The Gaming Postwhoring Thread

[shirenuファクトリー]

I hate that I have these ideas for RPGs, but always get them way before being able to try them - like now I'm on my first and vanilla playthrough on Skyrim, and for my 2nd character I want to install a few graphics mods & alternative beginning and I can't do that yet because installing mods in the middle of a game is Not A Great Idea...

I want to RP a mage who doesn't kill everything in her way, instead calming them down or trying to sneak by. (I'm not going for a zero kill count! Just attempting to do things differently.) And I'd like to play her as someone who actually eats meals and needs rest and such, but without installing mods that require these because I feel that if it becomes an actual matter of survival I might become turned off by the idea >_< I'd also like to play her without fast travel, so... obviously, it would be very slow going and I couldn't focus on completing a certain questline all at once, most likely,  because so many of them require you to travel to some place on the other side of the map what. (I think I'd allow her to use the horse carriage tho)

But yeah, might be still a long time till I get there. My first character is this completionist character and of course there is still a lot to do. -.-

...I also had an idea of playing a hearing impaired character, with subtitles turned on assuming that she can read lips. Basically I'd play with no sound, get surprise attacked, never know what's going on behind my back But now I think it might even cause anxiety, because my brain simply isn't accustomed to it and I rely on my hearing a LOT in these games. My hearing tells me if there are  bandits behind a corner, how close I am to some critter, etc. It would definitely impact the difficulty. At the same time it's an exciting idea because it would change my gameplay in so many ways. For instance, now if I see combat in the distance I'll run right in to join the party and see whose side to take. If I had no hearing clues, I'd probably stay a safe distance away because I can't hear crucial information and running in the middle of action is just a bad idea when you're not even sure what's going on. It'd be a more cautious, scary way of playing

So err.. ... Anyone experimented with different types of RP in video games, beyond choosing a certain "class" like archer and whether you're a "good" or "bad" guy? Usually all I'll stick to is some sort of "morality", tho my code can still be flawed. lol

[Tuffty]

So err.. ... Anyone experimented with different types of RP in video games, beyond choosing a certain "class" like archer and whether you're a "good" or "bad" guy? Usually all I'll stick to is some sort of "morality", tho my code can still be flawed. lol

The farthest I've ever gone is committing to not using fast travel in Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout 3. I feel like if I'm on this epic journey then it should feel like I've walked all the way to it. Besides, by not using fast travel I get to maybe stumble into new areas or quests that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Happened all the time in Morrowind. I tend to break it when gameplay systems get in the way like encumberance in which I'll fast travel to my home, dump my stuff there and then move on. I can't even seem to commit to a character class, because I started off as a battlemage, but now I'm more invested into sneaking when I can then resorting to close combat, with magic a distant third. Your ideas sound cool though Shi! Definately interested to see how this pacifist style of gameplay would take you. There was a blog of someone who decided to act as an NPC in Skyrim. No adventures, no dungeon looting or anything like that. Instead he assumed the role of someone who made it onto Skyrim and trying to carve out a living with no money, seeking a job, eating and sleeping at regular times and living by his morals. The results of which can be found here.

Picked up The Last Of Us after beating Uncharted 2 (brilliant game btw). Quite the powerful opening, sets the tone perfectly. Me and Hart got into a few online matches as well and did pretty good! I think we only lost 1 out of 7 matches together so not bad at all, hope to do it again. Completed a few other games as well. ICO was as good as a I remember but also wayyyy shorter, like 3-4 hours and that's just taking my time. Playing Shadow of the Colossus now which is more beautiful, more epic and an all round better game. Love it. Also completed Hotline Miami. Another great game with a very trippy story, I don't really quite understand what happened. Apparently there's an alternate ending to work around so I'll try going for that. Also completed Battlefield 3 single player which was pretty underwhelming. Very few exciting moments, super linear and the climax to the whole story is this one drawn out, boring QTE sequence. The real magic of the game is in the multiplayer, which I'm having tons of fun with. Getting pretty good at it now, in one game last night I killed 39 dudes and died 5 times. That's a big deal!

[Hart]

^ You're lucky it was a good day for me on The Last of Us multiplayer. Usually I get stuck with either noobs or assholes who'll teabag the last guy on the other team (vice-versa if I'm against them), ending up with 40-60% of my clan dying from failed missions and outbreaks of dysentery. 

Anyway, how goes the journey of Joel and Ellie? Running out of ammo and supplies too quickly? What do you think of the Infected?

