What are you playing?

Portal 2. I've owned it for, what, 2 years now, and still haven't gotten around to playing it - mostly because everyone and their dog said "all the fun" was in co-op play which I'm not interested in. Still not, by the way, but I'm having fun with the SP campaign, though I have the feeling it might be shorter than I'd wish. Than again, Portal was a short game too.
It's significantly longer than Portal 1, that's for sure.
 
Evolve: Okay, now that I've had over 8 hours on the game, my to-the-point thoughts.

- The initial DLC: it's a non-issue. There's a lot of it, and it's stupid stuff, like weapon skins, hunter skins, sets of monster skins, all over-priced. You should not buy any of these unless you just adore one of the appearances, but the only people who should be annoyed by this kind of stuff are people with a hoarder itch to have "the complete package," like every single thing the game could possibly ever have, which is the kind of insanity that possesses someone to collect all the hats in Team Fortress 2. It's equally pointless and the game is just as fun if you don't participate.

- Is it fun? Every match has at least some tension. You aren't going to know if your opponent/opponents suck until things get underway, so you're either in a scramble to get away and hide your tracks, or to catch up to the monster before it can get armor and/or evolve. I've gotten much better at being the monster now. Being a hunter mandates teamwork though. No one should go off alone; you're just a detriment to the team that way. Fan out, but stay in range of each other. Examples:

The Assault on our hunter team ran off to go kill things. This is not a safari--kill what you have to or what will give buffs, but don't get into such trouble that the Medic (that's me!) has to abandon the other half of the group to go save your dumbass, thus slowing us down more from our more important pursuit.

Being a monster means understanding your opponents are thinking humans, which means outsmarting them. Back over your tracks, make use of water, circle around, and try not to get so caught up in eating that you can't tell the hunters are on your ass. But since they're humans, they don't know lots of things.

Once in a snowy area when the hunters got the dome down, I hid in a crevice on a cliffside. They ran around, no idea where I was, and by the time they found me, the dome had run out.

- Should you get it? Honestly, as much fun as I'm having ... it's not worth $60. More like $40. I mean, I have it now, so tough shit, and I'll enjoy playing it when I do, but it's not a huge game. The matches are fun, but that can depend on the other people with you. Though the game has five or six different play modes, you're likely going to just play Hunt, the main one, and just pop in the others for a little variety here and there.

tldr; great game, takes some learning, probably get it when it's slightly cheaper.
 
It has 130 bucks of DLC that isn't included in the season pass. It's a toe in the water of how greedy 2K can get. Testing to see how far they can go. I'm sure EA and Activision are waiting with baited breath.
 
Walking Dead, Season 2

Well,

I shot Kenny and abandoned Jane. The former absolutely broke my heart, but he'd honestly lost it at that point. The latter didn't break my heart at all because she was a manipulative bitch to pull that kind of stunt when Kenny was already teetering on the edge of sanity. Fuck her.

The only thing about this is...how the HELL will they do Season 3? I'm reading the percentages of people's choices and cripes, it's split big time.

Shot Kenny - 53.7%
Looked away/didn't pick up the gun/watched - 46.3%

With AJ, Jane and the family - 29.6%
With AJ and Kenny - 25.5%
Alone with AJ - 17.9%
With AJ at Wellington - 16.6%
With AJ and Jane - 10.4%

So does that mean shooting Kenny is canon? What about the people that didn't shoot him and went with him to Wellington? What about the people that chose to go it alone, like me? What about the people that went with Jane? Hell, the Jane/Kenny ending is nearly an even split.

There's WAY too many majorly differently ramifications that I can't see how they can possibly do a sequel. At least the ending for the first season, while heart breaking and a tough decision either way, still left you with more or less the same ending. I honestly don't see how they can manage to do this not only in order to satisfy fans who made varying decisions, but also make the choices mean something without doing something VERY drastic.
 
