What is the last video game you played?

[Quintus 5,399]

It's a tragedy what has happened to the game's dev.

Whoever is responsible for choosing a release date within a month of Skyrim's has to be the most incompetent producer ever.

[King Mark 3,631]

Well, now IGN reports they were saved by Epic games

[Quintus 5,399]

Yeah, some of the anyway. Good news. But it's still a dismal situation for the team who made Amalur and it's long gestating MMO.

[Quintus 5,399]

Finished Rage at long last. Good game, breathtakingly gorgeous. But about five hours too long and seriously undeveloped in key areas (story, variety, focus). 7/10.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

E3 is upon us. I never liked how IGN blew up with a hundred different articles about everything and having to deal with laggy live streams, so I'll be waiting until the full conferences are available to view in a couple days.

I'll be watching Sony's live though. Looking forward to seeing what they have in store. Perhaps perhaps a release date for The Last Guardian? I hope that doesn't turn into another Gran Turismo 5.

In other news, IGN posted an article describing how they sent out anonymous surveys to 35 trusted developers about the next-gen consoles. 60% said that as of January 1, 2014 they will no longer develop games for the current gen. I guess that means the new systems are gonna be out next year. Still feels early to me.

More concerning: 80% said the new Xbox is easiest to work with and that they expect it to be the sales leader for the first 5 years. With Sony's stock being the lowest since 1986(?), that's not good news.

[Quintus 5,399]

Microsoft's was garbage. Just when I thought they couldnt get anymore out of touch, they come out with Kinect intergrated sports games and some CoD timed-exclusive DLC. Whoopy fucking do.

THANK FUCK FOR HALO 4.

My only reason for watching the show this year, it looks absolutely spectacular. Better even than Bungie.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

After a fantastic 2011, this year is feeling light for Sony. The Last Of Us is the only title I'm really looking forward to. Twisted Metal and Starhawk are kinda meh. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale might be fun, but I think that's it.

[King Mark 3,631]

Microsoft's was garbage. Just when I thought they couldnt get anymore out of touch, they come out with Kinect intergrated sports games and some CoD timed-exclusive DLC. Whoopy fucking do.

They really push that Kinect crap. No real gamer wants it , only kids and "families".

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The Sony conference just finished. Overall quite lackluster, aside from Beyond and the amazing The Last Of Us gameplay preview. What a fucking powerhouse of a game that's gonna be. Its violence is visceral and ugly, this is not the Hollywood blockbuster that was Uncharted.

Ellen Page as a video game protagonist is an interesting idea. Quantic Dream is sure to deliver a unique experience.

The Wonderbook stuff looks godawful, but could provide some interesting innovations for kids and educational gaming. Seems like their imagination was bigger than what they can actually do technologically, the demo was a mess.

As average as Assassin's Creed started, it seems to be getting exponentially better with each entry.

[King Mark 3,631]

No new RPG announcements yet

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Skyrim's DLC is sure to satisfy me on that front. I was hoping for Fallout 4, but if Bethesda's developing it like I hope, then I'd expect that in 2013/14.

[King Mark 3,631]

Well Dark Souls will have a DLC too, but there's no major new RPG's on the horizon it seems

I'm hoping they import Tales of Xillia to North America

[Quintus 5,399]

I'll watch the Sony segment after work tonight.

Has anyone seen Ubisoft's Watchdog? No platforms announced yet, but it has to be next gen. It was mind blowing.

That's what E3 should be all about!

[King Mark 3,631]

Geez, so far E3 is about games I have almost zero interest in

Call of Duty,Gears of War, Dead Space3,Medal of Honor,Resident Evil ,Halo... mostly shooters with "new' online multiplayer features. I liked the first Borderlands but now they seem to be emphasizing the online multiplayer aspect on that too

I only played Assassin's Creed 2 and I'm like 3 games behind. Hard to get excited about a new one

[Quintus 5,399]

Some of those shooters will have great campaigns as well. And Dead Space is a horror with rpg-lite levelling elements, it's not a shooter.

There's no way you're gonna get anymore companies investing in huge current gen rpgs this close to the next gen, KM. They'll certainly be in production, but you will have to wait until the next games consoles to play them.

