What is the last video game you played?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I hit 29 in Destiny last night, that's some serious grind. Just one more level to go before I can finally play something else. Game is evil.

What about when they raise the level cap to 35 in December?

I think I'm around 28.5

[Quintus 5,399]

I swore blind to myself I'd refuse the DLC because it isn't new planets (yet).

I'm already resigned to buying it. I just need moar Destiny and its fucking crack leveling system.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Yeah, I'm trying to take a new stance on DLC this generation. No more collector's editions or season passes, unless they are for games I really love. The whole marketing behind it is to get you hyped and buy all the DLC before they even release it, and I've found that by the time it rolls around I've already moved on to something else.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The DLC isn't new planets? Glad I didn't opt to buy it when I bought the game.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You mean it isn't worth $40 for the missions and strikes they cut out of the game pre-launch?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Only $40 to pump Sepiks Prime full of bullets a thousandth time? I'm in!

[Quintus 5,399]

Even though I'm pretty certain an amount of the content was purposefully withheld to be sold on later, I'm still going to buy it, I know I will. I'm disgusted in myself, naturally.

But there's gonna be a serious amount of game added by said dlc, and I know I'll play it to within an inch of its life, so the purchase I can justify to myself; despite the shady publisher monetary influence.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Quint, have you found a sure-fire way to get shards? I do the daily, weekly, Nightfall stuff, and public events, only to always end up with energy. I need shards to level up my gear, which will surely get me to level 29 once I do, but it's a pain to get vanguard and crucible marks to buy legendary armor just to break it down for the shards. Anything quicker?

[King Mark 3,631]

an you pay for "shards" with real money? Obviously that's what they want

This whole Destiny thing reeks of overpriced DLC's and pay to win

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Uh, no. This isn't a Free-To-Play game with micro transactions. You'd love it, nothing but mindless grinding. Dark Souls except with a Halo skin.

[King Mark 3,631]

ok, sorry

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The loot system is random. Ascendant Shards are materials required to upgrade Legendary Armor. Ascendant Energy is what you need to upgrade Legendary Weapons. They are rare, and like I said, awarded randomly in game. There are some activities you can do to get them, like the Daily Heroic Strike (random story mission on hard mode), but it's not always a guarantee, and lately all I've been getting is Energy. Frustrating.

[King Mark 3,631]

Maybe the drop rate is just too low

I had a game recently (Ragnarok Odyssey) where it was the case and I gave up on crafting the best weapons

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Any fans of Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight here? It's been thoroughly overshadowed by its sequels but it still remains a solid and fun game to this day.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

That was brilliant. I didn't get far with the sequel, for various reasons - mostly: it was too unlinear to keep me engaged storywise (at least early on; as I said, I didn't get far), and I had a wireless keyboard at the time, which sometimes failed to send release key events (read: strafe left on a narrow bridge, release the strafe key, still run into the abyss). But JK really made you feel like a genuine Jedi. The music editing was also excellent as far as I remember.

[DreamTheater 131]

That was the one from the late 90s with live action cutscenes? I remember playing that, plus its expansion. Star Wars: Original Trilogy games were still very much relevant and of high quality.

My favourite of the bunch must've been the space combat sim X-Wing Alliance.

[Quintus 5,399]

The loot system is random. Ascendant Shards are materials required to upgrade Legendary Armor. Ascendant Energy is what you need to upgrade Legendary Weapons. They are rare, and like I said, awarded randomly in game. There are some activities you can do to get them, like the Daily Heroic Strike (random story mission on hard mode), but it's not always a guarantee, and lately all I've been getting is Energy. Frustrating.

I went through a phase of finding nothing but Ascendant Energy as well when I was level 27, it was really frustrating (and maddening). Even the Raid awarded me more of it. Level 27-28 was the worst grind of the game for me. Once I broke 28 though I've gotten loads of shards, it's all just random isn't it. But yeah, I make sure I do the hardest dailies, the hardest weeklies and plenty of PEs. Ranking up the Engram guy gives you an ascendant reward as well, so cash them engrams in! Loads at once seems to work for me. And yes, blow that Crucible cash on cheap gauntlets for the dismantle. Earlier this week I got 8 shards in a day doing this. I'm yet to do a Nightfall mission. Tiger Strikes award materials as well, with increased odds in that playlist.

KM you're such an ignorant dinosaur, Destiny doesn't have a single microtransaction in its universe. Although I wish they'd put them in there for cosmetics.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

That was the one from the late 90s with live action cutscenes? I remember playing that, plus its expansion. Star Wars: Original Trilogy games were still very much relevant and of high quality.

