Gaming fleeting thoughts

[New User]

But Left 4 Dead is rated M. My gripe about being rewarded for shooting 100 men in the head is because it's in a game that's rated T. I think rewarding a player for virtually slaughtering that many men should be considered a bit too violent for a T-rated game. I consider it acceptable if the game is rated M.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who think depictions of violence should be removed from video games. I don't think that violent video games make violent people, nor do they make violent children or teenagers except maybe in very rare cases, although I can imagine how systemic exposure to violence in entertainment might make a person inclined to turn to violence to solve problems. I just think that if we're going to have a rating system to help control a player's exposure to such violence, in the case of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the violence of the game is above what I consider appropriate for its rating, and especially so since that achievement is encouraging more virtual violence than would otherwise be necessary.

[Koa]

It's just an achievement though. I wouldn't say that an achievement by itself can/should affect the rating unless there's a language thing or there was something mature added to the game to facilitate the achievement. The 100 headshots achievement is one of the most commonly awarded achievements in the game, because it's a core gameplay mechanic that zombies take more damage in the head. If you have a problem with that achievement then I feel like you should have a problem with the game itself, because you're actively being rewarded for 'shooting men in the head' the whole time you play.

I see PEGI/ESRB as political systems to protect the industry from the wrath of disgruntled parents than anything else. It's always going to be inconsistent somewhere. Not all parents are the same, not all kids are the same or develop at the same rate, culture on this issue gradually changes, and the committee reviewing and rating games are going to be just as fallible as anyone else. While I'm sure there's a reason, I couldn't tell you why L4D got a T. I also couldn't tell you why the first three Call of Duty games got a T, why Earthbound was changed from E to T, or why Phoenix Wright got a M.

edit: Wait... what? Oh, Drakes Fortune. Well, most of the post still stands I think. That game forces you to headshot enemies just due to the fact that they're bulletsponges otherwise. I bet that all players will be awarded it before they finish the game.

[Sableagle]

I suspect that any game in which it's possible to get such an achievement does reward you for the action that leads to it. Taking Return To Castle Wolfenstein as one example, an enemy shot in the head with a silenced (in the game, really silenced, not just suppressed) sniper rifle is an enemy that's not sounding any alarms. Taking L4D2 as another example, headshots do quad damage*, which generally means a one-hit kill. That's less ammunition used in clearing a room or courtyard and more threats eliminated between reloads, both of which are advantageous. Gripe on that subject: with default guns and default everything else, on Normal difficulty, I can shove the muzzle of an AKM into a Jockey (special infected)'s ear, put a bullet through his head, hit a common infected in the ankle further down the street with the same shot and instantly kill that common infected (because the AK's damage rating is higher than a common infected's health and infected getting in the way at very short range don't reduce damage to the next thing down the line) without killing the Jockey (because Jockey health > 4 * AK damage > AK damage > common infected health). The Chargers are even worse. One short-range M16 shot into each eye and one into each ear won't even slow him down or make him stumble.

At least killing something with a headshot stops it. In Zombie Army Trilogy, shooting a zombie in the head at short range with a high-powered rifle, splattering its head and brain all over the room and leaving only a spurting stump of its neck, doesn't guarantee it won't get up, run at you, twirl round and swing its axe at your head before the blood loss from its severed carotid arteries incapacitates it.


* I don't know whether you can headshot a Tank, and Witches take normal damage from headshots and reduced damage from body hits.

[Echo244]

* I don't know whether you can headshot a Tank, and Witches take normal damage from headshots and reduced damage from body hits.

Yup, headshots do extra damage to Tanks. She says anecdotally from having noticed the difference in time-to-kill between shooting a Tank wherever, and making the effort to land a bunch of shots on its head. Sometimes, even enough time difference to save a bunch of health/medkits/whatever.

(Long time since I played it, mind)

[Sableagle]

Turns out the headshot damage multiplier isn't a cvar, so the obvious way to fix the gripe above (change it to 10x) and check whether headshots count on tanks change it to 100x for one campaign) just isn't available.

Weapon stats doesn't include stats from games with sv_cheats 1, so I couldn't compare percent headshots and see whether I must have scored some, but what stats I did get convince me that headshots do, indeed, work against tanks.

16.12% of a lot of shots fired were headshots. I was aiming for centre of mass on the swarms.

By the way, spawning six tanks at once causes ridiculous amounts of screen-shake.

