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2019 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD


SirSmUgly

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I wound up playing more Borderlands 2 (along with more Spider-Man and more Doom) and I'm really getting into it. I'm playing as the Snake Eyes looking dude because Snake Eyes is fucking awesome and the character design of the guy I'm playing as taps into childlike me thinking every badass should look like Snake Eyes.

Anyway, I got really sucked into it. I only meant to play for an hour and wound up playing for about 2 1/2. It does an impressive job of layering one quest after another to the point where I'm like, well, I may as well just knock this one out too. The one thing I'm not super thrilled with is inventory management and the loot I'm getting. I'm at a really low level, 5 I think, so the shitty loot is understandable I guess. It's just so hard to remember back to playing Borderlands 1 so I can't remember if the inventory management back then sucked just as much as 2 or if they made it worse for 2.

Doom is just so fucking badass. That's all I can really say. It's getting a little repetitive, but that's because I think I"m getting close to the end.

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AUTO CHESS [4]
This is probably the game of the year, in an objective newsworthy sense. It's the dawn of a new genre and it's exploded in popularity. I'm now going to do my best to explain how it works, and then the difference between the three variants of it currently available, and then what I actually think of it. I'm doing this because I think a lot of people are doing a totally shit job of explaining how the game works, and I would like to throw myself onto the pile and see if I can climb to the top and get the flag.

ACT 1: PLAYING THE GAME

Okay. So, eight players. You get a slight amount of money, and you use that money to buy units, or "pieces." You place those pieces on half a chess board. A timer ticks down, the other half of the chess board fills with enemies, and then all the pieces come to life and act in specific ways. Warriors will tank things. Archers will shoot stuff. Assassins will leap over everyone to the back of the line and attack the ranged people. Mages isolate and attempt to neutralize specific targets. etc. The pieces each have two types of synergy, and those synergies will convey different things. (Multiple warriors will increase armor for all warriors. If you have a single demon, it will do 50% more damage. If you have two witchers, they will be recognized as one demon. etc etc.)

At the end of the round, the board of purchasable pieces changes, and you can add more pieces. So, you construct a board of pieces through what's available. You can also use the money you get to re-roll all the purchasable characters. "Why is this important?" If you get three of the same piece, it will upgrade into a Two-Star version of that piece, which makes it hit harder and more resilient. If you get three Two-Star pieces, they can all combine to one Three-Star piece. The Three-Star pieces are the goal of your teambuilding exercise.

Now this all costs money. There's multiple ways of accruing money. If you get REAL lucky early on, you can just spend the whole game accruing money through a win streak. There is also, however, bonus money gained for being on a losing streak. So if you don't get money early, it behooves you to job so you can accrue money and see what interests you in the purchase board. Oh, and by the way, the money accrues interest, so the longer you wait, the higher your interest is, the more you have to throw around when you cash out. You can also sell pieces back for a full refund, if you start with one strategy and then realize you want to pivot to another.

Throughout the match, you will level up. Every time you level up, you can add another piece to the board. I have never gotten past level 8, but I assume you can. Winning is not the only way to get experience. You can also buy it. Five coins gets you 4XP. So that's another thing to add in to the overarching strategy of the match

The first three rounds are against AI enemies, and then after that it's humans, with an AI damage check at every 5th level from then on (starting at level 10). So your boards of pieces will fight other boards, while defending your own board. It'll in fact make a copy of your board and put that against someone else. So, you can be defending against Player B, but attacking Player E. The ultimate goal is to defend: If all your pieces die, you will take damage that is multiplied by the number of enemies left. Oh, also, these AI enemies drop items that you can use to permanently buff your pieces, and those items

So, to recap, this game has
-No Mechanical Barrier (you place the pieces and they fight for themselves)
-Looting (items from creeps)
-Gambling (Constant rerolling of purchasable characters)
-Creativity (Creating synergies from the characters you see, which keeps you on your toes and looking for exploitable patterns)
-Tactical Considerations (Placing your pieces to counter assassins and mages and put the pressure on them)
-Strategic Considerations (Economic considerations that run through the match)
-It's totally free-to-play and is doing the season pass thing.

It's like a perfect modern video game. Oh, also, each game takes like 30-45 minutes.

ACT 2: WHICH ONE'S WHICH

So there's currently four versions of this game that you can play "right now." These have various weird hoops around playing them. I'm going to address them in Chronologicalesque order.