No, it was the third person shooter where halfway through the game you mostly stopped shooting and instead just used your lightsaber and force powers. The lightsaber duels with all their various moves and stances were really well made.

My favourite of the bunch must've been the space combat sim X-Wing Alliance.

The X-Wing series is easily one of the best in gaming history, the best entries being TIE Fighter (especially with its original score, which was sadly axed for Williams cues when they remade it with textured DirectX) and X-Wing Alliance.

I still think about making something like that myself.

[DreamTheater 131]

That was the one from the late 90s with live action cutscenes? I remember playing that, plus its expansion. Star Wars: Original Trilogy games were still very much relevant and of high quality.

No, it was the third person shooter where halfway through the game you mostly stopped shooting and instead just used your lightsaber and force powers. The lightsaber duels with all their various moves and stances were really well made.

That's the one, it used live action cutscenes and Williams' music during the gameplay. It also had an expansion with a totally different character.

[Wojo 2,453]

I loved the original Dark Forces. Kyle Katarn never became a Jedi, it was purely first-person, and some of the levels were pretty difficult. Some puzzles I never figured out how to get past, or where the exit was, but the fact it had puzzles and codes to use, and you could jump and look up and down, as skewed as it was, made it a more realistic world than, say, Doom, at least until Duke Nukem 3D and Quake came along.

Jedi Knight, Dark Forces II, was definitely an improvement over the original. The first few levels were pure first-person shooters, but once you get a lightsaber, you really want to switch to third-person to gain peripheral vision, as DT shows above in his duel with Gorc and Pic (yes, I remembered their names). I remember beating this game at least twice, once as a Dark Jedi and the second time as a Light Jedi. I remember that playing as a Light Jedi was more satisfying and actually easier, because I gained an additional defensive power that really came in handy when dueling with Jerec in the final level. I tried it more recently on the most difficult setting, and I couldn't get past the first-person levels. The FMV were cheesy but wonderful, and I always thought Jerec was played by the same guy as Foreman's dad from That 70s Show, but Kurtwood Smith, he wasn't. I did enjoy that sometimes Kyle would make wise-cracks to himself in the game, such as when trying to jump over a vast gorge. The level through the cargo ship as it falls into the canyon, with its tumbling corridors, remains one of the most interesting and original levels of any FPS I've played.

The expansion to Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith, was pretty difficult. While none of the levels in Jedi Knight required you to use Force powers to solve the mazes, some of the levels in MotS did, such as Force Jump to reach higher platforms. I don't remember how far I progressed as Mara Jade, probably not past the first few levels on the Sith planet Dromund Kaas. This one demands a playthrough.

Outcast was marketed as Jedi Knight II instead of Dark Forces III, and gameplay returned to Kyle Katarn. Using the Quake 3 Team Arena engine, this game was gorgeous. Instead of starting out as a full-fledged Jedi, Kyle Katarn has disowned his Jedi abilities, which makes the first few levels first-person shooters without Force abilities. And some of them were very challenging without Force powers. I played this game at the same time as I played Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (another excellent game on the Quake 3 engine), so I get a lot of the early levels and environments confused in my memory. I do want to replay this game because I wasn't very good at the Jedi duels, so I would use cheat codes to advance to the next level.

The final game in the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, was also a lot of fun. In this, Kyle Katarn decides to keep his Jedi powers and take on apprentices. This game was decidedly easier than Jedi Knight because you got to choose from a few more Jedi powers, and since you could play all of the levels in the game to earn experience, you could use them all. Again, it could be first-person if you preferred blasters, but third-person in Jedi mode was really how to play, especially as you toggle between stances. I mostly used Force Pull to disarm anyone with a gun or Force Push to keep knocking them away. I wasn't ever sure if keycards would be lost if you pushed officers into a chasm, breaking the game, but it was still fun. Some of the levels explored neat EU places like Darth Vader's castle, or returned you to Echo Base on Hoth. I'd play this one again just for kicks.

[DreamTheater 131]

Never got to play the later installments and I only remember bits and moments from Jedi Knight, it's been many years. But cool to see you still have such a vivid memory of it all Wojo.

I think this game must've been the first where I really learned to appreciate the music, because it was repeated so often during the levels and I bought the scores not long after. And the movies on good old VHS.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Actually, it was me who mixed up the games, because I wasn't aware that they started out as part of the Dark Forces series. Everything I wrote applies to Jedi Outcast, except when I mention the sequel, which was supposed to be Jedi Academy.

[DreamTheater 131]

There's a bit in Alien: Isolation that raised the hairs on my neck but I won't spoil it, let's just say it recreates a moment from the film, and does so very effectively.

