Apologizes for the late start to this thread; between a nasty stomach
virus followed by seven days of no electricity (thanks Hurricane
Sandy!), it was impossible for me to post this at my usual schedule.
But I'm back on the grid at last.
So, having lost a week already let's get right into this. The name of
the thread is "What Have You Been Playing" and the aim of the thread
is to list the games that have kept you entertained (or not, as the
case might be) over the past thirty days. It's a forum where you can
actually discuss the games themselves, as opposed to some of the
meta-gaming topics that run prevalent through much of this newsgroup
recently. List the games and optionally throw in a few comments about
the titles, as you chose.
Alright, everybody get the idea? Here we go!
Short and Sweet
--------------------
Serious Sam 3 - BFE (new)
XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
Alan Wake (replay)
Doom 3 (replay)
Witcher 2 (new)
TL; DR
----------
* Serious Sam 3 BFE (new)
What an utterly forgettable and unenjoyable game. The original Serious
Sam was a return to classic FPS gaming with over-the-top enemies and
weapons set within huge and interesting levels. Its engine was
competitive and it felt a breath of fresh air in an era where
everybody was following-the-leader with Half Life and Medal of honor.
Serious Sam 3 has none of the charm and uniqueness of the original.
The level design is dull and repetitive (too often borrowing from the
"brown-is-real" book of Modern Warfare game design) and the weapons
lack the heft and power one expects from this sort of game. The
teleporting enemies are repetitive and the boss battles are tedious.
Even its engine feels lackluster when compared to other modern titles.
An utterly pointless game that failed to engage me at any time.
* XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
I never quite got into the original XCom as did others; I enjoyed the
game but never to the point where I wanted to, say, write fanfic about
it. It was a fun, but flawed, classic with as many good points as bad.
Still, I was as excited as the next grognard when I heard that Firaxis
was rebooting the series. My opinion of this newest title, however, is
similar to that of the original: it is a classic, albeit somewhat
flawed, game.
Despite the moans of many, I find the removal of action-points an
acceptable compromise towards making the game more accessible and less
tedious than the original. The game moves more quickly now, advancing
to those memorable firefights at a more rapid pace. But the game feels
suspiciously hollow, with numerous missing features. Customization is
shallow, the maps and missions are repetitive, and the aliens feel
toothless lacking the ability to assault the XCom base. These gaps
seem purposeful, probably to be filled in with DLC. The end result is
a game which offers an often memorable experience but not one which
drags me back to play it more than once.
* Alan Wake (XBox360) (replay)
Forget its nonsensical story or sometimes irksome gameplay, Alan Wake
delivers with its moody atmosphere and setting. Its shadow-filled
levels are expansive, if linear, and suitably mysterious; its that
terrifying walk through the dark woods none of us ever want to take.
Its daylight levels provide a bizarre counterpoint to the gloomy
forests. It fails only near the end, when the paced combat becomes an
endless frenzy of onrushing enemies, transforming from memorable
survival-horror to laborious shooter. Still, it's hard to dismiss the
enjoyment of the first two-thirds of the game just because the last
third fails to live up to that quality.
* Doom 3 (replay)
The Doom 3 HD package (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ClMtOYSitA)
breaths new life into this aging title whilst simultaneously showing
how much of a money-grab the new "BFG" edition truly is. Doom 3 has
its faults, but - especially when taken in small chunks - can still
excite. True, the monster-in-the-closet trick rapidly grows tiresome,
but its claustrophobic level design and solid-hitting weapons make up
for this deficiency. Played slowly and over brief sessions, I let the
gloomy (okay, *dark*) environments work their dark magic on me as I
dodged and shot my way through the hell-infested wreckage of the
ruined Mars base and enjoyed myself immensely.
* Witcher 2 (new)
I think the problem I most had with the Witcher 2 is that I had no
adequate reference to what was going on. The story involves a deep
plot with the nations of Temeria, Kaedwin, and Aedirn, rebellions with
the Scoia'tael and problems with the council of mages, with wizards
and kings and petty nobility and elves and dwarves and I haven't an
idea how any of it fits together. Should I care that the Nilfgaardians
are invading? I haven't an idea who they are! Characters drop in and
out of the game with the assumption that I know who they are and what
their importance is, and expect me to make plot-changing decisions
based on that assumption. Sure, the title features an in-game
encyclopedia of sorts, but it is extremely tedious to read it off the
computer screen. As such, I rarely cared about the actual plot and
never felt fully involved in what was happening; I wasn't the
protagonist of the story, just a nameless goon following in the
footsteps of the nobility who apparently were the main characters of
the tale.