There's WAY too many majorly differently ramifications that I can't see how they can possibly do a sequel. At least the ending for the first season, while heart breaking and a tough decision either way, still left you with more or less the same ending. I honestly don't see how they can manage to do this not only in order to satisfy fans who made varying decisions, but also make the choices mean something without doing something VERY drastic.
If they do another season, I'd honestly see them crafting a new group of characters to follow.
 
Walking Dead, Season 2

Well,

I shot Kenny and abandoned Jane. The former absolutely broke my heart, but he'd honestly lost it at that point. The latter didn't break my heart at all because she was a manipulative bitch to pull that kind of stunt when Kenny was already teetering on the edge of sanity. Fuck her.

The only thing about this is...how the HELL will they do Season 3? I'm reading the percentages of people's choices and cripes, it's split big time.

Shot Kenny - 53.7%
Looked away/didn't pick up the gun/watched - 46.3%

With AJ, Jane and the family - 29.6%
With AJ and Kenny - 25.5%
Alone with AJ - 17.9%
With AJ at Wellington - 16.6%
With AJ and Jane - 10.4%

So does that mean shooting Kenny is canon? What about the people that didn't shoot him and went with him to Wellington? What about the people that chose to go it alone, like me? What about the people that went with Jane? Hell, the Jane/Kenny ending is nearly an even split.

There's WAY too many majorly differently ramifications that I can't see how they can possibly do a sequel. At least the ending for the first season, while heart breaking and a tough decision either way, still left you with more or less the same ending. I honestly don't see how they can manage to do this not only in order to satisfy fans who made varying decisions, but also make the choices mean something without doing something VERY drastic.
The entire thing with the dog was foreshadowing for Kenny. He can be fun, protective, and having him around makes you feel safer... but being out in the wild changes people. And when they get out of control, when they go feral... well... then you need to be able to put the dog down. It can't help what it is, but you need to be able to do it.

So really... the question isn't if you were able to kill Kenny. It's whether you could kill the dog.

As for Season 3...

We never see Christa die. We could play as her. Alternatively, it's possible that similar events influence Clementine to towards a single objective. For instance, both Wellington and the Big Box store could get attacked and she's forced to flee with AJ. Alternatively, she could get attacked in the wilds (alongside Kenny if he's around). It's doable, but it might be a stretch. Personally, I kind of hope her story is over.
 
Walking Dead s2 alternate ending spoilers. Don't click unless you wanna know.

I killed Jane, and went with Kenny to Wellington. Yes, Kenny was going crazy, he was dangerous, but I wasn't giving up on him. When you get to Wellington, you find out that it's a real place, made out of walls of shipping containers (with a Wellington Shipping logo, hence the name) and looks relatively safe. The guard at the front greets you and tells you to turn back, they're not accepting new people, try again in six months.

Kenny begs her to just take Clem and AJ, and what follows is a very sad conversation where Kenny admits he's losing it, and he's dangerous, and he can't trust himself around AJ or Clem anymore. He just wants them to be safe, and tries to convince Clem to go into Wellington and leave him behind.

And then he gives you his hat, and says to give it to AJ when he gets older, so he can know about all the people that cared about him.

There's... there's something in my eye.
 
It has 130 bucks of DLC that isn't included in the season pass. It's a toe in the water of how greedy 2K can get. Testing to see how far they can go. I'm sure EA and Activision are waiting with baited breath.
It's skins. Why do people care if they're selling skins? It's ridiculous to me that people are getting bent out of shape over the sale of cosmetic changes that contribute nothing to the game.

"Wow, fuck the 3DS, it has themes I can buy to change my home screen. They cost money and are a pointless cosmetic change, and I can only have one on at a time? Nintendo, you so filthy."[DOUBLEPOST=1423739576,1423739481][/DOUBLEPOST]
Walking Dead s2 alternate ending spoilers. Don't click unless you wanna know.