Totally adore the game by the way. The attention to detail and care that Creative Assembly have put into it should please many fans.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy... holy crap, that's a classic! I might have to break it out this weekend.

[Quintus 5,399]

The old FPS games always disappoint the most, I found. Polygon design ages far more rapidly than other graphical styles. There's no way I could play those Star Wars games again now.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

The original X-Wing and TIE Fighter looker crude now, but are still perfectly playable. What does make them a bit less comfortable to play than X-Wing Alliance aren't the inferior graphics but the lack of support for a third joystick axis.

[Wojo 2,453]

I connected the laptop to the big TV via HDMI cable. The mouse is wireless, the keyboard is connected to a USB extension cord, and the X360 controller reaches to the couch. The girlfriend is using it to play Doom 1 using GZDoom, and she's got the hang of it. This is so effing cool.

[Quintus 5,399]

Mine was playing Destiny the other night, she was a bit rubbish at it (she prefers puzzle/kingdom games) but was intrigued by the levelling system after I'd explained it to her.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Played through The Walking Dead: Season 1 on PS4, and am now almost done with Season 2. S2 is better in almost every conceivable way, undoubtedly due to the influence of The Last Of Us. Things are more cinematic and cynical, without the strong hopeful morality overtones of S1. The way things play out are also just a lot less clunky and awkward. The way the developers intertwined all the stories in the 400 Days DLC is pretty cool. I didn't pick up on any of it the first time I played it on PS3. It's a shame none of the characters actually matter in S2 (despite one), but it was a decent bridge.

In Destiny, I beat the raid and now literally have nothing interesting to do in the game. It's difficulty only lies in idiot teammates. The first time I attempted it, we were 4 that had never played it and 2 that had beaten it several times. One took the role as "commander" and told us what to do. We spent about 4 grueling hours on it and didn't even finish. This time around with a fresh group of friends we knocked it out in 60-90 minutes without a hitch. COD can't come soon enough.

[Quintus 5,399]

I'm still playing The Crucible, which I'll be doing for a while yet (till the DLC). CoD multiplayer looks slightly more interesting this year, with its sci-fi stylings and Titanfall inspired traversal, but I'll try before I buy - because Titanfall and CoD in general are shallow as fuck online and so I'm hoping for some mechanical and strategic depth this time around. I'll have a go at my cousin's house. Campaign looks absolutely miserable, so that's a non-starter in terms of me picking it up.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

But it's got Kevin Spacey this time!

I haven't played Crucible in awhile and I went back to it earlier today and it completely turned me off. Everyone using one hit shotguns (guess the nerf wasn't good enough) and out of 10 rounds I only played on 2 different maps. The matchmaking is shit. Every other multiplayer game has a voting option. What's the problem, Bungie?

I miss the fluidity of COD and am hoping this one brings me back to the franchise since Ghosts was so awful. Haven't played a solid FPS in over a year.

[Quintus 5,399]

What about Destiny? You have put dozens and dozens of hours into it and had more than had your monies worth. You sure you're not just being an entitled drama queen?

I don't have any issues whatsoever with matchmaking, it's always been like that since their Halo days. Bungie invented matchmaking and they're still the absolute masters of it for my money. Map voting does need to hurry up and be added though, that's quite right. I think plenty of features are yet to be added, judging by the info in the weekly updates on the official website.

The reason so many are using Fusions is because of the exotic bounties - once everyone has jumped through the necessary hoops you'll see them lessen in usage. I'm an auto rifle guy, I drop those running fusion all the time. I've gotten pretty darn effective in the Crucible, even if I do say so myself. Love it!

The Suros Regime was in Xur's shop again this weekend, did you not acquire it? It's an absolute BEAST in PvP. Fusion shmusion.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Mine was playing Destiny the other night, she was a bit rubbish at it (she prefers puzzle/kingdom games) but was intrigued by the levelling system after I'd explained it to her.

If I ever want to feel like I'm truly awful at the Crucible, I hook up our second controller.

I'm already feeling the urge to play this again despite retiring temporarily. Son of a bitch!

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Played through The Walking Dead: Season 1 on PS4, and am now almost done with Season 2. S2 is better in almost every conceivable way, undoubtedly due to the influence of The Last Of Us. Things are more cinematic and cynical, without the strong hopeful morality overtones of S1. The way things play out are also just a lot less clunky and awkward. The way the developers intertwined all the stories in the 400 Days DLC is pretty cool. I didn't pick up on any of it the first time I played it on PS3. It's a shame none of the characters actually matter in S2 (despite one), but it was a decent bridge.

