the be all end all video game thread

I bought it and I've played it quite a bit this year, but mostly in the offline connected careers mode. I haven't played online yet because I know I'll pretty much be dominated by people who seemingly ONLY play the game online, and I just have the time or patients to practice at Madden.

I have played at home with my friends, and that is a blast for all the right reasons, it just doesn't happen nearly enough.

The last Madden I bought was 10, and I hated it. I only bought this one after playing it and finding it to be much improved over the version from 3 years ago (much to my surprise).

They are really, really pushing the online thing hard, though. I know their ultimate goal is that someone will convince fifteen of his friends to buy Madden so they can have an online league, but I just don't think people do that. At least, no one I know.

 

Madden 10 was the first next gen version I think. It was fucking terrible. Honestly, none of them have been genuinely "fun" since the last PS2/Xbox version. This one is the closest where I just want to play a game to play it, not just for the feeling of winning or to get a football fix. I just gotta figure out how to fucking run. I'm getting fucking raped badly even by the CPU. Played Jets vs Broncos on All-Madden (random selection on both), Willis McGahee was unstoppable. 3-4 players just bounced off him every run. Joel Dressen was just a God in TE form also. So annoying. I just need to keep playing with it and figure it out.

 

I finally picked up Dragon's Dogma about a week ago. I am really enjoying it so far. Its much harder than Skyrim. It is not as large but fast travel does not exist except for a few teleport pieces that can be hard to come by. The combat plays a lot like Kingdoms of Alamur but the inventory system needs a big overhaul. You can create a companion (called pawns in the game) and actually share it online. Other people can hire it and send it back with gifts as well as rate it. If your pawn completes quests while with another player it comes back with knowledge of those quests as well as knowledge of how to defeat some of the enemies. If you are a fan of RPGs I recommend you give it a try.

 

I picked up Torchlight 2 today. Never played the first one. Seems like it has potential. I started an engineer and I picked the standard difficulty. I guess I am finding it a little too easy at this point. I finished the first act without using any skill points and only a handful of stat points. That leads me to one of two gripes so far. First, I wish there was more information on how your stats[strength, dexterity type stats] affect your skills and also there are no respecs in the game. What the hell? Every RPG type game these days has respecs. It's my understanding the mod community is big in the Torchlight games so hopefully there will be a respec mod.

 

Anybody else waiting with baited breath for ACIII to take over your life for two weeks? Gonna be longer for me, as I'm a completionist. Except for FUCKING MULTIPLAYER TROPHYS. I would have 100%ed the last one, except I hate the multiplayer.

 

I actually really like the AC Multiplayer. Less focus on "run around and blow shit up" and more on stealth. I'd play games where I would get 3 kills and 5 deaths, and still come out the winner because while everyone else ran around like monkeys on acid, I'd get high quality kills. It weeds out the shitty players who are so used to CoD. You can usually tell who isn't used to AC multiplayer because they never stop running.

That said, I really, really can't wait for ACIII. I may have to send my kid to the babysitters and call off work sick so I can dedicate a day to it. I may not get much sleep that week.

 

Any Borderlands fans here? I got Borderlands 2 on Tuesday and if you liked the first you'll like the second, since it's more of the same.

 

My go-to football game, to this day, is still ESPN NFL 2K5. The running system was so simple it was brilliant: Tap A to sprint, other buttons for moves (ram/dive/stiff-arm/juke/etc), hold A to charge up for a super move.

 

I picked up my pre-order at Gamestop's midnight release. Only had time to play up to Sanctuary but so far it's awesome. Better than the first in my opinion. They fixed everything I didn't like about the first one. Playing as the siren again. I always play as the chick in video games, they are nicer to look at and listen to, but besides that, her special move is pretty sweet and I love SMGs.

I made the mistake of buying the first Borderlands for PC. The controls might have been better but the game was too easy to hack. I built the best possible gun halfway through the game and it kind of ruined it.

 

I'm playing as Zero and am loving the storyline, as usual.


Critics have mentioned the Borderlands franchise as having some of, if not the best, writing for a video game of all time. I'm hard pressed to find a game as cleverly written- maybe Portal 1, 2. Although the amount of dialogue in Borderlands is tenfold over Portal.

I guess my only major complaint with Borderlands is the lack of variety. Yes, you get different guns. "Different" in that the stats are slightly changed. You can't really boast "millions of weapons" when the only difference is changing a stat or two. It's slightly misleading.

The missions are pretty generic as well. Go to place, kill person, report. Yes a rodeo midget is awesome to kill, but FPSs seem to be very complacent with gameplay.

 

Yeah the problem with their variety is that you only get the really differentiating mods/guns on the really rare uniques and legendaries. Would've been better if they made those mods more common.

 

Guild Wars 2 is outrageously fun. The 5 character limit is really vexing though. I really don't want to spend money om the cash shop but 5 CHARACTERS AND 8 CLASSES AHHHH is really frustrating.

I'm on Dragonbrand if anyone's playing there. If not, you should consider it. Server is pretty full and we're badass at world v world pvp.

 

Got another Beta Invite to Dust514. Anyone want it? Holla at me.

 

Trying to decide whether to get FIFA 13 or PES 2013. Currently leaning towards Pro Evo for the gameplay. FIFA always felt like a game without buildup to me.

 

So I stopped by Gamestop, they were sold out of Pro Evo, but I did manage to get the Metal Gear Solid HD collection. Didn't even realize there was a 360 version. Fuck yeah.

 

Did you get a chance to go through the first game yet?

I started MGS2 and there's a lot of extra content that wasn't on my original PS2 version. I've been trying to get through the extra missions, but the Snake Tales are really hard because you can't rotate the camera and there's no radar.

 

I remember a few months back, there was a discussion about a dearth of story telling in video games. Sirs, I present to you To the Moon. This game is styled like a 16 bit RPG with a point and click interface. There are puzzles, but nothing a ten year old couldn't figure out. Indeed, the story and incredible soundtrack and character dialogue do all of the lifting. It's on Steam right now for $10. It'll take you about 4 hours, start to finish. This is one of the few games worth every fucking penny. Buy it.

 

Going through Metal Gear right now, just got to the roof of Building 1. The gameplay itself has obviously aged, but the game design is pretty interesting. I've been doing it on Easy with a walkthrough, since I don't really feel like spending more time on it than necessary.
Also playing Chrono Trigger, but I ditched the walkthrough for that one - it was affecting my enjoyment of the story.