Instead of starting on Uncharted 2 like I had planned before the family cruise trip I'm playing The Last of Us again, this time on New Game+. A day in and I'm already near the halfway point. Should definitely try out Survivor mode with a lot less ammo/supplies and no listening mode.

[shirenuファクトリー]

^^ You know Tuff I hate you for linking that NPC thing because I stayed up till 1am reading it.

But it was very inspiring! Sounded exactly the type of thing I'd like to try. I remember being into alchemy in Oblivion. Been quite ignoring it on Skyrim so far, too busy GOING THROUGH DUNGEONS

[Tuffty]

^ You're lucky it was a good day for me on The Last of Us multiplayer. Usually I get stuck with either noobs or assholes who'll teabag the last guy on the other team (vice-versa if I'm against them), ending up with 40-60% of my clan dying from failed missions and outbreaks of dysentery. 

Anyway, how goes the journey of Joel and Ellie? Running out of ammo and supplies too quickly? What do you think of the Infected?

I know what you mean, when you're in a team of morons, like I was for a few matches yesterday it really is the absolute worst. Charging into enemies like it was Call of Duty. Getting completely oblivious to where they're being shot at and getting put down so easy.  Not reviving me when I'm down despite the fact I'm right next to you behind cover. So annoying. But it's awesome when it swings round and you're in a good team, or have one of those moments where you take out two enemies hiding out in a room because you snuck up behind them with a shotgun.

Haven't played that terribly much of single player, only just had my first run in with a Clicker. Creepy as fuck. Playing on Hard and I'm doing ok for resources at the minute, haven't fired a single shot yet because I'm super stealthy, flat out avoiding confrontation if I have to. You can tell playing on Hard reduces the amounts of resources you can find, as I'm opening up drawers with nothing in them. Liking the story and the characters too. I feel more attached to Ellie at this point than I ever did for Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite.

What I actually seem to like the most, and it's a small thing, but it's the sheer level of detail in the environments. Not only is it a gorgeous game but you rarely see assets being reused like in other games. Like I see pictures on the wall that were created just for that room and are never seen again. They didn't have to create a picture of this man on the wall but they did. They didn't have to create an office flowchart on this wall but they did. You can tell a lot of time and money went into this game. It's a small thing that makes it that little bit more immersive.

On another tangent, really enjoying XCOM at the minute. Now at the point where having to decide which missions to go on could spread panic across other countries and having to manage all that plus my spending on research and engineering is really interesting. I've already lost my best soldier in battle and because death is permanent, it means I've lost all his skills and abilities to use, meaning I have to train another Heavy from the ground up. Tough pill to swallow, I could just load an earlier save, but I want to live with my decisions and the consequences of them.

*EDIT*

Just had that encounter in a room full of Clickers. That's probably the most tense I've been playing a game in a long time. I actually didn't realise I was holding my breath towards the end until we made it out of there.

[Hart]

^ Yeah the Clickers freaked the shit out of me when they first appeared. Unless I had shivs ready I avoided them at all costs, going after the Runners instead. If I'm lucky a well-timed distraction brings a bunch of the Infected together so either I can escape or throw a molotov at them, hopefully bringing in more Clickers to that area to burn. Even on Normal you open drawers only to find nothing. They're usually lying around in some corner after turning the camera to a different angle.

I think I spent twice as long for my first playthrough because of the environments and all the details I felt I had to look at. Hell I spent most of the opening figuring out when the Outbreak began by reading the newspaper lying around and the time on the clocks. On a side note I can probably guess Joel's birthday as well.

[paraspam]

I bought Metro Last Light during the Steam sale and I'm extremely impressed. It's an improvement on the first one in the series. There's more opportunities to explore hidden rooms and find extra items. The main problem is that it's quite linear, like the first game. The graphics are fantastic and I really love the setting.



Another game I've been playing is Animal Crossing New Leaf for the 3ds. It's been a surprising amount of fun - catching bugs, decorating my house and hating Tom Nook.

[Tuffty]

There are a few game developers I don't like. Nobody can top David Cage (Farenheit, Heavy Rain) for me, but Phil Fish (Fez) is probably somewhere around there. I haven't played Fez, but I understand that a lot of people like it, citing it as their favourite game of last year. It's just his general attitude, his arrogance when addressing fans and media and his grossly inaccurate statements on the industry and projecting them as fact. Like when he said that current day Japan doesn't know how to make good videogames. He's just talking nonsense because there are plenty of examples that could prove him wrong. When fans were telling him this via Twitter, his response was something like "I've won an award, go suck a dick!"

