OT: General Video Game Discussion VIII

[elnewby]

Soo many good games coming out this time of year. $$$

Bought Madden and NHL.

Have FIFA and NBA 2k preordered waiting for me..

Also, bought a steering wheel on clearance, any suggestions on racing games? I'm on XB1. I've heard Forza is a great choice.

 

[Wild11MN]

Soo many good games coming out this time of year. $$$

Bought Madden and NHL.

Have FIFA and NBA 2k preordered waiting for me..

Also, bought a steering wheel on clearance, any suggestions on racing games? I'm on XB1. I've heard Forza is a great choice.

Yeah, the Forza games get a lot of hype. I really enjoyed Forza Horizon 2, which came out a year ago. That's the only one in the series I've played. Not a realistic/simulation game like the normal Forza games are (I think). But I like arcade-y racing games anyway.

 

[Hall of Faber]

Soo many good games coming out this time of year. $$$

Bought Madden and NHL.

Have FIFA and NBA 2k preordered waiting for me..

Also, bought a steering wheel on clearance, any suggestions on racing games? I'm on XB1. I've heard Forza is a great choice.

iRacing.

Yea Forza.

My console days are over. iRacing is just everything I need in life!

 

[Puhis]

iRacing.

Yea Forza.

My console days are over. iRacing is just everything I need in life!

Second that. You can skip Forza and just go iRacing. The best racing platform there is, even if it has its flaws.

 

[Avder]

You know what I never thought I'd do to customize the way my throttle works?

Learn how to manually compute square roots.

Yeah, you read that right.

Now, why in the hell would I need to do that? Well the Throttle's thumbstick has a circular range of motion. I need a square range of motion for lateral thrusters in the Descent series of games. Being able to cough up a square root was a big part of the algorithm I implemented to map the circular joystick movement to square virtual joystick movement. It's not the prettiest thing, but it works and it conserves the sticks full range of motion whereas I would have lost some if I had just truncated the outputs to a square shape.

Math points if you understood any of that.

 

[gphr513]

I can't recommend FIFA 16 highly enough.

I'm almost stunned at how good the AI is.

I have a set of sliders that is making the game run fantastic. The pace is actually decent (much slower than other FIFA's), and the AI is just great. The ball is actually loose, and rather unpredictable. In all the past FIFA's, you pretty much always kind of felt that one person "had possession" of the ball, even if it was in the open. But this year, it seems like when someone takes a bad touch, it doesn't just automatically go to a place where the attacker will be able to get it again. But this year, there are plenty of times when it feels like it's a true random bounce, feels so organic.

For the first time ever, the midfield actually means something. I was REALLY struggling for the first 10-15 games or so that I played, because I was just doing the same old ping ponging up the field that I've kind of been programmed to do against the FIFA AI, but it doesn't work this year. It forces you to play a possession game, with smart passes in the midfield.

If you are patient, the AI will open up, and you'll create opportunities, but just banging it up the field and going over the midfield will more often than not result in the AI easily getting the ball back.

It's a wonderful game. Bravo, EA.

 

[00xtremeninja]

I caved with UMN school spirit and bought NCAA 14 as it has been a long time since I have played a football video game. Now I remember why I loved them so much, and with the AI actually being competitive, its been a treat to play. Still figuring out the million controls that are attached to it, but for the most part it is still pick up and play. I love the passing mechanics and the ability to place the ball as it's thrown.

Sad that EA/NCAA have their dispute, the college games are incredibly fun to play

 

[gphr513]

I caved with UMN school spirit and bought NCAA 14 as it has been a long time since I have played a football video game. Now I remember why I loved them so much, and with the AI actually being competitive, its been a treat to play. Still figuring out the million controls that are attached to it, but for the most part it is still pick up and play. I love the passing mechanics and the ability to place the ball as it's thrown.

Sad that EA/NCAA have their dispute, the college games are incredibly fun to play

They definitely are.

I love the recruiting. Super fun to win a hotly contested recruiting battle for a blue chip guy, and then watch him develop on the field. Also the other side of the coin, when you offer a 2 star kid just to fill out your class, and he ends up being a beast!

 

[Wild11MN]

So I'm part of the Xbox preview program and just got the new dashboard update - the complete makeover. I'll mess around with it and report my thoughts.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

So I'm part of the Xbox preview program and just got the new dashboard update - the complete makeover. I'll mess around with it and report my thoughts.

How'd you become part of it?

 

[Wild11MN]

How'd you become part of it?

You need an invite from someone already in the program. I want to say they're not accepting any new members though right now? Could be wrong but too lazy to look it up at the moment.

Also takes a few weeks before they accept you usually. If they are still accepting members, I could send you an invite.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

You need an invite from someone already in the program. I want to say they're not accepting any new members though right now? Could be wrong but too lazy to look it up at the moment.

Also takes a few weeks before they accept you usually. If they are still accepting members, I could send you an invite.

Ehhh... I am too lazy to ask you to look.

 

[gphr513]

So I'm part of the Xbox preview program and just got the new dashboard update - the complete makeover. I'll mess around with it and report my thoughts.

How does it look?

 

[Wild11MN]

How does it look?

