The Video Game thread

[ChetMagongalo]

HoN came after Dota 1, maybe that's what you meant. to go from warcraft 3 to Hon, was like going from windows 98 to 10 or something, it was so much easier and faster to play; the company who owned hon made a ton of awful business mistakes over time and now the game is pretty much dead except in south east asia, which uses a different client from what I understand.

Question: Games like DOTA or LoL or whatever......I don't really understand them and they seem really intimidating.
Can anyone give me a quick overview of them, the general plan to playing and what's it's like to start playing them? They don't seem noob friendly. I've tried watching a few videos of gameplay and I never understand what's going on.

MOBA games are really fun to win and not fun to lose. so they're stressful but can be really rewarding because there are a lot of things going on at once that you have to be on top of. you also have to work with 4 other people for 15-60 mins. You also have to learn how to level your skills, what items are good to buy, good movement, map awareness, how to counter certain lineups and strategies or execute your own etc. basically the game is very contextual so it's hard to pick up quickly, you will spend the first 40 hours or so very clueless and bad at the game, and not really ready for competitive play till perhaps several hundred more. its the same principle that makes high context languages (mostly asian) hard to learn for westerners. it's an investment and a time sink for certain.

how the game plays is you each control a character (out of 40-100) with a unique set of skills and you get stronger as the game goes. as the game goes on you get progressively stronger by leveling up and receiving money; you get rewarded for killing creeps, buildings and the enemy team's characters. the objective in the game is to destroy the other teams base before they destroy yours.

[Andrew]

I take back my Republique interest, Jesus Christ I haven't played haven't played something that was that on the nose. You can collect a floppy disk with a picture of 'Gone Home' on it followed by a narration with some douche saying how great and effecting it was along with a "(0_o)". Then there was a picture of Shadowrun Returns followed by a statement of how great Kickstarter is. The other main character labels himself as being socially awkward.

So goddamn cringey. I get that they're trying to do some 1984 parallel, but it comes across as really gross. That and 4th wall breaking really takes to take a rest in Indie games now. In my opinion of cause.

[GAS KING]

MOBA games are really fun to win and not fun to lose. so they're stressful but can be really rewarding because there are a lot of things going on at once that you have to be on top of. you also have to work with 4 other people for 15-60 mins. You also have to learn how to level your skills, what items are good to buy, good movement, map awareness, how to counter certain lineups and strategies or execute your own etc. basically the game is very contextual so it's hard to pick up quickly, you will spend the first 40 hours or so very clueless and bad at the game, and not really ready for competitive play till perhaps several hundred more. its the same principle that makes high context languages (mostly asian) hard to learn for westerners. it's an investment and a time sink for certain.

how the game plays is you each control a character (out of 40-100) with a unique set of skills and you get stronger as the game goes. as the game goes on you get progressively stronger by leveling up and receiving money; you get rewarded for killing creeps, buildings and the enemy team's characters. the objective in the game is to destroy the other teams base before they destroy yours.

Thanks for this.
Do you have a recommendation for a first MOBA game?

[pd~]

It's been said before: Dota/LoL encompass both the most and least fun I've ever had with video games. I don't play them now because of the time commitment.

Thanks for this.
Do you have a recommendation for a first MOBA game?

As fun as LoL is, it has an awful free-to-play grinding system in place. I would strongly recommend Dota 2.

[GAS KING]

Hmmmm.....I'm not sure that's the type of game for me then.
I tried Heroes of the Storm for a few days (possibly in beta?). I had no clue what I was doing and it didn't seem very fun.

[MrNovember]

So I bought Far Cry Primal shortly after it came out. Was pretty sweet for awhile, then I just got bored, haven't gone back to it yet. I really need to start listening to reviews

Fallout 4 Automatron was pretty cool, but disappointingly short. Custom building robots is amazing, but the actual mission it added only took me a couple hours to complete. So I'm back to not playing that again until the next DLC comes out.

I really just can't wait until No Man's Sky comes out

[ChetMagongalo]

Heroes of the storm is the newest and most casual of the genre from what i've heard from friends. it might not really play like the other more traditional moba games we mentioned previously.

but it is seriously a time sink, I used to play mobas every day for like 3-8 hours (mostly cause high school was awful), and if you don't play frequently you will fall behind in ranking, which depending on your mindset is a good/bad thing. this happens mostly because the game's balance are always constantly changing. some gamers like it when games DONT have metas that change often or drastically.

I stopped playing long ago because I didn't like coordinating with whiny nerds on the internet who don't care about playing the game, I highly recommend not playing mobas if you can't play with at least 1 or 2 other people that aren't randoms.

If you were going to get into a moba I would choose dota 2, valve has done a really good job with that game as time has gone on, it's a lot better than HoN was when I was playing that a ton. I never really sunk a ton of time into dota 2, but it is really similiar to the old dota, which to me is annoying and enjoyable at the same time.

[Wes Mantooth]

So I bought Far Cry Primal shortly after it came out. Was pretty sweet for awhile, then I just got bored, haven't gone back to it yet. I really need to start listening to reviews

Fallout 4 Automatron was pretty cool, but disappointingly short. Custom building robots is amazing, but the actual mission it added only took me a couple hours to complete. So I'm back to not playing that again until the next DLC comes out.

I really just can't wait until No Man's Sky comes out

Yeah after playing through Far Cry 4, unless they completely change the game, I have no desire to play another FC game. 4 was really fun but I got burnt out towards the end.

