Re: Saints Row 2: Insurance Fraud could have been its own standalone game and I'd have still played it for hours on end without ever stopping.

Is anyone else following the Amnesia Fortnight event? Very cool stuff.

From time to time, the folks at Double Fine stop working on their regular projects for two weeks, and instead split up into small teams that come up with new game ideas and develop a playable prototype in that short period. In the past, some of these were eventually further developed into full games, such as Costume Quest, Iron Brigade, and Stacking. This year, they're making it a public event, and set up a Humble Bundle that will get you some of their past prototypes, the five new ones currently being made, and access to daily video episodes documenting the development process of each team. This last part in particular might actually be the coolest element of the bundle, and is a must-see for anyone even vaguely interested in seeing how games are made. To see each of these very different concept evolve and take shape over a period of mere days is simply fascinating. I highly recommend checking it out. Also, the Double Fine people seem very cool and the place just looks like one of the best video game companies to work at.

Great news indeed! I'm currently playing Demon's Souls for the first time and loving it so far as much as Dark Souls. Magnificent franchise.

Haven't even played the first one, had it on my desk since August. Good news for all you guys anyway.

Today is a great day for someone that loves RPGs.

Dandelo - Throw it in whichever optical drive reading device you prefer. If you don't get hooked and play for dozens of hours right off the bat like a lot of people do, you'll still find yourself returning for short periods of "distilled gaming" bliss as I have seen it described elsewhere. Like me.

Switch out characters with L1 during combat.

So Oliver is the main kid and can use healing magic. One of your creature buddies is good for attacks. And in the volcano part of the demo you have familiars that do ice damage. Swap to them when appropriate.

At first I thought the game was brutally hard till I hit L1 and realized you can swap characters.

The gameplay is really good. I like how deep the combat seems. It's like Final Fantasy X swapping out your characters mid-combat but this is active time.



Yep I'm excited about this.

My most anticipated games of 2013 now are

3. Bioshock Infinite
2. Ni no Kuni
1. Dark Souls 2.

Fuck yes, that was my favorite side mission in SR2.

So anyways when the heck did SS2 go super out of print / rare or whatever? I've been really talking it up to a friend of mine and then suddenly... it's going for $50 used at the lowest, topped $100 easily for new copies. I swear I got my copy for like $5 just a few years back.

The demand for it to be on GOG has been on the top of the charts forever though, so I imagine it's only a matter of time.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really don't know if I like System Shock 2 more or Thief 1-2. It's insanely hard to say.

Maybe we can discuss this is anyone cares, but guess I could go with the cliche' "they're different..." for now ...

I wonder if there are any graphics update mods for Thief 1/2? I'd like to play them again. Only got so far in both. Damn those zombies, hated that shit.

There were practically none in T2. There was some random tower in the rooftops level that had two of them around a fire, I seriously think that was it.

This just dropped a few months back and sounds amazing for both it and System Shock 2. Only thing is these games are so picky on Win7 I don't know if I want to reinstall them to try these out, haha (granted it sounds like these patches could fix any potential headache getting them to run). Kind of want to keep some of my saves too, but I might reinstall SS2 next time I replay it and try this out:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140085

Think there's some high resolution texture packs out too or in the works as well. Either way I played the game vanilla and thought they both looked great. T1 is a bit more dated and blockier, but it kind of lends itself well to the weirder vibe I thought.

I'm diving into T3 now and what the crap, the new blackjacking mechanics are going to take some MAJOR getting used too. You apparently can't one shot them to the back if they're looking for you? I thought that was the point of distractions... weird.

DS II isn't dated yet. Moreover, if all they can show as of now is only a pre-rendered trailer - the game is probably very early in the works, so I wouldn't bet my money - although I'd want to - on a 2013 release. On the other hand - it's announced for the current gen consoles (as well as PC, yay!) so one can remain optimistic.