There's some things I really like about it, and some things I don't.

First of all, I've ran into a few glitches, and it deleted all of the settings that I changed. But that's to be expected with the beta, so whatever.

The good: functionality. There's a new sidebar on the left side you can pull up to check your friends, start a party, check messages, notifications, and settings (including toggling kinect mic for chat, which is great). It's very useful and is easier to navigate. There were also some new button combos introduced in a video that were very helpful. It's easier to switch back and forth between snapped apps (which was always a huge pain). A lot of other little things like that, some of which I don't even know of yet. But certainly some functionality improvements.

The bad: the look. I just don't really like the look of the main screen. All of the 'tiles' that existed were basically tripled in size. You have to scroll down to see your pinned apps, games, even something like trying to watch TV. I don't really like it at all. There's a community tab which basically just shows screenshots of friends' achievements which covers half the screen which seems pretty dumb. The OneGuide tab is actually pretty useful for tv/movie information, so that's a nice change.

So I'm not a huge fan of how it looks, but there's some improvements in there that make me happy for the changes in general.

 

[tomgilbertfan]

Played a bunch of Super Mario Maker at a friends house.

It's taking all my will power to not buy a Wii U for one game. It's so fun.

 

[gphr513]

Played a bunch of Super Mario Maker at a friends house.

It's taking all my will power to not buy a Wii U for one game. It's so fun.

Sounds like a blast, it would be awesome to build Mario levels, and to play other people's. I'm sure there are some insane ones out there

 

[llamapalooza]

Played a bunch of Super Mario Maker at a friends house.

It's taking all my will power to not buy a Wii U for one game. It's so fun.

Do it! I love my Wii U. It's a tiny library but I think I get more use out of it than my XB1. It's full of gems:
- Mario Maker is a blast. So much fun to work backwards and experiment with level design. Completely changes your perspective.
- Both of the other Mario games (NSMBU and SMB3DW) are brilliant showcases of level design.
- Splatoon is probably my favorite online shooter (ever!).
- Smash and Mario Kart are both the best versions of their series.
- Donkey Kong Country TF is a masterpiece. Just exploding with creativity.
- Pikmin 3 is probably the best in the series.
- Wind Waker HD is awesome.

Thing is, it definitely kind of falls off after that, apart from a few little gems (e.g., Captain Toad). But IMO the system is absolutely worth it just for that core of 10 or so masterpieces.

Only real caveat is that Nintendo's probably putting out a new console next year. But if you're the type to wait until things are cheap and there's a solid lineup, rather than buying at launch, then it's a great buy.

 

[tyratoku]

I would actually recommend not buying a Wii U right now.

The next Nintendo console is deep in development right now, with all signs pointing to an early 2016 announcement + late 2016 release. Even if you aren't interested in that, it also comes with a high likelihood of the Wii U dropping in price.

I really want to get a Wii U right now, for Super Smash Bros, Mario Maker, Splatoon, Mario Kart, and so on. But I can't. Which is a bummer.

 

[Wild11MN]

I would actually recommend not buying a Wii U right now.

The next Nintendo console is deep in development right now, with all signs pointing to an early 2016 announcement + late 2016 release. Even if you aren't interested in that, it also comes with a high likelihood of the Wii U dropping in price.

I really want to get a Wii U right now, for Super Smash Bros, Mario Maker, Splatoon, Mario Kart, and so on. But I can't. Which is a bummer.

Agree. I was really hoping for backwards compatibility on the NX, but the rumors are that it could possibly be all-digital.

I have SSB3DS already, so not sure I would buy the Wii U version. Just haven't been able to get into the two newer ones after playing maybe hundreds of hours of SSB and Melee. Mario Kart 8 looks awesome, with 200cc looking like a lot of fun, so I would definitely get that. SM3DW would be a lock for me. Otherwise, I'm not sure there's anything else I would buy.

Still waiting for Metroid and Zelda, both of which seem like decent possibilities to be launch titles on the NX. The Zelda game is destined to be like Twilight Princess, releasing on both systems. If it's not, I will be very upset.

Edit: Oh yeah, Super Mario Maker (duh). Looks awesome. I think playing custom created levels would be so much fun.

 

[Generic User]

Played a bunch of Super Mario Maker at a friends house.

It's taking all my will power to not buy a Wii U for one game. It's so fun.

Ugh. I want to try that so bad. I played so much Super Mario World for SNES growing up (and still do to this day). The thought of playing new levels is exhilarating.

 

[Hall of Faber]

Lol, I got all those games and a Wii U just for my 4 year old. Guess he is super spoiled.

 

[Avder]

I picked up Sublevel Zero on steam. ****ing awesome game. Just wish you could save during levels. If you like 6 degrees of freedom type shooters, get it!

 

[SupremeNachos]

So is it just me or is Mike Reilly missing from NHL 16?

 

[BigT2002]

So is it just me or is Mike Reilly missing from NHL 16?

Probably wasn't signed until after the games rosters were finalized. I hate EA and what they do with roster updates. Works well for H2H online but everything offline never updates correctly.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

Yeah, they can't have college players in the game so he wasn't in there initially. I'm sure he'll be on the next update....I created him in my game.