Gaming General Chat Thread

[LogicSword]

Ace Attorney 5 comes out tomorrow...

Bye everyone.

[empath]

Cya, Logic - have fun! Don't forget to bathe!


But seriously, let us know how it is.

[Fantazme]

The Wolf Among Us is really fantastic. Can't wait for the next episode.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Trying to blast through Kingdoms of AmularspurgeLOTRipoff.
By avoiding all side quests, and only doing main quests & faction quests, the game is a lot more fun.

It's an open-world game presented in a linear-manner. You feel compelled to do all the quests. Resist that urge and play through the game via important quests only. If you get under levelled, go back and do some side quests.

Since I am in the final few zones, I might start doing those zone's side quests. I'd like to level cap before the end.

[WickedBoy6]

As much as I dislike modern military shooters and cover-based grindfests like Gears of War, I'm actually really enjoying Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Despite my computer AI team being pants-on-head, the game is actually really fun.

[RedNightmare]

Ok, so I want to make some Let's PLay videos to fill the terrible drought that the channel me and a friend run is currently suffering, but I can't find recording software that works for me. Hypercam, Xsplit, Xfire, they all have something that prevents me from using it (speeds up videos for some reason, wrong output format, to large output files.)

Anyone got a suggestion for free recording software?

[Fantazme]

FRAPS?

You could possibly stream to a private twitch.tv channel using OBS and maybe then do their upload to YouTube?

[empath]

I hate to ignore your "free" condition, but I do recommend plumping up for the paid version of FRAPS.

Unless you're planning on playing REALLY old game through DOSbox or something (which has its own limited video cap feature), it's really all you'll need for YT LPs.

[Darkobra]

Rift's F2P now. I played a little and wasn't impressed. It feels like it's trying too hard to be a free version of WoW.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut is out too. Seamless links between The Missing Link and the main game rather than two separate games this time. Better touched up graphics. And the real clincher: NEW GAME PLUS!

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Rift is a museum MMO. It records all the bad features of WoW, and it stubbornly keeps them because its players base likes shit game design.

Who ever thought that boring meant complex with regards to talent trees is an idiot.
Likewise with having lots of buttons apparently is deep gameplay.

MOBAs are able to have complex gameplay with only 4 buttons. Rift, go home, you're not wanted anymore.

GW1 does a much better job of combining classes together, and that came out 6 years before you.

[JackSlack]

Rift is a museum MMO. It records all the bad features of WoW, and it stubbornly keeps them because its players base likes shit game design.

Who ever thought that boring meant complex with regards to talent trees is an idiot.
Likewise with having lots of buttons apparently is deep gameplay.

MOBAs are able to have complex gameplay with only 4 buttons. Rift, go home, you're not wanted anymore.

GW1 does a much better job of combining classes together, and that came out 6 years before you.

Ok, but what do you think of Rift?

[RedNightmare]

I hate to ignore your "free" condition, but I do recommend plumping up for the paid version of FRAPS.

Unless you're planning on playing REALLY old game through DOSbox or something (which has its own limited video cap feature), it's really all you'll need for YT LPs.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. As I understand though, FRAPS uses quite a bit of processing power. Any idea how D3Dgear is in that, cause the trail was pretty good at that.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

Rift is a museum MMO. It records all the bad features of WoW, and it stubbornly keeps them because its players base likes shit game design.

Who ever thought that boring meant complex with regards to talent trees is an idiot.
Likewise with having lots of buttons apparently is deep gameplay.

MOBAs are able to have complex gameplay with only 4 buttons. Rift, go home, you're not wanted anymore.

GW1 does a much better job of combining classes together, and that came out 6 years before you.

Ok, but what do you think of Rift?

Linear levelling zones. Once you levelled one character, there is very little 'fresh content' to experience as another class.

The levelling in the expansion takes too long. Their excuse for this is that there's a seperate character progression that increases.

Quests are standard MMO that doesn't push the boat.

Gameplay is all the buttons that you must use all the time. But if you're clever with macros, you can condense them into one or two buttons. Thus negating the point of having a lot of actively used abilities to begin with.

Mushing up two classes doesn't always work that efficiently. You can mix Pyromancer and Stormcaller, but you end up having two sets of abilities that doesn't have much interaction with each other. Since Pyromancer focuses on +fire damage, and Stormcaller on +air & water damage. You end up not exceeding at either. I true hybrid which doesn't feel enjoyable to play since you get button bloat.

So because of that, and the fact there will always be cookie-cutter builds, there's no point choosing your own talents. Copy the commonly used build and you're fine. Because the talents are so dull (5% crit or 5% hit) there is basically no area for self-expression. WoW's talent system is now patronisingly simple, but at least some talents are very flavoursome to pick. As a WoW priest I can choose between three different types of 'Multiple Target Heals', which behave differently. Which depending on encounter will have some being more useful than others.