It didn't help that the levels - albeit sizeable - were few in number
and lacked in interesting setpieces; too often I had seen most of what
each level had to offer before I reached the halfway point of each
act. The combat was fun - the eponymous Witcher has a wide variety of
combat maneuvers that are a thrill to watch - but the fights
themselves too often became rote button-mashing requiring little
strategy. New weapons and armor offered little in variety or
excitement, being mostly numeric stat upgrades.
As a book, the Witcher 2 probably would have rated very highly as a
tense, intricate high-fantasy tale. As a game, it was about as
interesting as watching paint dry.
--------------------
That's my play-list for the last month. The doors are open for the
rest of you now...
On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:06:08 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2012?
Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
real-world version of Minecraft. lol
On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>real-world version of Minecraft. lol
How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
as long as this one.
<spallshurgen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Apologizes for the late start to this thread; between a nasty stomach
>virus followed by seven days of no electricity (thanks Hurricane
>Sandy!), it was impossible for me to post this at my usual schedule.
>But I'm back on the grid at last.
>So, having lost a week already let's get right into this. The name of
>the thread is "What Have You Been Playing" and the aim of the thread
>is to list the games that have kept you entertained (or not, as the
>case might be) over the past thirty days. It's a forum where you can
>actually discuss the games themselves, as opposed to some of the
>meta-gaming topics that run prevalent through much of this newsgroup
>recently. List the games and optionally throw in a few comments about
>the titles, as you chose.
>Alright, everybody get the idea? Here we go!
>Short and Sweet
>--------------------
>Serious Sam 3 - BFE (new)
>XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
>Alan Wake (replay)
>Doom 3 (replay)
>Witcher 2 (new)
>TL; DR
>----------
>* Serious Sam 3 BFE (new)
>What an utterly forgettable and unenjoyable game. The original Serious
>Sam was a return to classic FPS gaming with over-the-top enemies and
>weapons set within huge and interesting levels. Its engine was
>competitive and it felt a breath of fresh air in an era where
>everybody was following-the-leader with Half Life and Medal of honor.
>Serious Sam 3 has none of the charm and uniqueness of the original.
>The level design is dull and repetitive (too often borrowing from the
>"brown-is-real" book of Modern Warfare game design) and the weapons
>lack the heft and power one expects from this sort of game. The
>teleporting enemies are repetitive and the boss battles are tedious.
>Even its engine feels lackluster when compared to other modern titles.
>An utterly pointless game that failed to engage me at any time.
>* XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
>I never quite got into the original XCom as did others; I enjoyed the
>game but never to the point where I wanted to, say, write fanfic about
>it. It was a fun, but flawed, classic with as many good points as bad.
>Still, I was as excited as the next grognard when I heard that Firaxis
>was rebooting the series. My opinion of this newest title, however, is
>similar to that of the original: it is a classic, albeit somewhat
>flawed, game.
>Despite the moans of many, I find the removal of action-points an
>acceptable compromise towards making the game more accessible and less
>tedious than the original. The game moves more quickly now, advancing
>to those memorable firefights at a more rapid pace. But the game feels
>suspiciously hollow, with numerous missing features. Customization is
>shallow, the maps and missions are repetitive, and the aliens feel
>toothless lacking the ability to assault the XCom base. These gaps
>seem purposeful, probably to be filled in with DLC. The end result is
>a game which offers an often memorable experience but not one which
>drags me back to play it more than once.
>* Alan Wake (XBox360) (replay)
>Forget its nonsensical story or sometimes irksome gameplay, Alan Wake
>delivers with its moody atmosphere and setting. Its shadow-filled
>levels are expansive, if linear, and suitably mysterious; its that
>terrifying walk through the dark woods none of us ever want to take.
>Its daylight levels provide a bizarre counterpoint to the gloomy
>forests. It fails only near the end, when the paced combat becomes an
>endless frenzy of onrushing enemies, transforming from memorable
>survival-horror to laborious shooter. Still, it's hard to dismiss the
>enjoyment of the first two-thirds of the game just because the last
>third fails to live up to that quality.
>* Doom 3 (replay)
>The Doom 3 HD package (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ClMtOYSitA)
>breaths new life into this aging title whilst simultaneously showing
>how much of a money-grab the new "BFG" edition truly is. Doom 3 has
>its faults, but - especially when taken in small chunks - can still
>excite. True, the monster-in-the-closet trick rapidly grows tiresome,
>but its claustrophobic level design and solid-hitting weapons make up
>for this deficiency. Played slowly and over brief sessions, I let the
>gloomy (okay, *dark*) environments work their dark magic on me as I
>dodged and shot my way through the hell-infested wreckage of the
>ruined Mars base and enjoyed myself immensely.
