2016 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Tabe]

82 is still the lowest in the whole game.

That's stupid. If the best is a 100, that means they're saying the best is barely 20% better than the worst. That's just stupid.

[Jiji]

It's how EA has done ratings since the PS3 days on most if not all of their sports games. Remember those vicious NHL '94 ratings?

[Vincey Greene]

Sony is reportedly doing a PS4.5 with 4k support and better processing.

 

 

If that's all it is, it's fine.

 

 

If there are games that support only the new model, they're boned. Nobody wants that so soon and it's dangerously Segaesque. They're already on a slippery slope with VR, cool though it may be.

[Tromatagon]

I didn't know Joe has a black belt in Taekwondo. That makes it a lot easier to decide.

He also has a BJJ black belt

[Jiji]

That I'm familiar with. I used to listen to the Joe Rogan Experience frequently until he started scaring the shit out of me with the libertarian politics and overly machismo shit.

[Big Fresh]

Joe Rogan is a Libertarian??

[Jiji]

I wouldn't say he's a libertarian. He's a guy that holds a lot of views that align with libertarianism, but he also holds socialist and conservative view points as well. He's all over the place and just when I thought I could peg him on the political spectrum, he'd say something that completely went against that.

 

edit: he did endorse Ron Paul in 2012 and he's got tonnes of conspiracy theories and shit.

[Gonzo]

I wouldn't say he's a libertarian. He's a guy that holds a lot of views that align with libertarianism, but he also holds socialist and conservative view points as well. He's all over the place and just when I thought I could peg him on the political spectrum, he'd say something that completely went against that.

 

edit: he did endorse Ron Paul in 2012 and he's got tonnes of conspiracy theories and shit.

 

*immediately subscribes to The Joe Rogan Experience through iTunes*

[Salads]

 

The second chicken was going to be named by my friend in Japan. She stammered and hem'd and haw'd until I said "say the word on your mind right now." Which ended up being a Japanese term for a penis. So when I went to buy the chicken I went through all the steps- click buy animals, click chickens, click the coop I wanted to put them in... when the Enter Their Name field popped up, the name that was filled in by default was, swear to fuck, "No."

 

[JustJay]

Been playing Marvel Heroes the last few weeks. It has come a long long way since I played it around launch. Actually really enjoying the game as Storm. Tried Daredevil and didn't really like the way he played. I have 4000k eternity splinters. Gonna try to get Storm to level 60 before I buy another hero though knowing me I'll get another one here soon. 

[Big Fresh]

Been playing Marvel Heroes the last few weeks. It has come a long long way since I played it around launch. Actually really enjoying the game as Storm. Tried Daredevil and didn't really like the way he played. I have 4000k eternity splinters. Gonna try to get Storm to level 60 before I buy another hero though knowing me I'll get another one here soon.

Have you tried Daredevil since yesterday? They re-worked him.

[JustJay]

Yep tried him a few hours ago. Just till level 3 or so but just looking at the skills, it just didn't click with me. Will probably level him a bit to see if I just need to get a little higher and he gets better but I love ranged characters a lot more or tankier melee and he seems to be a mobile melee. 

[Cliff Hanger]

I stared at Daredevil for a while trying to figure out how to respec him to give the new mechanics a try...then just went to do my dailies on Moon Knight instead. Even though most of the time they end up better than before, having to rebuild a lv60 after having their points zeroed almost always makes me lose interest.

[Big Fresh]

I absolutely love the "Marked for Death" mechanic they're gonna do with Elektra.

[Michael Sweetser]

Getting better at UFC 2.

 

[Andrew POE!]

Right now, Best Buy has EA Sports UFC 2 for $40. I'm thinking of getting it but I just picked up some niche Japanese game by Aksys called Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault. And Day of the Tentacle Remastered is this week too.

[Cliff Hanger]

Thanks for the heads up. I was planning to order that tomorrow from Amazon for $48, but I think this is a better idea.

 

Man, I hope they remastered Maniac Mansion I (preferably based on the NES version) for the Easter egg in Ed's room. Ain't nobody want to play it in CGA on a PS4.

[Chaos]

I did the trade 2 games and get EA UFC for $10 deal at Gamestop on Friday. This was before I knew of the Best Buy deal.

 

Online is a crapshoot of dudes just spamming the technical strikes stuff with Superman punches and flying knees. I'm not great at this yet, so I'm usually good at fighting to decision.

 

I have felt like many of the fights I've fought, I've outright won due to landing more strikes, a higher percentage of strikes and ditto on the significant strikes, but I have lost because onlinedufus101 did all of his damage to my head from spamming L1 strikes.

[glfpunk]

Never leave it in the hands of the judges.

[Chaos]

Never leave it in the hands of the judges.

 

I know that logic's definitely true in real life, but I've honestly not gotten good enough to hit any big blows. Also, ground game especially online is a struggle.  The thumbstick commands seem to pop up slowly for me, and there are guys I fought who would get 2-3 transitions by then. I'm on a really good connection too. I'm guessing the speed of that stuff is tied to attributes.

