Any gamers around here?

Hijiri Byakuren · June 02, 2016, 06:50:31 PM

Quote from: Munch on June 02, 2016, 06:43:13 PM
Kind of speaks for the nature of the beast, theres been warcraft, starcraft and diablo porn for years now, and yet only now because a magazine highlights porn of their new product to they actually notice it exists.

Again, it's probably to keep the Thought Police from damaging their brand. If Kotaku and the like go after Starcraft and Warcraft porn, Blizzard will have to respond. Basically, Blizzard can afford to pretend that porn of their products doesn't exist, but only so long as it doesn't get dragged into the limelight. If it does, their hands are tied, because it would be really bad PR for them if articles about "Blizzard enabling porn" starting hitting the top of Google search results. Unfortunately, we live in a society where the rule of "please think of the children" takes precedence over all else. If you want to blame someone, blame the moral guardians and shit-disturbers forcing Blizzard's hand.

Hydra009 · June 02, 2016, 06:59:47 PM

Quote from: Munch on June 02, 2016, 06:43:13 PMI've often said on their forums, its funny how you can't talk about things like political, gender or sexuality, or current news worthy things because their mods think it creates flame wars, yet they make games in which rape occurs, you have quests to go decapitate enemy soldiers, and female armor is often the most skimpy that its refereed to as slutware on other websites.

Yeah, that is bizarre. But at the end of the day, they're a company and their raison d'Ãªtre is to make money. That's why they'll provide titillating content to sell units, but at the same time shirk controversy that might harm their image and hurt their ability to sell units. It's pragmatic, but not particularly principled.

The main problem imho is this resurgence of the old Jack Thompson anti-gaming rhetoric, just this time with "progressive" crusaders trying to censor and control. Lots of little sparrows in the streets about nowadays.

Hydra009 · June 02, 2016, 07:04:47 PM

Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on June 02, 2016, 06:50:31 PM
Again, it's probably to keep the Thought Police from damaging their brand. If Kotaku and the like go after Starcraft and Warcraft porn, Blizzard will have to respond. Basically, Blizzard can afford to pretend that porn of their products doesn't exist, but only so long as it doesn't get dragged into the limelight. If it does, their hands are tied, because it would be really bad PR for them if articles about "Blizzard enabling porn" starting hitting the top of Google search results. Unfortunately, we live in a society where the rule of "please think of the children" takes precedence over all else. If you want to blame someone, blame the moral guardians and shit-disturbers forcing Blizzard's hand.

Same wavelength.

Munch · June 06, 2016, 06:35:35 AM

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â–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–'â–ˆâ–ˆâ–'â–,,â–ˆâ–ˆâ–,,â–,,â–,,â–,,â–ˆâ–,,â–'â–,,â–'â–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–ˆâ–'â–ˆâ–ˆï»¿

gentle_dissident · June 07, 2016, 12:31:05 AM

Been playing Pong the Next Level, again, on PC. Found it thrifting today. It's my kind of escape.

Hydra009 · June 08, 2016, 01:03:10 PM

Fallout 4!

A friend graciously shared Fallout 4 with me over Steam's family share. I was just curious to see if it would work on my 5-year old computer. I didn't want to buy it and then it run at 5 fps if at all. It took some major .ini tweaking, but I got it to run fairly smoothly.

Even at low settings, it looks gorgeous. The combat is fluid and chaotic (enemies use cover and are more effective at ambushing, like ghouls falling through a ceiling or molerats tunneling right to you). The companions are memorable and I like the fully voiced lines. Have I mentioned that the game looks great?

However, I have a few gripes.

The vanilla dialogue options are horrific. Press X to sarcasm. Dafuq?! I don't understand why they moved away from the list of responses. They need to go back to the previous system pronto.

I think there's a weaker narrative in Fallout 4 than in New Vegas. Allow me to explain.

In New Vegas, you have a wealth of factions. And from the very beginning, you're given opportunities to choose between them. Do you want to help the Goodsprings settlers or help the Powder gangers? At Primm, do you want to the NCR to take over or keep it independent? Do you want to throw in with the NCR or Caesar legion or House or Yes Man? For the most part, there's a lot of morally gray choices and the choices you make have some (albeit minor) effect on the game world. You can play the game a dozen times and get a dozen different outcomes.

In Fallout 4, I'm shuffled through a very linear path. Granted, I'm only partway through the game, but from what I've seen, the settlers and the Brotherhood are the good guys, and the Institute is pure evil. I have to team up with the former, I have to fight the latter. There's no choice.

Even the history is pretty bare in comparison to New Vegas. Pop quiz - tell me the history of the Mojave and New Vegas. *explains NCR and Legion encroachment, the battle at Hoover Dam, Mr House transforming Vegas from a slum to a gambling mecca, etc* Okay, now tell me about the history of Boston. *shrugs*

And as much as I love the companions, the affinity system is kind of a pain. I'm used to blazing my own path, now I feel constrained by my companion's morality. Can't do that, Codsworth might not like it. Dialogue with the mayor? Better alt-tab and look up what dialogue options maximize my affinity with Piper. I feel like the affinity system hamstrings roleplaying.

