Video Games Thread

[jman]

Have you ever played populous, it's nothing like any of the civ games 

Beyond Earth looks great, but looks so different, I might even have to go through the tutorial for it 

[harv]

It's based on the same idea. Without Populous you wouldn't have games like Civ. A 'god' creating people and elements needed to survive - farming, food, weapons, smiths, armies, mines etc etc. Throw in an enemy (a rival tribe, nation or in this case aliens) and you've got very similar sort of games.

[Late]

You could argue it's beginnings are in Populus (as a god game), in Sim City (as a human management and growth simulation) or in Dune/C&C (as a resource and strategy game) but the reality is it's got roots in them all - as well as others.
Populus will definitely be an influence in some way, but it's a long way removed.

[jman]

Hate to tell you this harv.. but the first Civilization was based on the board game Civilization which was released in 1980 - a whole 9 years before Populous was released.    (It also took bits and bobs from Risk too).  But there were people working on the first civ game far before Populous was released... it was only until Sid Meier took over that it was released (it just so happened that at that point, Populous had already been released).

Anyway, you don't even play as god in the game.. and its not real time like everything else mentioned is - Civ's genre is actually classified as 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) - I only heard this term a month or so ago.. but its been around for ages.. Civ is pretty much the defining title of that genre.

[Late]

Well, that puts that to bed, then. =))

[harv]

Okay, fair enough. Still can't understand the appeal though lol

[ancelotti]

Have never played a Civilisation game (got one sitting on my 360 HDD but have never even booted it up - Civilisation Revolution?) but I'm intrigued by Beyond Earth. I used to play RTS games a lot like Age of Empires and C&C but this seems different, I might give it a go.

[jman]

Played Guacamelee for a few hours this weekend.. pretty indifferent about it.. neither love it nor hate it.. did take me a while to get into the game though..

Also received Kinect Sports Rivals.. created my "champion" using just Kinect... looks nothing like me 

[ancelotti]

Have played a little bit of Guacamelee too. It's fun to play and I really like the art style and music, and I'm getting a bit of a Mario vibe from it with all the princess-kidnapping. Will probably finish try to finish it at some point.

Looking forward to the finale episode of The Wolf Among Us out this week. It's an episodic point and click story game like The Walking Dead, but it's even better. Highly recommended.

[jman]

I finished Guacamelee the other night.. it doesn't last very long.. I guess I can go back, do some of the side-quests and 100% a few areas.. got the inferno challenges - although some of those are right bastards... I might do that.. probably wont bother replaying it on hard for the full 100% achievements though.. we'll see... I'm not liking Kinect Sports Rivals that much lol.. they've fucked the football right up..    Should of bought Watch Dogs

[Late]

Have quite enjoyed the little bit of Guacamelee I've played, but I'm not very far through it yet - have only been to 2 towns/areas so far.
Reminds me a little of the old Metroid games, with all the locked off stuff that you can see from the start and know you'll need to come back to later when you're unlocked a new ability.

I'm keen to play The Wolf Among Us, but will probably wait a while and get it on the One. (TWAU and TWD are both due on the One later this year.) Unless it's a stupid price in which case I'll probably just get it on the pc or wait for an xbox marketplace sale.

[Late]

Some very good sale prices on the xbox 360 at the moment.

dealspwn

[jman]

Reminds me a little of the old Metroid games, with all the locked off stuff that you can see from the start and know you'll need to come back to later when you're unlocked a new ability.

Thankfully there is very little backtracking that needs to be done in the main story (unlike Metroid games) - which means respawning enemies aren't much of an issue - without that filler, the game doesn't last very long though.

I unlocked everything last night.. so just going through each area and trying to 100% them and also do some Inferno challenges when I get bored of that.. like I said, I don't hate it.. but equally don't love it.. it definitely helps to pass the time though.

[Late]

[harv]

That stare still gives me nightmares lol