RBA Starblade posted:I still think Hotline Miami is a perfect companion piece to Spec Ops. Also Pathologic. Except Hotline Miami and Spec Ops are fun, while Pathologic is a beautiful soul destroying monster of grim tedium.
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Jul 14, 2017 17:40
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Haha, yeah it's great. I can't wait for the remake to finish; the demo was some good stuff. Especially if you remembered how things eventually go in the original if you're clever. My favorite thing in Pathologic is they released a walkthrough for it to get the "best" ending and if you followed it exactly, including some inconsequential steps, then you would get that ending - but right before it a dev stand-in shows up, congratulates you, then says you'd probably have had more fun if you experimented a bit. My favorite little thing in another game the devs made, Cargo, references their previous game, The Void. In The Void you collect drops of Color which serve as your everything; health, resources, defense, etc. You never have enough and it is measured literally in drops for an entire "world". In Cargo, the plot is that the demigods of wherever you end up are looking for a new fuel source; they settle on Fun. Halfway through the game they mention that they switched to Fun because the last thing they used, Color, sort of sucks and is bullshit, so they end up dumping a few hundred thousand gallons of it into the ocean for the rest of the game. I love Ice Pick Lodge. RBA Starblade has a new favorite as of 17:51 on Jul 14, 2017 |
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Jul 14, 2017 17:43
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TGLT posted:edit: It also really only has the one central theme - Americans have a hosed up relationship with war. We glorify and sanitize it in our media, and we provide ridiculous and self serving "we'll be greeted as liberators" justifications for the wars we do declare. I'm not sure where people get that it's broadly about violence in video games. I mean there's a part where the radio man chides you for your violence and then straight up says "is it the video games? I bet it's the video games."
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Jul 14, 2017 18:26
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TGLT posted:There's only one person in the room though? Konrad not actually being a threat, because he's been dead for a while, is a significant point and part of the game's very obvious attempt to mirror the Iraq war. A big part of Spec Ops message is that the stuff that's presented as fun badass mil poo poo that Call of Duty style games have players do would actually have pretty horrific consequences/implications in real life.
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Jul 14, 2017 18:36
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ilmucche posted:The executions change as well, and become more violent as walker begins to break down. They also start to yell at each other and Walker gets angry when he has to heal his squadmates.
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Jul 14, 2017 18:51
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RBA Starblade posted:Haha, yeah it's great. I can't wait for the remake to finish; the demo was some good stuff. Especially if you remembered how things eventually go in the original if you're clever. Can Colour be my favourite little thing in a game? It's one mechanic that incorporates ammo, health, stats/equipment, money and time. It's elegant as hell and I love it.
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Jul 14, 2017 19:29
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Digirat posted:I mean there's a part where the radio man chides you for your violence and then straight up says "is it the video games? I bet it's the video games." That's right after he says "you guys are gonna clean this up right?" and "I'm gonna let that one slide, he was a creep." Video link, but he's clearly making jokes as you invade his radio station. And it's not a line of criticism which ever really gets repeated. Prokhor Zakharov posted:A big part of Spec Ops message is that the stuff that's presented as fun badass mil poo poo that Call of Duty style games have players do would actually have pretty horrific consequences/implications in real life. I didn't mean media in the "news media" sense but in the broader "artistic mediums" sense. Sorry if I didn't make that clear enough.
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Jul 14, 2017 20:18
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In Spiderman 2 way back in the PS2 era the game had these collectible question marks around the world. They worked sorta like tutorials that explained basic game concepts and the narrator became more and more derogatory during the explanations. 'How'd you make it this far without learning how to punch? Okay, just hit X I guess.' One of the loading screens said something like 'if you collect all the tutorial markers they'll all say something different!'. So I figured it would be advanced tips or something. Actually when you collect all the markers each one literally just says 'something different' in 10-15 different versions by the narrator with several degrees of frustration in his voice. It was great.
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Jul 14, 2017 20:24
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Listening to a friend playing Darkest Dungeon over voice chat and hearing her fight the Swine Prince for the first time. It's a boss deliberately designed to gently caress with veteran RPG players. The boss consists of two enemies, a little dude and a big dude. Big dude does all the damage. Little dude marks targets for the big dude to hit. Big dude does far less damage if there's nothing marked. Obvious solution is to kill the little dude first, right? Wrong. So very, very wrong.