  1. Dota 2 Auto Chess. This is a mod for Dota 2. If you're familiar with the origins of Dota, this one is the most cosmically funny way to play Auto Chess. It uses Dota assets to represent all the pieces, and if you have some Dota knowhow then you'll understand what a lot of the pieces will do from knowing how they work in that game. It does, however, require that you install Dota 2, and expose yourself to the kinds of people that play Dota 2. It's not long for this world, because...
  2. Auto Chess (or Auto Chess:Origin). When the Chinese team that invented the game could not come to a deal with Valve, they made a version for phones that cleverly adjusted the models/names to look somewhat similar but not entirely. It's currently only on iOS and Android, but it will be coming to PC through the Epic Game Store. This is the one that I play.
  3. Teamfight Tactics. So the League of Legends people saw that Auto Chess was popular, and saw that it used MOBA models and assets to make a new game, and went "Hey! We have MOBA models and assets!" And now they have one too. Oh, it's also hex grids instead of squares. And, it's currently the most popular game on Twitch. You can only get it through the League of Legends clients, so take the thing I said about exposing yourself to Dota people and make it like 300 times worse. It's also only available through their test servers, and I dont know if they added a restriction to keep new players from getting on there or not.
  4. Dota Underlords. When team invented game not come deal valve, Valve make own. So basically what I'm saying here is, "some modders had a good idea, and then the MOBA teams had a big old freakout about being undermined and slapped their assets into similar games as fast as possible." This one is currently available on phones and PC, but in PC you only get access if you're paying into the Dota 2 Invitational Season Pass? Or something? It seems really rough, like it's been hurried out by a bunch of techno-haberdashers that aren't used to making games.

ACT 3: WHAT I ACTUALLY THINK

I think it's fun! The 4 rating isn't just for how weird it is to watch this genre materialize in thin air before the world. It is an interesting game. I am terrified for the mod creators because I think they're going to get totally fucked by how widespread League of Legends is and how cruel and petty both Riot and Valve can be with monetization is probably going to lead to this genre being a toxic dump in maybe as much time as it took for this game to take over their respective parts of the internet. So my full opinion is such: It's fun, I like it, if it sounds appealing or really confusing you should give it a shot, and please try to play the one that the actual inventors of the game made and don't let the MOBA people fuck them out of recognition.

Edited by Lamp, broken circa 1988
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Dug out my OG Xbox for the first time in a while.  Booted Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.  How did I forget that J. Edgar Hoover not only appears in the game, but he actually joins your strike team and goes on a mission?  Lol.

The bit where J. Edgar sticks his head into an open elevator shaft to chat with you as you climb the shaft is hilarious.

Edited by Doc Townsend
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It's a great game. Just wrapped Chapter 1, and that seems like the tutorial chapter, as the sidequests and more stuff is opening up in Chapter 2.  Still getting used to the fighting controls and I'm not a fan of the drone controls, but all in all, the Noir feel to the story has me hooked and I'm not going to stop.  I'm also wondering when the hell the VR Arcade opens and what's in there, because I blew a bunch of time playing Virtua Fighter 5 last night and I think they fixed the Fantasy Zone bug.

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Anyone played the new MORTAL KOMBAT 11 game? Curious as to how fun it is-I played alot of the MK games especially back in they day, lord knows I spent a near fortune on Mortal Kombat 3 which was positioned inside my college's dining area, which made is that much more tempting to spend time on than doing studying, doing homework...or even going to class.
They had that stand up game in pristine shape too-some fella would literally clean the screen and the outside of the machine daily, he also collected the gazillion coins folks had spent as well.
He'd also stick around to let everyone know when the game had been updated with a "new CHIP".
He'd tell us about the new "FRIENDSHIP" finishers instead of actual FATALITIES-which we didn't believe at first of course, but once someone pulled off the sequence and actually hit the finisher we were blown away and hooked that much more. The guy also told us about SUICIDALITIES, other FATALITIES and other rumors. This was back when the internet wasn't even graphically based at the computer lab on campus, so needless to say the MORTAL KOMBAT 3 game was a great waste of time.
Does anyone else remember any of the crazy rumors about FINISHERS on the MORTAL KOMBAT series?

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So, in addition to the other games I bought, I wound up getting Skyrim and Dark Souls on the Switch. I never played Dark Souls before and honestly, I kinda hate it. It has garbage controls and almost feels like I'm playing a janky mobile game at times.

Skyrim on the other hand is still amazing. I haven't played it since it was out on the 360. It's so freaking good. I'm doing shit now that I remember doing before and I love it all. I don't know how or why I stopped playing it before. Actually...I may have bought a PS3 and MLB: The Show around that time so maybe that's why I stopped.

The other surprising thing is how well Skyrim plays on both the TV and handheld. I've played it handheld a couple times while playing D&D online with friends and it never slows down and looks great.

I'm also playing this totally differently this time around. I know the last time I played I was a Nord. There are times I wish I was playing as a Nord again just so I could punch the shit out of things and wield super badass two handed mauls, but I wanted to do something different and be more of a spellcaster. Duel wielding spells is pretty fun.

And now I'm getting the itch to re-install Elder Scrolls Online.

