The Offical Game Thread

[LabradoRacer 2]

I agree with a lot of what George has said. I've no patience for those games that drag out to infinity & reward with you zit upgrades like more pus, more yellowness.

Played "Batman Arkham Asylum" about a month or so back. Supremely entertaining and marvelous game. Hope to catch "Batman Arkham City" soon.

[Rainmaster 7]

That Pica Pic site is quite cool Ale (although I don't really like handheld gaming)! Jay, maybe I'll try the Batman game then

Actually, although my post is still true for me, I know the real reason I've gone off games is that I can't really afford to buy them at the moment I would probably buy Borderlands (1&2), LA Noire, get into the Halo series and a few other titles if I had the money.

Tanita, yeah, maybe it's just a commercial thing. It really annoys me that a series like CoD is so successful while nobody is playing a game like Unreal Tournament 3, although I sort of understand why it's the case. It's not like in the film industry where it is actually sometimes impossible for me to understand why a film is commercially successful (Paranormal Activity 4? Really?). It also just doesn't feel like the really successful games are then propping up more creative, "indie", artistic type of games. Whereas in the movie industry, you have the whole "tent-pole" movie idea where something awful like Paranormal Activity 4 means the studio can take a risk on another story which will not make as much money (and yep, I think something like Kickstarter is a great idea for smaller projects). Perhaps the movie industry went through a similar, pandering only sort of phase in its early years? I really don't know, but I do feel games are still a young industry and have some growing up to do.

Maybe games companies are taking risks, I'm probably not involved in/following the scene enough to know. Maybe all I am really complaining about is that so many people have awful taste and I've got nobody to beat on UT3 these days But there's hope in the fact a game like Skyrim does do so well because as much as I did complain about it, it is still excellent. All in all, I don't know. But I did watch this documentary which was decent: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/

[Quiet One 15]

Ahhh I think we have a juicy discussion here. Too bad I don't have the time to dwelve into this as much as I could.

Good things from industry in these past two years: the resurrection of PC gaming (a vastly superior experience, IMHO than the console driven industry with their dumbed down games and, worst of all, NO MODDING!!)

I never understood the pleasure of multiplayer games, as much as I tried. My approach is too casual. I actually love more reading about games than playing them. But I think that the concept that is slowly forming if not explicitly is that games are not "games" and thus "something for kids" but pure entertaiment in the same sense as movies are, or theater. So, after years of dwindling creativity and predominance of big industry with a "more money, less gaming" concept is good to see indie industry coming back and some really good big industry games that do not treat their public like brain dead teenagers.

@George: Borderlands (1&2) are wonderful and among my small circle of all time favorites (I am stil to finish Borderlands 2, but man, I love the perfect balance between humor, frantic battles and ARPG action. I am a sucker for true ARPGs)

If you use a PC, I'd also recommend you Torchlight II and, of course, Skyrim gets even better when modded, so I would at least recommend you Skyrim Redone mod (SkyRe). Coupled with the Alternate Life mod makes for a whole different experience. Not to mention the host of little indie games RPS feeds us all the time (have you tried that one with the fractions and frogs? Deliciously absurd)

All in all, was a good year in terms of gaming after a long drought with stupid war-in-some-arab-country-or-world-war-two FPS that cloned each other ad nauseam.

Oh, and do take Dishonored if you can. I am not much into stealth games and games with too much "story" and limited RPG elements (if you always play the same guy and loot is more or less the same I don't like them. That's why I never got much into Dragon Age/The Witcher/Mass Effect titles never cared too much for stories and like silly collecting games like Borderlands) but Dishonored gives so much freedom that I find myself advancing at a snail pace just because I spend so much time merely contemplating how will approach the next mission.

[Rainmaster 7]

Thanks a lot for the recommendations Andres! Yep, I'm a PC guy and as someone who started gaming on consoles (PS1, PS2 for the most part) I definitely think it's a better experience. Sadly, so many people don't make that leap which is a shame. I just need to upgrade this laptop and then I can buy some more modern games (this thing struggles with even a 2007 spec game albeit an intensive one).

But yes, it's that cultural shift that I think games are still going through both from a public perception pov and from inside too (although the public perception is probably a little behind the curve of the game makers themselves). And all those "shoot an Arab" type games are really not helping with a cultural shift at all (and to me, somehow always just feel like propaganda anyway).

Anyway, I'll check out Torchlight 2 (heard of it but never Wiki'd it) and definitely Dishonoured as I love a stealth game (anybody ever play Tenchu?), and I need to follow RPS by RSS or just visiting the homepage rather than only looking at it via my increasingly occasional use of Twitter!

[Kopite Girl 0]

Assassins Creed 3. Entertaining. Too simple for me though.

I'm still plodding through Skyrim. Love how it seems never ending.

[Rainmaster 7]

[Rainmaster 7]

I think it was Andres who said he enjoyed reading about games as much as playing them. I'm the same. I like watching YouTube walkthroughs and gameplay footage, too, sad as it sounds I must recommend this series to anybody who likes games. It's just great.

This guy is a legend amongst the community of people playing the DayZ mod and I'm not surprised. Not only he is a ridiculously smart player of this game, but he's also really nice to the "bambies" (read: noobs) he meets. A very entertaining series.

[AleHop 0]

I finished all those DayZ vids. I used to play games like that and I got fed up when hackers made imposible to enjoy more than 5 minutes of fun. The guy is great he enjoys so much playing that you get attached to the screen. I might get it as a standalone or bring back those I played in the past now that F1 is over. It's been a long season and a professional Alonso fan needs a break.

[Rainmaster 7]

I finished all those DayZ vids. I used to play games like that and I got fed up when hackers made imposible to enjoy more than 5 minutes of fun. The guy is great he enjoys so much playing that you get attached to the screen. I might get it as a standalone or bring back those I played in the past now that F1 is over. It's been a long season and a professional Alonso fan needs a break.

