Hangout The Games Hangout Thread

[arrowofsky]

You ever try Dark Omen?
Outside of the, somewhat questionable, combat boost button... The magic and cannon targeting was super satisfying and an interesting mechanic for an old school RTS to implement

I must have sunk untold hours into playing that game with friends

Ah no. So tell me among the following list, what are the percent similarity of that game to:
-Age of Empires
-empire: dawn of the modern world
-rise of nations
-empire earth
-Cossacks
-Lotr- battle for the middle earth

If this is too interesting of a game and I only learn it now... T.T

 

[z.5]

All of those are far grander in scale
It was more about starting with a small army and tactically moving them around the map (using [sometimes destructible] terrain to your advantage)

Not about building or spamming troops/buildings/teching up

I suggest you give it a quick look on YouTube, to see if your kinda thing (it is quite different from most RTS games and does show its age a bit [though I did reinstall recently and still enjoy with mods!])

It's now finally on GOG and is still in my top 3 Warhammer [old world] games, along with Total Waaaaghhammer and Vermintide

 

[Jammin]

Not sure if I did this right but I guess these would be the 9 that mean the most to me.

 

[z.5]

... any chance you could list? That website's banned, down my end of the world...

 

[Jammin]

• X-Com: Ufo Defense the original
• Final Fantasy VII PS1 version
• Warframe
• Sukoden II
• Witcher 3
• Skyrim
• Total Warhammer III
• Rimworld
• Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous

I'd need like 3-6 more entries to really put my top teir games that mean something to me on there but if I had to put 9 I guess that's them.

--- Double Post Merged, Yesterday at 4:59 PM, Original Post Date: Yesterday at 4:51 PM ---

It would be tough to pick those 3-6 though because there are a lot of games that I've played that I think of as "my favorite games" which aren't neccisarly the ones you might think they'd be. Like BG3 for example. I love that game but the way it's constructed with chapters and no world map doesn't quite deliver the kind of role playing experience I want from that type of game. So I might give it's spot to Dragon Age Origins which is an inferior game in a lot ways but one that fulfills that epic fantasy journey role playing experience I want from those games better for me.

 

[z.5]

Witcher 3 is a fantastic game!
TW3 also (though, by the time I had bought, I'd pretty much already got my fill from 1 and 2)

Pathfinder was always on my list to play... I don't think I ever did (I played the shit outta BG 1, 2 and 3 and PoE [1 not 2... Never did try 2])
Do love me some isometric RPG action!

Skyrim is an odd one to me. Although I did really enjoy, and the modding scene is wild, there's something about later TES games that makes them feel a whole lot less alive than the older ones

... Like the designers spend so long making epic custom quests and events, then open them up to each and every character. This means that everyone does all the quests and no play through feels unique or exciting anymore

Daggerfall would literally bar you from entry to certain guilds and quests, if the game decided your character wasn't the right sort

Skyrim felt a bit stagnant, in a way Daggerfall never did. I mean, where are my seasonal events and festivals?!
If I forget, or am not bothered, to finish a quest for a month, why doesn't it time out and I fail?!
Why is the map so damned small?!?

VR Skyrim, however, is incredible (total immersion really goes a long way in making all things feel more alive)

Am looking forward to seeing how the Wayward Realms develops

 

[Jammin]

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous is the truest successor to BG 1&2. Not that BG3 isn't great. It's just different. It is a true tabletop to videogame adaptation with all that comes with that. There are 26 base classes, 12 prestige classes, and roughly 180ish subclasses. So it's overwhelming in a way BG3 isn't but I think it's very much worthwhile to learn and play. Because that complexity makes it so you can really play almost any kind of character you want to.

Skyrim is a very flawed game. I would never deny that. And I'm deep into the mod stuff which helps. But over the years I keep coming back to it because there is something special there for me. I don't know what it is or why. But that world pulls me in so well. Even though some of the best story stuff is done by mods more than the base game, Ashe - Crystal Heart is my favorite along with Serana Dialogue Expanded (which is a complete rewrites and recasts her VA among other things). People choose to make those mods in that sandbox for a reason. The special something that I can't really quantify is why it kind of has to be where it is for me.