I killed Jane, and went with Kenny to Wellington. Yes, Kenny was going crazy, he was dangerous, but I wasn't giving up on him. When you get to Wellington, you find out that it's a real place, made out of walls of shipping containers (with a Wellington Shipping logo, hence the name) and looks relatively safe. The guard at the front greets you and tells you to turn back, they're not accepting new people, try again in six months.

Kenny begs her to just take Clem and AJ, and what follows is a very sad conversation where Kenny admits he's losing it, and he's dangerous, and he can't trust himself around AJ or Clem anymore. He just wants them to be safe, and tries to convince Clem to go into Wellington and leave him behind.

And then he gives you his hat, and says to give it to AJ when he gets older, so he can know about all the people that cared about him.

There's... there's something in my eye.
That was my ending too.
 

fade

Staff member
Portal 2. I've owned it for, what, 2 years now, and still haven't gotten around to playing it - mostly because everyone and their dog said "all the fun" was in co-op play which I'm not interested in. Still not, by the way, but I'm having fun with the SP campaign, though I have the feeling it might be shorter than I'd wish. Than again, Portal was a short game too.
Yeah, the length bugged me. That, and the puzzles seemed really easy. I hate to think they dumbed them down because Portal got more popular than they anticipated.
 
Well...I've gotten "lost" in he in-between bits a few times, looking where to go because it wasn't always immediately obvious. I haven't had any issues in any of the test chambers,
old or new
so far, but I'm not at the end yet. Though I've
been introduced and had to play with all three types of gel and heading back up now...
 
Evolve: I hate to become that guy who yells at people on voicechat, but these PUGs fucking suck.
Im gonna wait a week. If after a week you can tell me, "Actually Terrik, this is still pretty consistently fun" I'll get it. I've been waiting a while for this dumb game.
 
Im gonna wait a week. If after a week you can tell me, "Actually Terrik, this is still pretty consistently fun" I'll get it. I've been waiting a while for this dumb game.
I don't know, man. I've been eager to play each time I get home, but then, Monster Hunter is out tomorrow. And I still say the game, like the DLC, is over-priced. You're essentially buying a set of fun arenas, but even Evacuation mode never has the goal-oriented feel that Left 4 Dead has. It's a $40 game IMO.

I'm gonna go play some more now ... and choose the monster side, probably.
 
More reason to wait on Evolve: bugs.

I ran into two tonight, both pretty major. In one monster run, when I hit Stage 3 as the Kraken, none of my abilities would refresh. I could only use regular attack and there was no way I could win with just that.

The second came after using decoy on the Wraith, I couldn't eat. I was afraid this would be the doom of my monster since I was only stage 1, but eventually I was able to again.

No idea why either of these happened, but considering how much effort it takes to evade the hunters and keep going as a monster, bugs of this kind can ruin a match.

Also, while playing Medic again, the Trapper ... trapped us. Set up the mobile arena, but the monster had crossed the breach before it closed. That's fine, it happens. Just take down the arena, right? NOOOOOPE, the genius on this team just ran around while the arena was up, looking for a way through, even though if the monster gets away, a message appears in the center of the screen telling you how to disable the arena and not trap yourself or your teammates.

On the bright side, I did get in with some good hunter groups tonight. I finished out with having unlocked the Wraith, and boy is it OP. I'm kind of scared to face this thing once other people who haven't played 15 hours in the last three days get it unlocked, because it is quick and lethal. A sneaky-minded person can do wonders with it, but even if you're not, Supernova is like turning your monster into a tornado made of knives.
 
@Zero Esc are you playing on PC? Could try to play a few games together at some point. I don't know that I'd be much better than others in PUGs as I haven't played much of the hunters yet but will over the next few days.
 
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Why oh why when I know a game I'm getting will let me name a character, why don't I think of a name beforehand? Argh.[DOUBLEPOST=1423859465,1423858896][/DOUBLEPOST]Fuck me, now I gotta name my cat? Goddamn.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Why oh why when I know a game I'm getting will let me name a character, why don't I think of a name beforehand? Argh.[DOUBLEPOST=1423859465,1423858896][/DOUBLEPOST]Fuck me, now I gotta name my cat? Goddamn.
Imagine Sins of a Solar Empire, where you can name all your capital ships individually (and you can have up to 16!).