You liked S2 more? That's strange, you're one of the first I read about that liked it more than S1. It has bearly any actual gameplay -the lack of hubs and puzzles is really dissapointing- and the writing is quite erratic, particularly with that certain character that comes back. I mean, I love him, he's awesome, but I feel like his return killed any actual development of the other characters.

Stil,, I'm giving them a break because the last episode has so many different endings and that's exactly what the game is about: Choices. Or at least, the illusion of choice, which during most of S2 is non-existent. It will be interesting how they carry those different endings to S3. As long as they don't pull an Omid on us, it could be great.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

What about Destiny? You have put dozens and dozens of hours into it and had more than had your monies worth. You sure you're not just being an entitled drama queen?

I don't have any issues whatsoever with matchmaking, it's always been like that since their Halo days. Bungie invented matchmaking and they're still the absolute masters of it for my money. Map voting does need to hurry up and be added though, that's quite right. I think plenty of features are yet to be added, judging by the info in the weekly updates on the official website.

The reason so many are using Fusions is because of the exotic bounties - once everyone has jumped through the necessary hoops you'll see them lessen in usage. I'm an auto rifle guy, I drop those running fusion all the time. I've gotten pretty darn effective in the Crucible, even if I do say so myself. Love it!

The Suros Regime was in Xur's shop again this weekend, did you not acquire it? It's an absolute BEAST in PvP. Fusion shmusion.

Destiny would be a fantastic FPS if it had the content to match the handling. In its current state, I wouldn't call it solid. Bungie just missed too many opportunities with it, in my opinion. Hopefully they really nail it down with the sequel. Matchmaking isn't perfect if I'm playing the same map more than 3 times in a row in the same lobby. I also said shotguns, not fusion rifles. The latter of which also have no bounty in the Crucible, do they? I have to get 200 kills in the Nightfall for my exotic fusion bounty.

I did buy the Regime, and it is great. Trumps my old rare auto that I was so fond of, I think. For strikes and such though I turn to my legendary scout rifles. Got the Vision Of Confluence from the raid and it has a full-auto mode, which is disappointing. It has the exact same rate of fire, you just don't need to tap R2, you can hold it. That doesn't always work though. I've been killed because I'll hold it and it'll only spit out one bullet.

Played through The Walking Dead: Season 1 on PS4, and am now almost done with Season 2. S2 is better in almost every conceivable way, undoubtedly due to the influence of The Last Of Us. Things are more cinematic and cynical, without the strong hopeful morality overtones of S1. The way things play out are also just a lot less clunky and awkward. The way the developers intertwined all the stories in the 400 Days DLC is pretty cool. I didn't pick up on any of it the first time I played it on PS3. It's a shame none of the characters actually matter in S2 (despite one), but it was a decent bridge.

You liked S2 more? That's strange, you're one of the first I read about that liked it more than S1. It has bearly any actual gameplay -the lack of hubs and puzzles is really dissapointing- and the writing is quite erratic, particularly with that certain character that comes back. I mean, I love him, he's awesome, but I feel like his return killed any actual development of the other characters.

Stil,, I'm giving them a break because the last episode has so many different endings and that's exactly what the game is about: Choices. Or at least, the illusion of choice, which during most of S2 is non-existent. It will be interesting how they carry those different endings to S3. As long as they don't pull an Omid on us, it could be great.

I don't play these games for their gameplay, and I don't think anyone does. It's a pure story driven experience, and the first season fails in a lot of ways because of its poor delivery of action. S2 has a much more cinematic and fluent vibe to it that I can relate to more. Also stuff like sneaking into the cabin to stitch my arm back up, dealing with Carver (Michael Madsen!) alone, and just being a tough hard ass as Clem over Lee's clumsy idiot.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

I recently discovered FTL through the Humble Bundle and have been playing it practically non stop for a few days now. It's wickedly addictive... and wickedly hard.

[Wojo 2,453]

It's brutal and at times unplayably unfair.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Unfair? Nah. There's just a large random element involved. But it never strikes me as outright unfair, or in fact frustrating.

[Wojo 2,453]

"About" 30 LucasArts games are coming to GOG tomorrow.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/classic-star-wars-pc-games-x-wing-and-tie-fighter-/1100-6423211/

This is the best news I've heard in a VERY long time!

It is a bit silly to buy TIE Fighter for a third time, but it's worth it to get it to work on modern hardware.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

I wonder if there's a chance for support for additional platforms on any of these.

(And how I wish they'd just make a mod to play the X-Wing SEs with the original game scores...)

[Wojo 2,453]

(And how I wish they'd just make a mod to play the X-Wing SEs with the original game scores...)