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Jul 14, 2017 20:33
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Agent355 posted:In Spiderman 2 way back in the PS2 era the game had these collectible question marks around the world. They worked sorta like tutorials that explained basic game concepts and the narrator became more and more derogatory during the explanations. 'How'd you make it this far without learning how to punch? Okay, just hit X I guess.' The narrator is also Bruce Campbell which is cool
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Jul 14, 2017 20:39
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RBA Starblade posted:My favorite little thing in another game the devs made, Cargo, references their previous game, The Void. In The Void you collect drops of Color which serve as your everything; health, resources, defense, etc. You never have enough and it is measured literally in drops for an entire "world". In Cargo, the plot is that the demigods of wherever you end up are looking for a new fuel source; they settle on Fun. Halfway through the game they mention that they switched to Fun because the last thing they used, Color, sort of sucks and is bullshit, so they end up dumping a few hundred thousand gallons of it into the ocean for the rest of the game. 
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Jul 14, 2017 20:49
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Agent355 posted:In Spiderman 2 way back in the PS2 era the game had these collectible question marks around the world. They worked sorta like tutorials that explained basic game concepts and the narrator became more and more derogatory during the explanations. 'How'd you make it this far without learning how to punch? Okay, just hit X I guess.' A few of those markers were Bruce Campbell eating a ham sandwich too. They started telling you he was going to do it, then one of them he just is. If you get finish all the missions and main stuff it unlocks an endless mode called something like A New Day, then if you kept playing it eventually changes to be called Another New Day. Or something like that, it's been a while. That was a good game.
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Jul 14, 2017 20:52
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:A big part of Spec Ops message is that the stuff that's presented as fun badass mil poo poo that Call of Duty style games have players do would actually have pretty horrific consequences/implications in real life. Yeah, this was the main thing I took away from it. The game's saying that fine, shooting people and all that doesn't make the player a bad person, but it's a little weird to put that sort of thing up on a pedestal to the degree a lot of games do. Other than the nuke and Spectre scenes from Modern Warfare 1, I'm struggling to remember any sequences where it's explicitly making you notice how hosed up a certain situation is. But then DOOM and Wolfenstein are two of my favourite games ever, so I dunno. Maybe I just like murder too much. It's kind of funny actually because my partner isn't really into games but still accepts a lot of violence in them, as he loves horror movies. When it comes to shooting humans in these things however he's really uncomfortable and doesn't like to be in the room when they're on. I've never had that aversion to computer game violence so it's unusual to me.
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Jul 14, 2017 21:19
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haveblue posted:I really liked how over the course of the game you and your squad's combat barks gradually evolve from a clipped, professional "tango down" to a hoarse, screaming "GOTCHA MOTHERFUCKER". At the same time, your enemies go from hysterical and disorganized refugees or shellshocked troopers to ice-cold spec ops teams who deliver precise instructions and status updates over Walker and co.'s caveman screaming. It's a great role reversal.
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Jul 14, 2017 21:44
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The FFXII re-release is really pretty. Like, not the best looking game ever, but it's nice to look at.
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Jul 14, 2017 22:17
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:A big part of Spec Ops message is that the stuff that's presented as fun badass mil poo poo that Call of Duty style games have players do would actually have pretty horrific consequences/implications in real life. Yeah, it's pretty great how that mentality even extends to Walker himself. At the beginning, you're given a very clear and delineated objective: Get in, get a general overview whether any survivors are left, and then get out to report back so a proper relief effort can be made if necessary. Except then you run into trouble, and Walker immediately snaps into the videogame-protagonist mentality, as he figures it's now up to them to resolve the situation. And in a regular game (or movie, for that matter), he'd be right: There it all boils down to just one hardened hero protagonist to go through and resolve the whole thing through grit and determination. But Spec Ops doesn't play by those rules, and instead the actually "realistic" thing happens when you throw in a group of heavily armed aggressors into a desperate and delicate situation: Everything gets even worse. It was quite the experience to look back at the end and realise that everything Walker and co did just worsened the situation. Just about nothing they did actually helped anyone at all. So much death and destruction could have been avoided if Walker had just done his drat job and hosed back off once his mission was done, but that wouldn't have been "heroic".
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Jul 14, 2017 22:18
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Leavemywife posted:The FFXII re-release is really pretty. Like, not the best looking game ever, but it's nice to look at. I've played every Final Fantasy game for consoles and I literally do not remember FFXII at all. Vaan? Hmm...maybe I'll give it a look to jog my memory.
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Jul 14, 2017 22:23
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Perestroika posted:Yeah, it's pretty great how that mentality even extends to Walker himself. At the beginning, you're given a very clear and delineated objective: Get in, get a general overview whether any survivors are left, and then get out to report back so a proper relief effort can be made if necessary. Pretty sure Lugo calls him out on that later in the game, something about just a recon mission. After the water incident he gets called on it as well, saying people have died because he tried to intervene
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Jul 14, 2017 22:27
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Leavemywife posted:The FFXII re-release is really pretty. Like, not the best looking game ever, but it's nice to look at. FFXII focused more on textures than on polygons, it ages really well and it's cool to compare it to FFX where everyone has more angles and details but the textures are simpler.