>* Witcher 2 (new)
>I think the problem I most had with the Witcher 2 is that I had no
>adequate reference to what was going on. The story involves a deep
>plot with the nations of Temeria, Kaedwin, and Aedirn, rebellions with
>the Scoia'tael and problems with the council of mages, with wizards
>and kings and petty nobility and elves and dwarves and I haven't an
>idea how any of it fits together. Should I care that the Nilfgaardians
>are invading? I haven't an idea who they are! Characters drop in and
>out of the game with the assumption that I know who they are and what
>their importance is, and expect me to make plot-changing decisions
>based on that assumption. Sure, the title features an in-game
>encyclopedia of sorts, but it is extremely tedious to read it off the
>computer screen. As such, I rarely cared about the actual plot and
>never felt fully involved in what was happening; I wasn't the
>protagonist of the story, just a nameless goon following in the
>footsteps of the nobility who apparently were the main characters of
>the tale.
>It didn't help that the levels - albeit sizeable - were few in number
>and lacked in interesting setpieces; too often I had seen most of what
>each level had to offer before I reached the halfway point of each
>act. The combat was fun - the eponymous Witcher has a wide variety of
>combat maneuvers that are a thrill to watch - but the fights
>themselves too often became rote button-mashing requiring little
>strategy. New weapons and armor offered little in variety or
>excitement, being mostly numeric stat upgrades.
>As a book, the Witcher 2 probably would have rated very highly as a
>tense, intricate high-fantasy tale. As a game, it was about as
>interesting as watching paint dry.
>--------------------
>That's my play-list for the last month. The doors are open for the
>rest of you now...
>What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2012?
Not good at writing, and I haven't been playing many games lately
(although I buy them - I really should stick to demos! :-))
-Borderlands 2 (pretty good! I don't play it enough so I keep
forgetting where I am and what I am supposed to do!)
-I Am Alive (just for a few minutes)
-Guild Wars 2 (a little. I am not a MP game player so I have no idea
why I bought it! It seems hard to learn. And I need to get back to
Skyrim)
-DisHonered (starting to like it. graphics could be better)
-COD MW3 (pretty good. need to get back to it)
-The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (with my wife)
And a tiny bit of other games. Just preordered Assasan's Creed 3 but
I have such a HUGE backlog!
W dniu 2012-11-07 18:06, Spalls Hurgenson pisze:
> * XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
> I never quite got into the original XCom as did others; I enjoyed the
> game but never to the point where I wanted to, say, write fanfic about
> it. It was a fun, but flawed, classic with as many good points as bad.
> Still, I was as excited as the next grognard when I heard that Firaxis
> was rebooting the series. My opinion of this newest title, however, is
> similar to that of the original: it is a classic, albeit somewhat
> flawed, game.
>
> Despite the moans of many, I find the removal of action-points an
> acceptable compromise towards making the game more accessible and less
> tedious than the original. The game moves more quickly now, advancing
> to those memorable firefights at a more rapid pace. But the game feels
> suspiciously hollow, with numerous missing features. Customization is
> shallow, the maps and missions are repetitive, and the aliens feel
> toothless lacking the ability to assault the XCom base. These gaps
> seem purposeful, probably to be filled in with DLC. The end result is
> a game which offers an often memorable experience but not one which
> drags me back to play it more than once.
>
Yep, compared to the original it's nice but much more narrow in scope. No wonder maps are repetitive - game's huge but about 9 of its 13 gigabytes is wasted on crappy pre-rendered videos instead of unique objects and textures. Plus there's plenty of nasty bugs.
That said - a second patch has apparently been deployed just now, so it's time to get back playing, because despite the flaws it's quite addictive. And I've christened my soldiers with local B-list celebrity names which doubles the amusement.
> As a book, the Witcher 2 probably would have rated very highly as a
> tense, intricate high-fantasy tale. As a game, it was about as
> interesting as watching paint dry.
I didn't feel very disoriented by the story, perhaps because I've read all the Witcher books (twice) - so even when the game's story is not in the canon I kinda get the vibe. It's pretty much the only kind of fantasy I can stomach. Loved the game, completed it twice too see how siding with both Scoia'tael and Vernon Roche plays out.