I'm surprised somebody actually watched it It's great though right! I got through them all in about 3 days or something ridiculous, but he's still making them so looking forward to the next one. Yeah, I need to upgrade to a good computer and then I'll see if the standalone is any good (I think he'll review it for us..) and if not, buy Arma 2 just to get this mod.

[Quiet One 15]

Yup, it was me who loves reading about games (BTW, about to read a whole novel about games culture "Ready Player One" by E.Cline). I also love videos about games. This one is a favorite at RPS: there's a youtube culture of posting Battlefield videos or similar with plenty of wub wub music and lots of pseudo gangsta talk to make them look cool. Here's a version, based on the thrilling Farm Simulator

[AleHop 0]

I used to play, and still do it sometimes, probably the best submarine simulator Silent Hunter III and mods can make games much better, funnier or whatever you prefer.

Among the more normal PC games I think GTA San Andreas was the best I remember. You could load it with all kind of mods.

[rclark 0]

Battlefield Bad Company 2=great game!

Single player is awesome, not as funny as BC1 but the action was better! Multiplayer is good too but nowhere near as good as MW2! I'll give it an A-!

Bad Company 2 was fantastic, loved the multiplayer in particular. You could knock down just about every building in the game if you shot enough shells/rockets/grenades at it. Battlefield 3 has way better graphics than BC2, but the gameplay seems a bit more constrained to me... Nowhere near as total damage to buildings is possible, which totally changes the gameplay in multiplayer.

[Rainmaster 7]

Looks interesting (recommend changing to HD as ever)..

[Massa 0]

Does anyone play F1 2012? I found out it came out for Mac OS X yesterday. Kind of interested, but I'd have to invest in some sort of gaming controller for the Mac, and I'm not going to do that unless it's really worth it. Any reviews of the game from the perspective of TF1 users? Thanks.

[The Shadow 0]

I've been playing Diablo 3 since launch. Probably the only one here that does. Critics are mostly unimpressed with it I guess, but as I game mainly with my friends, it's pretty fun throughout. Made some bucks on the auction house, which is a plus I guess..

[ecapdeville 0]

Does anyone play F1 2012? I found out it came out for Mac OS X yesterday.

Really? I didn't know that!... I play the game in the Xbox360, with the microsoft wheel and a 40" screen... awesome!!!! great game... I dont know anything about control wheels for Mac

I´ll put a pic later of my gear.

[Massa 0]

I plugged in my PC controller to see what would happen, and sure enough, the Mac recognized it. Now it's just a matter of me figuring out how to get within 107% of the real-life lap times. I didn't realize you could lose so much traction while going so slowly. I drive exactly like the real Massa.

[ecapdeville 0]

I plugged in my PC controller to see what would happen, and sure enough, the Mac recognized it.

Hey... thats good news! what kind of controller do you have?

[Massa 0]

I used this. It was actually recommended to me years ago on this very forum by Yoda McFly when I started playing rFactor on PC and, as now, didn't have the space for a wheel.

The only downside to gaming on a Mac is that the USB ports are on the back of the iMac, so you end up with a bad kink in the controller's cable. Then it rips. And then you can no longer turn right. I guess I can still use it for NASCAR games.

So I replaced it with an Xbox controller from Logitech that is actually designed to work on a Mac. Had I been intelligent, I would have gone wireless, but I never learn.

[Rainmaster 7]

Read about the upcoming Thief game on RPS (if you don't know what RPS you're in the wrong place), decided to go back and play the originals, since they're a bargain on Steam. Glad I did, one of the better ways of procrastinating I've found.

[Quiet One 15]

Try Monaco. As usual lately, multi player seems the core of the concept (and I never got the idea about MP), but I am having a blast in SP so I am sure it is worth it.

My present list of games is unusually big so I find myself jumping from one to the other: Monaco, Tropico 4, Bioshock Infinite, Hellgate Global, Don't Starve and Prison Architect. (Plus the usual Broderlands 2 and Skyrim sessions)

If you don't try at least 2 of these games you are a pitiful person.

[The Shadow 0]

The Old Republic for me at the moment. Now that it's sorta free

[Rainmaster 7]

Try Monaco. As usual lately, multi player seems the core of the concept (and I never got the idea about MP), but I am having a blast in SP so I am sure it is worth it.

My present list of games is unusually big so I find myself jumping from one to the other: Monaco, Tropico 4, Bioshock Infinite, Hellgate Global, Don't Starve and Prison Architect. (Plus the usual Broderlands 2 and Skyrim sessions)

If you don't try at least 2 of these games you are a pitiful person.

I was going to write something about Monaco! I also heard about that in RPS. Looks very interesting, it's already on my extremely well populated Steam wishlist.

I keep seeing Don't Starve on the Steam homepage but never clicked it, just had a look. It's been wishlisted. I'll check out the others. Not that I value your opinion or anything like that.

I think I'm going to play the the first BioShocks and perhaps leave Infinite, since I watched a very good walkthrough already

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA6aI9QInOw

.

But before all of this I still need to buy a decent PC (not that all of these games actually require that much horsepower).

[Quiet One 15]

I only enjoyed Infinite, having tried the previous 2 without any success.

As for the hardware, I noticed that in the past 5 years or so the incidence of hardware in the game's performance has dropped. My rig is 4 years old and can run most of the new games with graphics options high. When some of them struggle is usually more due to the game itself than to the hardware.

[Quiet One 15]

Just finished Gone Home.

Play it. Even if you don't usually play games. Play it. ANd once you finished it (no more than two or three hours). Play it again focusing on what you didn't the first time.

You will know what I mean.