What video game are you playing?

[Emily Lake]

Maybe so, but turn-based makes games more accessible to me, and most modern RPGs eschew turn-based mechanics.

Ah well, there's always Civilization games.

honestly, I split the difference. I really dislike first person shooters... because I aim for shit and all I do is die. So I stick with games that are fairly immersive, and don't have a turn-based approach to disrupt the experience... but I very strongly prefer games that either lock-on/auto-aim or have an 'easy' setting (or both!). The lock on is about the only reason I ever made it through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2... but even with that feature I never did finish DS1, and I haven't really even started DS3 yet. I downloaded it, and I made a character, and I wandered around the beginning... and then I hit the very first mini-boss before you even gain entry to the real game. That bastard killed me, and I shelved the game for a bit.

Realistically, it's probably going to be months, maybe over a year, before I give DS3 a shot. For whatever reason, that particular game creates a lot of tension and stress in me. That's great for really getting into the game... but it's problematic when I have a lot of other real-life stress and anxiety. I honestly think it would be bad for my health to add that game on top of my other anxieties right now. Hell, those other anxieties are bad for my health already, so...

 

[Underseer]

Maybe so, but turn-based makes games more accessible to me, and most modern RPGs eschew turn-based mechanics.

Ah well, there's always Civilization games.

honestly, I split the difference. I really dislike first person shooters... because I aim for shit and all I do is die. So I stick with games that are fairly immersive, and don't have a turn-based approach to disrupt the experience... but I very strongly prefer games that either lock-on/auto-aim or have an 'easy' setting (or both!). The lock on is about the only reason I ever made it through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2... but even with that feature I never did finish DS1, and I haven't really even started DS3 yet. I downloaded it, and I made a character, and I wandered around the beginning... and then I hit the very first mini-boss before you even gain entry to the real game. That bastard killed me, and I shelved the game for a bit.

Realistically, it's probably going to be months, maybe over a year, before I give DS3 a shot. For whatever reason, that particular game creates a lot of tension and stress in me. That's great for really getting into the game... but it's problematic when I have a lot of other real-life stress and anxiety. I honestly think it would be bad for my health to add that game on top of my other anxieties right now. Hell, those other anxieties are bad for my health already, so...

Games that trigger a higher heart rate also interfere with my sleeping patterns. It took me decades to figure that out.

I no longer play MMORPGs because of that relatively recent discovery about myself.

 

[Emily Lake]

Games that trigger a higher heart rate also interfere with my sleeping patterns. It took me decades to figure that out.

I no longer play MMORPGs because of that relatively recent discovery about myself.

:hug: I understand. There's a reason I don't play any horror based games, and why I really hate the timed sections of things like Tomb Raider where you have to hit the keys exactly right or start all over again!

 

[Underseer]

I don't think anyone likes "quick time events" as they're called.

 

[Terrell]

Games that trigger a higher heart rate also interfere with my sleeping patterns. It took me decades to figure that out.

I no longer play MMORPGs because of that relatively recent discovery about myself.

:hug: I understand. There's a reason I don't play any horror based games, and why I really hate the timed sections of things like Tomb Raider where you have to hit the keys exactly right or start all over again!

I remember that from one of the older Tomb Raider games. Towards the end of Angel of Darkness you start a board underwater, with spikes coming out of the wall, that you have to swim by. You can't swim above or below them as the channel is too narrow. Lara can only hold her breath for so long before she drowns. There are areas where she can surface for air there is also a rebreather to be found later in the board but it doesn't last long when you use it. If you exploit a glitch earlier in the game, you can get 2 gas masks in the Louvre instead of one. The extra one can help with the underwater board. IIRC you have to use one of the gas masks when exiting the Louvre. The gas mask also lasts longer than the rebreather. You go through the Louvre twice. Once on the way to the tomb, once back. Use the exploit on the way to the tomb, if I recall correctly.

 

[Emily Lake]

I don't think anyone likes "quick time events" as they're called.

Nice to have a name for that torture I suppose. Are the game designers just masochists?

 

[Emily Lake]

Games that trigger a higher heart rate also interfere with my sleeping patterns. It took me decades to figure that out.

I no longer play MMORPGs because of that relatively recent discovery about myself.

:hug: I understand. There's a reason I don't play any horror based games, and why I really hate the timed sections of things like Tomb Raider where you have to hit the keys exactly right or start all over again!

I remember that from one of the older Tomb Raider games. Towards the end of Angel of Darkness you start a board underwater, with spikes coming out of the wall, that you have to swim by. You can't swim above or below them as the channel is too narrow. Lara can only hold her breath for so long before she drowns. There are areas where she can surface for air there is also a rebreather to be found later in the board but it doesn't last long when you use it. If you exploit a glitch earlier in the game, you can get 2 gas masks in the Louvre instead of one. The extra one can help with the underwater board. IIRC you have to use one of the gas masks when exiting the Louvre. The gas mask also lasts longer than the rebreather. You go through the Louvre twice. Once on the way to the tomb, once back. Use the exploit on the way to the tomb, if I recall correctly.

