Video Games Thread

[jman]

So far got 100% on Blast Corps, Jetpac and Battletoads out of the replay collection - all great games too.

Started playing Perfect Dark.. never played in back in the N64 era.. but it is pretty much Goldeneye with a bird.  Its alright... I would of probably loved it back in the day, but like Goldeneye, doesn't really hold itself with the test of time - the AI is hilarious in places.

So also started playing Jetpac Refuelled.. which is quite a cool XBLA upgrade on the original which I didn't realise I loved so much until getting into it again recently.  Refuelled has 128 levels (but with level selection).. so will take me a little way to complete.  Also started with Lunar Jetpac, although I don't like this half as much as the original.

Enjoying the snapshots as well.. little challenges you have to do - there are 5 per game (retro games only) and you cant use rewind - so some are a little challenging.

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I'm buying NHL 16 in September.. this will be the 3rd annualised NHL game in a row.. which is unusual for me.. but NHL 15 was pants as they took a few steps forward and then 15 steps back.. but NHL 16 seems to be righting all the wrongs of NHL 15 and then some.. so I expect it to get much higher review scores and for it to last a bit longer than NHL 15 did.

[harv]

Just had a quick go on Skyrim and my PC can quite happily handle High settings which has surprised me tbh. Mind you, it did cost me around a grand in 2008, but that included a 24" monitor that was around 150 I think. I also made sure that I got one of the best.GPUs at the time when 2GB of RAM for a video card was top of the range, it still outperforms plenty of 5000 and 6000 GPUs that were released after it. Also made sure to get the fastest DDR2 that was out at the time.

Am going to try playing it without using magic, magic is for wimps lol

Will probably end up as Dragon food lmfao

Not sure what order I'm going to play these games in now though, think I might do them in order - Morrowind, Oblivion and then Skyrim...with the first two heavily modded. The same people that did Morroblivion are working on similar mods for Skyrim which will basically allow you to play Morrowind and Oblivion inside Skyrim using its engine. Not too sure how it's going to handle Oblivion though because from what I've seen there are a lot more open areas whereas just about everything I've seen of Skyrim is 'corridor'-like. Loads of trees, mountains etc that hide a shitload of polys with Occlusion.

[jman]

Started watching those Rare Revealed videos last night.. on Rare Replay... goes into telling you how each specific game was built, the ideas they used and how it came to being, interviews with the staff.  Great stuff... recommend watching them on youtube if you don't have the game... I'm actually looking forward to playing (for the first time) Conker, Kameo and Viva Pinata now... I am however struggling to finish Jetpac Refuelled.. up to about level 95 at the moment, so not far to go.. but progress is slowing quite a bit 

[Late]

Back in the day, I tried Fallout 3 on my xbox 360. Didn't get into it at all. I designed my character, left the vault, found the first town (Megatown, or something like that) and then gave up. Didn't take to it. Around that time I also tried Oblivion - and had pretty much the same experience. Designed my character, did teh training stuff, then walked away when I got to the open world.
A few years later I got Skyrim even though I knew it wouldn't be my cup of tea (it was cheap, and I loves me a bargain) - and I loved it.
I've always wondered whether that meant Bethesda had just made a much more interesting game than their earlier ones that I'd not liked, or if perhaps it was me that had changed. So on Saturday I fired up Fallout 3 on the pc (bought it about a year ago for about a quid. Even though I knew I didn't like it. But like I say, I like a bargain!). Come Sunday evening I noticed I've racked up over 20 hours. Loving it. So it seems it's definitely me that's changed!

[harv]

Yup, the Fallout franchise is great but the first two were ruined (imo) by not only turn-based combat but also turn-based fucking movement

Having Fallout 3 in 3D-O-Vision and in realtime for the first time for the franchise was awesome.

It still pisses me off today that that wanker Ian Livingstone and the other 3 cunts that worked in his Acquisitions Department were all getting 7 figure salaries and made some atrocious decisions that contributed to Eidos going tits up and my entire department getting made redundant. They basically turned down Fallout 3 and Bioshock but thought that Escape From Bug Island was a great idea lmfao

I often daydream that I'm killing the fuckers. Very. Fucking. Slowly.

[jman]

I was sorta like that with Morrowind late.  I was so hyped to play it when it released on the xbox - but I acutally found it a massive disappointment and didn't get very far at all (I've never played it again since then).

