What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing? ARCHIVE

I grew up on interactive fiction and point-n-click (PnC) adventures, but that doesn't stop me from hating most Sierra games. To me, they're the worst examples of the genre: impossible-to-guess puzzle solutions, an overabundance of instant deaths, weak humor, etc. In terms of the King's Quest reboot, my money will remain safely in my wallet.

With that bit of anger-stalgia out of the way, I just completed the Shadow Warrior (2013) reboot. Lots of old-school fun, though the boss battles and cut scenes were terrible. At least the cut scenes were skippable.

I also tried Tex Murphy: Killing Moon (a FMV game), since I managed to bypass the Murphy series in my youth. I gave up after three hours, since I'm no longer interested in (a) searching for low-res objects against low-res backgrounds and (b) jumping back and forth between NPCs to unearth new conversation keywords and that one unresolved branch of the conversation tree that advances the plotline.

I finally finished all of the Half-Life expansions. Opposing Forces was the last one, and it was good.

I tried The Next BIG Thing and A New Beginning (PnC games), but lost interest in both within 90 minutes. (Earlier than that, actually, but I stuck it out for an hour and a half.) It's possible that I never need to play another point-n-click adventure again. Or perhaps they were exceptionally mediocre.

I was getting discouraged by my disappointing game selections over the past few months, so I tried Thief 2 after loving the first one. Great stuff. Plus, I learned that old-timey game art (e.g., the Thief 2 cutscenes) ages well if it's sufficiently stylized. (This is why Borderlands will still be playable in 20 years, but most other shooters won't be.) Can't wait to play the third one.

After an aborted game of Unreal Gold twelve years ago, I finally decided to finish it. Some levels were amazing, with color palettes that were downright inspired. Not enough enemy variation, but still a good time. However, I did sorely miss modern-day map functions and "go here, stupid" directional arrows, since I managed to lose myself in the larger levels for days. It turns out that all twisty corridors and water tunnels do look alike.

I'm co-opping Saints Row IV with a buddy. Loved the QTE pancake scene.

I'm thinking that LA Noire is up next.

You have an amazing collection of average videogames!

Surprisingly, GOG sales, Steam sales, and Humble Bundles aren't the best way to round out your collection.

I've been playing Super Time Force Ultra. It's a 2D platformer that when you die, you can rewind the level to any point, select a new character, and continue on, all while your previous ghosts still do their thing. Because you only have 60 seconds on each level, you usually have to stack damage over multiple ghosts to beat it in time. I'm really enjoying it. There are even 50 challenge rooms that only give you certain characters and a limited amount of rewinds so it's basically a puzzle that you have to figure out. After playing for a while now, I've gotten a lot better and running out of time is almost never an issue anymore. So now I'm working on the speed run medals in each level to try to unlock the last character. It's good fun.

wkover wrote: I grew up on interactive fiction and point-n-click (PnC) adventures, but that doesn't stop me from hating most Sierra games. To me, they're the worst examples of the genre: impossible-to-guess puzzle solutions, an overabundance of instant deaths, weak humor, etc. In terms of the King's Quest reboot, my money will remain safely in my wallet.

Yeah, I was halfway writing the same response yesterday. Quest for Glory is my favorite because those things are minimized. Police Quest is fun due to procedure adherence.

But Sierra was nowhere as good as Lucasarts when making adventure games.

On my side, replaying Mass Effect (again) with male Infiltrator, Batman Arkham Asylum (which is better than City) and... Minecraft.

There is something especially amusing about police quest re: this Sierra games. Like, it is so intentionally pedantic about procedure that it makes sense---you're bound by law and if you fuck something up, even really stupid, you'll get sued or fired. I remember the big one that always stopped me in the first one was cuffing people but not remembering to cuff then behind their back so they'd hit me and run away.

Codename Iceman was also awesome about procedure, although in a less anal way. Same designer as Police Quest. Really awesome game but suffers from the unwinnable problem.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is free for PS+ members this month, so I'm excited to check that out. I almost bought it on steam once, and now I'm glad I waited.

Anyone drive through a red light in Police Quest without going Code 2/3 first? You INSTANTLY get a Game Over. And the red lights are really hard to spot in a top-down navigation mini-game like that.

How about trying to get on and off the highway in those concrete-lined off-ramps? Jeez that was tough.

WKOVER, LA Noire is great! I hope you really dig it. I had a blast playing that game.

Black Barney wrote: Anyone drive through a red light in Police Quest without going Code 2/3 first? You INSTANTLY get a Game Over. And the red lights are really hard to spot in a top-down navigation mini-game like that.

How about trying to get on and off the highway in those concrete-lined off-ramps? Jeez that was tough.

Or if you failed to check your vehicle in the lot it would get flat tires (of course) and end your game.

I hated POLICE QUEST.

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DIABLO 3, guys. DIABLO 3. It's Sofa King good.

QPCloudy, it knows you've played, and it has me ship you legendary gifts like every other day. Log in soon and you'll get some sweet shit.

I am in Adventure mode now, having finished the story, and Blizzard has this all figured out. You can hop from Act to Act, performing Quests (5 per Act). They are things like "Clear the Field of Terror" or "Kill QorMuju the Unclean." You work those, picking up experience--complete all the Quests in an Act and get bonus XP and a sweet loot pile. While doing this, you accumulate Blood Shards that let you shop for awesome random loot (floor is Elite (yellow), but you might roll Legendary (orange) or Set (green) items. You also accumulate Rift Key shards, you can use to open a Rift. An Event instance with a bunch of dudes and a Rift Guardian once you clear them. Beat THAT and you might get a Stone of Trials, which is a time-based even with waves of enemies. Say you clear 10 waves before time runs out. THAT gets you a Lvl 10 Greater Rift ("grift") key, which is a rift bossed by a Greater Rift Guardian, who drops good shit, including perhaps Legendary gems (the only way to get these). If you beat a grift within 15 minutes, you can upgrade your grift key and advance to the next grift level.

Also! If you get killed, at some later point there's a chance that a "Nemesis" demon and a shadow of you will appear in yours or a friends game. These things are TOUGH, but it gives you a chance at vengeance. If they win, they get stronger and raid some other friends' game. If you win, you and the player(s) it killed get some sweet loot dropped or delivered to the mailbox in town! My friend Todd killed my Nemesis/Shadow last night and I scored two pieces of Natalya's set--like the best hand crossbow in the game. And with the matching pants, my cooldown drops to almost instantaneous on Rain of Fire skill.

My PS4 arrived yesterday. It came bundled with The Last of Us so I'll be playing that soon, but I also got Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (BL2 and TPS) and Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition.

I still have last of us complete edition kicking around too. I need to stop banging my head on the last few Bloodborne Chalice Dungeons.

Oh god, I can't wait to see what you have to say about TLoU, Dave...I completely fucking hated it. It's the kind of writing/story that 14 year olds think is somehow "awesome". It's progressive because it has a girl in it! There are seeeeeerious ISSUES in it about how bad people are! The hero is gruff and has to make difficult choices!

But really you just run around shootin' zombies in they muthafukkin' face.

Complete trash dressed up with a script that _might_ have been a Sunday night feature on SyFy. Junk gameplay.

But at least you got Diablo III, it rules as Jeb has continued to profess.

I played some Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes last night. I approve.

Yeah, it's really good...there's not enough space there for it to go full-blown Kojima, but there are some moments. There's actually quite a lot to do, I played through it and did some of the missions and liked it a lot. Phantom Pain will probably be the only other non-Nintendo game I buy this year aside from Bloodborne.

TOTALLY unexpected use of music in that too.