One of the quotes in this page makes me wonder if that will be possible tomorrow:

http://kotaku.com/x-wing-tie-fighter-are-finally-getting-digital-re-rele-1651470045?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

"The Special Edition offered here, includes Star Wars™: TIE Fighter and Star Wars™: TIE Fighter - Defender of the Empire, both in the 1994 and 1998 versions!"

If that is true, the 1994 edition would have the MIDI score, while the 1998 version has John Williams' actual music.

[DreamTheater 131]

Oh boy, just read the news myself. I'm definitely game ( ) for this. I've sold all these old games ages ago.

Funny we were just talking about LucasArts SW games a few days ago.

GOG is awesome, plain and simple, keeping the classics alive.

But will the memory of them be as good as actually re-playing them? For some it will, while others may prove to be too clunky.

I will have to find my old trusty Microsoft Sidewinder joystick again if I can remember where I put it.

[Wojo 2,453]

I will have no problem using an X360 game pad for the space games. I already own it and it gives me more buttons than either classic joystick I own, since my gaming system has no old style game port.

[DreamTheater 131]

Really, a gamepad? I have one too but I wonder if that would work.

I still have an old Audigy sound card with a separate game port attached to it.

[Wojo 2,453]

Last time I played X-Wing, I used a Hammerhead FX gamepad and it worked fine. I mean, yeah, you're trading the feel of the joystick in your entire hand for just your thumb or two fingers on a small analog stick, but it can work.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

(And how I wish they'd just make a mod to play the X-Wing SEs with the original game scores...)

One of the quotes in this page makes me wonder if that will be possible tomorrow:

http://kotaku.com/x-wing-tie-fighter-are-finally-getting-digital-re-rele-1651470045?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

"The Special Edition offered here, includes Star Wars™: TIE Fighter and Star Wars™: TIE Fighter - Defender of the Empire, both in the 1994 and 1998 versions!"

If that is true, the 1994 edition would have the MIDI score, while the 1998 version has John Williams' actual music.

it should be easy to implement a la monkey island special edition (on-off key toggle). after all i think it is the same engine but with updated textures.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Apparently it's really both versions, with the originals running in dosbox. Which means I'll definitely grab them for Linux.

it should be easy to implement a la monkey island special edition (on-off key toggle). after all i think it is the same engine but with updated textures.

I don't have details, but I rather doubt that. The originals were DOS games, the SEs were DirectX based Windows games. I expect all the hardware (video, audio, and joystick) code to be completely different.

I do wonder though (theoretically) if iMuse, like Scumm, was abstract and consistent enough so that you could replace the descriptor files and plug the original MIDI score (perhaps via MP3s created from the MIDIs) into the SE. Someone could become my personal hero by doing that.

[King Mark 3,631]

Finished Risen 3, which was a really good RPG(never trust mainstream reviews for RPG's). I like the way the sidequests seemed to have meaning and not just tacked on. The dialogue in the Risen games is really funny and clever, a lot more than the standard NPC replies. But it only made me want more next gen graphics for open world games. The limits of the xbox360 was very clear in this, especially when they try to do a dense jungle setting with a lot of details, everything ends up looking kind of muddy with bad textures and a terrible frame rate

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

it should be easy to implement a la monkey island special edition (on-off key toggle). after all i think it is the same engine but with updated textures.

I don't have details, but I rather doubt that. The originals were DOS games, the SEs were DirectX based Windows games. I expect all the hardware (video, audio, and joystick) code to be completely different.

I do wonder though (theoretically) if iMuse, like Scumm, was abstract and consistent enough so that you could replace the descriptor files and plug the original MIDI score (perhaps via MP3s created from the MIDIs) into the SE. Someone could become my personal hero by doing that.

Apparently, it's worse than that.

Turns out there really *is* a mod to *SOMEWHAT* restore the original scores to the Special Editions:

http://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-x-wing-tie-fighter-series-on-windows-7-windows-8-windows-8-1-with-an-xbox-xb1-playstation-ps4-controller-flight-stick/7/

The catch is that apparently when switching to Redbook Audio (i.e. CD music), they actually threw out iMuse, or perhaps simply severely limited its CD backend. All it does is play entire tracks from the CD and occasionally switch the cue, e.g. when you win a mission apparently. But it doesn't do dynamic inserts and transitions at all (which would of course not be possible with actual hardware CD music playback anyway).

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

How's the press for Dragon Age: Inquisition? I loved the first game but the second was a monumental disappointment on the highest level, mostly because of the massive overhaul of the combat system, short length, and flimsy story . Hopefully Inquisition can correct the previous sequel's ills.