Gaming General Chat Thread

[Mara Kalat]

The Xbox 720 is also supposedly going to have always-online as a requisite to functioning.
I strongly dislike either of these concepts, and probably won't get a new console then.
...or a Wii U, I guess?

Mara.

[Mara Kalat]

The Xbox 720 is also supposedly going to have always-online as a requisite to functioning.
I strongly dislike either of these concepts, and probably won't get a new console then.
...or a Wii U, I guess?

Mara.

[Kapol]

The always-on thing is just a rumor that doesn't surprise me it's been started. As far as I know, the PS4 won't have it, and I don't think microsoft is nearly stupid enough to do that. It's just like the rumor that the systems would make used games impossible to play. The rumor is likely complete BS that someone thought they'd do because they believe that Sony and Microsoft (or any company) are assholes. The fact that various gaming news places report on these rumors makes me disappointed.

Seriously, anytime you hear that the 720 or the PS4 will have always-online/used game protection/what-have-you that makes the system seems asinine is as asinine itself unless there's actually proof.

[Kapol]

Final Fantasy 3 indeed.

[Mara Kalat]

Good point Kapol, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The always-online rumour struck me as plausible though, since this is already true for all the Indie games on the 360 (which is why I have none).

Mara.

PS - Final Fantasy 9 > Final Fantasy 3!

[Kapol]

I'm not sure the reason behind the online for indie games. I think it may be to prevent piracy sine they likely have less safeguards against that. But online downloads are different than boxed copies. Users have to have access to the web for digital content, making it slightly more understandable to expect users to have web access.

I'd put the odds of forced online on either console to be very low. If one does, they deserve the loss of sales. It's one of the reasons the fact the ps4 isn't natively backwards compatible with ps3 pisses me off so much.

[Mara Kalat]

At least they have a valid reason for having no backward compatibility.
And having a hardware configuration more similar to PCs and the 360 is, I think, on the long run a good thing.

It was this generation that pissed me off. PS3s with only the very first run being backward compatible, and the 360 only offering it for a seemingly random selection of titles (theoretically everything, for me personally roughly 1/3rd of the games I had).

Mara.

[Valkyrie-Lemons]

After all, you'll only be holding one of them in your hands for hours on end. The other is just there to look reasonably pretty and not overheat.
(That, and without looking, it probably looks a lot like every PS controller we had so far )

It does look like most other PS controllers, just with longer "arms". And I understand that, but they could have still showed a preliminary design showing rough size and stuff.

I just saw a short coverage on the news. Are they really going to do live-stream gaming? Because doesn't that fall apart in reality, once a lot of people are using the same service all the time (especially in the same house as surfing parents and gaming brothers & sisters?). Also, does this mean I need to keep paying to use the service? aka, a manditory PSN plus account, to keep the servers going? and what about playing games on it after it's lifetime?
(sorry if I was misinformed and this isn't the way Sony is moving "forward")

And there is a bigger problem for some people, I.E those who don't have a great connection to begin with, and unlikely to ever have. I mean, where I live isn't that fast and can sometimes grind to halt. For example, last week I did a speed test and my internet was going at 3kb a second...and this is for a connection that's meant to be around 11MBps. So yeah, considering that I sometimes struggle to stream radio, I have no idea how I'll do HD gaming.

And this isn't something I can really do anything about, apart from moving to a high broadband area.

But hopefully this'll never happen.

The always-on thing is just a rumor that doesn't surprise me it's been started. As far as I know, the PS4 won't have it, and I don't think microsoft is nearly stupid enough to do that. It's just like the rumor that the systems would make used games impossible to play. The rumor is likely complete BS that someone thought they'd do because they believe that Sony and Microsoft (or any company) are assholes. The fact that various gaming news places report on these rumors makes me disappointed.

Seriously, anytime you hear that the 720 or the PS4 will have always-online/used game protection/what-have-you that makes the system seems asinine is as asinine itself unless there's actually proof.