I just made a text file full of good names for capital ships and would pick from it semi-randomly as I played.

Though usually, I'd name my first fighter carrier "Legion" and my first battleship "Infernvm." After that, ships would randomly be named things like Leviathan, Behemoth, Baphomet, Azrael, Mephisto, Avernus, Belial, Azazel, Asmodeus, Moloch, Lilith, etc.
 

Zappit

Staff member
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Why oh why when I know a game I'm getting will let me name a character, why don't I think of a name beforehand? Argh.[DOUBLEPOST=1423859465,1423858896][/DOUBLEPOST]Fuck me, now I gotta name my cat? Goddamn.
I know, right? Why even bother naming a cat. It ain't coming when you call, anyway.

But seriously, loving the opening of the game and its cannon-fire combat.
 
I know, right? Why even bother naming a cat. It ain't coming when you call, anyway.

But seriously, loving the opening of the game and its cannon-fire combat.
That was one hell of an opening. You could describe that for people and they'd think you were telling them the climax of another game.[DOUBLEPOST=1423883503,1423882959][/DOUBLEPOST]I love that Evolve is against human players, because I can do shit like this:



I beat the hell out of this team as each monster. A Goliath run had them catch me once each stage, where I beat the shit out of them and got away. They kept killing things and leaving easy meals for me to find. Hunters cannot play like they're on safari--they only help the monster by giving it time and food.

The balance of the game really sides with whoever knows what they're doing. I ended up on the human side of this group once. The monster player chose Wraith, and got beaten back and forth around an open area. I'm pretty much playing exclusively as the monster now; I'm too much of a control freak. I wanted this game for the teamwork aspect of Left 4 Dead, but when that fell through, I got something else. Different, but still rewarding.
 
That was one hell of an opening. You could describe that for people and they'd think you were telling them the climax of another game.[DOUBLEPOST=1423883503,1423882959][/DOUBLEPOST]I love that Evolve is against human players, because I can do shit like this:



I beat the hell out of this team as each monster. A Goliath run had them catch me once each stage, where I beat the shit out of them and got away. They kept killing things and leaving easy meals for me to find. Hunters cannot play like they're on safari--they only help the monster by giving it time and food.

The balance of the game really sides with whoever knows what they're doing. I ended up on the human side of this group once. The monster player chose Wraith, and got beaten back and forth around an open area. I'm pretty much playing exclusively as the monster now; I'm too much of a control freak. I wanted this game for the teamwork aspect of Left 4 Dead, but when that fell through, I got something else. Different, but still rewarding.

Honestly, playing as the monster is the big draw for me. Everything else can jump off a cliff if that's good at least.
 
Honestly, playing as the monster is the big draw for me. Everything else can jump off a cliff if that's good at least.
If you're willing to be patient and accept that you're going to get gunned down early until you learn how the game works, then the monster role is rewarding, and always tense even against a crap group. For the monster, you have 100% control and it's up to you to make things work. For the hunters, you have 25% control and even if you do everything right, that doesn't mean your teammates will. Hell, the way they screw up could mean you can't do your job (example, Medic can't heal-gun people if they're all over the place and leave her behind). It seems that if you want to win as the hunters, you need to either have people to play with regularly so you can work out your roles together, or hope the person playing the monster doesn't know how to play it.

I still don't think it's worth $60 though. I'm not sure I'll still have this game a year from now. Right now it's fun, but we'll see for how long.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Maybe, but it sure is fun to create stuff.
I tried replicating this one, couldn't get it to work right. The thing goes out of control fairly quickly usually, and I can't figure out how they hooked the bombs to the decouplers without using grabby claws.
 
Top