Anyway, I bring this up because Fez 2 was announced a few weeks ago and in an unrelated note, a journalist from GameTrailers took Fish to task, specifically on his refusal to talk about MS Xbox One policies, but it escalated into a torrent of personal attacks on him. Fish responded via twitter, the journalist that he should compare his life to Fish's and then go kill himself. But then, in a pretty shocking move, Fish just cancelled Fez 2 in response. Just announced that it's cancelled. I don't think both parties look good, nobody should be subjected to such verbal abuse for doing your job. Fez is still a pretty cool game too. This whole thing could have just been handled better. If only Fish was better willing to take some criticism rather than just dealing it out. You can read about the whole thing here.

[thatonezombie]

I do agree that canceling Fez II was not the right thing to do in this situation. But, I am leaning toward Fish's side here.

Marcus Beer (the GameTrailers journalist who was involved) not only went at Fish, but at Johnathan Blow as well for their lack of comments about the Xbox One policies, and honestly, I don't think he needed to fire shots at them for the interest or lack thereof on various things in video games. Developers and publishers don't owe anything to the press, and the press doesn't owe publishers and developers anything as well. So Fish didn't choose to say anything about it. Okay. Move on.

The "kill yourself" thing was outrageous and uncalled for. Apparently the quote was pulled from Futurama. But that doesn't change how inconsiderate and fucked up it is to say to someone.

I like Phil Fish. I don't think he's some video game deity, (Ed Boon, he's one) but I do generally like where he comes from, even if I don't agree with it. As Mr. Tuffty pointed out, his comments are grossly inaccurate at times, but I do find his demeanor genuine, and above all else, I can at least respect that. As detailed in Indie Game: The Movie and other media that Fish was in, he hasn't had the most easy-going experience in video games.

My overall point being, it's sad that people were offended and a game that was hotly anticipated was canned because of an assumption that was proved to be false.

[Tuffty]

Wow it's not just Fez 2 but games development completely? Bit rash don't you think?! I've no doubt this won't last and Fez 2 will show up as a kickstarter at some point.

Things starting to go tits up in XCOM. Egypt and Nigeria are losing their shit at me while Japan, India and the UK are getting there. I just don't have the time or finances to build more satellites to cover them. FUUUUUUUUUU. Hoping they can keep it together for a few days while one is being built but it's not looking good. If any missions come from Africa I'll just have to take it regardless of difficulty or the reward and hope for the best.

[thatonezombie]

I expect Fez II to be brought back in development at a certain point. But it takes something drastic for people to notice. I mean, in the wake of all this, there have been a ton of articles written and conversations being made about the relationship of press people and developers/publishers in video games. Us talking about it here proves it so. Video games deserve intelligent conversations. Again, it's sad that Fez II had to be canceled for it to happen.

--

I finished Evoland awhile ago. I was thinking about Rogue Legacy should be what I play next, but I don't know for sure.

Speaking of which, Rogue Legacy make it in the PAX 10 this year! Check out the list!

http://prime.paxsite.com/pax10

Also, as posted here before, I'm going to PAX Prime for all four days. If there is a game in the PAX 10 (or any game or anything else at PAX) that interests you, go ahead and tell me here or post in the comments in this article, and I'll do my best video game journalist impression to cover it for you! Sure, there are more professional, bigger sites that can do that, but it's me, TOZ! You know me! 

http://selective-hearing.com/pax-prime-2013-it-just-got-better/

[shurastriker]

[Tuffty]

Brad from 4PlayerPodcast is just really annoying me now. His expectation of games is set far too high and if a game doesn't match them then it's immediately shit. I'm all for wanting developers to raise the bar and be ambitious, but you also have to realise that it costs time and money to make games nowadays, something which is lost on him. It's also just the way he attacks other people on Twitter who raise up counter points, like me, and even those who work at the site in a way that I can only describe as, childish. There's no point listening to his reasoning or diatribes any more and I tend to shut off when he's speaking. Same goes for Nolan, an otherwise ok guy, but not a terribly great podcast personality. But it's more the fact that if anyone wants to raise a point or talk, they're immediately shut down by him in a way that I always find insulting. Just the way he says 'Hold on' or 'Let me finish' (and it happens a lot), always makes the podcast a little more awkward to listen to. 4PP wasn't the greatest gaming podcast ever but it was a decent listen. Now it's just...ok. It's not good when I can relate to 2 out of the 4 personalities.