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Jul 14, 2017 22:54
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poptart_fairy posted:.
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Jul 14, 2017 23:04
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There's a lot of stuff with games that we take for granted due to growing up with them - just imagine you've never played one before and you start with a modern one - You'd need to learn how to navigate a 3d space with a 2d control scheme, while manipulating a freely swinging camera, remembering all the unique mechanics, you wouldn't have the language baked into your brain. There's a lot of stuff that we know just because of playing games before - Status Meters normally go in the top left (Assassins creed, Zelda, Horizon, etc) Often in top to bottom order Health->Magic/Special->Ammo (ammo sometimes but not always has it's own sections elsewhere too, in that case commonly to the right). There is almost always a map nowadays, press select to see it. Know how to read said map, especially in more elaborate games like Horizon where the map is a 3-d render where some symbols can blend in. Keep All Stuff that doesn't explicitly tell you that it's only good for money, know how to recognise merchants from common signposting tricks (Unique yet still generic outfit, normally a backpack if no stall, symbol on the maps may vary. Standard controls normally apply - Bottom button commonly jumps or interacts, right button and left button often attack in some way, top button may vary wildly depending on game. A lot of games are not particularly newbie friendly. The examples above are oversimplified, but they are idiomatic - we know generally what to expect, and are comfortable playing with the buttons to see what happens, even if the function isn't always immediately obvious.
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Jul 14, 2017 23:17
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TGLT posted:There's only one person in the room though? Konrad not actually being a threat, because he's been dead for a while, is a significant point and part of the game's very obvious attempt to mirror the Iraq war. My point with that was even if it had gone down the way Walker desperately wanted it to- some grand confrontation with Konrad where he could ever be confronted for his crimes- it still couldn't have fixed anything. The situation was too hosed and no part of it was under anyone's control, let alone some mastermind in a glowing tower. And my favourite part of that game is the enemy chatter. Like the rest of it, Spec Ops isn't loving around with realistic consequences for the player's unrealistic actions. At the start of the game the enemy chatter is "Hey who are these fuckers, they seem like CIA saboteurs, let's kill 'em" and by the end they're screaming "It's Delta Force! gently caress!" Because these you have killed dozens, probably hundreds, of soldiers without slowing down and the soldiers are now terrified of you.
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Jul 14, 2017 23:46
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I think the most easily forgotten part of Walker's mental breakdown is that they sent him on recon knowing that he had a previous far less severe breakdown before the events of the game according to the intel.
marathon Stairmaster sesh has a new favorite as of 00:10 on Jul 15, 2017 |
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Jul 15, 2017 00:05
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BioEnchanted posted:A lot of games are not particularly newbie friendly. The examples above are oversimplified, but they are idiomatic - we know generally what to expect, and are comfortable playing with the buttons to see what happens, even if the function isn't always immediately obvious. This is the thing that gets to me, people almost never check the buttons in a new game. I don't know if it's something only fighting game players do and I just picked it up from there or what, but button checking is always the first thing I do in any game, it just makes sense!
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Jul 15, 2017 00:48
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Agent355 posted:In Spiderman 2 way back in the PS2 era the game had these collectible question marks around the world. They worked sorta like tutorials that explained basic game concepts and the narrator became more and more derogatory during the explanations. 'How'd you make it this far without learning how to punch? Okay, just hit X I guess.' The Disgaea games have a similar thing. Asking for tutorials from the Land of Carnage (high level postgame content) versions of NPCs will get you derogatory edgelord statements instead of actual tutorials. I know 2 and 4 have this; 1 and D2 don't, not sure about 3 and 5. There's a bunch of different variations but they all go about like this: 
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Jul 15, 2017 00:55
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PubicMice posted:This is the thing that gets to me, people almost never check the buttons in a new game. I don't know if it's something only fighting game players do and I just picked it up from there or what, but button checking is always the first thing I do in any game, it just makes sense! Because games these days have in-game tutorials for what the buttons do. And it's a lot more intuitive and fun to learn the controls as you go than it is to stare at a list of controls and try to memorize them, especially when some of the controls are for bizarre game-specific actions.