[King Mark 3,631]

That's what I'm thinking too. I still have big pile of games I bought that I haven't touched yet, so I'll still have stuff to do until next gen

I tried something called Genji Days of the Blade for 5 minutes. Samurai themed hack and slasher with fixed camera and an awful horizontal angle view , terrible non rotating minimap. Will skip that one. I either play a game to the end or drop it immediately

I will now try a strategical JRPG called Valkeria Chronicles for the PS3, which has guns and a pseudo World War 2 setting. It's got good reviews

[Quintus 5,399]

KM, just think how those next gen RPGs are gonna blow your mind

Anyway, I'm now making my way through Shadows of the Damned, which is a fun comedy horror action adventure. Rough around the edges and as juvenile as they come; the game is refreshing in that it it's not a DEAD SERIOUS storyline, having its tongue firmly in it's cheek. You've basically just got to rescue your hot lingerie attired girlfriend who, like the Mario Princess, is constantly dangled in front of you like a carrot, just out of reach. Instead of traversing sunny landscapes and caves collecting mushrooms, you move toward your ultimate goal via sewers, gothic towns and 'the other side'; in third person over the shoulder view, blowing away the undead with a variety of satisfying weaponry. I've laughed out loud a few times whilst playing. And game nudity is always worthwhile. Oh and the regular boss fights aren't pissing me off!

Next up Max Payne 2, which is another rental on its way.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I think you mean Max Payne 3

PS+ is more worthwhile than ever now that they put up 12 free games for its subscribers yesterday. Infamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Just Cause 2, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Saints Row 2... Shit ton of goodies. I was actually thinking of getting Just Cause 2 the other day, now I don't have to!

I went back to Fallout: New Vegas to obtain the trophies for the last DLC, Gun Runners' Arsenal. I pray that Obsidian stays far away from the next entry. They gave this game zero support, it's nearly unplayable. I was fiddling around with it for like 3 hours and probably only got an hour of real gameplay. Had to restart my PS3 around 3 or 4 times, and I'd mostly be walking at 1 frame per second. I felt like I was playing a point-and-click. The puzzling bit is, what the hell is Obsidian doing? It's not like they have other games to support, Bethesda is doing all the work for Skyrim. Terrible developer, they are. I gave up and popped in Assassin's Creed Revelations. I wanna complete that before III comes out, which looks impressive.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

After a fantastic 2011, this year is feeling light for Sony. The Last Of Us is the only title I'm really looking forward to. Twisted Metal and Starhawk are kinda meh. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale might be fun, but I think that's it.

Beyond and Last of Us are certain buys for me.

[Quintus 5,399]

I'm still not completely convinced by either, but I shall definitely be watching them from here on.

PS+ is more worthwhile than ever now that they put up 12 free games for its subscribers yesterday. Infamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Just Cause 2, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Saints Row 2... Shit ton of goodies. I was actually thinking of getting Just Cause 2 the other day, now I don't have to!

That does sound like excellent value, if it's available here as well. I might have a look, if only so I can play Infamous 2 and Warhammer.

[Wojo 2,453]

I went back to Fallout: New Vegas to obtain the trophies for the last DLC, Gun Runners' Arsenal. I pray that Obsidian stays far away from the next entry. They gave this game zero support, it's nearly unplayable...I felt like I was playing a point-and-click. The puzzling bit is, what the hell is Obsidian doing? It's not like they have other games to support, Bethesda is doing all the work for Skyrim. Terrible developer, they are.

Obsidian is working on the South Park RPG, The Stick of Truth.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Great, now I'm no longer looking forward to it

I don't understand how GOTY editions somehow make Fallout worse. It happened with 3 and New Vegas.

[Quintus 5,399]

Oh I'd forgotten about the South Park rpg, unveiled in person by Stone and Parker. It genuinely looks brilliant! Another one to watch, and completely unexpected to boot.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

I'm still not completely convinced by either, but I shall definitely be watching them from here on.

I'm not completely convinced by Heavy Rain, but it's still damn effective and very exciting to play. Beyond's gameplay trailer clearly shows the UC3 engine in full effect, with some neat moves added. I guess at worst it can turn out to be a lame, drawn out UC ripoff - and I'm pretty sure that'd still be worth playing.

[Quintus 5,399]

Both it and Naughty Dog's will definitely be fine games, but I'm not sure if their ambitions will be fully realised, just yet. In the latter, there was still the usual sneaking around behind sofas whilst dumb AI failed to react believably. But it's some way off yet, so here's hoping.

