xpost, ok great, i'll read up on the new SR. liked JC2 for a bit but was never gripped enough to persist with it. it's hard to pin down exactly what i want from games! been floundering for about a year, waiting for the next big addiction. half-hoped fallout4 would fill the void but that was a massive disappointment (dull one-trick missions and 'crafting'. as long as i live, i'll never care a hoot about 'crafting')

the satire/fun/satisfying thing was something far cry: blood dragon did so well. tons better than the FC games proper

SRIV was a lot of fun w tons of things that helped it stick out from other open world games - taking out space aliens, shooting the black hole gun, flying from rooftop to rooftop, the cool mini-boss fights where you are facing off across multiple city blocks against a Doomsday-style comic monster, the insurance minigame where you go limp and fling your body into as many cars & buildings as possible, etc. I really liked the permanent night setting, it gave the whole thing a very dreamlike quality. fwiw i haven't finished a GTA since SA

You might like the new Dishonored? Cool first-person stealth shit in an interesting setting, it gets more fun once you get the hang of it and stop reloading saves every 30 seconds.

can't wait to play DH2, still too expensive at the moment. loved the first one.

Been playing TV Sports Football a lot. I used to play this tons with a mate back in the Amiga days, I was always Dolphins he was always Raiders.

Kinda fun just to watch the computer play itself sometimes, but damn the QB ai is pretty tragic. Nobody seems to be able to make a successful field goal beyond 26 yards either!

should i get mgs5 for ps4? it's on sale on amazon. nb that i literally have not played a single mg game since the nes and i keep thinking that i'll play mgs5 after i backtrack and at the very least play MGS (1998), if not also 2,3 + 4. but who knows when sony will get around to porting the collection to the ps4.

woah! you should play all imo. i had only played part of the NES game when i was a kid. it found it very confusing and hard to control at the time. later playing through MGS was the same way. just getting through that first room was a huge pain. but the voice acting was amazing and the writing and direction was great. it was like someone was making a Con Air/James Bond/Rambo-level Hollywood action thriller only they had the budget to do animatics. the first game is entirely hand-animated, which gives the 3d a little more experimental feel imo. it helps that the death theme and animation is so cool, the yelling of "Snake! Snaaaake!" in over-theatrical variations. i love this tradition that they keep up, and how the name and the person screaming it changes depending on the current context of the story.

you got to at least play MGS1 until meeting Hal Emmerich, who is a sort of self-insert character, an Oktaku who is a big fan of Japanese anime and giant robots. a US scientist forced to build nuclear weapons, Hal - like director Kojima himsel - is compelled to produce Metal Gears.

MGS1 is very much moving across a room or two and then watching these 10 minute cutscenes and Hal's is one of the best. he starts talking about the US nuking of Japan and ensuing fallout of nuclear proliferation and suddenly you are in a Grisham/Chrichton novel with technical terms and acronyms flying by left and right. the start of MGS1 is full of that. anyways, the anti-nuke stuff is very interesting, something you would never see in a big budget action movie. herein lies one of the most interesting things about the series: it is by a Japanese person about the US military, twisting that 80s macho US military flexing in on itself and turning it into digitally distorted hyper kitch (see also Contra). anyways all of this happens after you fight a Cyborg Ninja!

MGSV is really something else. it is super easy to control and plays better than any open world game I have ever played. the pacing is different because the story is no longer stop-and-start. it has the same amount of total cutscenes and audio as the other games but the play-ability of all the missions and the experience of building up your army literally one man or woman at a time is so much fun, so smooth and seamless. in earlier MGS games you would spend perhaps 5 minutes running around a small area of 4-8 rooms whereas now you are riding your horse across the desert going from base to base. it's still highly stylized (it only takes a minute or two to get from any one base or outpost to the next running, you have infinite sprint so no need to worry about stamina unlike every other open world game) but very immersive. you ride your horse through the desert mountains as the sunrises, coming around a corner you see a camp of Russian soldiers up ahead. the soundtrack kicks in a Morricone-style cue as fog drifts over the cliff to your right. as you crawl up to the green tents by the side of the road, you see a boombox playing Billy Idol "Rebel Yell". you take the tape so that you can play it from your helicopter later.

the story is very cool about ofc 80s US paramilitary interests, this time across the mercenary-exploited digital third world warzones of Africa and Afganistahn (the Mujahadeen play a part in the story). you play a war vet that wakes up in a hospital and repeatedly suffers from PTSD during the course of the game, so in a way it continues that MGS tradition of anti-war messages delivered with a glorified violence power trip. that glorified violence power trip was a very American thing in the 80s (i can recall drawing pictures of tanks and planes and battle scenes on the way to school in the morning. we read about the Russian coup in middle school.) and Kojima was raised by that same culture, by American movies like Rambo III (which IS the first half of MGSV) and James Bond. MGSV is also a meta commentary about the whole series, and the Kojima/Konami power struggle, and the tying together of different story threads from all of the MGS games in a pretty brilliant way.

if you decide to play MGSV my main recommendation is that you do the FOBs. they are the online missions where you can invade another player's base. they are amazing. they do not become available until late in the game (mission 22) but they are extremely fun, capturing the thrill akin to a good game of freeze tag or ultimate hide and seek.

Lying on the sofa with manflu and lemsip playing Day of the Tentacle

Watched a playthrough of that recently, good luck with those effing puzzles!

i beat that in 95 w/ no hints! unlike that fucking MI1 flint-dam puzzle (this 11yo didn't know that you could use flint and gunpowder to make an explosion) (actually iirc that one had a second solution too - you could use the telescopic glass w/ the sun to light the gunpowder too)