I used to have Angel of Darkness, and it disappeared somewhere along the way. I enjoyed that one, even though it went a fair bit sideways from the rest of the franchise. It had different mechanics and a fairly different thematic feel to the story. But I still enjoyed it. I vaguely recall it getting bad reviews and not being much liked by Tomb Raider fans.

And yeah, I remember the evil spiky waterway of infinite repeats.

I think the only ones I found more irritating are in TR: Legend. In particular...
1) The motorcycle ride through the desert while trying to shoot at bad guys in trucks AND jump over obstacles AND pick up health packs AND avoid hitting things because it makes you dead AND hit the jump over the train just right AND jump the burning bridge just right AND... so on
2) In the Russian lab with the hanging tesla balls that you have to magnetically pull and push in the right order, but which are a pain to get a lock on... all while being attacked by a monster that you cannot actually hurt but can only defeat by interacting with the tesla balls that you can't get hold of because the damned monster breaks your lock-on once you've finally managed to get lined up right!

 

[Terrell]

I remember that from one of the older Tomb Raider games. Towards the end of Angel of Darkness you start a board underwater, with spikes coming out of the wall, that you have to swim by. You can't swim above or below them as the channel is too narrow. Lara can only hold her breath for so long before she drowns. There are areas where she can surface for air there is also a rebreather to be found later in the board but it doesn't last long when you use it. If you exploit a glitch earlier in the game, you can get 2 gas masks in the Louvre instead of one. The extra one can help with the underwater board. IIRC you have to use one of the gas masks when exiting the Louvre. The gas mask also lasts longer than the rebreather. You go through the Louvre twice. Once on the way to the tomb, once back. Use the exploit on the way to the tomb, if I recall correctly.

I used to have Angel of Darkness, and it disappeared somewhere along the way. I enjoyed that one, even though it went a fair bit sideways from the rest of the franchise. It had different mechanics and a fairly different thematic feel to the story. But I still enjoyed it. I vaguely recall it getting bad reviews and not being much liked by Tomb Raider fans.

And yeah, I remember the evil spiky waterway of infinite repeats.

I think the only ones I found more irritating are in TR: Legend. In particular...
1) The motorcycle ride through the desert while trying to shoot at bad guys in trucks AND jump over obstacles AND pick up health packs AND avoid hitting things because it makes you dead AND hit the jump over the train just right AND jump the burning bridge just right AND... so on
2) In the Russian lab with the hanging tesla balls that you have to magnetically pull and push in the right order, but which are a pain to get a lock on... all while being attacked by a monster that you cannot actually hurt but can only defeat by interacting with the tesla balls that you can't get hold of because the damned monster breaks your lock-on once you've finally managed to get lined up right!

Took a long time to kill that ghost/boss at the end of the tomb, but he wasn't that tough other than getting your shots to hit. When not shooting I had Lara crawl around on her belly. To deal with "The Cleaner" was a PITA too. I used the ammo glitch in that room starting with the 2nd try. Read about it online. I also found that bug/boss that had to be fought with Kurtis to be a pain, but generally I didn't like Kurtis to begin with. Not a good way to start by taking all of Lara's weapons at the Museum and he felt awkward to control. Would have been easier to deal with "the cleaner" with more weapons to use.

The "Camera changes view" thing that you couldn't turn off was also a PITA. Overall it was a good game, otherwise I wouldn't have played long enough to beat the Nephilim at the end. I got it with a piece of equipment I'd bought for my PC. I can't remember if it was a new Sound Blaster Audigy 2, or if it was a NVIDIA GeForce GPU.

 

[Underseer]

I don't think anyone likes "quick time events" as they're called.

Nice to have a name for that torture I suppose. Are the game designers just masochists?

Have you ever seen the game review show Zero Punctuation?

I haven't watched it in years, but the host would go on frequent hilarious tirades about how much he hated quick time events.

 

[Arctish]

I've been playing CounterStrike regularly since 2001. I've been playing World of Warships for about a month, and I've been playing Pokemon: Magikarp Jump for a week.

 

[Malintent]

I don't think anyone likes "quick time events" as they're called.

Nice to have a name for that torture I suppose. Are the game designers just masochists?

They are sort of like plot devices, insofar as they fill a realism gap. I don't like those devices either.
There is a commercial fishing game I have been eyeing on Steam, but it seems filled with "mini games" like that.
Sometimes there needs to be a way to put something that is not entirely random, and somewhat skill-based, in the way of the game being "too easy".