Have you seen the Watch Dogs footage yet? Incredible, I thought.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Really Quint? I thought the character interactions with each other and the environment was the highlight of The Last Of Us. It was so fluid, with immediate reaction. The way the enemy proclaimed he knew that sound when Joel was out of ammo, or when the man with the shotgun proclaims "Where are you fucker?!" after you set his friend on fire. There was intensity in the movements that is rarely seen in games. The violence is drawn out and unpleasant. Instead of the quick snap of a neck like in Uncharted, it's a struggle to choke and bring the man down, with the camera zoomed in on the action. The overall production design is very Naughty Dog, very Uncharted, but everything else is radically different, I thought.

I'm not entirely convinced by Beyond, but they've already sold a copy to me because of Quantic Dream. I loved Heavy Rain, and have no doubt they'll deliver another engaging experience in the interactive drama genre.

[Wojo 2,453]

I don't understand how GOTY editions somehow make Fallout worse. It happened with 3 and New Vegas.

Maybe in console land this is the case, so I can't speak about it. But on the PC, I just know that by the time FO3 GOTY came out, the second DVD contained all the DLC's and should have had the files to patch the game to the latest version -- and if not, they were at Bethesda's website.

Since FNV runs through Steam, it is impossible to not be fully updated unless you deliberately tell Steam to not keep the game up-to-date or only boot Steam in offline mode. And because the game is made by Obsidian, it's usually better to patch the game than run it vanilla because their games are sent to market incomplete and buggy. My only complaint with FNV is that some kind of hardware or software incompatibility prevents me from playing it at all in Windows 7 Pro on my desktop -- or even in XP Virtual Mode, which deactivates hardware acceleration -- so I must reboot into a "real" installation of XP to play it. As a result, I don't play it much.

~*~

The screenshots and trailer for Dawnguard look impressive.

The sketchy info I've seen for Star Wars 1313 looks cool.

Dishonored looks great.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I don't mean an absence of a patch, but that the new patches themselves make the games lag more. When I got GOTY of 3, my game started to freeze way more than it ever did before, and I never had too much of a problem with frame rate in NV than I do now after the Ultimate Edition patch.

[Wojo 2,453]

Ah. That doesn't sound good. Maybe your console needs an upgrade.

Oh snap.

[King Mark 3,631]

My only complaint with FNV is that some kind of hardware or software incompatibility prevents me from playing it at all in Windows 7 Pro on my desktop -- or even in XP Virtual Mode, which deactivates hardware acceleration -- so I must reboot into a "real" installation of XP to play it. As a result, I don't play it much.

you keep saying how PC gaming is great, yet you keep giving me reasons never to go back to it ever again

[Wojo 2,453]

Oh I'm not trying to bring you back to the fold. You couldn't handle it.

I didn't build a system specifically designed to handle a buggy game like New Vegas. It wasn't even a whisper on people's lips back then. Apparently my hardware/software configuration is obscure enough that nobody else has the same problem. Obsidian and Steam don't have very good customer service in these departments.

[Red 75]

The Last of Us and Watch Dogs have been some of the standouts so far this year. The former has some of the most intense combat and smartest A.I. I've ever seen in a game.

Assassin's Creed III looks great too. Love the setting and environments.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Assassin's Creed III looks great too. Love the setting and environments.

I've only played part 2. Enjoyed the detail of the environment, and at first the atmosphere, but after a while the lack of a clear, strong plot started to bother me, and the basic game mechanics became too obvious just running around and picking up random tasks. The ship battle footage from AC3 looks spectacular, but at the same time I can't shake the feeling that it's nearly the same thing as riding a horse in ACII, just with a bigger, differently styled horse and the possibility to fire to your left and your right.

[King Mark 3,631]

the world of AC2 felt very artificial.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It's supposed to, it's just The Matrix; but perhaps you meant something else.

I only played the first Assassin's Creed for an hour or so, and found it quite average, much like the fist Infamous. I really liked II though, for some reason. The minimal RPG elements of maintaining your small city and repairing shops and such got me interested in keeping up with it. Brotherhood made the gameplay even better with the addition of controlling your own assassin's and upgrading them and sending them on missions. I really liked that addition. Then now with Revelations they added more stuff to better the gameplay.

