Media Videogame thread

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[PLACEHOLDER]
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Someone please explain to this guy what loss lead means.

Okay I will.

...


For Sony and Microsoft, video games in general are loss leads. These are companies that make their money off of televisions and computer software respectively. Graphic fidelity in video game consoles, not to mention the constant attempts at turning game consoles into "home entertainment systems", is all about image.

Nintendo stays competitive by making good games, and by restricting those games to one console. Until the day comes that people don't actually want to play video games, or until Sony/Microsoft care about making them, Nintendo won't be going anywhere.

I would argue that Nintendo doesn't need to adopt a loss lead strategy in pursuing the Activision/EA/Ubisoft third party games. The big things that drove developers away from the Wii U (and the things that would have drove them away from the Wii if it didn't come out of the gate so ridiculously strong) were ease of access to developers (language, availability of dev kits, etc), and nonstandard controllers. If the NX comes out with the pro controller as the default and a gimmick that doesn't need to be engineered around (think the flashing LED on the PS4) and has games written in c# then Activision and co would be more than willing to downgrade the graphics on Call of Duty in order to port.
 
I know. However, this isn't working anymore. If the abysmal Wii U sales are any indication, gamers want no gimmicks,powerful hardware,and 1st + 3rd parties. Nintendo doesn't have any of these unless they change something with NX.
Nintendo is still comfortably making money on the Wii U and in their typical market and will be making more as their first party games actually come out; why would they want to change what they're doing to essentially make a clone of the PS4 and Xbone anyway, as neither of those two are definitely making money*.

*There has been plenty of talk of Microsoft offloading the Xbox division due to it not performing, and Sony has such a labyrinthine corporate structure it's incredibly hard to know what's making money and what isn't.

Honestly if you want the best hardware and the best library of games, you buy a PC because it has the biggest library (don't argue, a PC has a 30 year back catalogue of older games, most big non-exclusive console releases, and virtually every Xbox exclusive), and honestly a PC can have as many gimmicks as you want to bolt onto it.
 
Nintendo is still comfortably making money on the Wii U and in their typical market and will be making more as their first party games actually come out; why would they want to change what they're doing to essentially make a clone of the PS4 and Xbone anyway, as neither of those two are definitely making money*.

*There has been plenty of talk of Microsoft offloading the Xbox division due to it not performing, and Sony has such a labyrinthine corporate structure it's incredibly hard to know what's making money and what isn't.

Honestly if you want the best hardware and the best library of games, you buy a PC because it has the biggest library (don't argue, a PC has a 30 year back catalogue of older games, most big non-exclusive console releases, and virtually every Xbox exclusive), and honestly a PC can have as many gimmicks as you want to bolt onto it.
Why would Nintendo want to keep doing what they're doing if it means struggling to get sales? Yes, they're making a profit but that profit will be minimal if it doesn't sell well(Which the Wii U is not.) I'm not saying turn away from innovations but as long as said innovations are OPTIONAL and well implemented then I'm fine with it. Just please come with a normal controller. Kinda like the Wii U Pro Controller but bundled in with the console. Also, Nintendo need not to be AS GOOD as the PS4 or Xbone but it should at least be not THAT big of a drop in quality. Although, the make or break for NX will definitely be 3rd parties. Nintendo NEEDS to approach 3rd parties and have an easier console to program for so developers won't get scared off and won't be afraid to drop the game's graphics just a bit. Nintendo should also really beef up their online prowess and make a better shop and voice chat etc. Just little things that add up. Also, Nintendo ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO drop their YouTube policy but that's a rant for another day.
 