Aside of Xcom, 20 hours of last month has been lost to Dishonored. It was really nice to play a truly engaging first person game again. Loved all the sneaking, blinking, scavenging and occasional stabbing. It's linear but in a way that didn't bother me at all - I was too busy walking on the ledges and finding hidden passages. Even if steampunk is old news now I don't really recall any game doing it that well, bizarre whale-oil tech is neat and plague ridden city strikingly miserable. Revenge story and set of characters were good enough too. Really enjoyable and well executed production.
If I were forced to find something wrong with it it would be repetitive NPC dialogues and enemies being a bit thick in general - very often losing them was just a matter of running upstairs. But well, I'm used to the fact the AI in computer games is truly artificial.
On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:26:09 -0500, Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com>
wrote:
>On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>>Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>as long as this one.
3 and a half days without power, and I was lucky. A lot of people
around me were off for as long as you. No real damage to my house,
just a lot of cleanup... 3 inches of snow last night, and its supposed
to be almost 70 degree's by Saturday.
Seeing Godzilla rise up out of the river wouldn't surprise me at this
point. haha
On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:50:02 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>3 and a half days without power, and I was lucky. A lot of people
>around me were off for as long as you. No real damage to my house,
>just a lot of cleanup... 3 inches of snow last night, and its supposed
>to be almost 70 degree's by Saturday.
>Seeing Godzilla rise up out of the river wouldn't surprise me at this
>point. haha
Heh. :)
This snowstorm took the damn power out again during the night.
Fortunately, it was late when it went out so I just went to bed and it
was back on this morning. Thank god it wasn't another seven day thing.
And yeah, much warmer on Saturday. :)
The only damage I suffered to my personal property from the hurricane
was food I had to throw away so I guess I was lucky in that regard.
>That's my play-list for the last month. The doors are open for the
>rest of you now...
>What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2012?
Sorry to hear those of you that were effected by hurricane Sandy. We had unusually warm weather here. We are overdue for "The Big One", a major earthquake.
Half Life (1) partial
I wanted to get a feel of the original and how the graphics looked before I played Black Mesa.
I remember when it came out I thought game was amazing. The graphics look so crude now. It looks more like a cartoon and you have to use your imagination to see people and creatures as real.
Still it has great story, tension and atmosphere.
Black Mesa
This is how half life Source should have been when the Source engine came out. Everything looks so much more realistic than HL1, although it is a bit dated today. I did not replay all of HL1, so I can't tell how well BM follows the original to the end, but is seems fairly close. I suppose with the new physics they had to change some things, although I was actually able to stack some pallets and barrels to get up to a platform that I was suppose to jump to atop from toxic tanks.
I forgot about all the puzzles and spawn triggers along the path. I guess after playing a lot of open world games where things happen more random, the trigger points and enemy spawning gets annoying. Great to play HL1 with updated graphics and physics, but I think it can be appreciated more if you play some of the original HL1 first.
Skyrim- continuing after finishing main quest.
I have a backlog other unplayed games, but can't stop playing this game. I keep exploring and finding new places and side quests.
Stalker Call of Pripyat- with Complete mod
The graphics are looking a bit old. Too much text to read when having dialog with NPC.
I just started this so I guess it should be listed for November games.
I Am Alive (re-pasting my review from a month ago)
Just finished this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Apparently it had some
troubled dev history, and ended up being curtailed in scope, which led
reviewers like IGN to penalize it in a terribly unfair manner. Gamespot's
review, however, is spot on; here's the link, as he writes much better than
I:
http://www.gamespot.com/i-am-alive/reviews/i-am-alive-review-6364711/
I was immersed from the first home-movie-camera clip: this game succeeds
brilliantly at making you care about the characters you meet, so you want to
help them, even while the tension built up by the game mechanics --
climbing, street-level movement, and the psychologically interesting combat
system -- make you realize the risks of doing so. The feel is that of being
in a disaster survival movie. 10 hours on Normal, and well worth $15. Recommended!
Crysis 3 MP alpha
Not much to say critically, as I mostly stick to single-player games, but I found this pretty enjoyable. They offered sort of a capture the flag mode, and the graphics are a pleasure; the weapons and what little gameplay strategy I could figure out were interesting; and the difficulty was reasonable, so I felt I always had a chance and wasn't completely overwhelmed or insta-killed.
Dishonored
Just finished this tonight, putting over 40hrs into it, and found it incredibly satisfying: Satisfying visually, in the lovely art style, lighting, and architecture; tactically, in the plethora of gameplay options available in weaponry & magic; strategically, in having non-lethal as well as lethal approaches always available, with attendant rewards in npc behavior and final outcome; and emotionally, in having built a game world and characters that I cared about and wanted to interact with.