Anyway, here are some more observations: The choice of the title - Dark Souls II - kinda troubles me, as it suggests the continuation of the established lore; anyone who played DaS 1 to its end knows that its ending is near impossible to pick up without suffering the ME3 backlash. So here's for hoping it's either a working title or a prequel/"parallequel" and not a sequel per se. The trailer doesn't make things less ambiguous (how surprising) - on one hand I see glimpses of the original's "current events" timeline (there's a scene I believe to be taking place in the Painted World of Ariamis), and on the other - you can obviously see Kalameet at the end of the trailer, who's a part of Prepare to Die's "past events" timeless. And there's the massive drake skeleton - what could it be? One of the primordial dragons (past events), or Seath/The Stone Dragon (future events)?

I also wonder about the role of the lady in the trailer. I thought she's the pygmy, but she doesn't appear to be short (that's what the word means, right?) compared to the protagonist. Is it a Demon Souls reference?

On an unrelated note, I keep rewatching the trailer just because of the music. Oh, and the crowd reaction in the end.

I'm surprised at how much fun I'm having with Far Cry 3. Not trying to gloat or anything but I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and it's still a little too easy.

Also, Vaas is a really cool character.

DS II is supposed to have new characters and a new world. I don't think it will follow the first game in a linear fashion. They want to make it more 'accessible' presumably they don't mean making the game easier, per se, just having the game explain more of its systems to the player. It's on the cover of the most recent Edge.

More accessible? BS. Evidence please.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503292

most relevant bit:

Hmmmm....

Are they saying Miyazaki is no longer the director? That quote by this Shibuya saying he likes straightforward over subtlety is alarming, and Demon's/Dark Souls is Miyazaki's baby, he needs to be involved.

Edit: now I'm starting to think this whole thing is fake. Someone posted this:

So why were they interviewed by a so-called magazine?

I don't know much about the behind the scenes Dark Souls world, but it's almost always bad when a lead designer leaves a project. Especially in Japanese games which I find tend to have a more cohesive vision and are more susceptible to being headed by an auteur than their Western counterparts.

"It's hard as fuck!" almost became like a marketing meme for the Souls games, I think the publisher would be foolish to abandon that. That being said, some optional tutorials (link to the wiki? ) wouldn't be the end of the world.

Edit: Although it would be a little sad if they made everything 100% clear. No interactive tutorials, just NPCs that, if you want, you can talk to them and they will explain some basic mechanics to you. Like a blacksmith would be like, "you dont look like youve ever held a sword before, bla bla bla this is how weapon upgrades work." The main sun bro was a pretty good example of this, although you still had to put 2 and 2 together with the summoning things.

The Last Guardian.

He is, as a supervisor.

Also, they're interviewed because of their involvement with Dark Souls 2, their part (or lack thereof) in the first Dark Souls notwithstanding.

I just decided to try talking to the Black smith you find early in DS, and turns out he already does basically what I was saying. I don't know how much more there is to the system that reinforcement vs. ascension but he at least just explained that. So yea, actually, I hope they don't fuck with the formula too much. Maybe a more intuitive menu system? Dropping items in a pain.

Sounds like they're talking more story here.

Either way From Software doesn't really cater to the mainstream. This won't be any different I'm sure.


I heard this is coming out with Beyond Good & Evil 2, can't wait!!!

Even if they just mean the story (and I don't see how the quote indicates that), I don't want it. I like that the story is subtle and hinted at through item descriptions rather than spoonfed through cut scenes. Cut scenes are rarely interesting lately and I often find myself bored by them and wanting to just move on to the gameplay. That's why I love DeS/DkS so much, no endless blah blah.

The only thing I feel Dark Souls should have been more forthcoming with in terms of explanation, are the covenants. Some of them are straight-forward and well explained, but others have no dialogue and just "join covenant? yes/no", and how to progress through the covenants was too obscure, and even when it wasn't (okay, "donate" these items to progress, such as Souvenirs of Reprisals or Eyes of Death), it was a pain in the ass (donating one item at the time through a long animation each, and I have to give like 30? argh!). I would definitely improve that.

The rest... don't touch my beloved obfuscated and harshly punishing game!

I would actually find that more upsetting. I like how DS tells a story by letting you piece together things you organically encounter in the world. There are already sooooo many games that tell stories in typical linear fashions. I would much rather have DS come with a "pussy mode" than have the core of the franchise's take on story telling altered. edit: damn, beaten

In the end though... it's just fun to speculate. I'm sure no one is making their mind up about the game this early on in its life.

