The Video Game Thread - anything and everything...

[JediMichael]

Being the video game thread...find these old pics.
This is my younger brother (by 3 and a half years) getting a NES Christmas 1990.
Got me hooked on video games.

And me taking a break from Duck Hunt to annoy the cat.

My parents thought it would be a good idea to get him the NES, and me the TV so we would have to share....anyone with a sibling knows how that ended up....

 

[Paul Andrew]

Ya'll need to play Cyber Shadow if you've got any affinity for old school NES Ninja Gaiden. It's on everything.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

So in my wait for the Mass Effect remaster I started playing Andromeda for the first time.

It’s pretty meh, I get all the complaints, but good enough to pass the time.

I waited a long time because of people saying it was awful, but I didn't think it was that bad. I thought it was fun and the companions were pretty good. Of course I think I only paid around $5 for it, so I got my money's worth. If you heard the limitations placed on the team that made it, they did a pretty good job. They said recently they were told to make the next beginning game to a new ME trilogy, but were only given a budget for two new alien species and then they couldn't even use all the aliens from the original games. The concept artists said they were directed to design aliens that fans would cosplay as... So yeah that's why you don't want executives putting their two cents into game design.

 

[JediMichael]

Ya'll need to play Cyber Shadow if you've got any affinity for old school NES Ninja Gaiden. It's on everything.

That looks pretty cool. I was never that great at Ninja Gaiden...only played the first NES one. I always hated how if an enemy tapped you, you bounced so far back, and if you killed them but also got bounced back and the screen scrolled back just a little, move forward and the enemy is back. Made some of those areas extremely frustrating to get through.

 

[Paul Andrew]

That looks pretty cool. I was never that great at Ninja Gaiden...only played the first NES one. I always hated how if an enemy tapped you, you bounced so far back, and if you killed them but also got bounced back and the screen scrolled back just a little, move forward and the enemy is back. Made some of those areas extremely frustrating to get through.

I'm about 4 levels in right now, and it's tough but fair. Playing via gamepass on xbox. Has kickass music and feels great

 

[JediMichael]

I'm about 4 levels in right now, and it's tough but fair. Playing via gamepass on xbox. Has kickass music and feels great

I do love me some good video game music. Just listened to the Ninja Gaiden soundtrack, and other NES games, just last week.

 

[Aliaz]

I waited a long time because of people saying it was awful, but I didn't think it was that bad. I thought it was fun and the companions were pretty good. Of course I think I only paid around $5 for it, so I got my money's worth. If you heard the limitations placed on the team that made it, they did a pretty good job. They said recently they were told to make the next beginning game to a new ME trilogy, but were only given a budget for two new alien species and then they couldn't even use all the aliens from the original games. The concept artists said they were directed to design aliens that fans would cosplay as... So yeah that's why you don't want executives putting their two cents into game design.

Yeah they got screwed badly. Most annoying things for me is the animations (and I heard they even got patched to be better), no changing your loadout except at stations, and who in hell Made the decision to animale the travel between planets? The fact that there is a skip button tells me they knew it was annoying.

Sofar I like the story, the companions are pretty interesting and cool, and the combat is okay but not great.

 

[Nth]

Deep Rock Galactic update 33 for February is out. Two new biomes added and new 'Bug Carapace' DLC armor set out.

 

[Nth]

Ya'll need to play Cyber Shadow if you've got any affinity for old school NES Ninja Gaiden. It's on everything.

Also recommend The Messenger, another retro tribute to the 8 bit Ninja Gaiden games of old.

 

[JediMichael]

Also found my brother and I playing Chip N' Dale. That was a pretty fun game.
I believe this was a year or so later, as he got that, along with Mario 3, (see it on the ground,) a bit later on.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I love games where you character is inducted into some elite group and they don't give you any equipment or weapons. For example, I just started playing Dragon Age Origins, which I have never played, and you're made a members of the Grey Wardens, a supposedly elite group of warriors. Well apparently they don't have an armory because some armor and a better weapon would help! The same thing happens in Mass Effect (maybe just Bioware...?) when Shepard is made a Spectre. "Congratulations, you've just become the first human Spectre. So just scavenge any weapons or armor you find and when you become a millionaire we will sell you some Spectre armor and weapons!" At least in Fallout when you join the Brotherhood of Steel they give you power armor!