I played it like a Thief title, attempting -- though often failing -- to 'ghost' every level, while putting extra effort into exploration and taffing, opening all the safes, reading all the books and notes, doing optional quests, and going completely non-lethal (except for the prologue, when I didn't know better). Ghosting is difficult, especially if you are trying to '100%' and pick up all items, as detection is tough to avoid -- I played on Hard -- and as it took me awhile to realize the AI will attempt to replace guards that you knock out.
spallshurgen...@gmail.com (Spalls Hurgenson) wrote:
> seven days of no electricity (thanks Hurricane Sandy!
A great opportunity to play cards by candlelight. :-)
Actually when I was young (in the 70's) we had coal strikes here in the UK, and had
to go without power regularly during the evenings for a while. I have quite fond
memories of that... though there's a big difference between short, planned outages
your parents have to deal with and the horrible circumstance on the US East Coast
which you have to deal with yourself as an adult.
> * XCom Enemy Unknown
I just can't raise any motivation for turn based games. The demo's on my "must try"
list, but I failed to get into Civ5 for the same reason. If you give me time to sit
and think about my next move I tend to sit and think about something else. Part of
me wishes I could change that, but part of me says I have enough gaming
distractions already. :-)
> * Witcher 2 (new)
Reading your comments makes me feel less guilty about failing -- yet again -- to
get past that poxy squid. I did try again this month, but not for long. I'm done
with that kind of "do this, do that then do this, then do that twice, then...
<Zzzz..... >" boss battle in games. There's a knack to making them just difficult
enough to be an interesting challenge, and this one went way beyond that.
My gaming month involved more Fallout3.. until I got to the end of the Alien DLC
and found my path to the Alien Captain was bugged this time. The hassle of
back-tracking broke the spell and it dropped off my play list.
With Assassin's Creed 3 in the news I had a go at starting AC2, but didn't get very
far. I think I need to dig my PS3 controller out, even though I seem to remembering
managing ok in AC1 (until a long, squid-style mission crossed my boredom
threshold).
Otherwise it was just the usual dabbling... iRacing, pCARS, rF2, Bepoxyjewelled,
and a daydreaming about sinking my teeth into a satisfying FPS game for a change.
But if you don't start them, you don't get disappointed. :-)
Andrew McP
PS I'm still wasting a lot of time learning to touch type, but I seem to have hit a
plateau. My speed can hit 50wpm now, but the accuracy just refuses to stay decent.
Every time I slow down, build up a solid base, and let myself "flow" again, it all
goes pear shaped. It is, however, rather satisfying when -- for a few seconds --
you find the words flowing onto the screen in an almost magical fashion. Your
finger muscle memory goes into autopilot and you start to jklhs hg k;j a d'rhi ;jh ;
hg ;hg asoitypuykvb k zghh
Oh, bugger!
PPS None of this was touch typed. Maybe if I went cold turkey I might improve
quicker, but two finger typing is a hard habit to break.
Nos...@nospam.net (Lou) wrote:
> We are overdue for "The Big > One", a major earthquake.
During the post-election analysis I saw someone talking about how global warming
and/or a California earthquake would see the US sent back to the dark ages or
(perhaps more accurately) the Middle East, politically speaking.
That might be a little extremist (what would politics be without it!) but there's a
nasty grain of truth to it. "Acts of God" might be the only way back for the
Republicans given demographic changes.
Of course if Donald Trump stopped supporting them that might help a lot. That guy's
insane.
Anyway, this probably isn't the time or place for this kind of discussion, but I
suppose you could say that we spend a lot of our lives playing in post apocalyptic
landscapes. So we may just be a particularly self-delusioned form of prepper. The
real preppers are out there stockpiling tinned food and bullets. We just play
Borderlands, Rage, and FO3. :-)
Mind you, if we hunker down for long enough for the bullets to run out, all that
Skyrim practice might come in handy. :->
I actually thought I had bought this already but can't find it or a
receipt mail anywhere so probably not. Oh well.
> What have you been playing... IN OCTOBER 2012?
Really just Borderlands 2 and not that much of it either. First
playthrough maybe slightly over half way point. Some things are better
than the original, other things are worse.
>Reading your comments makes me feel less guilty about failing -- yet again -- to
>get past that poxy squid. I did try again this month, but not for long. I'm done
>with that kind of "do this, do that then do this, then do that twice, then...
><Zzzz..... >" boss battle in games. There's a knack to making them just difficult
>enough to be an interesting challenge, and this one went way beyond that.