Why would Nintendo want to keep doing what they're doing if it means struggling to get sales? Yes, they're making a profit but that profit will be minimal if it doesn't sell well(Which the Wii U is not.) I'm not saying turn away from innovations but as long as said innovations are OPTIONAL and well implemented then I'm fine with it. Just please come with a normal controller. Kinda like the Wii U Pro Controller but bundled in with the console. Also, Nintendo need not to be AS GOOD as the PS4 or Xbone but it should at least be not THAT big of a drop in quality. Although, the make or break for NX will definitely be 3rd parties. Nintendo NEEDS to approach 3rd parties and have an easier console to program for so developers won't get scared off and won't be afraid to drop the game's graphics just a bit. Nintendo should also really beef up their online prowess and make a better shop and voice chat etc. Just little things that add up. Also, Nintendo ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO drop their YouTube policy but that's a rant for another day.
The vast majority of this reads like your wish list rather than anything Nintendo needs to do for their own benefit. Nintendo are selling products and making money, they're hitting their niche that the other consoles have no sway with and it's working for them; they have no reason to get into a battle in the Sony/Microsoft area of the console market (an area of dubious financial viability and in which they're far less well equipped to compete).

Also the tablet controller could've legitimately worked well for some games (touch controls are the only way a console could really make an RTS work), it just hasn't been used.
 
The vast majority of this reads like your wish list rather than anything Nintendo needs to do for their own benefit. Nintendo are selling products and making money, they're hitting their niche that the other consoles have no sway with and it's working for them; they have no reason to get into a battle in the Sony/Microsoft area of the console market (an area of dubious financial viability and in which they're far less well equipped to compete).

Also the tablet controller could've legitimately worked well for some games (touch controls are the only way a console could really make an RTS work), it just hasn't been used.
It is a wish list tbh but I wish Nintendo to do these things because it would give them a much needed edge in the market. How much longer can Nintendo really stand on just first party games?
 
It is a wish list tbh but I wish Nintendo to do these things because it would give them a much needed edge in the market. How much longer can Nintendo really stand on just first party games?
Seeing as they're making money, the answer to this is as long as they continue to do so. Truth is they've been doing it for 25 years now with the exception of a couple of brief periods where Rare had a close relationship with them and making solid money the whole time; if anything avoiding the third party pc-lite trap of the other consoles is keeping them both unique in the market and profitable with their relatively weak graphics hardware keeping their game development times and costs much lower than those of other companies.

Remember that Nintendo (unlike Sony and Microsoft) don't have alternate agendas in their sales, they're a gaming and games company, so they can't run their gaming and games division at a loss.
 

aVocado

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Been playing Dishonoured lately (learn the collect spelling YOU DUMB AMERICANS) and it's simply fucking amazing. Definitely one of the most overlooked games of last generation, and most definitely up there as one of the best games/new IPs in the same generation as well. It's simply fantastic. It's an example of great game design; you've got good environments, beautiful graphics that look a painting made of water colours, incredible (and fun) gameplay that offers you multiple options on how to complete one objective. You can either jump a fence by simply climbing somewhere and jumping it, using a door if there is one (although this will be more obvious and guards/dogs will notice you etc), take control of a rat and go underneath, distract the guards and then walk inside, simply storm in and kill everyone, or hell, you can even fucking take control of a guard themselves.

I haven't played the DLC yet but I heard it's also pretty good. This is now my 2nd or 3rd playthrough of the game and I'll be playing the DLC this time. Definitely recommend this game to anyone who doesn't mind first person (this game executes it perfectly) and likes stealth games. It's inspired by the old Thief games and Dark Messiah which I wanna play.
 
I swear I've gone on this rant elsewhere but Dishonoured (agree with the spelling, it makes me angry) is the second most "not bad" game I've ever played. The gameplay is fucking fantastic, there is really no denying this. It's incredible the kinds of things you're capable of, but at the same time the game is still plenty challenging. However it will never be a favourite of mine because the narrative is beyond atrocious. Utterly uninspiring, utterly predictable. Even the ability to influence the ending is spoiled by the fact that after every level you literally get a score telling you how you did, completely undermining the experience of discovering the consequences of your actions. It honestly makes me think the whole "multiple endings" thing was tacked on solely for marketing purposes.

