What are you playing?

GasBandit

Staff member
No, but have an "informative" rating.

--Patrick
Oh yeah, it's a big thing in console racing games. The burnout series was a particularly egregious offender of this. Also Split/Second, Need for Speed, Tokyo Extreme Racing, etc etc etc. Some people call this process "rubberbanding" (not to be confused with the symptom of latency called the same word) because it's like there are invisible rubber bands securing your vehicle to all the competitor vehicles, thus the farther they get from you, the harder the game pulls them back toward you.

It sounds crappy, but I was a huge Burnout fan, and I have to say, yes, it does make every race a bit more exciting when you can only play casually. As far as Road Redemption goes, on the other hand, I appreciate not being coddled, even if it means 2 out of every 3 races I've run so far I've ruined my chances at placing 3rd or better within the first 30 seconds of the race with mistakes that gave the AIs an uncatchable lead. It makes it feel so much more of an accomplishment those times I actually do win.
 
Oh yeah, it's a big thing in console racing games. The burnout series was a particularly egregious offender of this. Also Split/Second, Need for Speed, Tokyo Extreme Racing, etc etc etc. Some people call this process "rubberbanding" (not to be confused with the symptom of latency called the same word) because it's like there are invisible rubber bands securing your vehicle to all the competitor vehicles, thus the farther they get from you, the harder the game pulls them back toward you.

It sounds crappy, but I was a huge Burnout fan, and I have to say, yes, it does make every race a bit more exciting when you can only play casually. As far as Road Redemption goes, on the other hand, I appreciate not being coddled, even if it means 2 out of every 3 races I've run so far I've ruined my chances at placing 3rd or better within the first 30 seconds of the race with mistakes that gave the AIs an uncatchable lead. It makes it feel so much more of an accomplishment those times I actually do win.
Not even just racing games... Banjo-Tooie is infamous for it's Canary Mary race sections: In order to win, you mash a button to get your mine cart to move fast enough to beat her flight speed... only if you go TOO fast, she rubberbands in front of you at a speed higher than you can achieve. It's thought they did this to go against kids using turbo controllers but the threshold is so low that most players can trip it accidentally.
 
So, I got to play about an hour of Batman: Arkham Knight.

Nick was right, the Riddler's racetracks can eat a giant bag of syphilitic dicks, both in its concept (yes, the freakin' Riddler is going to set up racetracks to prove his mental superiority to Batman.... da fuq?) and its execution.
 
So, I got to play about an hour of Batman: Arkham Knight.

Nick was right, the Riddler's racetracks can eat a giant bag of syphilitic dicks, both in its concept (yes, the freakin' Riddler is going to set up racetracks to prove his mental superiority to Batman.... da fuq?) and its execution.
Fortunately, there's only like three of those. The others are - sigh - Batmobile-related puzzles.
 
This has been a monster year for games, I must say.

For me personally, Witcher 3 and now Metal Gear Solid 5 have been screamingly excellent.
 
How is mgsv for someone who has never played a metal gear game (besides revengeance)?
I think you could get by with just getting a summary of Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes.

MGS is a very story intensive game, so being totally blind on what's going on may be a barrier to entry. Your mileage may vary.
 
Out of curiosity, what's the cutscene to gameplay ratio in MGS5? Because it was the ridiculous among of cutscenes in MGS4 that killed it for me. I used to enjoy the series (loved MGS, liked the others), but that cutscene ratio was ridiculous.
 
Shadow of Mordor

It's okay. It's honestly not grabbing me like I thought it would. Normally, I dig sandbox games but so far? I don't know. It's okay. It's a pretty typical revenge story.

So far, I haven't done any story missions. Just buggered about, killing orcs - including a few captains - and collected a few things.

It's weird. I thought I'd be all over this game.
I felt the same way when I went to Tripolis, a Greek resto. I walked in and sat down, it was nice but it didn't grab me like I thought it would. I like Greek food and this is a pretty typical small mom & pop traditional Greek place.

I sat a bit but I didn't order anything from the menu. I just sat there and checked the menu, spoke to the staff and checked out the silverware.

It's weird, I really thought I'd like this place.
 
Out of curiosity, what's the cutscene to gameplay ratio in MGS5? Because it was the ridiculous among of cutscenes in MGS4 that killed it for me. I used to enjoy the series (loved MGS, liked the others), but that cutscene ratio was ridiculous.
Polar opposites.[DOUBLEPOST=1441468147,1441468079][/DOUBLEPOST]
How is mgsv for someone who has never played a metal gear game (besides revengeance)?
It's steeped in it's own juices. MGS3, Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes are the crucial ones to know.
 

fade

Staff member
Shadow of Mordor is confusing. I killed like three captains who ganged up on me at once, and they all immediately came back to life nearby unexpectedly and then ganged up and killed me, which raises their power and then promotes a bunch of unknown uruks. That doesn't seem fair.[DOUBLEPOST=1441478808,1441478752][/DOUBLEPOST]And yes, I know I beat them. I got the big red cross-out animation. The internets tell me that I have to behead them to make them stay dead.
 