[Craig H]

I finished up a career in UFC 2 with a 25-1 record. I think it's super shitty that my dude was basically forced to retire at 32, while I'm fighting 45 year old Lyoto Machida. No one else retires in career except for your own fighter. It's really stupid.

 

As stupid is the total lack of a calendar to see what's going on with other shows.

 

There's also a lot of other things that make no sense. There's no rhyme or reason behind how many fans you earn. I've seen other people talk about or even show screen shots of their career mode where they had way more fans than me and I was 20-0 and champion at one point. As puzzling is that not once was I rewarded with a performance of the night. In fact, and I wish I took a screenshot of it, but there was a show I was on where I knocked my opponent out and only one other match with a KO. The performance of the night KO award was given to a match that ended in a decision. WTF?

 

And yeah, judges scoring is straight broken.

 

All in all, career mode is a halfway decent distraction.

 

As for the gameplay, I like it a lot. One thing I can't get the hang of is ground work. I had a high ground rating, but not once blocked my opponent from transitioning, I struggled with my own transitions, for the life of me I can't figure out how to reverse or sweep anyone, despite hitting every button I could think of (including the ones you're told to use in the manual) I never blocked a single punch on the ground. It's just a total crapshoot. My last fight in career mode was against a guy who had a ground rating in the 70s, and my own rating was 90. He was able to block and reverse me like crazy. If anyone can share any tips on the ground game, let me know.

 

I think the game is good. Career mode isn't nearly as cumbersome and terrible as the last THQ UFC game where you had a million things to manage, but this strips it back a ton. I need to get into the other modes, including online, and I need to see how Ultimate Team works. I'll keep playing it, but I'm slightly disappointed...

[J.T.]

So I am finally playing Watch Dogs after Xbox Store put Ubisoft games on sale for the cheap.

 

The Alone and Spider Tank digital trips were challenging but not unbeatable, but Psychedelic and Madness can kiss my ass.

 

I do not hate Aiden as an anti-hero protagonist as much as I thought I would, but he's no Trevor Phillips.

 

I now know why people chuckle at screenshots of Claire Lille

 

The Lisbeth Salander inspiration is obvious, but her character model does bear some resemblance to the porn star, Christy Mack.

 

The stealth aspects of the game are somewhat problematic especially when mission failure hangs in the balance.   I try to challenge myself and not resort to incapacitating every single security guard during infiltrations but when dealing with wonky AI with ridiculous line of sight, "remaining unseen" usually boils down to "they cannot spot me if they are all unconscious" and where is the fun in that?

 

I try to use "non-lethal" attacks on security guards like kneecapping, white noise pumped through ear pieces, or the old baton to the head, but sometimes the shit hits the fan and you have to go for headshots.  I hate profiling enemy security guards and seeing "Single Father," "Recently Divorced," or "Retires In Two Weeks" and knowing that I might have to kill them for doing their job..

 

I don't have the same mental restriction when it comes to Criminal Convoys or Gang Hideouts.  I am perfectly good with popping caps into violent offenders.

 

Police chases are a pain in the ass.   GTA has a much better and far more forgiving heat system.

 

There is zero learning curve with the Fixer Contracts, Criminal Convoys, and Gang Hideouts.   I start shit thinking that stealth and environment hacks will do, only to find out that I also need to craft a boat load of tools to get by.   And here I was thinking that there were no money sinks in this game.  I am constantly buying Electronic Parts and Chems to make sure I have the max number of Communication Jammers handy to foil ctOS scans while I am on vehicle related Fixer Contracts, Frags and IEDs for Convoys, and Lures for Gang Hideouts..

 

I hate it when the profiled target in a Gang Hideout that I have to capture alive is standing too close to the electrical panel I just overloaded in order to to thin the minion herd.

 

The driving in this game blows goats.  It is not as bad as you have heard. It is far worse and that is the primary reason I fucking hate the Madness digital trip.

 

It is actually better to use durable vehicles rather than fast ones as your getaway cars so that cornering will not cause you to constantly oversteer and you have time to use environmental hacks, ramming, and PIT maneuvers to get rid of pursuers.

[RIPPA]

Sony has closed Evolution Studios (Motorstorm, Driveclub)

[Neil Koch]

So I am finally playing Watch Dogs after Xbox Store put Ubisoft games on sale for the cheap.

 

The Alone and Spider Tank digital trips were challenging but not unbeatable, but Psychedelic and Madness can kiss my ass.

 

I hated these parts.  Did them once to try them out and never did them again.  My biggest complaint about the game is that there's a lot of these throwaway type side activities that aren't that fun.  There should have been more put into the actual game, which is pretty short.

 

I do not hate Aiden as an anti-hero protagonist as much as I thought I would, but he's no Trevor Phillips.

 

The Lisbeth Salander inspiration is obvious, but her character model does bear some resemblance to the porn star, Christy Mack.

Never really got the hate the guy gets, he's more just boring "brooding/near mute hero" stereotype so many of these types of games have. 