Oh gods, that squid boss battle was awful and felt so out of place.
Fortunately, it was the only battle like that; all the other combat
scenarios were standard click-click-click-dead (with the occasional
"oh god, spacebar to dodge, quick!)
I always marveled how Garret manages to roll around in the dirt and
mud so much and yet his clothes remain clean and pristine ;-)
>I Am Alive (re-pasting my review from a month ago)
>Just finished this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Apparently it had some
>troubled dev history, and ended up being curtailed in scope, which led
>reviewers like IGN to penalize it in a terribly unfair manner. Gamespot's
>review, however, is spot on; here's the link, as he writes much better than
>I:
>http://www.gamespot.com/i-am-alive/reviews/i-am-alive-review-6364711/
>I was immersed from the first home-movie-camera clip: this game succeeds
>brilliantly at making you care about the characters you meet, so you want to
>help them, even while the tension built up by the game mechanics --
>climbing, street-level movement, and the psychologically interesting combat
>system -- make you realize the risks of doing so. The feel is that of being
>in a disaster survival movie. 10 hours on Normal, and well worth $15. >Recommended!
>Crysis 3 MP alpha
>Not much to say critically, as I mostly stick to single-player games, but I >found this pretty enjoyable. They offered sort of a capture the flag mode, >and the graphics are a pleasure; the weapons and what little gameplay >strategy I could figure out were interesting; and the difficulty was >reasonable, so I felt I always had a chance and wasn't completely >overwhelmed or insta-killed.
>Dishonored
>Just finished this tonight, putting over 40hrs into it, and found it >incredibly satisfying: Satisfying visually, in the lovely art style, >lighting, and architecture; tactically, in the plethora of gameplay options >available in weaponry & magic; strategically, in having non-lethal as well >as lethal approaches always available, with attendant rewards in npc >behavior and final outcome; and emotionally, in having built a game world >and characters that I cared about and wanted to interact with.
>I played it like a Thief title, attempting -- though often failing -- to >'ghost' every level, while putting extra effort into exploration and >taffing, opening all the safes, reading all the books and notes, doing >optional quests, and going completely non-lethal (except for the prologue, >when I didn't know better). Ghosting is difficult, especially if you are >trying to '100%' and pick up all items, as detection is tough to avoid -- I >played on Hard -- and as it took me awhile to realize the AI will attempt to >replace guards that you knock out.
>Brilliant stuff, and GOTY for me.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion about it here
actually. I predicted this would be SP GOTY for many folks.
Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>>Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>as long as this one.
I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
over the place, especially in northern New York state.
We got warnings about Sandy here, but almost nothing happened. I didn't
even get a power flicker though a few people were without power for some
hours from downed lines (probably tree hits line effects.)
Mostly it was just wind, and not even that much of it.
The internet connection dropped to abysmally slow speeds though.
It's the one advantage of living in this small city, it's so boring even
the bad weather doesn't want to visit. Despite being in a direct line
between Toronto and Ottawa, storms that hit both of them will circle
around Kingston on their way by.
Xocyll
-- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
BrunoN Bluthgeld <bruno...@removethispart.o2.pl> looked up from reading
the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the
signs say:
> > * XCom Enemy Unknown (new)
<snip>
>That said - a second patch has apparently been deployed just now, so >it's time to get back playing, because despite the flaws it's quite >addictive. And I've christened my soldiers with local B-list celebrity >names which doubles the amusement.
That's an interesting idea.
Maybe when I finally buy it I'll do something similar with tabloid
celebrities. Maybe an all female squad with Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes
and other "in trouble" celebs conscripted and sentenced to fight aliens
instead of going to jail.
Of course, then I won't know who to root for, my squad of felons, or the
aliens trying to kill them.
Xocyll
-- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
On Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:04:39 -0500, Xocyll <Xoc...@kingston.net>
wrote:
>I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
>to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
>since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
>over the place, especially in northern New York state.
While I can easily forget about a storm that long ago, I'm
(reasonably) certain I would remember a blackout that lasted a full
week or more.
Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>On Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:04:39 -0500, Xocyll <Xoc...@kingston.net>
>wrote:
>>I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
>>to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
>>since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
>>over the place, especially in northern New York state.
>While I can easily forget about a storm that long ago, I'm
>(reasonably) certain I would remember a blackout that lasted a full
>week or more.
Oh there were people in that one who were without power for over 3
weeks. Massive ice buildup (over 3 inches) ripped down lines all over
the place and even took down thousands of distribution towers too.