I think that the online steaming maybe for backwards capability, but I'm not 100% sure if this was true or just speculation. So the PS4 wouldn't be able to read PS3 games but be able to play them via emulation software or something. Although surely if you're able to have some sort of emulation software, then you'll be able to just use a disc.

So yeah, not sure how true this is, but I think they're defiantly going to do some service like this.

PS - Final Fantasy 9 > Final Fantasy 3!

Have I ever told you how smart and amazing you are? Since anyone who argues that FFIX is better than any other FF is cool in my books. : )

[Mara Kalat]

<lots of smart insights>

PS - Final Fantasy 9 > Final Fantasy 3!

Have I ever told you how smart and amazing you are? Since anyone who argues that FFIX is better than any other FF is cool in my books. : )

Hooray! It's easily my favourite Final Fantasy, and I tend to bore everyone that disagrees to death with my valid and not-at-all subjective arguments.
(order of preferred FFs, only listing games I played: 9, 10-2, 5, 7, 8, 6, TA2, 4, 2, 1, .., 10, .., 12)

Mara.

[Valkyrie-Lemons]

FFIX is the best Final Fantasy! And you should bore to death anyone who dares to deny the brilliance of FFIX!

It's one of the only games where the ending actually made me cry, since that's how much I liked and cared about the characters, coupled with the great song "Memories of Life". And that's not including some of the most awesome music in any FF game.

Ahhh, I could go on all day about why FFIX is fantastic, but I have work to do, so I can't.

[Kapol]

At least they have a valid reason for having no backward compatibility.
And having a hardware configuration more similar to PCs and the 360 is, I think, on the long run a good thing.

It was this generation that pissed me off. PS3s with only the very first run being backward compatible, and the 360 only offering it for a seemingly random selection of titles (theoretically everything, for me personally roughly 1/3rd of the games I had).

Mara.

Honestly, I don't really think there is a valid reason. With the PS4 being so powerful and being said to be like a computer, I would think that the company would dedicate some reasources to adding in built-in emulation software in order to get older games to run. Considering there are already emulators out there for the PS3, I doubt this would be impossible. I mean even PSN titles won't transfer over. It's the cynic in me that makes me annoyed. To me it feels like they could have included this feature with a decent amount of R&D and maybe a small extra loss on each system. The cynic says that they're doing it to keep PS3 sales going, prevent massive PS3 trade-ins, and generally use it as an attempt to make a bit more money without considering the benefits of making the software more available.

But then again, I'm not a software tech, so I don't really know for sure.

I think that the online steaming maybe for backwards capability, but I'm not 100% sure if this was true or just speculation. So the PS4 wouldn't be able to read PS3 games but be able to play them via emulation software or something. Although surely if you're able to have some sort of emulation software, then you'll be able to just use a disc.

So yeah, not sure how true this is, but I think they're defiantly going to do some service like this.

The plan as I heard it was that you could run PS1, 2, and 3 games from a cloud server. The PS4 wouldn't handle any of the processing itself, instead relying on the cloud in order to emulate the software needed. Which means you'd have to be connected to the internet in order to play them. And, if it's true, I can't help but feel it's meant to be a way for Sony to try getting more money from customers. Make them rebuy their older games in order to play them on the new system. Since I highly doubt they'd set it up where you'd get the game online if you have the physical copy since they have no way of knowing for sure. But again, that's just the cynic in me talking.

[Geoff_B]

Good point Kapol, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The always-online rumour struck me as plausible though, since this is already true for all the Indie games on the 360 (which is why I have none).

Mara.

PS - Final Fantasy 9 > Final Fantasy 3!

Final Fantasy 8 > all other Final Fantasies

[Metcarfre]

Does anyone have a link to a relatively unbiased article about the PS4 announcement, because all I can see is "wah wah something sucks" or "omg jizzming mah pants".

[Geoff_B]

I have a relatively unbiased opinion if that helps. It goes something like this:

"Meh"

[Kapol]

Depends what you're looking for. You could pretty easily find the specs. Not sure about information on the controller, but the Escapist has an article up on it I haven't read. As of now we don't know much behind the hardware and the controller.