[Koa]

There's a new Errant Signal video on Firewatch's ending. It changed my opinion on it from a "meh, why" to an "okay, I guess". I still can't see why anyone would find the ending spectacular, but at least I can see why they decided to go with it.


---

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about No Man's Sky. Not the game... The other stuff. On one hand you have rabid fandom, and on the other you have developers hyping up the game Peter Molyneux style. Molyneux would talk to journalists about a game he was dreaming up, which became impossible for anyone to develop in a meaningful time frame. His dreams were always incredibly contagious, instilling a sense of wonder in people. He's also a bit of a fuck up and a loon, which makes for a very unusual sort of person. Sean Murray seems like the low rent hipster version.

They threw a lot of fuel on a predictable sort of fire. It's not just the overhyping but also the underdelivering. I want to okay with all the public bashing, but it seems as soon as you do, there are always some crazy people who take it too far. The internet version of mob mentality.

I just watched TotalBiscuit's video on it. I wasn't expecting him to give the developers a free pass of "taking advantage of the hype", "very vague comments". He instead blamed the press. I think it's closer to the opposite. TB is very against false advertising in video games. I think he was one to say that the Watch Dogs E3 stuff was borderline criminal. Well. It's the lies and performance issues and the price tag and so on that are making this fire burn particularly hot and long. Though, I agree with him on how it started.

vid "Sean Murray basically refusing to confirm or deny multiplayer functionality." That's simply not true, or at least it's irrelevant and misleading. When he does bring up the idea that Hello Games may have misspoke, he's so extremely careful and lenient to suggest they have any blame. Though maybe he's afraid due to the responsibility of his platform. Ubisoft can take the blow, whereas Hello Games are at some risk of being lynched.

I imagine he took shots at the press because that's his job, making him extra sensitive to the actions of his colleagues. If some outlet overhypes a game, as a consumer, then I can ignore the outlet in the future. So, that's also strange, because TB says not to give these outlets attention and he puts the consumer first. He should know that there's always going to be outlets that will do this, if even inadvertently.

[Zohar]

I'll watch that Firewatch video later, it sounds interesting. I would have just preferred if the latter half of the game continued like the first half, not just the ending.

Re: No Man's Sky, I'm not up to date on its details. I want to get it, but when it's cheaper, maybe under $30 or so.

[Xanthir]

On the other hand, I didn't read much of anything about NMS beyond the initial hype, and what was delivered seems to match what was promised. So yeah, bad press, and a little shame on the dev for not being explicit enough that they were talking about theoretical ideas.

[rmsgrey]

I imagine he took shots at the press because that's his job, making him extra sensitive to the actions of his colleagues. If some outlet overhypes a game, as a consumer, then I can ignore the outlet in the future. So, that's also strange, because TB says not to give these outlets attention and he puts the consumer first. He should know that there's always going to be outlets that will do this, if even inadvertently.

Having watched the video myself a couple of days ago, but stayed mostly clear of NMS hype otherwise, what struck me was that TB was saying a very British "I told you so" - so the reason he came down hard on other game journalists, while not bashing the devs much, was that his primary thesis was that the devs actually told you what the game was going to be like if you paid careful attention to what they actually said and the reason that so many people are disappointed by the game is that they bought into the idea of a game which no-one actually promised (and no-one could ever deliver anyway)

In TB's narrative, yes, Hello Games did nothing to manage fans' more unrealistic expectations, and that's a sin of omission at the very least, but the problem started with, and was fueled by, irresponsible game journalists getting caught up in the hype rather than sticking to what they actually know.

[Koa]

There's an extensive list of features that are missing. I would guess that some of them are a bit of a stretch, but I found this bit interesting:

"The physics of every other game—it’s faked,” the chief architect Sean Murray explained. “When you’re on a planet, you’re surrounded by a skybox—a cube that someone has painted stars or clouds onto. If there is a day to night cycle, it happens because they are slowly transitioning between a series of different boxes."

"With us,” Murray continued, “when you're on a planet, you can see as far as the curvature of that planet. If you walked for years, you could walk all the way around it, arriving back exactly where you started. Our day to night cycle is happening because the planet is rotating on its axis as it spins around the sun. There is real physics to that. We have people that will fly down from a space station onto a planet and when they fly back up, the station isn't there anymore; the planet has rotated. People have filed that as a bug.”

Planets do not rotate on their axis, moons do not orbit their planets, and planets do not orbit a sun. There isn't even a sun, it's just decoration on the sky box. This may be the largest cut element, "solar systems" in the game are only static planets hanging in space.