I actually ended up listening to a New York state radio station during
that as the ice took down the broadcast tower of the station I normally
listened to back then.
Makes you realize just how fragile our civilization is sometimes.
Xocyll
-- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 19:34:43 -0800, "Lou" <Nos...@nospam.net> wrote:
>Stalker Call of Pripyat- with Complete mod
>The graphics are looking a bit old. Too much text to read when having >dialog with NPC.
>I just started this so I guess it should be listed for November games.
This was the most polished and approachable of the three games, but on
reflection, its my least favorite. The world feels very segmented and
smaller because of the decision to make separate sections you have to
pay a guide to travel between.
Clear Sky is usually the game that takes the critical beating, but I
loved it. It suffered from trying to be too dynamic, with weird random
occurrences being potential quest breakers.
Playing Skyrim before Call Of Pripyat would really make the small
world feeling glaring, given the flexible travel options Skyrim gives
you. Skyrim also suffers from a lot of potential "freak out" pitfalls
just like STALKER: Clear Sky.
There are a lot of similarities in feel to them considering how
different the settings are.
> Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>> On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>> and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>> My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>> into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>> Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>> Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>> real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>> How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>> home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>> as long as this one.
> I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
> to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
> since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
> over the place, especially in northern New York state.
> We got warnings about Sandy here, but almost nothing happened. I didn't
> even get a power flicker though a few people were without power for some
> hours from downed lines (probably tree hits line effects.)
> Mostly it was just wind, and not even that much of it.
> The internet connection dropped to abysmally slow speeds though.
> It's the one advantage of living in this small city, it's so boring even
> the bad weather doesn't want to visit. Despite being in a direct line
> between Toronto and Ottawa, storms that hit both of them will circle
> around Kingston on their way by.
> Xocyll
Another issue with the Eastern Ontario Ice storm of 1998 (We were out for 9 days) was that it was in January. With temperatures below zero ended up desperate for generator so the pipes didn't freeze in the house. We had already lost all the food in the freezer and fridge by then and had to live off of relatives who had power back first.
Though the water damage from the storm would be so much worse then it being just cold in the house.
>On 11/9/2012 1:04 PM, Xocyll wrote:
>> Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
>> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>> On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>>> and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>>> My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>>> into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>>> Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>>> Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>>> real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>>> How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>>> home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>>> as long as this one.
>> I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
>> to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
>> since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
>> over the place, especially in northern New York state.
>> We got warnings about Sandy here, but almost nothing happened. I didn't
>> even get a power flicker though a few people were without power for some
>> hours from downed lines (probably tree hits line effects.)
>> Mostly it was just wind, and not even that much of it.
>> The internet connection dropped to abysmally slow speeds though.
>> It's the one advantage of living in this small city, it's so boring even
>> the bad weather doesn't want to visit. Despite being in a direct line
>> between Toronto and Ottawa, storms that hit both of them will circle
>> around Kingston on their way by.
>> Xocyll
>Another issue with the Eastern Ontario Ice storm of 1998 (We were out >for 9 days) was that it was in January. With temperatures below zero >ended up desperate for generator so the pipes didn't freeze in the >house. We had already lost all the food in the freezer and fridge by >then and had to live off of relatives who had power back first.
>Though the water damage from the storm would be so much worse then it >being just cold in the house.
Um, I have to ask how can you lose all the food in the freezers when
it's sub zero outside - no one thought to just move it outside?
Garden shed, car trunk, etc.
My folks were without power for a few hours, but I think my total
downtime was 45 minutes.
Friends of mine were out for a couple weeks, and that was downtown not
out in the sticks.
Hate to think what it was like for those folks out in the sticks
elsewhere with miles of power lines and thousands of transmission towers
having to be replaced before there was any hope of restored power.
Xocyll
-- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
> Phat_Jethro <m...@work.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>> On 11/9/2012 1:04 PM, Xocyll wrote:
>>> Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
>>> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>>> On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>>>> and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>>>> My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>>>> into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>>>> Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>>>> Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>>>> real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>>>> How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>>>> home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>>>> as long as this one.
>>> I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
>>> to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
>>> since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
>>> over the place, especially in northern New York state.
>>> We got warnings about Sandy here, but almost nothing happened. I didn't
>>> even get a power flicker though a few people were without power for some
>>> hours from downed lines (probably tree hits line effects.)
>>> Mostly it was just wind, and not even that much of it.
>>> The internet connection dropped to abysmally slow speeds though.
>>> It's the one advantage of living in this small city, it's so boring even
>>> the bad weather doesn't want to visit. Despite being in a direct line
>>> between Toronto and Ottawa, storms that hit both of them will circle
>>> around Kingston on their way by.