I felt the same way when I went to Tripolis, a Greek resto. I walked in and sat down, it was nice but it didn't grab me like I thought it would. I like Greek food and this is a pretty typical small mom & pop traditional Greek place.

I sat a bit but I didn't order anything from the menu. I just sat there and checked the menu, spoke to the staff and checked out the silverware.

It's weird, I really thought I'd like this place.
Not even remotely the same situation.
 
Shadow of Mordor is confusing. I killed like three captains who ganged up on me at once, and they all immediately came back to life nearby unexpectedly and then ganged up and killed me, which raises their power and then promotes a bunch of unknown uruks. That doesn't seem fair.[DOUBLEPOST=1441478808,1441478752][/DOUBLEPOST]And yes, I know I beat them. I got the big red cross-out animation. The internets tell me that I have to behead them to make them stay dead.
Yeah, if you don't behead them, you'll often see them come back, but looking slightly different. Killing one with an arrow, for example, might make him come back later with a big steel plate over his face.
 
How is mgsv for someone who has never played a metal gear game (besides revengeance)?
I've never played any Metal Gear, I'm done the first two missions of V, and it's amazing. I don't have a fucking clue what's going on, but it's fun as hell anyway.
 
Shadow of Mordor

I'm enjoying it a bit more, but still not as much as I thought I would. Maybe I got my hopes up too much after all the hype and praise the game got.

Still, it's pretty fun to release some of those orc dogs on a camp and let them run loose. One time, I had a pack of five just wrecking shit all over the place. It's kinda fun to just let chaos loose on a camp in different ways. Blowing up campfires, dropping a hornets nest, uncaging an orc dog.
 
Shadow of Mordor

I'm enjoying it a bit more, but still not as much as I thought I would. Maybe I got my hopes up too much after all the hype and praise the game got.

Still, it's pretty fun to release some of those orc dogs on a camp and let them run loose. One time, I had a pack of five just wrecking shit all over the place. It's kinda fun to just let chaos loose on a camp in different ways. Blowing up campfires, dropping a hornets nest, uncaging an orc dog.
If you like seeing chaos, wait until you can poison the orcs' grog.
 

fade

Staff member
Fucking Shaga the Crow. His stupid rapid fire crossbow nearly eats all my health in one shot. He's killed me 3 times.
 
I've got one warlord in particular that has me stuck, he's always accompanied by 2 other captains who I keep promoting by getting myself killed. That's kind of where I stopped playing at the time because though it ran, it didn't run optimally on my graphics card at the time.
 
I wish I could say I've been playing Monster Hunter all day, but "playing" is a strong word for dicking around with armor crap and not actually hunting any goddamn monsters.

Feel like I kinda killed it for myself a little ... might go play something else instead.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
For anyone not reading the thread, our Don't Starve Together session last night with myself, Dei, Terrik, ThatNickGuy, PatrThom, Ravenpoe, and AshburnerX was a hilariously complete and utter fiasco that saw us all dead within an hour. You can watch it in the DST thread.
 
MGS5: Hey Frank, check out this rad new toy.

Frank: Fuck yeah, that sounds awesome. Ready to rock.

MGS5: If you take that into a mission you can't get higher than an A-rank.

Frank: What? That sucks! Why?!

MGS5: Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt, cuz.
 
Most of my mgs5 missions invole.me trying to be all stealthy, getting halfway to the.mission point, taking out my sniper rifle because fuck you, and then tranqing some sheep just because.
 
This game man, this fucking game. I love replaying earlier missions with tools you get way later on. For example. One mission I never ended up saving a prisoner, so I replayed it, with the D-Walker. And I rolled up on those fools at max speed and mowed EVERYTHING down with it's gatling gun. Saved the prisoner.

It's bad enough there's SO MUCH fucking content, but the content is a blast to replay in different ways.

My only bummer is that from what I've read the story is very unfinished and a lot of set pieces were rushed out because of Konami being Konami. This could have been easily one of the greatest games ever made.
 
I need a good 3DS game that I haven't already poured 200 to 300 hours into. I thought I was just getting worn out on Monster Hunter (or maybe I'm just hitting the wall of my ability), but I tried going for another Shin Megami Tensei IV playthrough and just wasn't feeling it. Same for Devil Survivor, Fire Emblem, Pokemon.

I need something new, but also lengthy.
 

fade

Staff member
Okay, I played a lot of Shadow of Mordor this holiday weekend. This is how it went:
  1. This game is difficult to get into and a bit complicated.
  2. Okay, I get it. This is kind of fun.
  3. Alright, I kick ass!
  4. Okay, now this is getting kind of repetitive and boring.
 
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