All these SNES 20 year anniversaries. They just make me feel very old.

So I was quite fond of the first GRID racing game. I just tried out Grid 2 as I followed it a while ago when it was in development. Man, that game is such a disappointment. The first one had a nice balance of sim and arcade but it feels like they made an arcade game this time and disguised it as a simulator so it lacked the features of what makes arcade games fun.

The handling sucks, with every car so far as RWD and labelled as drift so they just slide everywhere and there is very little grip. The AI is terrible with major rubber band physics going on. I was doing a 1 on 1 race and I crashed the guy and left him far behind and he caught back up to me in no time at all. I feel like the AI cars just go the speed the game wants them to and it is irrelevant what they are driving, and the only way to really overtake them is when they slow down a lot more than they need to in turns.

The career mode is stupid. There is just a hub where you have a computer screen and you race to increase your fanbase and as your number of fans increases you will unlock new races. Every once in a while a car manufacturer will let you race them in a head to head to win that car. There is no currency in this game outside of the fans. You have no overview of what races there are and you can't see races you already completed. You always start in last place and then have a couple laps or so to try to win, and it doesn't feel like it matters what position you come in to advance. The narrator will just tell you you need at least 3rd place for the racing team to recognize you or something. The only good thing about this game is that it is pretty slick looking with nice graphics and the narrator is good apart from the occasional inane comment.

There is no tuning at all in this game, nor any upgrades to purchase.

Maybe the career mode will look better once I get out of this tutorial (and it seems I reached the end) but I don't know if I can be bothered when the handling and the AI is so lame. Maybe I'll start playing Grid 1 again.

Grid 2 was a no deal for me after they took out cockpit view, I consider being able to see how much i'm turning the steering wheel a pretty damn essential part of controlling racing games, unless it's really arcadey.

Well the latest research on videogames making people violent shows that games that have poor controls or are hard to get a grasp of make people more violent.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26921743

Seems pretty obvious to me that a frustrating game will make you more aggressive than an easy one...

I hope they don't try to ban hard games now.

How did it go? "It's easier to kill someone in real life than in Dark Souls"?

Slowly rebuilding my SNES collection. Surprised to find that King of Dragons is going for about $75 or more! As a kid I never beat this game, anyone else enjoy this one? I'm also trying to remember if you could save your progress...?

I loved King of Dragons (and the semi-related Knights of the Round, as well as the later similar Dungeons & Dragons titles and Dragon's Crown). I don't recall if there's any progress saving, but I want to say that no, there is not, since it's a port of an arcade game.

There's no save. Pure old-school beat-em-up.

I recall being able to beat King of Dragons with no continues using the wizard.

I remember liking the music too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI7NPNyvOxs

I'm curious about Tales of Xilia or Diablo 3 but don't know what to get when I'm not playing Dark Souls 2. So far Skyrim is filling the gap since I still haven't beaten it yet.

Borderlands 2 "pre-sequel" allegedly in development and to be set between the two games and focus on Hyperion's moon-base:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/45 ... australia/

Pretty excited for this since it seems like a much larger-scale expansion than the first four, and while most of those were of middling quality the devs really redeemed themselves with Dragon Keep. Hopefully they'll keep up the momentum.

Eeeexcellent, if somewhat confusing. Pitchford says there's no work happening on a Borderlands 3 at the moment, but this sounds bigger than just a regular expansion as it introduces new mechanics and has completely different playable characters. Anyway, I can't tell if it's meant to be a big expansion/DLC for BL2 or if it'll be standalone but smaller in scale than a numbered Borderlands title would be.

More info, including videos/screenshots:

http://kotaku.com/the-next-big-borderla ... 1560995025

I think it's the latter of your suggestions, sort of like Riptide was to the original Dead Island.

The game is not developed by Gearbox. Sorts some of the confusion out?

Hmm? No, that doesn't address my confusion at all, which had to do with whether the game was some sort of DLC or a standalone title. A report on IGN confirms that it's the latter.

Yeah, let me rephrase that - it's a standalone title that's not developed by Gearbox, that's probably why Pitchford said BL3 is not in the works; it isn't technically BL3 but rather a spin-off (read - 2K probably trying pull off an Arkham Origins).

