The Video Game thread

[snipelfritz]

I'm currently playing Life Is Strange as well. Just finished Episode 4. Really enjoying the twisted story despite minor annoyances in some of the actual mechanics. At first I felt weird snooping through everyone's shit, but then video games. Can't wait to finish it.

Hmmm, maybe I should pick that up again...I kinda got bored with it in episode two. Playing the story just wasn't quite appealing to me.

[codetocontra]

It gets pretty twisted and quite dark. Even my wife is half paying attention to the game while she reads. Maybe it isn't a game for everyone but I am loving it.

[waltdogg]

ill admit getting past the weird cutesy drama and stupid puzzles in the first two episodes is a bit tedious but once the game picks up it gets a lot more interesting. you do have to be cool with all the cinematics though.

[UglyCasanova]

So, who's been playing The Last Guardian? I don't care much about the game suffering from archaic mechanics and the AI being a little broken. I think I want to get it. Shadow of the Colossus is one of my all time favorite games. Didn't like ICO as much though... hmmmm

[blakestree]

We still haven't gotten ours! Fuckin' GameStop...

[UglyCasanova]

So, I ended up downloading The Last Guardian last night and playing it for 2-3 hours with the misses. It has some framerate issues, the controls are a bit all over the place and Trico's AI is not fantastic (fairly realistic when comparing it to telling one of my whippets what to do, actually). BUT, the mood, style, music, storytelling is really, really good. If you just take it slow and take it all in instead of rushing and getting frustrated at Trico, you're in for a good time (at least so far). The long production time is apparent, but I'm enjoying it a lot non the less.

[snipelfritz]

Finished the last chapter of new King's Quest. Got all tha feels...but to be honest, the gameplay just kind of never quite captured the struggle of the originals. Many of the puzzles were just that...puzzles that felt more like they were there to pad out the game time. The climax is literally just a bunch of logic/sudoku-style puzzles. There's some interesting story-telling ideas in terms of the narrative being told by someone with a mind that is quickly failing. But honestly, the reboot as a whole felt a little weak in terms of capturing the real essence of the original.

I think they just bit off more than they could chew. Chapter One was great, but it didn't really keep that level of quality throughout.

[Achtane]

My Summer Car is the most realistic, um, real life simulator out there.

[codetocontra]

Finished Life is Strange. Wow. Didn't expect to feel so many things.

Burned through Firewatch. Wasn't too into it. Maybe I needed some time after Life is Strange to decompress. Or maybe it isn't special. It has been called a walking simulator, never played one before but I get it. Just som fetch quests with some voice overs. Didn't find it particularly visually appealing either.

Started Oxenfree. Not loving the characters. There are some really interesting moments, but spaced out between long boring parts. I hate how my conversation choices disappear before the other characters finish speaking. As a person I normally listen to what someone says before thinking about a response, where this game is asking me to choose my response during someone else's speech. Still, I will likely see it to the end at this point.

I have played a lot of games this year, to the detriment of making music actually. Anyone interested in assembling lists for personal games of the year? I was thinking maybe a list of 5, 7 or 10. But how relevent is a top 10 if you played 20 games? I know my list would be hard to choose just 5, but maybe a bit bloated at 10. Was thinking about adding descriptions too, maybe just short Twitter-like length of why it is on the list. Or is this all too pretentious?

[UglyCasanova]

So, I ended up downloading The Last Guardian last night and playing it for 2-3 hours with the misses. It has some framerate issues, the controls are a bit all over the place and Trico's AI is not fantastic (fairly realistic when comparing it to telling one of my whippets what to do, actually). BUT, the mood, style, music, storytelling is really, really good. If you just take it slow and take it all in instead of rushing and getting frustrated at Trico, you're in for a good time (at least so far). The long production time is apparent, but I'm enjoying it a lot non the less.

Just finished the game. I stand by everything I said. Really powerful storytelling about friendship set in a beautiful world.

[backwardsvoyager]

I have played a lot of games this year, to the detriment of making music actually. Anyone interested in assembling lists for personal games of the year? I was thinking maybe a list of 5, 7 or 10. But how relevent is a top 10 if you played 20 games? I know my list would be hard to choose just 5, but maybe a bit bloated at 10. Was thinking about adding descriptions too, maybe just short Twitter-like length of why it is on the list. Or is this all too pretentious?

i don't think it's pretentious.
do you mean games released this year or games you played this year though? i've probably finished 20-30 games this year but not even 10% of that would be new releases
honestly i think people here are level-headed enough that we could have civil discussion about worst games of the year too, that's always fun.

[TheTransient]

So, I ended up downloading The Last Guardian last night and playing it for 2-3 hours with the misses. It has some framerate issues, the controls are a bit all over the place and Trico's AI is not fantastic (fairly realistic when comparing it to telling one of my whippets what to do, actually). BUT, the mood, style, music, storytelling is really, really good. If you just take it slow and take it all in instead of rushing and getting frustrated at Trico, you're in for a good time (at least so far). The long production time is apparent, but I'm enjoying it a lot non the less.

I played it over the weekend. Definitely has some issues, but it was still an enjoyable game for sure. Ico and SOTC are also two of my favourite games as well. I was kinda hoping for more progression in the boy (i.e. he gets the mirror thing right at the start, but never picks up any other gear like a shield or a sword or whatever. Some other magical gear), and more history about the valley, its master and the Trico monsters.

Ah well. I am still generally pretty happy with how it turned out

[codetocontra]

i don't think it's pretentious.
do you mean games released this year or games you played this year though? i've probably finished 20-30 games this year but not even 10% of that would be new releases
honestly i think people here are level-headed enough that we could have civil discussion about worst games of the year too, that's always fun.

Any games you played this year, regardless of release date. And I would be quite happy to give a personal "worst or most disappointing game of the year." Maybe even a list of 3. As well as most anticipated games for next year, either new or from our backlog.

[GAS KING]

Battleborn for me. I wanted to love that game so much, but poor release doomed it.
(I tried paladins last night. cool free game, that is very similar to battleborn and overwatch)

Then No Man's Sky........although their recent updates have been full of content and fixes.....just took a few months.
I think NMS would have been the game for me, had there been more of a loot system. I pretty much only play loot based games.

[UglyCasanova]

I haven't had time to play too many games this year, but off the top of my head:

Best
1. The Witness
2. The Last Guardian
3. LoZ: TP HD

Worst
No Man's Sky (The music was good though)