So I completely ignored Oblivion when it released.. and after it had released I started reading reviews.. and everything I hated about Morrowind (mainly the fact that it was all text-based).. was changed, and I think the fact Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean were providing voices for Oblivion pushed me over the edge into buying it.  So glad I did as I loved it.. just the open-worldyness (if that's a word) was great and you could go round on a horse too!  Fallout 3 came out a few years later.. and it was great.. I got addicted to that for a long time.. that was bought based on the fact I loved Oblvion though because I've never played Fallout 1 or 2...New Vegas was good too... but Skyrim is the best of the lot by a long shot IMO - I did over 100 hours in 2 weeks on that game before easing up on it a little bit lol.  Think I stopped around the 150 hour mark.. that's good going for any game in my book.

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Started Conkers Bad Fur Day last night.. just played an hour.. the controls are nowhere near as fluid as Banjo and the plot is crazy as shit, I can see why so many people think of it as a classic though... Birdy is a great character and Gregg the Grim Reaper was hilarious lol.

[Late]

Been playing a bit of "Ark: Survival Evolved" tonight. I seem to recall it's coming to the xbox early access program
soon. Anyways, it's free to play this weekend on Steam so I've been giving it a look.



Seems good fun. Doesn't give you any clues what you're supposed to be doing, mind.
I was unlucky enough to spawn in the middle of the night, hadn't a clue what to do, and couldn't see fuck all. When
it got lighter I wandered a while until I found a dinosaur and punched it for a while, then died. Unsurprisingly.



Next respawn I punched a boulder until it exploded. Little bit of a disparity, there.
Getting to grips with it now. In a minecraft stylee hit things with your fists until you get a few resources, learn to craft
weapons and tools, use tools to gather resources more quickly, and before you know it you've built a lovely little shack
on the beach, with a respawn point in it and crates to store resources/clothes/weapons/food, etc.
Didn't get myself into a strong enough position to take on any dinosaur as big as myself in the time I played it, didn't
get anything more advanced than axe, pickaxe, and spear, and didn't tame any dinosaurs, but I was getting stronger
all the time and was thoroughly enjoying myself.

It's online multiplayer, and I get the impression it probably goes much more smoothly if you have a bunch of friends
playing (no, I'm not suggesting a 00's style SL invasion ) but most folk seemed to be playing as individuals, and I
only bumped into one or two other players, as the map was pretty massive. (I think there's room for 70 people on
each server/map.)



I'm not sure if there's some sort of ending to it. Shortly before I turned it off I noticed the moon was decimated and meteors
were shooting toward us. Not sure if that was there all along and it's just scenery (I wasn't looking up, much) or if
it's part of a timer mechanism.

[harv]

Sounds like a Monster Hunter clone with real monsters, that's pretty cool.

You can easily spend a few hundred hours on Monster Hunter games, one of my favourite franchises.

[jman]

Started Viva Piñata today, it's fantastically addictive!

[jman]

Played Viva Pinata for over 10 hours now... the only thing I don't particularly like about it, is that its open-ended - i.e. there is no end goal.. also its a bit annoying that your garden can get "too full" when there's too much stuff in it.. I tried laying pavement around the garden but had to take it away as it actually takes up space in your garden like a building does.  Pavement should be like grass and soil in that its free to lay and doesn't take up actual space, but its not... its bloody expensive too so I wasted a lot of time and money on that experiment.

So I'm on 540GS for the game.. I'm gonna go for the 750GS required by Rare Replay to unlock all the stamps for the game and then call it a day I think.. probably take about 3-4 more hours I reckon looking at the list.  If I had bought this for the 360 when it came out, I would probably of wasted a lot of time going for the full 1000GS, by collecting all the species and playing for 50+ hours as it is very addictive... but with its sequel on Rare Replay, I don't think there's much point doing that.

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Am trying to squeeze as much playing time as I can out of Rare Replay... I've got NHL 16 coming in a few weeks which will definitely distract me for a while.... then Halo 5 at the end of October and Fallout 4 in November should sort me well out until Christmas.  Star Wars Battlefront is out towards the end of November as well I think... and not to mention the backlog of free XBL games I've got mounting up...    Too many games, too little time

[Late]

Yeah, my backlog's getting silly, too. Have barely played on the console in the last six months or so, so there's a lot of GWG queued up, plus a handful of other games I've bought but not yet played - both physical and digital.

Still busy enjoying my steam catalogue on the pc. "Finished" Fallout 3 on Monday. I put that in quote marks, as I've finished the main story but didn't actually do much else - and there's LOADS of other stuff to do.
I would enjoy playing it more, but there's so much else to play so I've moved on. Will play New Vegas some time soon, and I'm definitely looking forward to Fallout 4 later this year, now.