Just backed this wonderful little thing called Flying Hamster II. It's inspired by Wonder Boy in Monster World, looks gorgeous, and if it meets its goals will feature goddess Michiru Yamane for the score.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/61 ... hamster-ii







Too bad the campaign is struggling at the moment. Of course, people would rather have the eleventy millionth Megaman derivative...

New Civilization game is due for a fall release and will be a sci-fi futuristic theme.

Here is the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtYWqE55s24

Been going back to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I had forgotten just how awesome this little game is. If for whatever unholy reason anyone here hasn't played it, then you should stop whatever you're doing and get it. Definitely worth your time.

I attempted to setup a PSX emulator on my computer to play SotN, but never finished installing it...

You must atone for your sins, Gnu. SOTN beckons you!

Civilization: Beyond Earth has been announced. Basically Alpha Centauri 2.


Despite being a strategy gamer, I actually never played SMAC. Guess I better get started.

Finally finished up the Dark Arisen content in Dragon's Dogma last night, and it was really frickin' satisfying. Went ahead and completed the game again while I was at it, since I was already in the post game.

Today, I picked up Mischief Makers on the N64 complete with box and manual, plus Ragnarok Odyssey Ace on PS3, Onimusha 3, Shadow Hearts: From the New World and one other game that escapes me on the PS2. But I'll likely not get around to any of them for a few days, and when I do have time to game, will probably opt for something else.

In my quest to finish all my console games, I've been playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. Really cute, fun game that has a nice balance of being extremely and accessible if you're just trying to finish the thing, but with a lot of depths in terms of secret levels and collectibles and junk that involves some trickier platforming for those of us who aren't five years old. I'm not quite a big enough platformer fan to bother going back and getting every little secret to 100% this game, but it's pretty solid fun nonetheless.

A note on the gameplay: there are gameplay segments where you get transformed into different yarn-based versions of Kirby with different powers. I've been everything from a giant missile-launching mech to a fire truck to a dolphin for the water levels. Some of these are lots of fun while others are super frustrating (goddamn train!) while others are loads of fun, but since these segments typically only appear for short sequences at the ends of stages, it's not really that great of a substitute for the enemy-swallowing power stealing ability of regular, non-yarn Kirby, which is sort of a bummer.

Words cannot describe how excited I am for the new Civ game! Super exciting.

In other news, my New Vegas playthrough is still going strong, if a little slowly. It seems like, unfortunately, the longer I play my character file, the more often the game crashes. :/ I've verified the files and Steam replaced a few files, so I'm hoping it works better now, but when I loaded my SAVE all the bonus DLC equipment was added to my pack again (which I'd rather not play with) and I was too lazy to disable it again and test it out to any extent. I'm also getting to that point where when I level up, I don't really know what to increase anymore because I've already pretty much maxed out the stats based around how I chose to roleplay this character (a sneaky gunslinger with a sharp tongue).

That happens. If you've got a lot of save files too try to only keep a few of them, I think that helped a little. But yeah I think I remember that happening with both NV and F3, the bigger your save file got the more it started to crash.

Finally beat Avernum: Escape from the Pit after like 100 hours of play. The final gauntlet on the way to the Emperor's throne room with endless soldiers streaming in and chasing you is just insane. I can't think of the last RPG I played where the last boss was actually the hardest encounter in the whole game (relative to your level) and actually required you to pull out ALL the stops in terms of items, buffs, potions, everything.

Basically, if you like oldschool RPGs like Baldur's Gate, but wish the combat were turn-based rather than that real-time-with-pause crap, then Avernum: Escape from the Pit is definitely for you.

Oh, wow! I'm glad you mentioned Avernum. I actually bought the Avernum/Geneforge/Avadon packs a few years back on steam. Escape the Pit is a really neat game, although I probably put the most hours into Avadon. I really love the design of these games (the world building, characters and dialogue especially), but I also find that my mind, which has been conditioned by shiny AAA titles, has a hard time sticking with them. I got pretty far in Avadon (at least I put in a ton of hours, might not have been very far in actuality), but got stuck at a boss and pretty much abandoned ship. There's a lot to love about the Spiderweb games, but I find sometimes it's a bit of a chore to stick with to the end.

