Video Games

^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osu!_Tatakae!_Ouendan only in japanese, though. but you don't need to know any ***, it's a "rhythm game" and fantastic at that. since you can download, you should give it a try!

Finally started playing Arkham Asylum. I am shocked at how well-made this game is.

haven't played in years, but does anyone else have my same weird taste in games - city-building and traffic simulation??

traffic giant, office tower, simcity, etc.

Originally Posted by zillka

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haven't played in years, but does anyone else have my same weird taste in games - city-building and traffic simulation??

traffic giant, office tower, simcity, etc.

Not so much traffic, but Railroad Tycoon?

There's also a supposedly excellent rail game on Steam, I forgot what it's called

Anyone try the battlefield demo?

Originally Posted by Nananine

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Not so much traffic, but Railroad Tycoon?

There's also a supposedly excellent rail game on Steam, I forgot what it's called

yasss i used to masturbate to railroad tycoon, but the equity management aspect of it turned me off; ironically work in the field years later

Originally Posted by dusty

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all quests become repetitive despite varied story threads, item management can feel like a chore, VATS was stupid, etc. .
Definitely part of it. The first person shooter aspect of it wasn't that polished in that the controls weren't that great. VATS is a cool idea but kinda lame after a bit. There is a ton of clunky/awkward walking around and talking to useless people. Never really made me get emotionally invested in any character or anything. I never am a huge fan of the create your own character or the 1st person storyline (where "you" are supposed to be the star kinda thing) as i would rather have an actual character with personality or even a silent character who part of the story. The quests and exploration weren't really that interesting to me. I dunno. It was a solid game for the genre i guess. Just wasn't that entertaining for me i guess. I can play some slow RPGs as i learned how to read when i was 4 by playing the original dragon quest and final fantasy pretty much. I want to try mass effect but i worry i would have to play the first one before the 2nd. Not to mention i'm a bit worried that it'll be like a Xenosaga thing (which i didn't like) where it's just way too much cinema to the point where i get a bit tired of it. No offense to video game makers, but the cinema/story aspect will never be an award winning movie. So when they go way too into making it a movie experience i usually get annoyed. I prefer a balance between freedom/exploration, some structure (not necessarily linear but at least something), fun but not pretentious story (can be somewhat cliche that's fine), a battle system that provides some depth but not overwhelmingly so, has fun secrets (but not the kind you'll only know if you troll gamefaqs forum and you need to accomplish the first 10 minutes in the game or after 30 hours you won't be able to redeem the award), and basically just keep me engaged and wanting to get better but still allow me to sorta csonk out. That's just kinda what i hope for though i know most people are different. I liked watching my friend play the original bioshock although i'm not sure i'd be able to play it all the way through. Then again, i've found myself pretty unmotivated in general lately. Still need to force myself to keep playing the new zelda game. I'm a few hours in and it's enjoyable

Originally Posted by zillka

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haven't played in years, but does anyone else have my same weird taste in games - city-building and traffic simulation??

traffic giant, office tower, simcity, etc.
Used to play tons of sim city and sim city 2000 when i was a kid.
Also used to draw diagrams of made up freeway intersections. In my free time.

Mass effect 2 is awesome, couldn't think of a better way to waste my holiday vacation. 28 hours so far and maybe half done!

and on a disapointing note, the new AVP game demo seems to suck, according to Chinese Experts.

any feedback on darksiders or bayoneta? can't decide between the two.

Finally beat Mass Effect 2. It is a great game that didn't disappoint, and I tend to be pretty picky.

At first I was worried when I heard that Bioware was going for (their words) a "Call of Duty" combat experience. I'm a CRPG fan, ever since I blew up the Master with my Turbo Plasma Rifle in the original Fallout. I like my character sheets and statistics and formulas. Mass Effect had that, albeit highly distilled, but still recognizable. And Dragon Age, another Bioware game, still clung to those CRPG roots.

But Bioware pulled it off. I wouldn't compare Mass Effect 2 to CoD. That would be an insult to the former. This game has a solid FPS element but it also has oh so much more.

This game is cinematic with a capital C. It's not the bad kind of cinematic, in which you're forced to endure minute-long summon spell animations or ham-acted cutscenes. It's the good kind of cinematic, in which your dialog interactions are conveyed with quality voice-acting and camerawork that reminds you of what you see in movies. The character animations are interpolated a lot better between lines; the first one had annoying animation stutter (Dragon Age also has this.)

There really isn't anything bad I can say about this game. Ok well maybe some of the story elements aren't explained as well as I would like, but the lead writer is writing a prequel novel and some comic books to take care of those plot holes. And there some iPhone game that explains where two of the characters came from but I heard it sucked so I'll pass. And the planet scanning thing can get repetitive, although I enjoy the ka-ching sound whenever I scan a huge lode of minerals.

You don't have to play the first game in order to play Mass Effect 2. You also don't have to eat with utensils. The first game is awesome in itself, and many (MANY) decisions you make will carry over. I'm amazed at how they managed to remember them all, even the small ones. It's definitely a different experience from the second, though. Mass Effect was all about exploration and discovering the unknown, then shooting it with very large guns (in the words of an npc.) Its game mechanics and design choices reflect that. Mass Effect 2 is goal-oriented, and your goal involves a suicide mission, so you'll be doing a lot more shooting and a little less wandering around.

Going to play through it on hardcore difficulty now. I hear you get a great weapon in one stage for doing so.

Originally Posted by yerfdog

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Used to play tons of sim city and sim city 2000 when i was a kid.
Also used to draw diagrams of made up freeway intersections. In my free time.

dude i thought i was the only one who did that.

i literally have sticky notes in my office of highways, etc. some of them get intense (red pen, for subway lines, blue pen for light rail) and then i usually end up throwing them out and redoing it. where've you been all my life?

Originally Posted by zillka

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dude i thought i was the only one who did that.

i literally have sticky notes in my office of highways, etc. some of them get intense (red pen, for subway lines, blue pen for light rail) and then i usually end up throwing them out and redoing it. where've you been all my life?

you guys are fucked up

Question for those who have played Dragon Age and WoW or Everquest or Morrowind/Oblivion:

I'm thinking of picking up Dragon Age: Origins for my PC

Wanted to know about standard load times and GUI... does your PC need to be state of the art to reduce load times, and what can be expected from a middle of the road PC?

Also, what kind of view options are there? My preference is to be able to control the view similarly to WoW and Everquest and Oblivion, where you move using the "A, W, S, D" keys and moving the mouse moves your view if you right-click and hold down, and where scrolling the mousewheel up/down acts as a zoom in/out feature. Also, this enables your main character to remain in the center of the screen no matter what's going on, unless you physically change the view-type.

Is this style of view/play possible in Dragon Age? Because I tried Neverwinter Nights 2, and quit after one day due to the lack of view-control I'm used to while playing Everquest and/or WoW.

And finally, what has more total play time: Dragon Age, or Oblivion?

Thanks