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Got my 143rd Platinum trophy with Operation7 Revolution. Whatever you do, don't play this. The servers for this are shutting down on September 16th, 2019. Not worth playing at all. You need a Hong Kong or Asian region PSN account to get it. Has Engrish.

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My ADHD has been all over the place lately, so focusing is like "Whatever". So I figured if I was bored with the 10 games I have installed, I'll grab something else. So I downloaded and installed "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning" from Steam. I know I've started the game in the past, but hadn't gotten much past the first town before. It's actually quite interesting so far. Tons of side quests. Wonderfully open character design (this will surely bite me in the ass later). 

I know the studio was all about the drama by the end, but this is gorgeous and well voice acted so far. 

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10 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

Judgment so far is cool but why does Puyo Puyo take so much longer to load into and out of than every other arcade gsme

Puyo Puyo is weird and runs differently.  I don't think it's emulating an actual arcade version, since in most arcade games when you go to quit it uses the regular Judgement in-game menus, but Puyo Puyo has built-in menus for that, if that makes sense.

What's really weird is the shitty pinball game in your office (you can start playing it in Chapter 3 I think) starts up with DESIGNED IN UNITY - like it's a random Unity pinball game they just threw in for Judgement.  It's not a very good pinball game.  I also think it has worse load times than Puyo Puyo. 

Edited by Tromatagon
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2 hours ago, Tromatagon said:

Puyo Puyo is weird and runs differently.  I don't think it's emulating an actual arcade version, since in most arcade games when you go to quit it uses the regular Judgement in-game menus, but Puyo Puyo has built-in menus for that, if that makes sense.

On further investigation I'm ninety percent sure they just extracted the Puyo Puyo arcade ladder from Puyo Puyo Tetris and dumped it in there.

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6 hours ago, JLSigman said:

My ADHD has been all over the place lately, so focusing is like "Whatever". So I figured if I was bored with the 10 games I have installed, I'll grab something else. So I downloaded and installed "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning" from Steam. I know I've started the game in the past, but hadn't gotten much past the first town before. It's actually quite interesting so far. Tons of side quests. Wonderfully open character design (this will surely bite me in the ass later). 

I know the studio was all about the drama by the end, but this is gorgeous and well voice acted so far. 

You can respec all your stats and abilities throughout the whole game for cheap.  The crafting can get so overpowered that I didn't change my armor or weapons for the final 20 hours of the game.  You also get to the point where you just don't loot anything anymore.  I never stopped breaking boxes and pots to get free money though.  Most powerful thing is the 5 way arrow shotgun burst at point blank with tons of poison and bleeding multipliers.  Dudes just die.  Don't invest in dispelling.  Alchemy is also kinda useless.  You aren't gated off from high level locks so lockpicking is also worthless.  Detect hidden will find secret doors.

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Beat this incredibly great game the other week. Robot Alchemic Drive (PS2, 2002). High concept gameplay. You don't play as a robot, you play as a person with a remote control who controls a robot. You fly around town looking for vantage point so you can move your robot around properly, and control your robot's legs with the shoulder buttons and punch with the analog sticks. You're not supposed to destroy the city, but you do. Every time. Ingenious and bonkers as all that is, that isn't the main draw. It's the voice acting.
 

 

It's the real deal. The perfect distance between and within knowing send-up and hopelessly untalented people trying their hardest. Some of the best, truest camp ever pressed to disc.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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God of War 4 is long, man. All these equipment options and upgrading your armour, doesn't feel like the old GoWs. Feels like an RPG. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of platforming sections or QTEs. Don't know why Kratos doesn't have all of his Greek God equipment. If I had the Blades of Chaos and Bow of Apollo, and Hermes' boots and the Wings of Icarus and so on, these Trolls and Ogres would have no chance.

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So mario maker 2 is amazing but it's just like, a given.   It ain't just some bullshit wii u port even though that game was 97% great.  I'm struggling between this and bloodstained like when Link Between Worlds and Super Mario World 3D came out.  I can have a beer on bloodstained but I still think the 3D graphics stink.  Whereas I need complete sobriety to enjoy Mario Maker.  So, it's somewhere in between pinball and death.

 

Bloodstained graphics do work in an old Dreamcast way.  But if I fight another Touhouvania floating human boss I'm gonna shit my balls.

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MARIO MAKER 2 [3]
yeah what he said

OUTER WILDS [4]
I don't believe I am built phobia-wise to play this game, but, it is Neat as Fuck and I wish I was. Basically: Myst In Space, where the other books are just other planets, and the planets are very small in a stylistic way. I am freaked out by Under Water Stuff and Space Stuff so about once per hour my body just goes "AHH" and I have to close the game. So, not looking good for me beating it, but, strong recommend. VERY clever.

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