Hey let's catch up on some video gaming in the sandbox

Been playing Saints Row the third. It's fun, but I find it lacking a certain polish which is evident in the gta series. Vehicle control is still a gripe for me. Nice character customisation though.

BF3 of course, I'm lame at it but I'm realising the damage system is so much better than BC2.

Anyone on Assassin's Creed Revelations? I've been thinking of getting it but I've still to complete Brotherhood, I kind of ran out of steam with it. I don't like the sound of Den Defence.

SKYRIM

also MTG on 360 was half-off for Black Friday + I picked it up

Den Defense is the fucking worst thing to happen to Assassin's Creed. Followed up in short order by the Desmond wanna-be Portal bullshit segments (of which I finished one and, after doing most of the second, won't bother doing any more of them).

It's the worst ACII, despite further refinements in Assassin recruiting/advancement and some great kill moves in combat. I'm going to finish it for the story, but I'm worried about what they might do with ACIII when it comes along.

Had to take a Skyrim break, but am looking forward to returning to it when Revelations is done and back in the box for good.

the Skyrim frost troll pissed me off so much I had to go back and do riddles in Arkham City

still playing Dark Souls - have rung both bells, no clear objective atm though which is making things a bit aimless
Mario 3D Land is a complete joy, especially playing as Luigi in his cute fox suit

tried to play metal gear solid 3 and just can't do it. maybe i'm playing the game wrong, but it was basically 'try to find a stealthy path > get discovered > suicide > repeat' ad naseum. plus the clumsy controls and endless (admittedly hilarious) dialogue.

so i downloaded resident evil 4 and it is delicious video game comfort food.

still playing skyrim, although i haven't had a chance to play since last Wednesday.

also, i posted this on facebook/ILX, but some of you might find this journal article about working conditions in the videogame industry interesting:

http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/1771/1893

the abstract makes it sound dull as hell, but it's actually an easy read

love skyrim and all but SPACE MARINE is goty for sure

SPACE MARINE multiplayer rules because it is slow and kind of forgiving so people who are bad at video games ie me can partake in SPACE MARINE clunking around and chainswording fun

i believe that ppl who are enjoying space marine have never played gears of war

I would be going out and buying Skyward Sword for myself but my sister is probably asking for it for chanukah so I have to wait a month

i played gears of war and it is probably better i guess? except for all the racist stuff and that all the pleasing aesthetics are straight up 40k ripoffs. also in gears of war there are not enough orks yelling SPACE MARINE over and over all the time

Tons of Skyrim, but taking breaks with de blob 2 which was on sale at target for like 13$ and is so far kind of awesome actually

Tonnes of cobblestone in Minecraft 1.0.0

Finally getting to GTA IV, which is kind of how I roll these days: I made a note yesterday that there have been lots of Assassin's Creed games, so I should get them in four years when they're on "all of them for $4.99" sale* and walkthrough the lot.

I imagine I'm not the first person to point this out, but GTA IV is far too realistic in many ways - they've clearly executed on their vision, but at the price of much in the way of fun. In fact my two main emotions when playing it are guilt when someone bounces off my can in a particularly crippling manner, and, er, more guilt when I don't answer the phone to someone.

I pressed a button one too many times when exiting out of a menu on a date with Kate, and gave her a nasty shove that dropped her 'like' by 45%. I was devastated, and would have reloaded except that I had done lots of pigeon-shooting and stump-jumping since my last save, so fuck that.

<a href="http://oglaf.com/sircoffee/";>Oglaf has the gist of it</a>

*such as happened for all yes all of the GTA games on Steam over the weekend!

Haha I am an idiot.

you can bounce ppl off yr ass in GTA IV?

yep, just hold L2 and then tap b (for butt) twice

What level are you guys in Skyrim?

I seem to be finding that one hour of gameplay = one level, more or less

i'm only at 11

14 iirc

i started playing friday, at 11 by now i think

so... skyward sword. worth buying?

uh Im level 41 in skyrim.. the game is a fucking full time job.. I kinda feel like I cheated boosting my smithing up to 100 by creating hundreds of iron daggers but goddamnit it was the easiest way.

xp a quick glance at metacritic suggests universal acclaim…does that have any validity? who knows. There's some "best Zelda since OoT" being thrown around. Havent' gone and looked at SelectButton threads or anything. All i know is I want to play it.

infinity blade is eating my life

secretly glad that skyrim isn't available for macs

also there is some tarted up version of cave story out now??

I think it's the same as the WiiWare version basically.