I had the same experience you did with Automatron. Really excited to bring my sentry with two mini nuke launchers, a gatling laser and explosive minigun with me into more DLC (I hope).

[waltdogg]

friend keeps to telling me to play Undertale. anything up with that game?

[MrNovember]

So I bought Far Cry Primal shortly after it came out. Was pretty sweet for awhile, then I just got bored, haven't gone back to it yet. I really need to start listening to reviews

Fallout 4 Automatron was pretty cool, but disappointingly short. Custom building robots is amazing, but the actual mission it added only took me a couple hours to complete. So I'm back to not playing that again until the next DLC comes out.

I really just can't wait until No Man's Sky comes out

Yeah after playing through Far Cry 4, unless they completely change the game, I have no desire to play another FC game. 4 was really fun but I got burnt out towards the end.

I had the same experience you did with Automatron. Really excited to bring my sentry with two mini nuke launchers, a gatling laser and explosive minigun with me into more DLC (I hope).

Yeah Primal was just FC4 with cavemen. They changed basically nothing, except they made hunting more rewarding. Still really fun to play, but overall, not worth it. I tried to make it interesting by turning off the HUD and not fast travelling, but that just got tedious

And wow, your sentry would kick my robot's ass. I really just built mine around being as stealthy as possible; Mr Handy thrusters and stealth swords

[GAS KING]

Heroes of the storm is the newest and most casual of the genre from what i've heard from friends. it might not really play like the other more traditional moba games we mentioned previously.

but it is seriously a time sink, I used to play mobas every day for like 3-8 hours (mostly cause high school was awful), and if you don't play frequently you will fall behind in ranking, which depending on your mindset is a good/bad thing. this happens mostly because the game's balance are always constantly changing. some gamers like it when games DONT have metas that change often or drastically.

I stopped playing long ago because I didn't like coordinating with whiny nerds on the internet who don't care about playing the game, I highly recommend not playing mobas if you can't play with at least 1 or 2 other people that aren't randoms.

If you were going to get into a moba I would choose dota 2, valve has done a really good job with that game as time has gone on, it's a lot better than HoN was when I was playing that a ton. I never really sunk a ton of time into dota 2, but it is really similiar to the old dota, which to me is annoying and enjoyable at the same time.

Thanks for the explanation. I think you saved me some time.

If definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd like. I normally play solo. Don't have any gamer friends, and normally don't like playing with randoms.

[Iommic Pope]

So I bought Far Cry Primal shortly after it came out. Was pretty sweet for awhile, then I just got bored, haven't gone back to it yet. I really need to start listening to reviews

Fallout 4 Automatron was pretty cool, but disappointingly short. Custom building robots is amazing, but the actual mission it added only took me a couple hours to complete. So I'm back to not playing that again until the next DLC comes out.

I really just can't wait until No Man's Sky comes out

Yeah after playing through Far Cry 4, unless they completely change the game, I have no desire to play another FC game. 4 was really fun but I got burnt out towards the end.

I had the same experience you did with Automatron. Really excited to bring my sentry with two mini nuke launchers, a gatling laser and explosive minigun with me into more DLC (I hope).

Yeah Primal was just FC4 with cavemen. They changed basically nothing, except they made hunting more rewarding. Still really fun to play, but overall, not worth it. I tried to make it interesting by turning off the HUD and not fast travelling, but that just got tedious

And wow, your sentry would kick my robot's ass. I really just built mine around being as stealthy as possible; Mr Handy thrusters and stealth swords

I have a roboner.

[ChetMagongalo]

Thanks for the explanation. I think you saved me some time.

If definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd like. I normally play solo. Don't have any gamer friends, and normally don't like playing with randoms.

yeah mobas are not good for solo gaming, esp starting out in the genre because the game is so hard to learn.

my favorite games for playing solo are: super smash bros, CSGO, and starcraft 2, all have high skill ceilings but are fun at every level of the game.

[oscillateur]

friend keeps to telling me to play Undertale. anything up with that game?

Apparently super good. I bought it, played one hour or two and went to something else. I think it becomes really good a bit after I stopped, at the beginning it's nothing special. I should go back to it and see how it is once you advance a bit more...

[Wes Mantooth]

So I bought Far Cry Primal shortly after it came out. Was pretty sweet for awhile, then I just got bored, haven't gone back to it yet. I really need to start listening to reviews

Fallout 4 Automatron was pretty cool, but disappointingly short. Custom building robots is amazing, but the actual mission it added only took me a couple hours to complete. So I'm back to not playing that again until the next DLC comes out.

I really just can't wait until No Man's Sky comes out

Yeah after playing through Far Cry 4, unless they completely change the game, I have no desire to play another FC game. 4 was really fun but I got burnt out towards the end.

I had the same experience you did with Automatron. Really excited to bring my sentry with two mini nuke launchers, a gatling laser and explosive minigun with me into more DLC (I hope).

Yeah Primal was just FC4 with cavemen. They changed basically nothing, except they made hunting more rewarding. Still really fun to play, but overall, not worth it. I tried to make it interesting by turning off the HUD and not fast travelling, but that just got tedious

And wow, your sentry would kick my robot's ass. I really just built mine around being as stealthy as possible; Mr Handy thrusters and stealth swords

It overheats and blows up a lot but can also take on just about any enemy out there. The companion AI is so worthless (one of the worst in modern video games) in this game that I just made something that could take the most damage. Seriously I am just amazed they are still able to make AI that is this stupid.