Do note that a more straightforward story doesn't necessarily mean a "typical linear fashion". For all we know they might only add more context to what you're doing during the main events while leaving the secondary stuff as suggestive and scattered around as in the first one.

Hahaha oh my god yes!! Not to mention the reward for completing one of the locations is unlimited sprint, which is easily one of the best unlockable rewards. Once I discovered how great going to the freeway was in Insurance Fraud I just couldn't stop laughing. With full adrenaline, getting bounced along at 70 MPH by an endless succession of semi-trucks is one of the most fun things in the whole game.

Basically Saints Row 2 has taken all the silly fun aspects of the GTA series and made them the core gameplay, rather than just something you fuck around with on the side. The missions basically all end up boiling down to "mow down 9000 gang members and police officers with these overpowered weapons we give you" with slight variation, and because the basic gameplay is so much fun it WORKS.

Of course, due to its unpredictability, it's also just as frustrating as GTA games can be. On one mission I was trying to get into a car with a bunch of hos I was escorting while being chased by an army of ronin. I was alone at the time, just trying to enter the car, when this lone cop decides to aggro on me, and out of nowhere he pulls me out of the car and tazes me, and just then 3 carfuls of ronin roll up and blow the everliving crap out of me with their TEC-9's as I lie twitching helplessly on the ground. Oh god did I yell.

The ho driving side missions always sucked, they were ruthlessly fucking annoying in SR3.

Just be glad you're not playing SR1 though. You had to drive using one joystick while aiming with the other, combat while driving was practically impossible and definitely necessary for some missions. Glad they really fixed that with the sequels.

Well, I'm playing the PC version anyway. Yeah, the ho escort thing was a giant pain in the ass, but the promise of uzis for level 3 and unlimited SMG ammo for level 6 was just too tasty to turn down. It sucks that the map for SR3 is apparently so much smaller than SR2, I really didn't even think it was too big at all, it really feels like a full city. Did they put more work into the parts that are in SR3, at least? Or is it basically the same but way smaller?

SR3 has good controls and is really fluid in comparison but that's it. It's just straight up 10x smaller and the game feels lazier all around (way shorter development time from what I've heard). I thought the mall in SR2 was fun too, there's none in SR3 and other big areas like the school, etc. I really can't recall much, the game just didn't hold me till the end.

Did anyone ever play Ecstatica back in the 90's? I played this when I was 10 or 11 and it scared the shit out of me. I never did end up finishing it.

Yes, and the sequel. Very sinister games, partly due to the bulbous graphics. Would've been better with less combat and more puzzles.

Great game(s), played it a lot when I was young but never got far since it was fucking hard and it scared the shit out of me. Should go back to that one sometime.

^ It was fucking hard because it controlled like shit.

True, but more games controlled like that (Little Big Adventure, Alone in the Dark come to mind) but those were a lot 'easier'.

I used to just go and fight it out with that Werewolf dick over and over and punch him for like 10 minutes straight and get frustrated that he didn't die.

He used to trap my ass up into that delapitated bell tower and I couldn't go anywhere. As a matter of fact I can't think of any clear goal you had the moment you'd walk into that village.

bitComposer bought the rights for Stalker. So the rumors about Bethesda are ultimately confirmed bullshit, though now I kinda wish they weren't. bitComposer brought us such hits as not a single game I ever felt the need to play, so someone else has to tell us why they suck. Skimming their list of releases doesn't exactly fill me with anticipation.

Edit: The Escapist says something's fishy.

Shibuya has worked as an artist for Monster Hunter Games and has worked on Ultima and I can definitely see the influence MH has had on Dark Souls so I'm not too worried about him because it seems like he would work mainly on the artistic side of the game. Not to mention it would be pretty cool to face even more colossal bosses. Don't know about the other director though.. really wished Miyazaki didn't leave the director position and i surely hope that the new directors won't make the game more accessible by making the game easier/more straightforward.

Also, based on the trailer, do you guys think it's a prequel or sequel? It looks like a prequel to me...

Finally finished Far Cry 3. Rubbish ending to a rubbish game. Definitely deleting this one ASAP.