 

[z.5]

Speaking of Witcher 3 - think the remastered version comes out tomorrow?!?
[Seriously, making it free for all players who had previously bought the game is an awesome move]

Guess that might be a good excuse to replay the game

 

[arrowofsky]

Not sure if I did this right but I guess these would be the 9 that mean the most to me.

I know none of them
At least, did you play Far Cry or Serious Sam?

 

[Jammin]

I know none of them
At least, did you play Far Cry or Serious Sam?

I've played both. Though I didn't play all the Far Cry games, never played 4.

Far Cry is in this odd place for me where I really like the idea but it's never quite what I want it to be. Far Cry 3 is probably my favorite because what I want from that game is more an action role playing experience and less of an action sandbox. Like to me the perfect Far Cry game would be almost like a contemporary Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Like I always wanted more writing and characters than those games were interested in putting out there.

The only things on your list I haven't played are Cossacks and the two mmos, I'm not really a social gamer outside of coop games, on z.5's list I've played everything, and on sanity's list Splinterlands and Infinafactory.

 

[z.5]

I've played a fair number of the previously listed

• Goldeneye - As far as console FPS games, this one was pretty fun. Remember playing a fair amount of both this and Timesplitters
• Star Craft 2 - A great game, but prefer Broodwar
• Tomb Raider (new) - Was fun enough, but never felt the urge to finish
• Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII PS1 version - Lumping both of these together. I'm not a fan of JRPGs, in general, or that form of turn-based-combat, but I played a little of both of these. The music is incredible for both (FFVII especially [sans that fucking gambling place music, which is some of the worst music ever created!]). I never really got into the FF story, but the Chrono Trigger plot was reasonably engaging (as far as I recall)
• Mass Effect - Never got into this game
• Mortal Kombat - A great fighting game (though more of a Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, BlazBlue, Samurai Shodown fan)
• Burnout - Really fun game. Did you play much Carmageddon @arrowofsky?
• Age of Empires 2 - A total classic!
• Rise of Nations - Another awesome RTS game
• Cossacks - Yet another great RTS, but I reckon that the above 2 overshadow this game quite hard...
• X-Com: Ufo Defense the original - The combat really put me off of this game
• Rimworld - Kinda surprised to see this here. Not because it is a bad game, at all [in fact, I'd argue it's pretty damn great!], but just due to what kind of game it is. Nice choice tbh

 

[arrowofsky]

I've played a fair number of the previously listed

• Goldeneye - As far as console FPS games, this one was pretty fun. Remember playing a fair amount of both this and Timesplitters
• Star Craft 2 - A great game, but prefer Broodwar
• Tomb Raider (new) - Was fun enough, but never felt the urge to finish
• Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII PS1 version - Lumping both of these together. I'm not a fan of JRPGs, in general, or that form of turn-based-combat, but I played a little of both of these. The music is incredible for both (FFVII especially [sans that fucking gambling place music, which is some of the worst music ever created!]). I never really got into the FF story, but the Chrono Trigger plot was reasonably engaging (as far as I recall)
• Mass Effect - Never got into this game
• Mortal Kombat - A great fighting game (though more of a Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, BlazBlue, Samurai Shodown fan)
• Burnout - Really fun game. Did you play much Carmageddon @arrowofsky?
• Age of Empires 2 - A total classic!
• Rise of Nations - Another awesome RTS game
• Cossacks - Yet another great RTS, but I reckon that the above 2 overshadow this game quite hard...
• X-Com: Ufo Defense the original - The combat really put me off of this game
• Rimworld - Kinda surprised to see this here. Not because it is a bad game, at all [in fact, I'd argue it's pretty damn great!], but just due to what kind of game it is. Nice choice tbh

By the way, the most interesting thing I like in Burnout was, when you beat down an opponent car, the game suddenly freezes, the screen zooms to the opponent and you just watch how it gets wrecked xD. Similar to the PS3 Mortal Kombat's special attacks maybe.