With each installment, the gameplay gets better and more interesting, yet the plot and missions feel tedious. Each game is bookended with Desmond Miles' story, but everything in the middle is Ezio. So I feel like this franchise should have ended awhile ago, it's certainly not worthy of yearly entries. No game is, honestly. If they did it every 2 years, it would have given the developer time to really make the necessary changes to make each one a leap forward from the previous, rather than a small step. The cliffhanger endings are daft too.

[King Mark 3,631]

Valkeria Chronicles is pretty good. Takes a few hours to understand all the game mechanics it but I think it's going to be a long game

The graphics look drawn like in Borderland and a mix of strategical RPG/ 3rd person shooter

[Wojo 2,453]

My suspension of disbelief in Skyrim is shattered when I have to sneak up on a group of vampires hiding in their lair, but can whip out my trusty pickaxe and loudly mine the iron ore that lies within earshot.

Fortunately I can camp from above and just pelt Conjure Flame Atronach on them and boost my Conjuration skill.

[Wojo 2,453]

One does not simply walk from Ivarstead to the Dwemer Storeroom at Mzulft by way of Mistwatch carrying 2100 lbs of crap. It takes 42 uses of the Whirlwind Shout and about two innings.

[Quintus 5,399]

[Wojo 2,453]

Never really had interest in the franchise before. That still doesn't sell me.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

That was good.

[Maglorfin 196]

Any ideas when the trailer for Black Ops II might come out? My expectations are not really that high, based on what I've read so far, and I really want to know if I'm going to be proved wrong.

[King Mark 3,631]

I've already vowed never to play a Call of Duty game

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Any ideas when the trailer for Black Ops II might come out? My expectations are not really that high, based on what I've read so far, and I really want to know if I'm going to be proved wrong.

The first teaser was out last month and it's been extensively demoed at E3. Gotta keep up man!

[Quintus 5,399]

It looks horrific.

[Maglorfin 196]

I've already vowed never to play a Call of Duty game

How's that?

The first teaser was out last month and it's been extensively demoed at E3. Gotta keep up man!

Oops, my bad.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It looks horrific.

It's just more of the same, with a different skin. Like all game franchises, honestly.

Here's the E3 demo, Mag:

[Maglorfin 196]

Cheers, mate!

[King Mark 3,631]

I've already vowed never to play a Call of Duty game

How's that?

Because online shooters suck. You do the same thing over and over with different "maps" and your in a bad mood after playing 15 minutes because pretty much everyone is better than you since they play 24hours/7days a week or cheat

It's a sorry excuse not to make a real game with a complex story and deeper game play. Since they sell so well and it's an easy cash grab for game companies they set the tend of simplifying games for the masses and make developers lazy. Plus the trend of incorporating shit multiplayer contents to games that should be single player only

CoD is to videogames what Transformers is to summer blockbusters

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Online shooters are amazing, if done properly. If you suck at MP, that's just you. I enjoy it and do well often. The key to success in COD is to have fun with it. Should be a given, right? Well if you think about gaming, it's all about exploiting its mechanics. COD takes a certain amount of familiarity with FPSs and good reflexes, but after that it's about exploiting the game. Crap like quick scoping, drop shots, etc. "Hardcore" gamers do this, and yes they get very very mad when they lose, or even get killed against their will. This is where my fun comes in. I piss them off, and it's hilarious.

You can also have fun by simply playing, but there are so few gamers like this. I think I've encountered maybe 3 or 4, that just don't care. Everyone else comes up with an excuse. Oh you were camping, using that gun, that attachment, that perk, that killstreak. It's never their fault that they died. If you can accept when someone is just better than you and you played terribly for a match, then COD is some of the best online gaming there is.

Its problem, in my opinion, is the yearly release. All gaming franchises have essentially the same gameplay, but with new characters, locales, weapons, etc. It's a given. You want more of the same, but different. If the game is being released year after year, it gets tiresome. Players find it redundant and lazy, but I'm fairly certain this wouldn't be an issue if the development process took 2 years. Not only do you give yourself more time to fine-tune the technical aspect, it gives you more time to expand the creative aspect.

What I find fascinating about what Activision has under its belt, is the ever rising mountain peak of cash. COD gets bigger each year, with no signs of slowing down. Yet people complain more and more with each passing year. It makes no sense, unless they're all hypocrites, which is very likely. Since it's so successful, other developers closely follow that style of gameplay and therefore the FPS genre is reduced to COD clones. But there are still games here and there that break from the mold, typically AAA titles that already have a predefined gameplay style, i.e. Battlefield and Killzone.