It's worth stressing that that's practically the only flaw to the game, so if you don't value narrative experience all that highly then you should absolutely do yourself the favour of playing this game, you will love it. It's just not for me though.

The best "not bad" game in my experience is Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. Again, shit story, but god I love playing it. Awakening was such a disappointment in comparison. Awakening's story only managed to be good for about a third of the game before falling off the edge of a cliff- when you consider that the first 3rd of the story accounts for like one 6th of the time spent playing the game after sidequests and whatnot, that represents only a slight improvement over FE:RD. The real issue is the absence of the BEXP system and the implementation of random encounters. I really enjoyed levelling my characters in RD. The limited levels forced me to get creative in how I levelled my characters in order to maximise every encounter, while BEXP granted me greater control over my character's stats. Awakening effectively took all of that away and replaced it with grinding =[
 

aVocado

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Fire Emblem games were honestly never exactly known for their good stories anyway. Most of the time it's an evil empire invading a poor, humble, peace loving empire that's small and weak as shit and the protagonists happen to be from that empire.

All FE games I played (radiant dawn, sacred stones, awakening, and i played fe7 a bit) seemed to follow that pattern.
 
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FE4 actually has a really good story (in addition to being the best Fire Emblem game), and I thought path of radiance was at least interesting because Ike broke the protagonist trend and had actual character development (before becoming a muscled Mary Sue in RD).
 
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I used to mostly play huge games that'd take me forever to go achievement hunting on. Haven't had the desire to drop 100+ hours into a game for a while, though, so I've started clearing through shorter indie games that I nabbed from Steam sales + bundle deals.

Played through To The Moon earlier this week. It's super short (only 4 hours), but a very charming, albeit a tad cheesy, game. Two scientists are traveling through the memories of a dying old man to alter his mental history and make his one wish come true: to go to the moon. They've put out 2 free minisodes for it that I haven't tried yet, which is cool since the overall replay value is pretty much none. Still, it's worth playing if you want something cute and quick, though paying the full $10 is probably too much.

The one I'm more excited about is Hexcells Plus (second in a trilogy, the others being Hexcells and Hexcells Infinite). If you like puzzle games, definitely check it out. It's almost like Minesweeper, but instead of the educated guessing, you're using Sudoku-esque logic skills. Each game comes with 36 puzzles of increasing complexity and difficulty, and Infinite apparently has an auto-generator for any 8-digit string of numbers you put into it. It somehow manages to both get you thinking and relax you, probably thanks to the ambient music + simple color scheme / designs for the chill aspect. I'm 6 hours into Plus atm, and it'll probably be done within about 10 total, but it's fun all the way through and only 3 bucks on Steam when not on sale. I'll be picking up the other 2 after this one for sure.

A few of the other random ones sitting in my library that look short and fun, if anyone wants to recommend which to go for next:
LIMBO (played for an hour like 2-3 years ago. last time i tried to play it, the save file was gone. does this have a save system, or do you just have to one-shot it?)
Bastion (looks / sounds pretty. anyone know how long it'd actually take to 100% it?)
Beatbuddy (Bummer you seemed kinda mixed on this...)
Spirits (looks adorable~)
Evoland (seems like a nifty concept / shorter RPG at least)
Secrets of Raetikon (played for like half an hour while drunk, got super confused and haven't touched it since. is it actually worth playing?)
and some that I have no idea about at all that look shorter and not awful: 140, Antichamber, Caster, Terraria, Deponia, Only If, KAMI
 

vonFiedler

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Recommending Bastion, it wouldn't take long to 100%.

Avoid Limbo, it is artsy crap.

Haven't played the others, but I'd recommend anyone buy To The Moon if it cost $60.
 

churine

lunatic+
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I'm playing Animal Crossing (New Leaf) a lot lately, the game is very addicting like how an Animal Crossing game should be. There's almost always something new to do every day whether it's a new villager in town, making a Public Works Project, or just paying loans to greedy fat bastards.

Also fuck the amiibo cards, I'd rather have an actual figure, even if it means looking through 20 GameStops & Walmarts just to get one of them.
 