Bought Mad Max (pc) a couple of days ago. It's not getting the rave reviews I'd been hoping for, but it's getting okay ones and it looks fun. I wouldn't fancy paying £30-£40 for it, but I didn't mind paying £12 for it on Steam, with the early DLC thrown in.

[jman]

So Viva Pinata is done,..that's #14 out of 30 completed now.  Just need one more Jetpac Refuelled achievement to make it 15.. although that game is properly doing my nut in now 

Cobra Triangle is next on my list though.. good little game but hard as rocks if you don't know what you are doing.  Shouldn't take more than an hour or two to finish the game (with rewind of course). 

I would love to get 100% on Rare Replay.. but you need at least 75% of the achievements in each of the 360 games to be able to do this... and I just cant see myself bothering that much with Perfect Dark Zero - its a stinker of a game.  Would have to 100% Killer Instinct and Conker (which include 30 games of multiplayer) too which sound like a bit of a chore... and I haven't even started Jet Force Gemini, Grabbed By The Ghoulies or Viva Pinata 2 yet - a long term project perhaps.  I saw someone completed it within 10 days of release... crazy 

[jman]

Finshed Snake Rattle 'n Roll and Knightlore last night to give me 20 out of the 30 games completed in Rare Replay now.  I actually had Knightlore and didn't like it at all when I was a kid.. I actually found it enjoyable when I realised what the point of the game was as an adult.. although turning into a werewolf constantly is still fucking annoying.

I've left some of the worst games till last.. as I said previously PDZ is the worst of the lot and will take ages to get 750GS in.  Killer Instinct will be a complete and utter ball-bag without a second controller (although I should be getting another controller before Christmas).  Jet Force Gemini is going to take between 20-30hours alone to complete too, I've heard its quite tough too.

Started work on Solar Jetman last night.. I'll probably move on to Digger T. afterwards.. that will complete all the pre-N64 games.  Then I'll start on Viva Pinata 2 as I liked the first one and I want to at least get that one finished before NHL 16 next week.

Realised the other day that I never completed Assassins Creed Black Flag before I went away on holiday lol.. so got to go back to that at some point... I was getting quite close to the end aswell.

[harv]

Oi!!! What are you two doing posting on my personal blog..?!!?!?

Am going to start working on my huge PS3 backlog soon. Have decided not to renew my PlayStation Plus subscription because this generation I'm going for a Wii U and VR PC combo rather than getting a PS4. So that leaves me 4 months or so to finish off my 'free' games. Should be plenty of time I think.

Assuming that the NX console releases in November/December next year I'm also going to resist the temptation to get it at launch because I'll be Stepping Into The Rift around that sort of time.

May have to get an IV line, a catheter and a colostomy bag sorted out because I'm going to be so busy playing Elite Dangerous that I won't be taking a break to eat and go to the loo

Saw a review of the VR Elite on YouTube and the dozy n00b says you need to research online so that you know what you're doing. Bloomin idiot. It's not bloomin rocket surgery:

1) Have a look at the local prices, if you're in an agricultural space station take note of the price of agricultural stuff. If you're in a technological space station take a note of the price of the tech stuff. Buy it.

2) Go to the solar system map and find the opposite marketplace, tech for agricultural stuff, agricultural for tech stuff.

3) Launch into space and learn how to control your ship.

4) Warp to the space station that you want to sell your stuff to. Sell it.

5) Repeat steps 1-4 until you have enough cash for a Fuel Scoop.

6) Kill innocent (and not so innocent) spacefarers and nick their stuff that's floating around in space

7) Sell the stuff

Upgrade your weapons and defences

9) Repeat 6-8 until you're Elite and hope to whatever you hold holy that you don't end up in Witch Space lol

It doesn't sound like an interesting game when you list the instructions like that lol, but for some reason it's fucking insanely addictive lol. Over the years I must have put close to a thousand hours into the game altogether, and that's just the first Elite with wireframe graphics, I didn't like the look of Elite with filled vectors for some reason. Don't know why. Always thought the wireframe graphics suited the game more.

Might get my Mum to make a small donation for my new Beast for my birthday and maybe an early Christmas pressie

[harv]

A nice feature that's appeared with Windows 10 is that it automatically turns your 360 controller off. Very handy. Previous versions of Windows you had to pull out the battery thingummybob lol

One thing that they STILL haven't sorted out is Windows being tied to your hardware. So if you upgrade or build a new machine you can't just switch the fucking hard drive from your old PC to the new one. You have to install Windows again. Bloomin ridiculous.