>>> Xocyll
>> Another issue with the Eastern Ontario Ice storm of 1998 (We were out
>> for 9 days) was that it was in January. With temperatures below zero
>> ended up desperate for generator so the pipes didn't freeze in the
>> house. We had already lost all the food in the freezer and fridge by
>> then and had to live off of relatives who had power back first.
>> Though the water damage from the storm would be so much worse then it
>> being just cold in the house.
> Um, I have to ask how can you lose all the food in the freezers when
> it's sub zero outside - no one thought to just move it outside?
> Garden shed, car trunk, etc.
> My folks were without power for a few hours, but I think my total
> downtime was 45 minutes.
> Friends of mine were out for a couple weeks, and that was downtown not
> out in the sticks.
> Hate to think what it was like for those folks out in the sticks
> elsewhere with miles of power lines and thousands of transmission towers
> having to be replaced before there was any hope of restored power.
> Xocyll
Yes if you recall it was freezing rain so it wasn't that much below zero. It was hovering around zero or just below. Enough to freeze the water but not enough to keep a freezer of meat solid. We did move some over to our relatives but they were running a generator on a farm for a few hours a day to do chores. And their freezers were full.
>On 11/12/2012 1:24 PM, Xocyll wrote:
>> Phat_Jethro <m...@work.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
>> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>> On 11/9/2012 1:04 PM, Xocyll wrote:
>>>> Mike S. <Mik...@nowhere.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
>>>> porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:
>>>>> On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:57:35 -0500, Tim O <timo56REM...@hotmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Minecraft... I never totally "got" this. I did buy it during the beta
>>>>>> and played it for a few days, then just kind of lost interest in it.
>>>>>> My buddy and his kid set up a server and were putting tons of hours
>>>>>> into making a little village with it, so I tried to get back into it.
>>>>>> Its a time-waster for sure, but I'm still not totally taken with it.
>>>>>> Ironically, hurricane Sandy has pretty much forced me to play the
>>>>>> real-world version of Minecraft. lol
>>>>> How long were you without power? I had no power for seven full days at
>>>>> home, and five days at work. I've never been in a blackout that lasted
>>>>> as long as this one.
>>>> I take it you weren't in the path of the big Ice storm of '98? I seem
>>>> to recall there were people who were without power for weeks after that,
>>>> since the distribution lines (and poles and such) were taken down all
>>>> over the place, especially in northern New York state.
>>>> We got warnings about Sandy here, but almost nothing happened. I didn't
>>>> even get a power flicker though a few people were without power for some
>>>> hours from downed lines (probably tree hits line effects.)
>>>> Mostly it was just wind, and not even that much of it.
>>>> The internet connection dropped to abysmally slow speeds though.
>>>> It's the one advantage of living in this small city, it's so boring even
>>>> the bad weather doesn't want to visit. Despite being in a direct line
>>>> between Toronto and Ottawa, storms that hit both of them will circle
>>>> around Kingston on their way by.
>>>> Xocyll
>>> Another issue with the Eastern Ontario Ice storm of 1998 (We were out
>>> for 9 days) was that it was in January. With temperatures below zero
>>> ended up desperate for generator so the pipes didn't freeze in the
>>> house. We had already lost all the food in the freezer and fridge by
>>> then and had to live off of relatives who had power back first.
>>> Though the water damage from the storm would be so much worse then it
>>> being just cold in the house.
>> Um, I have to ask how can you lose all the food in the freezers when
>> it's sub zero outside - no one thought to just move it outside?
>> Garden shed, car trunk, etc.
>> My folks were without power for a few hours, but I think my total
>> downtime was 45 minutes.
>> Friends of mine were out for a couple weeks, and that was downtown not
>> out in the sticks.
>> Hate to think what it was like for those folks out in the sticks
>> elsewhere with miles of power lines and thousands of transmission towers
>> having to be replaced before there was any hope of restored power.
>> Xocyll
>Yes if you recall it was freezing rain so it wasn't that much below >zero. It was hovering around zero or just below. Enough to freeze the >water but not enough to keep a freezer of meat solid. We did move some >over to our relatives but they were running a generator on a farm for a >few hours a day to do chores. And their freezers were full.
Yeah but if it's turning to ice it's below zero, if only just and that
would be enough to stop things going off (or at least slow it down
considerably vs the rising heat in a powerless fridge.
With inches of ice buildup being responsible for downing lines and
transmission towers, those same inches should provide some decent
cooling for food.
Xocyll
-- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