I think maybe I just like the IDEA behind these games (by which I mean everything from the story to the old school game design) more than the reality. If they could combine the gameplay of the Spiderweb games with the soundtrack and ambience of Eschalon, I think they'd have a real winner.

EDIT: My F:NV file seems to be running much better now, no crashes since I verified the files and re-deleted the bonus weapon loadouts. Finally made my way to Red Rock Canyon by way of the frustrating winding path of Cazadors. God, I hate those things.

Currently playing ESO. I'm having fun with my woodelf nightblade, as a part of the Aldmeri Dominion. Still trying to figure things out, already "wasted" some skillpoints in bow, while I should have put them in dual wield (it does far more damage).
The game itself runs smoothly for me, I'm only experiencing some chat lag. Haven't encountered questbugs so far, but I'm still low level.

Have to check the new Civilization game once I get home, youtube is blocked here at my work.

I've been on a World War II shooter binge lately, so I've been switching between Call of Duty 2/World at War, Medal of Honor Airborne, and Sniper Elite V2. I've never really cared much for Call of Duty, but damn did they do a great job with their World War II titles, CoD2 is seriously one of the best FPS I've ever played.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Call of Duty 1+2 defined much of teenage years. I credit them for developing my interest in World War 2 and influencing me into becoming a history major.

If you're into multiplayer, I highly recommend Red Orchestra 2 and it's expansion pack Rising Storm. Very few competitive multiplayer games can nail a "this is war" type atmosphere, but RO2 manages to do it so well.

Hey, me too! I'm coming up on my last month for my Bachelor's in Broadfield Social Studies w/a History focus.

I've looked into RO2 recently, but my PC isn't quite up to snuff to play it well. Which is unfortunate because it looks great.

Is it strange that I got Black Ops 2 just for the purpose of playing Zombies?

So I recently finished Fallout 2. Fucking blast of a game, and certainly deserving of its status, but I don't think it's as good as the first game, which, in my mind, had a better narrative and pacing. The atmosphere was stronger in the first game as well, due to not being constantly broken by stupid pop culture references every 10 minutes. I'm going to do another playthrough of the first game right now actually, and play a character who cannot fight very well and must rely on his wits or his companions to survive. Should be fun.

So I got to playing some FF4 on my "new" (to me) PSP last night. I think I found a new favorite port alongside the PS1 port. It's the GBA port but much nicer looking and with the DS port's sounds (I think?)

Worth driving 20 minutes out and paying $30 for

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ver-Played

Huh... buying more games than you can reasonably play in your free time... People are... erm... idiots... uh... right?

Yeah I think part of the problem with the Spiderweb games is they last FORRREVERRRR. I've beaten Avernum 1, Avadon, and Geneforge 1 so far, and each of them got to be ludicrously long by the end. Avernum 1 especially got so long because it's an open-world game that basically *requires* you to explore every last thing and to every last quest in order to be strong enough to actually defeat the last boss. Now, I got the impression that defeating the last boss wasn't something they expected everyone to do, and I am glad they made it challenging enough that it was hard even if you did everything you could to prepare, but still, it made the game take a ridiculous amount of time. According to the stats, by the end I'd killed something like 5000 enemies.

Anyway I still liked the games, but yeah, they're fucking long. I'd go back to them though, Avadon especially has a cool story that ought to be finished. Geneforge is definitely more original and has the deepest story but is kinda barebones in terms of presentation, and Avernum has the best mechanics, but Avadon feels the most polished.

That's what happens when there are so many sales.

Exactly what I'm trying not to become on Steam actually

Bitterblack Isle 2.0? I did it too about last week. Daimon is a really cool fight, though his awakened form is a royal pain in the ass. I've been focusing on getting BBI gear lately, but Olra hates me and never gives what I want.

I agree, awesome in pretty much every way. I probably replayed this game over 7 times in one month, the music is great, I also like the character development and smooth animation.
I also quite enjoyed Lament of Innocence, will always be one of my favorites, if for nothing else, because of the cool fight with the Forgotten one.

Anyone play Dead Space 3? I was looking forward to the Co-Op play, but then I realized it was only online. Though I liked DS3, I think DS2 was better in the creepy factor as well as the character scares. I did however enjoy the option of customizing your weapons. And the monsters were cool.