I don't think I would recommend looking into any of this unless you're curious. It's still on the last half of the shitstorm phase. Who knows, maybe information will leak that there was a massive downgrade due to pressure from Sony or something.

[Xeio]

This War of Mine is pretty depressing.

So... I mean... I guess that's a success...

[Sableagle]

But Left 4 Dead is rated M. My gripe about being rewarded for shooting 100 men in the head is because it's in a game that's rated T.

This may be a ratings threshold slipping. I've seen an article or a video somewhere about film-makers and/or game-makers trying really hard to get 18 certificates to appeal to the audience who want things gory, sexual, drug-filled or whatever else without out-of-camera deaths and L-shaped sheets "spoiling" it for them.

An illustrative example: Splice got a 15 certificate.

In Zombie Army Trilogy, shooting a zombie in the head at short range with a high-powered rifle, splattering its head and brain all over the room and leaving only a spurting stump of its neck, doesn't guarantee it won't get up, run at you, twirl round and swing its axe at your head before the blood loss from its severed carotid arteries incapacitates it.

Seriously. "Yeah, I just shot your head off. Fall down. ... Fall down. ... Yeah, I knocked you down then shot your head off. Don't bother standing back up. It's VERY impolite. ... Fall down! I should not have to kick a headless corpse to make it fall over."

[Koa]

But Left 4 Dead is rated M. My gripe about being rewarded for shooting 100 men in the head is because it's in a game that's rated T.

This may be a ratings threshold slipping. I've seen an article or a video somewhere about film-makers and/or game-makers trying really hard to get 18 certificates to appeal to the audience who want things gory, sexual, drug-filled or whatever else without out-of-camera deaths and L-shaped sheets "spoiling" it for them.

Exploitation films don't really translate to games, except maybe sometimes with porn games. Live action has the advantage of being immediately relatable, whereas immersion in games is always fleeting. Hatred would have been much more successful if it did translate. Once the shocking animations start repeating the novelty fizzles away into nothing. They had to keep reinventing the wheel to keep it going. They had to have some sort of evolving context for the action. Film solves these problems naturally and cheaply. Since the audience for this sort of entertainment is small, it doesn't make sense to try to make it work in games given all the difficulties. Gamers also aren't looking at ratings to determine if it might provide that sort of experience like they would in film.

[EdgarJPublius]

No Man's Sky always seemed like the sort of game I would get really hyped up about, but for some reason I just never did.

I never really followed NMS that closely, but I didn't really have the sense that it was being over-promised. More that is was just kind of bland. Some interesting technology maybe, but wrapped up in uninteresting gameplay. People were getting hyped about quintillions of procedurally generated worlds to explore, and I was just thinking 'who cares? What's even the point of that anyway? I'd rather have a handful of well crafted worlds with good gameplay.'

Also, I'd been a Star Citizen backer for years at that point, and SC seemed like it would sate many of the same desires as NMS, only I trusted the people behind Star Citizen a lot more than I trusted Hello Games, as Chris Roberts had a proven track record and Cloud Imperium Games were (and still are) incredibly open with the development.

EDIT:

Exploitation films don't really translate to games, except maybe sometimes with porn games. Live action has the advantage of being immediately relatable, whereas immersion in games is always fleeting.

Eh, I'm not sure that's true. Video games are a much younger medium than Film, there are some good exploitation style games, and many more that use elements of exploitation style well, but you don't have more than a century of history to mine for the best examples like you do with film. Consider that the vast majority of exploitation films are probably about as good or worse than Hatred, and it's really only a small percentage that are memorable or novel.

[Koa]

Good/bad/worse/better are all kind of meaningless words in the realm of exploitation. The thing about Hatred is that the shock factor wears off in mere minutes and it ceases to be compelling at the only thing that it is doing differently from other games — being shockingly violent. Games have additional challenges in making it work, at the very least from a production standpoint.

[Zohar]

There's a new Errant Signal video on Firewatch's ending. It changed my opinion on it from a "meh, why" to an "okay, I guess". I still can't see why anyone would find the ending spectacular, but at least I can see why they decided to go with it.

OK, watched this yesterday. First, that video is FILLED with spoilers, in case any of you plan to watch it and haven't played the game.