PS Plus put up some new games for August. Back a few months ago, Need For Speed : Most Wanted and Forza Horizon came out and I went for the latter in the end. The fact I can now play NFS for free is damn near perfect for me. Multiplayer is fun, just wish I had more friends to play with because it could be really crazy. Also picked up Spec Ops : The Line. An average shooter at best, but the early story hooks are very interesting and are making me want to play on.

[thatonezombie]

Hey everybody!

I don't know if you realize it, but the PAX Prime 2013 schedule is out!

http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule

Remember,  post a comment on this article (http://selective-hearing.com/pax-prime-2013-now-with-schedules/), or hit me on twitter, or hell, post in this thread on the shit you see on the schedule that you want me to see and report on!

They are going to update that schedule the closer it gets to the end of August so if you don't see the certain panel (Like the Giant Bomb Panel), check out the panel every so often until you see it then shoot it over my way.

The offer also applies to any video games, tabletop stuff, or anything else that is PAX related.

Shameless shilling be dammed! 

[Tuffty]

Heard about this in the Giant Bombcast, it's a site called Salty Bet. Basically people can watch a livestream of this 2D fighting game and bet fake money on bouts between randomly generated, computer controlled characters from fighting games, anime and comic books. I tuned in this morning to see Commissioner Gordon fighting Shaq. Cloud vs Gohan. Buttercup from Powerpuff Girls vs Snoopy. All with randomly picked music from various game soundtracks as well. The fighting game itself is pretty broken, I've seen cases of infinite juggles, characters with small hitboxes and the like, but the fun is at first seeing who is paired off in a fight, then guessing which of the two you can bet your fake money on, based on how broken or overpowered you think that character will be. Then you just watch the madness unfold. I've spent a good amount of time this weekend watching it Protip: Always bet on lolita anime characters. They're always pretty overpowered!

[coachie]

Bought Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons and it's as good as I was hoping.
The music, graphics and atmosphere is just amazing.
Controls are simple but getting the brothers to run in the same direction can be a battle of brain and thumbs... at least for me
For some reason my brain insists that it's Big Brother=right Stick, Little Brother=left stick, when it's the other way around.
And there's no way to change the control scheme.
'

[john_hung]

dead rising 2 free for xbox live gold members (lol gold member  )

[mode107]

I still play Skyrim about everyday, but I've finished every main quest and side quest, at least I believe I have. I've checked wikis and still travel around hoping that there's still something out there. Only types of quests that I can do are the radiant quests for the guilds I'm apart of. They have become beyond repetitive.  When I first felt like this I decided to go ahead and make another character. It was okay for a bit, but I eventually deleted him after I accidentally saved over a file for my main guy. Really wish I had a good reason to  continue playing it.

I probably wouldn't feel like this if I had the game for PC. I'm quite jealous of all the mods on skyrim nexus. Well, GTA V comes out in a month, so guess I'll finally be able to move on.

[Tuffty]

Just finished one of the most interesting and thought provoking games in a while. Spec Ops : The Line. As a game it's fairly average but the story was so interesting. Looking in, you would think the game targets the typical modern warfare shooter mindset that people get into, where you just roll with the violence and lose yourself in all the bullet's flying and explosions. While that's certainly how it starts, the story then takes hold and touches on darker subjects about war, war crimes, post-traumatic stress disorder etc that other games of it's kind just don't touch. It doesn't glorify war, or revel in it. Without wanting to give too much away, the game asks questions to the protaganist, that may as well be directed at you, the player. At times I felt awful playing it! One moment in particular truly stood out and is quite frankly jaw dropping when you realise what just happened and what you did. Not the protaganist, you. I certainly didn't feel like a hero when the game was over. No other game has made me feel like a piece of shit or question my actions like this does. It almost feels like the only way to 'win', was to not play at all. I thought it was fascinating.

[winner]

^I posted it a while back. But you might enjoy it more now since you've played the game. For a shooter, they really put some heart into the storytelling.

This interview for Spec Ops The Line with Walt Williams (the writer) was pretty cool.
It does talk about the ending, so don't read until you've finished the game.

They mainly chat about how the game flips a lot of basic shooter-game cliches, and noting a lot of subtle visual effects they added that players might've missed.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/20/the-story-secrets-of-spec-ops-the-line