As a newbe VR game programmer, I have been creating mini games to add realism to certain activities that, in traditional 3D games that have just been a click to open a door or whatever, be actual physical activities (beyond reaching for the handle and pulling). One example is a lock picking simulation I made as part of a larger experience... no need to search the dungeon for the red key to open the red door... no... pick the lock if you have the (actual) skill. It takes three of your fingers moving independently, and the physical feel (haptics) of the virtual pins to get the door open.
Unfortunately, it's still too hard for most people that have tried it so far.
..and that's precisely why those "twitch" mini games are sometimes used. But I'm going to keep refining my picking simulation because I still think it has promise.

 

[Patooka]

So, I started playing BattleTech since Thursday. Steam has informed me that I have played it for 67 hours over the last 4 days, which sounds disturbingly accurate.

The game nailed the regressive nature of the Third Succession War, where battles were sometimes fought over spare parts Mecha Mad Max style. The storyline in the campaign was pretty good. Making the Taurian Concordat the big bad in the campaign just illustrated the scale of the Battletech universe. It is also the first Battletech/Mechwarrior game that did mech customization (possibly with the exception of MW:O) in such a way that you had to decide which chassis does a particular job instead of boating 4 100 ton mechs and charging through. I cannot think how a more accurate transition of the tabletop game into a video game can be accomplished. I've seen a lot of people comparing this game to X-Com, but that feels lazy and disingenuous. The two games BattleTech reminded me of the most were The Crescent Hawks Revenge (obviously) and 1990's Battle Isle 2 updated with modern graphics and a friendlier UI. I already know I'm going to purchase any DLC for this game, and I don't know if any are even in the works. For me, this game is staying on my hard drive just like KOTOR 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Rome: Total War. It will never get repetitive for me.

BUT...

The fucking loading times are painful! This game has replaced Fallout 4 for me as most frustrating in terms of waiting for maps to load. Performance and frame rates drop off at some pretty random moments and the load/save menus are pretty abysmal. I didn't savescum at all in this game (unlike, say X-Com), not because I prefer Ironman play, but I didn't want to waste 5 minutes reloading simply because my Spider crippled itself trying to do a DFA. I can forgive the subpar and unskippable cutscenes, along with it being text heavy in-game (It's a kickstarter so some corners had to be cut), but the core mechanics of the game are still very rough, and doesn't come close to justifying the min spec requirements. Coupled with the high price, I can't recommend this game unless you are an avid BattleTech fan, in which case I would definately suggest grabbing it and hope for a patch in the next couple of months.

 

[Malintent]

a couple of friends of mine have been playing Battletech exclusively lately. They are loving it... I'll prolly try it out next time it goes on a significant sale.

however, another group of friends is getting into Guns of Icarus. I know almost nothing about it. Anyone play that with an opinion?

 

[Underseer]

Genghis Khan is angry at me because I'm a warmonger.

 

[Tars Tarkus]

Genghis Khan is angry at me because I'm a warmonger.

Just for the fun of it, I wound my Civ V difficulty to Settler in my last game. What fun! Can I ever go back to Prince again?

 

[Underseer]

I usually play on the lowest difficulty because I only want science victories, and it takes me too damn long to win when I go for science.

 

[Emily Lake]

I got Far Cry 5 for my birthday. This is a stretch for me, it's a lot more like a first-person shooter than I usually go for. But the premise was something I found appealing, and I've got to admit that it's really, really, strikingly beautiful. The landscapes and the people are extremely well done. I haven't made it very far yet... but hey - I only died three times during the opening scene! And I've got most of the first island cleared already!

 

[Underseer]

Soooooo....

The Steam Link device failed. Now they are introducing a Steam Link app for iOS and Android. You can stream games from a computer to your phone or tablet provided your network can handle it. I installed the beta app, and it seems to expect you to have a game controller of some kind.

 

[Terrell]

Soooooo....

The Steam Link device failed. Now they are introducing a Steam Link app for iOS and Android. You can stream games from a computer to your phone or tablet provided your network can handle it. I installed the beta app, and it seems to expect you to have a game controller of some kind.

There are YouTube videos on how to pair an XB1 controller to an Android phone. I haven't tried them myself, haven't had reason to, but it's something you might want to try out if you haven't already.

 

[Underseer]

Soooooo....

The Steam Link device failed. Now they are introducing a Steam Link app for iOS and Android. You can stream games from a computer to your phone or tablet provided your network can handle it. I installed the beta app, and it seems to expect you to have a game controller of some kind.

There are YouTube videos on how to pair an XB1 controller to an Android phone. I haven't tried them myself, haven't had reason to, but it's something you might want to try out if you haven't already.

I was able to stream Civ 6 with a bluetooth keyboard and the touchscreen, although it was dicey because the tablet made everything so tiny! I suppose I could pair a bluetooth mouse or get a bluetooth keyboard with a trackpad or get one of those stylus thingies, but I'm not sure how much Civ I want to play when everything is that tiny and dark.

But I bet FF7 would be great with a console controller.