"Best since OoT" doesn't make any sense, as Mask of Majora was already better than it!

secretly glad that skyrim isn't available for macs

it runs pretty well with the cider wrapper (windows emulation nerd stuff)

Best since "Link's Awakening"

lol in Skyrim I am (wait for it...) level 4

this may be why the ice troll pwns me

hahahahha what the

I have been entertaining guests and playing Arkham City!

however in AC I'm at something like 70% complete

some of those Riddler puzzles are like "WHA-"

i think when i was getting pwned by ice troll i was uh level 10?

so

u doing it rong

hahaha

so basically I should go do some side quests

yeah dude

that kind of goes against the whole "zomg URGENT SUMMONS" thing in the main storyline but hey

I did kind of do a side quest by accident tho (the dragonstone one, while getting back THE CLAW for the shopkeeper with the gullible sister)

yeah i did some of the companions quests and some random bandit mines and dungeons and whatever before going for the ice troll - i am finding a fairly good flow in realizing that if the main storyline = getting pwned, i need to go level a bunch.

yeah, lots of skyrim here too. wonderful game so far.

Damnit I would love to try me some skyrim shit(*) I just don't want it to eat my life.

(*)nb have not played an rpg since moria/larn/nethack back in school.

or maybe i should try SPACE MARINE since space > dragons (only just). or maybe i should try gears of war since apparently it is better. see? it's just too hard.

space is not > dragons!

does anyone have an opinion on http://www.dinodday.com/? Tempted by THE AWESOMENESS OF NAZI!!! DINOSAURS!!! but the reviews are shitty.

@ ledge I can't play any new games since my Nethack + ADOM phase. Everything feels so sloow, "oh, I have to walk all the way over there?"

I got caught up in wandering and sidequests; I was level 19 before I met the frost troll and was unimpressed.

I did play and love RDR, galloping around, shooting wild beasts, sidequests, just dickin' around in the desert. it's more the statscock aspect of rpgs that puts me off. and the lifesuck.

I thought I might ask some recommendations here... I just finished playing Jade Empire, and I'm kinda looking for something similar to tackle next. It should be an action RPG (no turn-based stuff) or action adventure, with an intriguing plot and the ability to affect the storyline with your actions. Preferably fantasy, though sci-fi is okay too, but nothing too realistic. And it shouldn't be too nihilistic either, I like games where you can choose not to kill if you don't have to. Can you recommend anything along these lines? Oh, and it should preferably be something a few years old, I'm not sure if my computer can handle really recent games.

goty
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-29-games-of-2011-dark-souls-article

Yeah so dead island is pretty much terrible :(

skyrim is eating my life. thank god I'm on vacation

so im thinking about getting an xbox 360 and im wondering if the 4GB model is enough? im mainly planning on using it to play current gen games but also XBLA stuff like ikaruga, radiant silvergun, bangai-o, etc. dont really plan on downloading movies or any other media. will i regret it if i dont get more HD space? is the HD easily upgradable?

some of those xbla games can be pretty big (radiant is about 500m iirc) and they go upto about 1GB; a lot of xbox games run more smoothly when installed to the HDD too (about 6GB installation)

you don't necessarily have to get the 250GB tho because you can use USB sticks as memory (limited to 16GB sticks)

i would get the 250, i install most of my games on my 360 too.

i regretted not getting the larger ps3, i have to keep deleting games to make room.

Apple's "12 days" freebie today is that sonic kart racing thing, haven't tried it yet but it reviewed pretty well, probably worth grabbing.

def interested in corpse party for the psp:

http://www.destructoid.com/review-corpse-party-218252.phtml

looks like some kind of jrpg/visual novel/survival horror/battle royale hybrid which is right up my alley tbqh

what's the deal with ILG steam group, I just joined (I'm 'nerd' on steam) and seem to be the only member in the sea of admins :V

guys king cashing on iOS is free, addictive and terrible
please don't download and play it ALL DAY as i've been doing

Watching my kids play inFamous 2 - looks better than the first one which I really got into. Need to find time for it, dunno how :/

xpost

i like this bit in the description of King Cashing in the app store:

Here's a little fact about the game: I got the idea while playing Kairosoft's Game Dev Story! At one point in the game, I made a game with the Slots RPG combination and that got me wondering what a real Slots RPG game would look like. So I dropped the game and started taking notes of what came to mind. I also drew some mockups to have a better idea of what I had in mind. 5 months later, here's King Cashing! So, hum, thanks Kairosoft!

king cashing is 2$, not free

thought about using a gift certificate to pick up a couple of older PC games that might actually run on my system; opted for an Earthbound ROM instead.

there's a lite version. i just spent about an hour playing it (lite), and i imagine that it's probably worth $2 for the full version.

anyone been doing the Steam Great Gift Pile? i got two average indie games and three worthless coupons.

it seems like a hell of a lot of work when i can just buy games i want for 99p

so... what games from 2009-2011 are ESSENTIAL for ilx user gukbe to play?

what XBOX games...?

yass; corpse party iOS
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/12/30/corpse-party-repeats-fear-on-iphone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+siliconera%2FMkOc+%28Siliconera%29

sometime early in january i am going to look at all the crud i bought in the steam sale and think: why, lord, why

I bought the full king cashing and it is like a slot machine version of Dungeon Raid aka just what I wanted it to be.

Final verdict - dead island is a pile of shit, but was exchangeable for deus ex, so now I am trying that. What I really want is a used copy of el shaddai tho, but none at my GameStop :(

what XBOX games...?