Basically, I disagree with the analysis. Or, at least, it doesn't apply to me. The narrator basically says "People don't like Firewatch because it sets up a lot of intense plot lines and then doesn't end them satisfactorily, but that's cool because all of it is a metaphor to being middle aged¹". OK, that might apply to some people? I was disappointed that the game chose to go in an intense/suspenseful direction in the first place. Life isn't a horror movie, and I think a metaphor for having to deal with what you're dealt would have made more sense if the game continued as it started.

¹I disagree with his constant use of "middle aged" too - the protagonist seemed, to me, more around mid-30s, and even if he was in his early 40s, that doesn't necessarily count as middle aged. Whatever, that's just me nitpicking.

[Koa]

I was disappointed that the game chose to go in an intense/suspenseful direction in the first place.

I don't think anyone can disagree with you there.

[Zohar]

That's why I was surprised by his critic, to me it sounded like "The creators of the game made a bad story decision, but they dealt with its resolution in a not bad way!". The game really reminds me of a reverse Gone Home in many respects - the atmospheric progression, the environment it plays in, etc.

[Koa]

Spaceships. Hundreds and thousands of spaceships. Or at least, that's what they were. Now they're just space debris. Dundundun!

Also, hopefully Valley is good.

[Sableagle]

*watches video*

*considers*

*watches related video*

2:45 hears "turn-based strategy"

Ah, so that's what kind of game it is!

[Koa]

You think that's bad? Listen to Kat Cressida completely bullshit about the game.

dat bold tho

[New User]

I never owned an XBox of any generation, but I have played with them a bit if at a friend's house. I just bought a XBone controller for use with my PC, and I must say it's superior to the XBox 360 controller. The D-Pad especially doesn't have that annoying circular shape. Instead it has a proper cross shape, so I can easily feel the corners with my thumb and also have less of a chance of rocking the D-Pad accidentally in the wrong direction.

[Zohar]

I'm wondering how people feel about the Steam controller. I keep hearing differing opinions. I have an X360 controller for my PC, but it's growing a bit old and it wouldn't hurt to replace it.

[New User]

I haven't looked into it, but I'm turned off by the fact that it's called Steam controller. Is it only compatible with Steam or Steam games? I buy some games through Steam, but not all games. I feel more confident using a Microsoft XBox controller, since it's presumably made to be very compatible with Windows in general (although I recall having some compatibility issues several years ago, they seem to have worked that out).

[You, sir, name?]

You can use it with any game, although you have to launch the game through steam to be able to configure it, which is pretty important since the controller caters to so many different types of games.

For example of a wonky but usable case, I've used the Steam Controller to play Fallout 1, which I got through GOG back in the day. Was a complete no-brainer to get it to work.

The steam controller, when it works well, blows traditional hand controllers out of the water. It takes some getting used to, but you get an insane amount of accuracy for a hand controller. It's also a pretty damn robust piece of hardware, especially in comparison to the X360 controller. Everything about it feels very tight and well engineered.

Configuration is a big part of the SC. You have an absurd amount of say in how it handles, which I would say is a major selling point.There are occasionally games where it works less well, but you can usually twerk the configuration to make it at least a bearable experience (even if a traditional twin-stick controller would have been easier). On the flip side, you can often use it with games that don't even have controller support. I think that's a reasonable trade.

But that being said, you might want to save that old 360 controller for that one game that simply refuses to play ball with the SC.

TL;DR: Overall very good and high quality, but requires a bit work to master, and occasionally takes some fiddling with the configuration to be enjoyable.

[Izawwlgood]

I loved Dragon Warrior Monster, and just saw Siralim 2. Anyone play and have any opinions on the game?

[HES]

I use the Steam Controller with several Origin games, and even firefox sometimes. I like it, it's a good shape and the haptic feedback is nice. Only downside is the time it takes to get properly set up to your liking for each game, but the biggest advantage is that you can get it properly set up to your liking for each game.

[pseudoidiot]

I haven't tried doing any configuration with mine yet. Thought I've only used it on a few games. And they worked just fine without any intervention on my part. But I do really like it. The lack of a second thumbstick on the right side of the controller took me some getting used to, but once I adjusted I'm definitely a fan of how it feels. Definitely felt like I have much finer control than with a thumbstick. At least in the cases of looking around/moving a cursor around.

[Flumble]

I love the steam controller for a very particular reason: all the R&D put into it has lead to a great pair of Vive controllers.

even firefox sometimes.

I've come across just one (big) problem (with the vive, perhaps it's not an issue with the steam controller) in firefox: using backspace. For some reason it refuses to accept the backspace key in the omnibar. Why is firefox so picky with virtual input?