And as beautiful as the game is, it's now very difficult to distinguish objects that you can interact (like clutter) with from non-interactable objects. Enemies can also be difficult to distinguish, especially raiders. I have to regularly slip into vats just to make them out. Otherwise, I'm taking pot shots from 500 yards with no clue where they're coming from. The game in general is very low contrast - lots of brown on brown. It could really use hud highlight or something.

I like and dislike the new perk system. I kinda miss skills and I really miss implants (dunno if they exist or not in 4, but not seeing any evidence of it). Perks now invariably give numeric bonuses (+5 science or +10 DR) rather than qualitative bonuses (perks that change the game logic). This isn't all that new - fallout 3 and new vegas were also filled to the brim with numeric perks, but occasionally, those games did have a qualitative perks like Wild Wasteland or Puppies! or Jury Rigging.

And finally the settlement system and the greatly expanded crafting. I love it and hate it. I love the ability to do all that stuff if I want to (like building a Brotherhood base as my own personal home), but I HATE being forced to deal with a settlement under attack or the tedious task of clearing debris from Sanctuary and putting down beds, which often requires searching for that pixel-wide spot where one object can be successfully placed next to another. For those of us who are more into playing Fallout than Minecraft, I would greatly appreciate options to streamline the building process and make it less of a hassle.

*edit - man, I seem super negative here, but it's a really good game on the whole. Just lots of small issues, as is typical for Bethesda games.

Hijiri Byakuren · June 08, 2016, 05:43:33 PM

Playing my second New Story+ run on Arkham Knight. Made sure that I finished all the riddles in the regular story this time, because I do not want to do them on Knightmare difficulty again.

This time I'm saving all the Most Wanted missions for post-game, because I want to see just how shitty I can let Gotham get. I wanted to leave the drones alone as well, but the tanks are just too much of a hazard to keep alive, and the fliers need to at least be hit with a disruptor round because they kill you in like 2 hits on Knightmare, and I can't count how many times I've accidentally flown under one without realizing.

Hijiri Byakuren · June 10, 2016, 02:11:03 AM

Had to do a little problem solving today. What do y'all think of my solution?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anr2gPgKzxo

Hydra009 · June 10, 2016, 03:25:14 AM

Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on June 10, 2016, 02:11:03 AMHad to do a little problem solving today. What do y'all think of my solution?

When in doubt, drop a car on 'em.

I had to do a little problem solving of my own just a second ago. In Fallout 4, a botched mod really screwed up my game. When I switch to 3rd person view, my character is stuck in place. No biggie, I can always just stay in first person view. Except I rely heavily on VATS and the fubar 3rd person view makes VATS do absolutely nothing. Literally unplayable.

So I dug around in the directory and pretty much hacked away until everything went back to normal. Where's Mike Cl? He would have had conniptions!

Shiranu · June 10, 2016, 03:46:05 AM

Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on June 10, 2016, 02:11:03 AM
Had to do a little problem solving today. What do y'all think of my solution?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anr2gPgKzxo

I chuckled, so seems good to me.

trdsf · June 10, 2016, 02:00:16 PM

Any gamers of the tabletop variety going to be at Origins next weekend?

Nonsensei · June 11, 2016, 12:12:49 PM

Quote from: trdsf on June 10, 2016, 02:00:16 PM
Any gamers of the tabletop variety going to be at Origins next weekend?

I looked at the event list. Did you know the very first event at Origins is going to be a Christian prayer service? I lold.

gentle_dissident · June 11, 2016, 12:22:58 PM

Quote from: trdsf on June 10, 2016, 02:00:16 PM
Any gamers of the tabletop variety going to be at Origins next weekend?

Sorry, I can't. I wouldn't mind if you bumped the board game thread to talk about it.
http://atheistforums.com/index.php?topic=9056.0

Quote from: Nonsensei on June 11, 2016, 12:12:49 PM
I looked at the event list. Did you know the very first event at Origins is going to be a Christian prayer service? I lold.

Agreed, LOL.
http://originsgamefair.com/wp-content/uploads/Online-Event-Sheet-4.xlsx

trdsf · June 12, 2016, 11:31:05 AM

Quote from: Nonsensei on June 11, 2016, 12:12:49 PM
I looked at the event list. Did you know the very first event at Origins is going to be a Christian prayer service? I lold.

Seriously? I hadn't looked at the event list; I'm actually not going for the gaming, I'm going for the Smithee Awards and the dealers/art rooms.

Whatever. I'd rather have them wasting a small conference room mumbling their useless words, than their more hysterical brothers and sisters blocking the entrance with signs and screaming their useless words at me while I'm trying to go in.

Hijiri Byakuren · June 12, 2016, 12:37:00 PM

Finally finished the Cauldron Speedway TT challenge in Arkham Knight last night. Fuck. That. Map.

Fair and balanced (like Fox News).

News:

Any gamers around here?