Well, for 2009 and 2010 there's always:

http://cointandplick.wordpress.com

So I'm watching Oklahoma! on TCM and thinking -- what would video games have been like if we had the technology to make and play them in the 30s, 40s and 50s? Would we have had musical video games? (Freddy Farkas: Frontier Pharmacist, the Musical!) I think Roberta Williams should start work on this immediately.

king cashing was free for awhile i guess; twas when i got it. it is weirdly addictive.
um, i got a wireless xbox controller for my pc. The fucking thing doesn't come with button mapping. I don't wanna have to pay ten bucks for xpadder and not have it work; can anyone swear by it or help me figure a better solution?

I'm on steam as jay dee ess ay ell emm oh enn

Spacemen 3 userpic/icon, shouldn't be too hard to spot

you can use JoyToKey instead of xpadder, its free
http://www-en.jtksoft.net/
switch on controller before running the program
click the Preferences tab on the right and tick "use axes other than x and y" to activate 2nd thumbstick and "use pov switches" for dpad. change threshold to taste (30% a good starting point)
mapping instructions here http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-an-Xbox-360-controller-as-a-mouse/step4/JoyToKey-Basics/

let us know how you get on w/deus ex, PBBS

couldn't get past the loading times myself

Today I have played Binding of Isaac until my wrists hurt.

At one point I had wings, three eyes, a turd on my head and a little angry sneer after making a pact with the devil. I was delighted by each and every one of my adjustments. And then I got stamped on and died. Good times!

Thank you Mordy for your championing of this game and my consequent carpal tunnel syndrome.

Just bought BoI. Let's see what all the hubbub is about

Binding of Isaac totaly rules, but when played it quite intensively for a few days I had to take a break for a month now. It just got too repetitive and tiring.

Also I'm guessing that if there's one game you don't want to end up dreaming about...

Fun to try out, but I want to go live in Tropico as Presidente "Don Homer" for awhile.

Note that El Presidente currently favors the full luchador look. Disappointed that they couldnt get Juanito back from the last game, then again, I miss the original adviser voice from the first games.

Also, cute that they added objectives and Sim City-style policy advisors.

Binding was Isaac was fun to try out, I mean.

Thanks for the recommendation zappi; trying joy2key now.

on a mission to complete saints row 3, which i've now become quite enamoured of. its trash, and its tacky, and its morally blank, but it is quite fun. struggling to complete the assassinations, though, as i've yet to find any of smoov's 'hos' in the henry steel mills area - since most of the women in the game, including my own gang, are dressed as strippers and prostitutes, its kind of hard to figure out who is actually a prostitute.

GF was ill last night, so for kicks we half completed the MW3 campaign, hot-seating whenever one of us died. I think it might be the worst game I've ever played were the game does everything it sets out to do. Like, I've played games that were broken, or the controls were rubbish, or tyhe graphics were outdated or whatever, but this MW3's the worst game I've played where the badness is down to the lack of attention spent on level design and coherence. Maybe I've just been lucky and only played decent games.

the 'ungameness' of it has been a 'thing'

i have been playing the binding of isaac fairly intensively for the last few hours

oh my god, %75 off Portal 2 on Steam (€5.60)! and if you buy two P2's bundled it's €9.99, a lil bit cheaper

Last day. Picked up LA Noire and Arkham City.

snagged dungeon defenders and heroes of m+magic V, tempted by bastion but 360 controller still a little glitchy on pc

has anyone spent enough time with bastion or terraria to determine whether they're truly worth bothering with?

i beat both of them and enjoyed them both. terraria is sidescrolling Minecraft w/ not quests but kinda sequenced locations and stuff you can do. if you're really curious, i'd check out the game diaries quartertothree did about it, they give a great sense of what the game is like and whether you'd like it.

bastion i liked, more actionary platformy. the controls feel pretty great, the aesthetics are sorta unique + very colorful, nice soundtrack etc. threadbare story and shticky narration bit, but fun to play regardless

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/06/23/terraria-the-adventures-of-sir-digsalot/

there's a whole bunch of them that go through the first 3 bosses (they have since added a 4th boss that unlocks a hardcore mode w/ new versions of first 3 bosses)

ha the best bit i had in the bastion demo was the so-epic narration of my hero getting up and noticing the changes wrought in the world around him being interrupted by "... and then he fell to his death" because i was looking to see if there were invisible walls

but it didn't really bring me any joy beyond that. how long is it? does anything particularly nifty happen? it was one of kieron gillen's games of the year so i'd have thought it did something or other, at some point

i think about 3 hours for your first playthrough. then there are challenge rooms + a new game plus feature

oh, it's short? that makes me about three to four times as likely to actually buy it, i think

yeah, i think i beat it in a night or two

Fucking Terraria, just give me the damn ore.

at any rate, Terraria is certainly worth the 75% knocked-off price it's currently running.

Finally tried out Portal 2. Finally seeing what everyone was yammering about this year. Curious how much britishness was written into Merchant's lines and how much he brought to it. Cool that Jay Pinkerton had a hand in writing the jokes.