[You, sir, name?]

I haven't tried doing any configuration with mine yet. Thought I've only used it on a few games. And they worked just fine without any intervention on my part. But I do really like it. The lack of a second thumbstick on the right side of the controller took me some getting used to, but once I adjusted I'm definitely a fan of how it feels. Definitely felt like I have much finer control than with a thumbstick. At least in the cases of looking around/moving a cursor around.

You really should look into the configuration options. You can do very cool things with it. For example, I had a New Vegas control scheme that allowed you to use the SC's gyro for aim adjustment in ironsight mode. Worked surprisingly well.

[Xeio]

I feel like I want a new sim game of some sort... maybe I should just install Startopia again, but I feel like I can only play that campaign so many times... even if it is amazing.

[kiniget]

I finally managed to find a group and start playing Shadowrun

this game is stupid amounts of fun, even beyond just the ludicrous premise. You never can quite tell what you'll run into next, like, the group one table over from me got to fight a guy who thought he was the Krampus, while I got to go rescue a teenage drone after she got herself deactivated

that was fun

and confusing

[New User]

Why do I keep seeing the term Season Pass when it comes to games? What does that mean? Why are some games labeled as Season 1 or Season 2 or something? An example of this is Pinball FX2 as sold on Steam, the Sam & Max Telltale games, etc. In the case of the Telltale games, I'm guessing it's because they release the games in kind of an episodic way (each adventure of Sam & Max or Back to the Future is a small standalone game, but if you play each adventure in order you'll see a larger story or "season" consisting of those shorter games). But I've still seen some games sold with the phrase "season pass" when it doesn't seem to be an episodic game like these Telltale adventures.

[poxic]

Marketing executives who can't be told "no"?

[Flumble]

The way I've seen it be used, is that a Season Pass is a luxurious and positive name for "you'll get the whole game instead of buying essentially a demo and buying all the DLC separately".
Well, the first part is a different matter, but anyway, I've only seen it as the name for "get free* access to all** future*** extension packs" recently. It bears some resemblance to an actual season ticket/pass, especially if you consider the onlineness of many of these games and the fact that after a couple of years the company will shut down the servers.
Perhaps "deluxe edition" et al. are considered old-fashioned and should only apply to actual complete games with existing extension packs.

No, I'm not happy with the games industry at large and their twisted ideas of squeezing profit.

[Sableagle]

ere's an Outside XBox video to go with that.

[rmsgrey]

A season pass includes future content; a deluxe edition includes past content.

[New User]

Thanks, I wouldn't have guessed that. Now I just wish they'd change the name to Deluxe Edition (or Complete Edition maybe) at the point that the extra content is finished being created and released. It looks to me like they are still selling some games with the name Season Pass long after development has stopped.

[Tyndmyr]

Last Station is pretty good. Available on Steam. Can marathon through it all in a modest day of play, easy, but the atmosphere is solid, and it's a decent level of challenge. Side scroller with pixel graphics, nice dose of suspense/horror.

[Koa]

Following up on Valley, I'm not sure I can recommend it. I like the movement mechanics that it was going for but it's never quite interesting enough to carry the game. There are contextual movement mechanics, but they're never used in interesting ways... Apart from their setpieces, which are definitely the highlights of the game.

Level design isn't so great. I saw people talking about finishing the game in six hours. I finished it in a little over two. That gave me the impression that I missed a lot of things, so I went back and tried to be more curious about all the corners of each level. There was an unfortunate repeating pattern of "Hm, it looks like I can get there. That might be a secret, right? Oh, I'm now falling through the world geometry. I was mistaken."

There are upgrades that increase your energy reserve, and other upgrades that make your abilities cost no energy. There are enemies in the game, but you can completely ignore them (except for the boss fight, which is good but short). These things combine to make the whole upgrade system pointless.

The game's second listed feature is about manipulating life and death like there might be something to that, but there isn't. You need living things around you as a buffer, because when you die your suit kills the local wildlife in order to take you back in time to before your death. That's about all there is to that.

So, the game has some good bits but mostly it's kind of uninspiring to jaded me. The lack of polish is forgivable but there's also a lack of creativity. There's a story and it's okay. The elements of the story sound much better on paper than how they're actually executed though. I'd like to give the story a thumbs up but they really butchered that scientist character.



I'm playing Raven Shield for the first time. Having a blast with it.