Interestingly, Carmageddon was mostly installed in the internet cafes of my hometown, so yeah I even know more boring Midtown Madness, but carmageddon was much better. Later years, I played London Racer mods, too, and mostly passing all games by waiting one lap and bulldozing others

And a remark on Cossacks: I mean it had such different elements than other games so I seriously feel bad about its underratedness. You had mercenaries that consumes gold each second, you had ship production quite slow comparatively to the soldiers, and mills and many buildings were convertible by other foot archers when silently/meekly captured, and definitely would burn down with en masse attacks, aaaand a major improvement (maybe not that directly sequel) as American Conquest would require entering villagers to the barracks to later make them soldiers. In all mods, ships were far devastating, while in many other RTS the impact of ships were just way too minimal. Perhaps, such things made it more complicated than to be fun for the general audience.

--- Double Post Merged, Yesterday at 8:29 PM, Original Post Date: Yesterday at 8:25 PM ---

I've played both. Though I didn't play all the Far Cry games, never played 4.

Far Cry is in this odd place for me where I really like the idea but it's never quite what I want it to be. Far Cry 3 is probably my favorite because what I want from that game is more an action role playing experience and less of an action sandbox. Like to me the perfect Far Cry game would be almost like a contemporary Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Like I always wanted more writing and characters than those games were interested in putting out there.

The only things on your list I haven't played are Cossacks and the two mmos, I'm not really a social gamer outside of coop games, on z.5's list I've played everything, and on sanity's list Splinterlands and Infinafactory.

Cossacks games are simply a faster paced and more making sense version of AoE II. It may be good to give them a try like each gun fired even from ships consumes coal, that sensible, while almost all other RTS games got upfront costs for each soldier. American conquest puts this to the extreme sense and it may be boring to try that out first, but I still remember building my first Victoria ship there, it took maybe like 30 real minutes, but it was everything if you ever managed to bring that to a requested place.

--- Double Post Merged, Yesterday at 8:30 PM ---

and yes, I will definitely try out some games in your lists as a reward to myself when I sort out several things in my life

 

[Jammin]

Mass Effect is interesting because, I too like that game a lot, but the ending of the 3rd game basically retroactively ruined the entire series for me. So I can't really look back and give it a fair look. Mass Effect 2 in particular sort of deserves to be in the very top teir of action role playing games but to me it's dependent on a larger narrative... whose conclusion is bad. Now that I know that, I can't forget it.

In a way it's like VtM:Bloodlines for me. I like that game a lot but the end of that game is so bad. For different reasons, the game was and is barely functional and they just weren't able to complete it ala KOTOR II.

I kind of lump Cyberpunk 2077 into that pile. It's a cool game but I hate the endings so much I'll never want to play it again or think of it in a fond way.

--- Double Post Merged, Yesterday at 8:42 PM, Original Post Date: Yesterday at 8:40 PM ---

They are the videogame equivalent of the Naruto manga for me is what I'm saying, I guess.

 

[z.5]

They are the videogame equivalent of the Naruto manga for me is what I'm saying, I guess.

Some seriously cutting criticism there

I mean, they weren't that bad...

 

[Jammin]

Some seriously cutting criticism there

I mean, they weren't that bad...

Mass Effect's ending IS that bad.

To the point where it it shares that odd trait with Naruto that anybody who read it can now, 12 years later (14 for Mass Effect), can go rant about how terrible it was as if they had just experienced it a moment ago.

Might be too harsh a comparison for the rest though, I'll admit that.

--- Double Post Merged, Yesterday at 9:03 PM, Original Post Date: Yesterday at 8:58 PM ---

I legitimately think if your having a discussion of worst endings ever put to paper. It's in that discussion alongside the likes of the Quantum Leap tv series. Which for people who aren't in their 40s.

"Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home."