Rift added some classes for novelty that doesn't need to exist. They added a ranged Warrior which doesn't feel like a Warrior at all. It's a mage that uses the resource system of a warrior that wears heavy armour and uses Strength. It felt like it was added because Warriors had no range option. It ended up not feeling great. There was no reason why the class had to be attached to the Warrior calling. Why couldn't it be a mage or rogue?
They added a melee mage which was because they thought Mages needed a melee option. But it suffers from button bloat which gets undermined by macros.
They added a priest that 'heals through afflictions'. Which sounds on paper exciting. A priest that heals its team by damaging the enemy. Or heals its allies but at the expense of the healthiness of itself or other allies. Not. It's just a Hot/Dot class where its spells has names relating to diseases. You could have named its spells "kitten fuzz" and themed it around a cat lover. Mechanically it's a dot/hot class, but it's dressed with a 'story'.
They added a medium ranged magic rogue support that didn't need to exist because the bard existed before. It was Bard version 2.
-
Good points?

Some classes are unique. The Bard is fun, feels like you're playing music since your skill rotation has a rhythm to it. They also make it aesthetically pleasing because your character plays instruments and you hear your music.

Adventure Quest thing Mode. A different way to level up. You join a zone group that is tasked to do various unique quests. It never ends. With enough people you get so much exp. You also get great loot.

How they deal with Factions and PvE servers. On a PvE servers the Factions are in a sort of cold-war. You can only world PvP in less you flag yourself or attack an enemy faction npc (like any other MMO). But you can enter enemy zones without getting flagged. Even enter their capital city. You can even form a guild of both factions. It's a more logical and interesting way of doing PvE. In other MMOs, PvE servers are kinda dull. At least in Rift the PvE mechanics creates for a world that feels like it has an uneasy-truce. Which makes sense if you have mega-disasters that in both your interests you should work together to defeat.

Unlike in WoW where they preach at you to work together Horde and Alliance and not to fight on Panderia or you'll cause the SHA to appear. Yet players still gank each other to oblivion.

[korvys]

I hate to ignore your "free" condition, but I do recommend plumping up for the paid version of FRAPS.

Unless you're planning on playing REALLY old game through DOSbox or something (which has its own limited video cap feature), it's really all you'll need for YT LPs.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. As I understand though, FRAPS uses quite a bit of processing power. Any idea how D3Dgear is in that, cause the trail was pretty good at that.

Have you checked out OBS? It seems to be designed as a streaming thing, but seems to record well. Good quality, small files. Haven't looked at it extensively, but it's FOSS, if that helps, also.

[Kapol]

Some thoughts on Wind Waker HD (roughly in order):

-Damn, this game is beautiful. The colors... I'd forgotten them... and HD does add something to it.
-The game's opening is still pretty solid. It takes a while, but it has interesting bits to it.
-It feels the need to make sure you know how to do every single little thing to the point of being annoying. Or making sure you're 'ready' for an area, even if it has it blocked off. I'm thinking mostly of the fact it has so many stupid, pointless 'you have to have the swinging rope!' bits during throughout the second 'temple' area and all leading up to it.
-I still like the characters in this game quite a bit. Plus, bird-people! They're better than the fish-people to me.
-The world is really big, which is good. It feels empty, but it also feels like it should be empty. And if you get the fast sail right away, you can zip around pretty easily.
-I hate how the game acts like it's not linear, but it really is. Will go more into that in the spoilers.
-There's a lot of dragging on in this game. Like something that is really quick to solve takes a while to do.
-The fact that there's motion controls on top of stick aiming annoys me greatly. Like, it's a good thing, but it also bothers me and has screwed up more than a couple shots.
-Sidequests range from good to dull. Sadly, a lot of them fall on the dull scale, and many on the entirely pointless far end.
-Only having access to three hotkeys feels unnecessarily limiting. I think the pad could handle two more without trouble.
-Being able to switch between the big screen and the small screen whenever you want feels really, really good. It also gives it a 'mobile game' feel.
-Being able to access the map, and the items from the Wii U's controller screen without pausing adds nice flow, and makes sailing smoother.
-The Treasure Maps are nice, but also feel somewhat... unnecessary.
-One thing that really annoys me and ties to an earlier part about linearity. Once you can go anywhere, you get to plenty of islands you just can't 'solve' yet because you don't have the right equipment. It's made doubley worse since many of them are situations where any Zelda player can tell you exactly what you need. Like 'I need the hookshot here.' It's frustrating to know what you need, and knowing you'll eventually get it, but having to keep in mind where that island is.

(Spoilers from this point onward)

-Speaking of the bird thing... how does a species go from being fish-based to being bird-based?
-Playing through the Wind Temple with Malikar or whatever is name is is one of the most frustrating and pointless things I've ever done. He's needlessly slow, and literally can't do anything for himself. So you have to constantly take control of him, which means taking about 20 seconds to preform a song. And if he gets hit once, you gotta do it again.
-On the other hand, I liked playing with the bird-girl in the Earth temple (...I just realized how backwards that seems). She handles a lot better, isn't slow as hell, and you don't have to take control quite as often. I still think it would have been better without her being tacked on though.
-Going back to the linear thing, there's a lot of chances to get to things early. Like you can collect some pieces of the triforce early. That's cool... except you can't complete them until you get this object, which is in the last temple, which is again pointless. Same with cabana. You can get into it very early. But you HAVE to go back to the tower to save sis first due to needing the hammer.
-The Camera makes me angry due to my obsessive completionist side. Must... get... all... statues.
-I dislike how some puzzles use mechanics that you're never really introduced to. Going back to getting to the Wind Temple, you have to swing into a waterfall by stopping swinging, moving down, swinging again, and then jumping into it. You also have to, at random times, use the item you can only get at Offset island to control a bird to hit a switch. It feels like the game doesn't really explain a lot, and just expects the player to 'figure it out' despite giving no feedback.