I'm playing Animal Crossing (New Leaf) a lot lately, the game is very addicting like how an Animal Crossing game should be. There's almost always something new to do every day whether it's a new villager in town, making a Public Works Project, or just paying loans to greedy fat bastards.

Also fuck the amiibo cards, I'd rather have an actual figure, even if it means looking through 20 GameStops & Walmarts just to get one of them.
Fuck Amiibo in general. They're overhyped pieces of plastic that are hardly ever in stock. I still think they're just glorified Skylanders.

Anyway, ever since they released Super Mario 64 on the Wii U Virtual Console, I've been playing it again and it's way easier than I remember. I remember it being somewhat difficult but playing through it again proves me otherwise. I still say it's my favorite of all time because the nostalgia factor and just how much fun I have playing it
 

Bummer

Jamming to the beat
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LIMBO (played for an hour like 2-3 years ago. last time i tried to play it, the save file was gone. does this have a save system, or do you just have to one-shot it?)
It should have some manner of continue system, or it may very well be save files too, I can start it up again later if you need to know. Either way, it's a fun platformer puzzle game that I personally enjoyed going through, so I'd actually recommend it. The achievements, on the other hand, can be difficult to accomplish on your own as I recall several of those white globs were tricky to find.

Bastion (looks / sounds pretty. anyone know how long it'd actually take to 100% it?)
BLOODY LOVE THIS GAME

One of the few games that comes with a narrator, and the voice they chose for him is spot on. Also a game that provides plenty of options for you to choose from in terms of weapons and bonuses, but no clearly superior choice, so it's fun to figure out a style that works for you. It's a fairly long game, even longer if you plan to try the other modes or just generally trying to complete it, and the higher difficulties that you can choose for yourself certainly left me with misty eyes. Don't know how skilled you are as a player, but this is no easy game to accomplish 100%. It's a good game all around imo and definitely worth the money, even moreso when it's on sale, but if you're out looking for quick games then this might be one of the longer ones (although I doubt more than ~15 hours).

also, the soundtrack is great

Beatbuddy (Bummer you seemed kinda mixed on this...)
It's good but not great. If you've already bought it then you should play it, but it won't leave you with a lasting impression.

Evoland (seems like a nifty concept / shorter RPG at least)
I actually liked this game. The plot was hardly deep (but given the game idea, I don't blame them), and I don't recall needing to spend much time on both beating and collecting most of the achievements. It's a cute game, I'd recommend people to check it out.
 
Hexcells Plus is now perfected ^.^

Last level was intentionally easy, but the ones before it took a bit longer than expected (especially with some misclicks forcing me to restart for Perfectionist.) Ended up taking me about 12 hours total, so definitely worth it.

Bastion's looking like a good pick, so I've got that installing. Fifteen hours isn't a bad length at all, and I won't mind putting in some more hours for the tougher achievements if it's fun. I'll have to mess around with something else at night, since I usually play when other peeps are sleeping and it's one I'll want the sound on for. I'll probably install Evoland as well for some late-night RPGing. Thanks for the response :3
 

GatoDelFuego

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I've had the prototypes on hand for some time, and just started playing the first one a week ago. It's pretty fun! Great controls and combat options as well as a fairly low-instensive graphics system let me wander around the city for hours. I'd say it's a very underrated game and shouldn't be missed next time it's on sale for cheap. The story is totally laughable and missions get very repetitive, but you just have so many options you can do in the sandbox that it honestly doesn't matter. I spent something like 3 hours just infiltrating various bases and demolishing them differently each time.
 
Was gonna wait until I knocked out a few more games to post anything, but I picked up a bundle with Among the Sleep in it. I've been wanting to grab this game since the first trailer came out and it didn't disappoint. It changed a bit from the original trailer, so here's the release one:


This game's all about atmosphere. You play as a scared two-year-old looking for his mother in a house that just gets more chaotic and hellish as the night goes on. It has a very solid creep factor going on, from the music, the kid's heavy breathing, a weird shadow monster roaming about, and an unsettling madness that just spreads throughout the house. It only takes about 2-3 hours to beat, though you can mess around in the sandbox-style house for longer. I'd recommend the game to anyone, especially horror buffs.