 

[Riceball]

I love games where you character is inducted into some elite group and they don't give you any equipment or weapons. For example, I just started playing Dragon Age Origins, which I have never played, and you're made a members of the Grey Wardens, a supposedly elite group of warriors. Well apparently they don't have an armory because some armor and a better weapon would help! The same thing happens in Mass Effect (maybe just Bioware...?) when Shepard is made a Spectre. "Congratulations, you've just become the first human Spectre. So just scavenge any weapons or armor you find and when you become a millionaire we will sell you some Spectre armor and weapons!" At least in Fallout when you join the Brotherhood of Steel they give you power armor!

Historically speaking, most wars were a come as you are affair and you were largely responsible for your own weapons and armor. So Dragon Age isn't all that unrealistic in that there's no armory. However, if you're admitted to an elite force, you're likely to be of higher social status and would have the money to afford at least some weapons and armor and likely of decent quality.

But with Mass Effect, there's no excuse for that. I don't know of any modern military or even para-military organization, esp. and elite one, that is a come as you are affair. They may allow you to use whatever you want but it is pretty unrealistic for them to not at least subsidize part of the cost of whatever gear you want.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I haven't played ME1 in a year, but I think when you go to the C-SEC requisitions guy on the Citadel there's even an option to say something like "I have to pay?!?!" Of course they make it seem like a lot of Spectres are d*cks who are just barely on the good side of the law, so a lot of them probably "differently acquire" their gear.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

...I hate this. So the remaster that everyone and their mother has wanted of FFVII for the last 20 years is actually being made---but it's broken up into "episodes" and sold in a collection with the appended guff that no one really cares about. It seems apparent now that we will never get a real remaster of this game without being completely nickel and dimed. It is just too much to ask for the old game with updated visuals and sound with modern conveniences (like game-speed toggling) to improve the flow of gameplay. It is just too much to ask for.

 

[VilleLeskinen]

I just finished playing Conarium. Definitely recommend it for fans of Lovecraft! The game in itself wasn't that surprising, but the atmosphere and the design was spot on for me!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I tried playing it, but gave up in the first research base. It just seems like you are just walking around, and not much to do.

 

[Nth]

PLEASE BE GOOD, PLEASE BE GOOD, PLEASE BE GOOD!!!!

Aliens: Fireteam Is a Co-op PvE Shooter Coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox - IGN

Aliens: Fireteam is a new third-person survival co-op shooter, aiming to hug your face this Summer.

www.ign.com

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

It's inexcusable in a modern game to have puzzles that you can only completely if you read an online guide! I can't stand that! I hated playing adventure games in the 80s like King's Quest where you couldn't figure out a puzzle unless you had a guide. There's no reason to keep doing that crap in this day an age. You should always be able to find enough info to figure it out.

 

[VilleLeskinen]

I tried playing it, but gave up in the first research base. It just seems like you are just walking around, and not much to do.

Well that's true! But it makes up for it with the atmosphere later on in the game, IMHO.

 

[cboath]

It's inexcusable in a modern game to have puzzles that you can only completely if you read an online guide! I can't stand that! I hated playing adventure games in the 80s like King's Quest where you couldn't figure out a puzzle unless you had a guide. There's no reason to keep doing that crap in this day an age. You should always be able to find enough info to figure it out.

Skill jumping is another one. If you resort to that as a designer, you shouldn't be designing.

But there are some seriously stupid, bs puzzle solutions out there.

One of the best/worst depending on your view was a game called the 7th guest. There was a puzzle near the end that in the RTM versiom was virtually unsolvable because the AI/RNG would always win. They had to patch it for people to pass it.