Although I will say that, even though I complained about it, I do think the PS4 looks interesting. I think it's going to be similar to the last system jump. It'll make a difference (sometimes not in good ways) and be a general improvement.

[RedNightmare]

Does anyone have a link to a relatively unbiased article about the PS4 announcement, because all I can see is "wah wah something sucks" or "omg jizzming mah pants".

Penny Arcade Report always seems to strive to be honest (they have opinions, but it's clear when their opinions)

[Valkyrie-Lemons]

Final Fantasy 8 > all other Final Fantasies

You're mad.

[Mara Kalat]

I quite liked 8 as well, actually.
It just had some very weird design choices (e.g. enemies always being your party average level, magic basically being usable items that you could hang onto for stat boosts).
Considering the innovations that the series has attempted since, 8 was something I would applaud even more in hindsight.

Mara.

[Geoff_B]

See! See I'm not the only one!

[Valkyrie-Lemons]

Gameplay wise I thought the game was good for trying something new, something which I think didn't work, but hey. You need innovation, even failed ones, otherwise you'd just get stagnation.

No, my biggest problem is the plot...or lack of it. Seriously, I think most acid trips make more sense than FFVIII did. And that's saying a lot about a Final Fantasy game, which make little sense most of the time.

That, and I hated most of the characters with a loathing passion. Not as much as I hated them in FFXIII (Seriously Hope GO AWAY!), Apart from Qunitis maybe, since she's the only one I'd talk to in that lunatic asylum. Squall is the source of all Emo in the universe, Rinoha probably has more diseases then a Las Vagas escort, Zell is just someone you'd want to punch in the face and then follow that up with a good sledgehammering, Irvine is just...UGH, a pretentious douche who needs to go for a dive in wet concrete and Selphie reminds me of that chick in Kill Bill, y'know the one with the mace and chain, yeah that one, and that's not meant in a good way.

And I only like Headmaster Cid because, A) He's called Cid and B) He looks a lot like Robin Williams.

So yeah, if basically everything after disc one was re-written OR a better ending possible explaining some mad theories, would make me like this game...but as you can see, I really didn't like FFVIII.


However, I could think of worse games to play, if I was forced to play this for all eternity then I could think of worse fates. Plus, I like playing this game for the pure reason I can complain about it afterwards/when I'm playing it.

[JackSlack]

I'm playing Fallout: New Vegas right now. My character is a lass named Tulip, with specialties in speech, guns, and sneaking. She's a old fashioned cowgirl who gets the job done by stealth or by talking her way out of things, but when the chips are down, she knows to pull out a revolver.

And my head now hears her speaking like Applejack.

This is problematic.

[Kayden]

I always made my Fallout NV characters the same, a person who starts out as a person who excels at speech and barter with guns in there for a combat skill that ends up turning into a maxed out badass cyborg that is a pro-sniper.

Also in my opinion every FF game after 6 besides 9 kinda sucks, reason I'm not including 7 is because I thought 7 was really bland and didn't necessarily deserve its hype, again this is all in my own opinion.

[Geoff_B]

I liked FF8 mainly for the story between Squall and Rinoa and also for the music. Oh and for the epic Garden battle cutscenes

And for FNV I always made a female character and put her in a merc adventurer's outfit with a desperado hat. Because it sort of fit the setting.

[Mara Kalat]

I really liked FF8's romance plot as well (probably second-favourite, after 9), especially the segment in outer space.

Calling FF7 bland is probably not unjustified, I think a lot of the hype is because it was the first JRPG that a lot of people played, and it was definitely the first large 3D RPG to come out.
I personally loved the flexibility that the Materia system gave, especially with the Master Materia added into the mix.

Mara.

[Kayden]

I shouldn't include 8, 10 and 11 in the "kinda sucks" category since I never played them, but 12 and 13, yea did not want.