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Jul 15, 2017 01:08
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PubicMice posted:This is the thing that gets to me, people almost never check the buttons in a new game. I don't know if it's something only fighting game players do and I just picked it up from there or what, but button checking is always the first thing I do in any game, it just makes sense! I am a button checker, too. I've gotta know, even though the game will probably explain most of it to me when I start it up. I miss manuals. One of the best parts of getting a new game was cracking open the little book they wrote to go with it.
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Jul 15, 2017 01:49
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ilmucche posted:The executions change as well, and become more violent as walker begins to break down. I remember playing for a bit and finally realizing "poo poo is getting loving rough" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIFQzMgYS0I Shows the difference between early and late game.
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Jul 15, 2017 02:10
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TontoCorazon posted:I remember playing for a bit and finally realizing "poo poo is getting loving rough" Yeah, if you're not using the combat commands you're missing out on like 40% of the game's characterisation. I only know this because I played through a second time on hard and it's way easier to handle if you let your allies do a lot of the shooting.
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Jul 15, 2017 03:27
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I just finished Dishonored and got the achievement for a no powers run & another achievement for never being detected throughout the whole game,i'm quite pleased with myself now  Time to play it properly now (stealth but not being bothered if I get caught)
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Jul 15, 2017 03:56
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I also want to make a shoutout to Spec Ops for when the enemies start wearing your teammate's faces. I'm not saying the game is perfect, but it had a ton of moments that made me blink.
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Jul 15, 2017 04:00
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RyokoTK posted:Because games these days have in-game tutorials for what the buttons do. And it's a lot more intuitive and fun to learn the controls as you go than it is to stare at a list of controls and try to memorize them, especially when some of the controls are for bizarre game-specific actions. But you don't have to look at anything to button check, you literally just press the buttons and see what the little man on the screen does when you do.
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Jul 15, 2017 04:33
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PubicMice posted:But you don't have to look at anything to button check, you literally just press the buttons and see what the little man on the screen does when you do. Oh I see what you mean, I thought you meant looking in the options menu for the keybinds. 
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Jul 15, 2017 05:02
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Saw a neat video comparing sizes of video game maps, just a random sample of games. I like the way they presented the data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80vctFJqoG8
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Jul 15, 2017 05:24
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BioEnchanted posted:Saw a neat video comparing sizes of video game maps, just a random sample of games. I like the way they presented the data: I'm happy to see they remembered both FUEL and Asheron's Call.
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Jul 15, 2017 06:18
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Since i don't really know where else to ask and Alpha Protocol gets mentioned all the drat time in here. What should I do on my first playthrough? I know the game is all about choices and poo poo but I have a serious case of decision paralysis over whether to be a rookie or a shithead or a meathead marine or w/e on the first run.
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Jul 15, 2017 06:56
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Near the beginning of Wolfenstien: The New Order, you get a laser cutter. It's a dinky little gadget that lets you cut through chicken wire and small metal chains. On the side of it is a metal cylinder with orange glowing stripes, the battery. The more charge the cutter has, the quicker it spins and the faster its stripes glow. Ever since I played through DOOM 2016 with no HUD, I have appreciated when FPS weapons have a way to tell how much ammo they have on the weapon itself, so this alone would have been neat enough to make a post about. Later in the game, you are introduced to the Supersoldaten, eight foot tall cyborg hulks wielding giant gatling guns which fire what I initially assumed to be tracer rounds. When you defeat one of these monsters, you can pick up its weapon and drag it around until it runs out of ammo, at which point it is useless and should be discarded. Or so I thought. At one point I took a closer look at the almost empty gun and noticed on the side a large, slowly rotating metal disk with faintly glowing stripes on the side. I hauled the weapon over to one of the panels you use to recharge your laser cutter, and sure enough, it filled back up with energy and was ready to be used again. I may never have figured hat out if it weren't for a clever bit of design consistency in a game with mostly plain weapons.
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Jul 15, 2017 07:05
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Agent355 posted:Since i don't really know where else to ask and Alpha Protocol gets mentioned all the drat time in here. Go Rookie, try Russia first. The missions there are generally easier. The initial Saudi Arabia hub is a slog to get through, but well worth persisting past it.
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Jul 15, 2017 07:35
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When you unlock the other three hubs, do a quick round to complete all the introduction missions in them. A lot of e-mails and support options open up compared to just completing each hub in turn.
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Jul 15, 2017 09:09
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Go Rookie, try Russia first. The missions there are generally easier. The initial Saudi Arabia hub is a slog to get through, but well worth persisting past it. one of the bosses in Russia is really difficult unless you do Taiwan first so like poptart_fairy suggested, it's smart to go to different hubs rather than just plowing through each hub in turn.
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Jul 15, 2017 09:17
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