(End spoilers)

Overall, I'd recommend it to Zelda fans who didn't catch it the first time around, or people who want to get a decent use out of their Wii U. It's a good remake. But it reminds me why remakes should be avoided. They bring back good memories, yes. But they can also bring back memories of all the flaws the game has.

[RedNightmare]

I hate to ignore your "free" condition, but I do recommend plumping up for the paid version of FRAPS.

Unless you're planning on playing REALLY old game through DOSbox or something (which has its own limited video cap feature), it's really all you'll need for YT LPs.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. As I understand though, FRAPS uses quite a bit of processing power. Any idea how D3Dgear is in that, cause the trail was pretty good at that.

Have you checked out OBS? It seems to be designed as a streaming thing, but seems to record well. Good quality, small files. Haven't looked at it extensively, but it's FOSS, if that helps, also.

I remember using it, but don't remember what the problem was. I'll look back into it, thanks for reminding me.

[Darkobra]

I got the True Demon Ending in Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call! That was fun.

Also, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut. There are a few changes that make this worth getting and a few that don't right now.

Now you get TWO naturally recharging batteries instead of one. I liked that one. The DLC is part of the game and not a separate game. Graphics have been touched up.

But also, it's stuttering to fuck and there are SO many optimisation problems.

So far I'm on my first mission and I'm actually really loving that game for so many reasons.

[WickedBoy6]

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair isn't bad. I got really into it this week, and while it's tough as hell on single-player, it is infinite fun with multi-player. Imagine playing Portrait of Ruin with someone controlling both Jonathan and Charlotte, plus Soma, Alucard, and Shanoa joining in on the chaos. So good.

[Bebop Man]

I bought the Ezio Trilogy. Have I done well?

[empath]

You tell us.

[Bebop Man]

I feel I lucked out on this one. One of the good things of jumping in late into the PS3 is you get to rake all the cool bundles and GOTY editions dirt cheap.

[viscomica]

Congratulations Bebop!

[Kapol]

So for those who don't know, the Humble Indie Bundle has introduced a system where you no longer get Steam keys for your games. Instead, it links to your Steam account and automatically redeems them for you. They did this to make things a lot easier for people, but also to stop as many instances of people buying a bundle and reselling/gifting keys.

Of course, there's been a major outcry over this. I can understand people not being happy of course. But I honestly think this is a good move. According to Humble Bundle's ToS, all content is supposed to be for your use only. Which means that they're really just implementing a system that makes it so their ToS is actually followed.

I think it's a good thing overall. This will help developers feel better about including their games in bundles I think, since there's less risk of people buying a ton of copies of each individual game later. They can still buy the bundle as a whole of course. But that's a lot riskier without nearly as much reward.

Plus, I've never personally been a fan of gifting Humble Bundle keys. The idea of the Humble Bundle seems to be to provide games for a fairly low price to those who might not have played them otherwise. And at the same time, the devs, the people running it, and charities get some income from it. When you start tearing apart a bundle, you're lowering the chances of the people getting the extra keys considerably.

You could argue that this isn't a big deal since those people wouldn't buy the bundle. But I highly don't think that's an accurate argument. Most bundles max price is usually lower than the cost of any one game in it. So if someone is actually interested in the game, it's more cost-efficient to buy a bundle normally. Especially if it's part of the $1 minimum section. Or they could wait until a Steam sale, which is fair. But if they just wouldn't buy it at all... then the developer doesn't end up any worse off. Normally a game being in a bundle isn't enough to make people want it specifically. Nor do I think that this will make many decide not to buy the games out of spite.

It's also important to note that, at least to my understanding, the DRM-free copies don't contain any sort of restrictions. This is just the Steam keys. Meaning if you really want to do it anyways, you could always give your friend a DRM-free copy. This doesn't work for every game. But it does for the vast majority.

And those are some of the reasons I do think this is a fine move on their part.

[korvys]

I think I have a bunch of keys I never redeemed for old bundles. I never bought a bundle with the intention of sharing a key, though I have passed on keys to friends for games where I already had a copy and was going to buy the bundle regardless. To be honest, while I won't be able to do that, I think I prefer this, as I don't have to keep track with which keys I have and don't have.

I wonder if I'll still have to manually redeem the keys I haven't so far.

[Darkobra]

I could never give away those keys. I tried! I had some of the games before and so did everyone else.

"Already got it. Indie Bundle."

So this change? 100% for it. Stop people abusing the system.