 

[z.5]

Mass Effect's ending IS that bad
...
I legitimately think if your having a discussion of worst endings every put to paper. It's in that discussion alongside the likes of the Quantum Leap tv series.

I mean, I did hear it was bad (and that people requested a re-write [which is an absurd thing to do...]), but never getting anywhere near completing it, I guess I dodged that bullet

investing so much time in a trilogy, only for it to fall on its face that hard does sound pretty painful...

 

[Jammin]

In all seriousness, they should have rewritten it because it was an narrative abomination. If they found that insulting... good. Deserved.

I am barely holding myself back from going into gruesome detail of why it is bad not just as a matter of opinion but of objective fact. Since it's badness stems not only from being unsatisfying but also failing to maintain a narratively consistent path for the story of your character to go. Creating a situation where the objectively "best" ending is for the bad guys to win and everybody to die and render every choice made in three games meaningless....

I'll stop. I must stop myself.

 

[Sanity Check]

Yeh.

There is a lot of compromise in the multiple choice conclusion to mass effect.

And the compromises are not consistent or symmetrical.

The image bioware released of TaliZorah's face also caused outrage, if I remember right.

 

[Jammin]

The Tali face image pissed people off for different reasons. People were mad because that was lazy. Which it was, they basically didn't know what a Quarian was supposed to look like so they grabbed a stock photo of a pretty girl end edited it very slightly. So slightly that people could recognize the stock photo it was made from.

The ending issue was more about choice and consequence. Because effectively none of the choices do. And the consequence really has nothing to do with who your character is or what he/she has done.

Spoiler: Spoilers for one of the worst endings of all time i guess.

Since you reach the ending point and a god entity called the "star child" gives you three choices.

Red: To kill everything synthetic friend and foe.
Blue: To take control of the bad guys and replace the god entity.
Green: To merge the synthetic and organic life.

The issues with these options are two fold.

First, if your are role playing as rugged individualist or morally uncompromising character which is a lot of what the choices in the previous two games represent. Your character would not accept any of these choices. Red doesn't work because that character would die before betraying your allies. Blue doesn't work because it represents becoming a tyrannical ruler your character reviles. Green because it represents a betrayal of the diverse alliance of different races which you build over the course of the game. So unless you are role playing a very specific type of Shepard none of those three endings will match up with your storyline. But it forced you to pick... one of them.

Second, is that the ending is specifically designed for none of the choices throughout the three games to matter. Those choices effect how you get to the star child and nothing after that. Every seemingly meaningful decision you make is rendered irrelevant by a god being giving you choice between Red, Green, and Blue with no choices you've made prior to that having any bearing on anything.

This all lead to them adding months later, in a response to the outrage, a 4th option. Called Reject. Where you tell the star child to go fuck himself and the Reapers win killing all organic life. With the implication that you've sown the seeds for the next cycle to finally defeat them even if your galaxy won't live to see it. This is unfortunately the only ending of Mass Effect that actually works with all character types. Making it... the best one.

 

[Sanity Check]

The ending offered the possibility of a pyrrhic victory, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

But part of me is glad they did it that way. As wars and large scale conflicts normally carry bittersweet endings.

Spoiler

The Reapers are winning the war, aliens & humanity face mass extinction.

Star thing shows up and offers 3 choices presumably less evil than mass genocide, prompting you to devise a path of least evil.

The 1st is genocide against synthetic life forms, which iirc means living things that are silicon rather than carbon based.

2nd is something like becoming a reaper oneself and guiding their fate. But this could imply your character being reprogrammed as a reaper which would rewrite values, ideology and identity.

3rd is merging synthetic and non synthetic life. Everyone survives in some shape or form, although in a transformed state.

Can't remember exactly what my selection was, I think I opted for the merging of synthetics and non synthetics in the hope that humanity would remain mostly intact the way it did with comic book characters like Cable.

In the modern era, war is sometimes marketed as acceptable collateral damage.

And so the concept of war having high costs & steep compromises in a game was something I didn't much mind.