Twenty bucks is a bit much for something that's only going to get you a few hours of fun, but the bundle it's in for the next few days (over here) is just $5. It also has some other cool stuff like Torchlight II and realMyst: ME along with it, so definitely worth picking up.
 
Has anyone here played Crypt of the Necrodancer? It's a "roguelike" with a rhythm-based element: you have to move to the beat of the background song. I say "roguelike" because it's not super rich in grinding/loot-finding, etc.--the mechanics are extremely simplified because it's designed to be compatible with a dance pad (i.e., it's controlled entirely with the arrow keys) and the rhythm base would make it difficult to consider lots of stats. However, the simplification works beautifully, and the game is extremely polished and still a challenge. It's in Early Access right now but the game is basically complete so I'd seriously recommend checking it out. I've put almost as many hours into this as I have into FTL.
 
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Bummer

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Has finally dusted off my copy of Civilisation 5, and it immediately began as a fun experience, I'm getting back my vibes from the days I played Civ 2.

That is, until I started a file on Prince (Normal) difficulty.

I. Am. Getting. Thrashed. By everyone. Jesus Christ.
 

theangryscientist

angry, not mad
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just keep playing, you'll get the hang of it

tbh prince is still playing on easy mode cause the ai is just terrible; it doesn't get interesting until emperor
 

GatoDelFuego

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So here's a 'gameplay' trailer that at least gives a bit of a peek into Battlefront. And here's a couple articles on the subject. While I have been following Battlefront's progress (or what little was being revealed to us) and getting excited along the way, the reveals of information regarding content in BF3 have been worrying me. Space battles are gone, Galactic Conquest is gone, single player is gone, and the maps will take place on just 4 planets revealed so far (Hoth, Endor, Tattooine, and another I believe? Something called 'Sullist'?). Probably the biggest thing I'm saddened about is the removal of the prequel saga/clone wars. Call the movies what you like, but the gameplay in BF2 was to me far more interesting than the original saga. At this point, I'm only seeing content that's made battlefront as a series unique being stripped away. Combine that with a somewhat shady pre-order bonus already confirmed by EA, and I'm struggling to find things appealing to me about BF3.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
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Orange Islands
GatoDelFuego This is bad news... Space battles and the Galactic Conquest were the best reasons to play... Are you seriously telling me there is NO single player options in this game?

The whole point of Battlefront was to be able to move from Space to Ground and fight over planets. It made a lot of sense having to move fleets in and fight a space battle before you could attack the ground...

I do NOT just want a reskinned BattleField 3/4. It SUCKS that there is going to be no space combat, imo its still one of the best space combat sims out there. X wings and TIE Fighters should not be in ground combat, in the lore, everyone knows TIE fighters have huge problems fighting in atmosphere because of their wing shapes (especically compared to the X Wing). It's fairly one sided in terms of X Wing Vs TIE Fighter in atmosphere... In space the tables are turned, the TIE's innate maneuverability gives it a big advantage.

Also; Sullust is the home planet of the Sullustians, master Navigators (the guy with Lando co-piloting the Falcon in Return Of The Jedi is Sullustian). http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sullust It was also the place the Rebel forces massed before the attack on the Forest Moon of Endor and the destruction of the second Death Star.
 

Enguarde

I only play ADV UU
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Besiege is really good fun, very cheap too.

Its essentially a medieval siege engine creator with huge possibilities for flying machines, death machines etc with a great physics engine, its early access but loads of content available for only 7 dollars especially with a new patch along the way to add more parts and bunch of new levels. Kept me amused for hours just building and destroying my creations with a chilled soundtrack and environment. Would recommend youtubing it to see the level of creativity that some people have achieved.
 

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