 

The stealth aspects of the game are somewhat problematic especially when mission failure hangs in the balance.   I try to challenge myself and not resort to incapacitating every single security guard during infiltrations but when dealing with wonky AI with ridiculous line of sight, "remaining unseen" usually boils down to "they cannot spot me if they are all unconscious" and where is the fun in that?

 

Hated the stealth for these reasons.  The AI is all over the place.  There are some time where you will literally be in front of someone and they will not detect you, but other where you pop up for a millisecond and its an insta fail.  I tried to take down as many guys as I could instead of sneaking around.

 

Police chases are a pain in the ass.   GTA has a much better and far more forgiving heat system.

 

They get a lot easier later in the game when you unlock more hacks/skills.  The cops are pretty much a joke by the end of the game.

 

There is zero learning curve with the Fixer Contracts, Criminal Convoys, and Gang Hideouts.   I start shit thinking that stealth and environment hacks will do, only to find out that I also need to craft a boat load of tools to get by.   And here I was thinking that there were no money sinks in this game.  I am constantly buying Electronic Parts and Chems to make sure I have the max number of Communication Jammers handy to foil ctOS scans while I am on vehicle related Fixer Contracts, Frags and IEDs for Convoys, and Lures for Gang Hideouts..

 

Agree with you, especially the Convoys.  it took me a while to figure out that you are supposed to trail them and use environmental hacks instead of using firepower to take them down.

 

I never had a problem with money in the game.  I would usually loot people and especially ATMs while walking around and pretty quickly had all the weapons, outfits, etc.  I rarely had to buy parts and ended up selling a bunch back.  You will find a lot of loot boxes around and get them for breaking into cars as well.

 

The driving in this game blows goats.  It is not as bad as you have heard. It is far worse and that is the primary reason I fucking hate the Madness digital trip.

 

I drove as little as possible because the cars do suck.  There are a couple of decent ones, though.  I forget what they were offhand.  I used the fast travel to get around mainly.

 

I did overall enjoy the game though, but it does suffer from typical Ubisoft open world design.  You can grind the side missions and become overpowered to the point where most of the story missions are a joke.  The only parts I found tough were the hacking mini-games.  I am color blind so it was really hard for me to tell where to move the "tubes".

[J.T.]

1. Never really got the hate the guy gets, he's more just boring "brooding/near mute hero" stereotype so many of these types of games have. 

 

2. Agree with you, especially the Convoys.  it took me a while to figure out that you are supposed to trail them and use environmental hacks instead of using firepower to take them down.

 

3. I never had a problem with money in the game.  I would usually loot people and especially ATMs while walking around and pretty quickly had all the weapons, outfits, etc.  I rarely had to buy parts and ended up selling a bunch back.  You will find a lot of loot boxes around and get them for breaking into cars as well.

 

4. I drove as little as possible because the cars do suck.  There are a couple of decent ones, though.  I forget what they were offhand.  I used the fast travel to get around mainly.

 

5. I did overall enjoy the game though, but it does suffer from typical Ubisoft open world design.  You can grind the side missions and become overpowered to the point where most of the story missions are a joke.  The only parts I found tough were the hacking mini-games.  I am color blind so it was really hard for me to tell where to move the "tubes".

 

1. He is a bit bland personality wise but as a dad, I am totally down with his motivation for vengeance. 

 

2. I actually like doing the Convoy missions because of the logistics challenge.   I have set roadside bombs, launched grenade attacks, used environmental hacks, and even laid in wait on a highway overpass with a sniper rifle and murdering the target driver with a head-on killshot.  I don't mind going bullet for bullet with gun wielding crooks.   I am reticent to kill Blume security guards even with the benefit of the television interlude during the Buy An Assault Rifle interlude conveniently telling me that they are supposed to be corrupt.

 

3. Oh, I have no problems with money because I take the time to wander around town with the Profiler and hack people's bank accounts, complete the creepy "privacy invasion" missions, or work on Fixer Contracts / Convoys / Gang Hideouts .  I never sell loot to the pawn shops.  I save everything for crafting.

 

4. The durability on the sports cars and performance cars sucks so I tend to grab off-road vehicles from Jordi's Cars On Demand app and use them as my getaway vehicles.   If I am the one doing the chasing, then I grab a sports car or a performance car.

 

5.  I do not mind being overpowered.  If I invest enough time in the game to have all of the skills, get the top of the line weapons, and unlock the best cars, I deserve to win in a cake walk.

 

The one good thing about police chases in the game (from the achievement hunter perspective) is that the cops do not chase you into the water nor are there any such things as police boats like there are in GTA 5. 

 

If I can make it to the canal, I can usually use a boat and my Disable Helicopter hack to make a clean getaway.  Using a boat along with Communication Jammers, Blackouts, and the Disable Helicopter hack seems to be the preferred method for getting the achievements for evading a Level 5 Police Alert and evading a Level 5 ctOS Scan.

 

Hopefully I can get this done in Campaign Mode as I am not crazy about the idea of just butchering civillians in Free Roam in order to draw the attention of Chicago PD.  Only stupid criminals and vigilantes seek the notice of law enforcement.