OT: Video Game Thread: Part One

[Magua]

I never played any of the HLs for more than an hour and I don't give a damn to do it now. I'm sick of most survival shooters too. Dead Space had the whole The Thing/Event Horizon vibe that sucked me in plus some cool unconventional weapons. The first Bioshock had plasmids and a fantastic story. The sequels to both were the definition of "meh".

Half-Life isn't a survival shooter, and Bioshock Infinite was even better than the original.

Go sit in the corner with Striiker and feel shame! Be careful though, he bites.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

Half-Life isn't a survival shooter, and Bioshock Infinite was even better than the original.

Go sit in the corner with Striiker and feel shame! Be careful though, he bites.

Something happened when I was in the middle of playing Half-Life - I think my PS broke or something, I can't remember - but I did love it (frustrating as it was, since I am terrible) while I was playing. I went to play it on PC later, but just couldn't manage. I have a Steam controller and the game in my library, so I may give it another go at some point.

 

[Magua]

Something happened when I was in the middle of playing Half-Life - I think my PS broke or something, I can't remember - but I did love it (frustrating as it was, since I am terrible) while I was playing. I went to play it on PC later, but just couldn't manage. I have a Steam controller and the game in my library, so I may give it another go at some point.

I played Half-Life 1, but that's from 1998 (I played it like 10 years later). That game you can feel the age (and pixels) more, though it was still one of the most cutting edge games of the time that other games tried to copy. I had a lot of fun with it still. I need to stress that Half-Life 2 and Episodes 1/2 are mandatory plays. I don't know how a gamer gets through life without playing them. Masterpieces on a gaming, story, world, and character sense. That's not easy to do in an FPS. And they hold up to top games today. Oh, mama, just thinking about it.....

Oh and @DancingPanther......Alyx Vance is the best female character in game history.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

Playing HL with a controller should be sacrilege.

Experiencing HL1 in like 1999 or whatever was a game changer. That franchise succeeds at setting a tone and immersing the player more than any I can think of. Maybe the souls series can compete.

The entire experience sticks with you. For me it transcends being merely a video game.

 

[Amorgus]

Half-Life isn't a survival shooter, and Bioshock Infinite was even better than the original.

Go sit in the corner with Striiker and feel shame! Be careful though, he bites.

Infinite was a little better than the second but no way in hell does it touch the gorgeous undersea art deco world of Rapture and the story of its fall. Going back after the fall of Andrew Ryan felt pointless. Nobody cares about the leftovers scrambling for his scraps and going to all those new major locations that played no part in the previous great conflict felt tacked on as hell. The Objectivist Disney Ride was the only thing worth a damn. They should've just blown the whole city up at the end of the first and gone right to Infinite.

 

[Magua]

Infinite was a little better than the second but no way in hell does it touch the gorgeous undersea art deco world of Rapture and the story of its fall. Going back after the fall of Andrew Ryan felt pointless. Nobody cares about the leftovers scrambling for his scraps and going to all those new major locations that played no part in the previous great conflict felt tacked on as hell. The Objectivist Disney Ride was the only thing worth a damn. They should've just blown the whole city up at the end of the first and gone right to Infinite.

I mean we know Bioshock 2 was just Bioshock 1.5. I played it. I don't remember a damn thing lol. Something about saving the Little Sisters and a Big Sister and you being the original Big Daddy. It's a blur.

Infinite was a prequel of sorts (at least it was set 40 years earlier), in case I misunderstood something you said. I can't deny that the art deco watery ruin of Rapture was breathtaking the first time I played it, but Columbia as a city in the sky.....I mean that's pretty imaginatively sweet too. I also liked how it wasn't a ruin or empty (for most of the game) -- you could feel its vibrancy. For me, I didn't think Infinite would top the "would you kindly?" moment from Bioshock in pure jaw dropping shock factor. But the end of Infinite was perhaps the single greatest SP moment in my gaming life. How it all came together.....I just don't know if anything can top that rollercoaster ride. I feverishly read up on and watched every video I could after it, and even re-watched it a handful of times since. I also think Booker and Elizabeth, and their character and game relationship dynamic, were better than what Bioshock offered in that department. I didn't think it was possible, but it built on the original and surpassed it for me.

 

[Amorgus]

I mean we know Bioshock 2 was just Bioshock 1.5. I played it. I don't remember a damn thing lol. Something about saving the Little Sisters and a Big Sister and you being the original Big Daddy. It's a blur.

Infinite was a prequel of sorts (at least it was set 40 years earlier), in case I misunderstood something you said. I can't deny that the art deco watery ruin of Rapture was breathtaking the first time I played it, but Columbia as a city in the sky.....I mean that's pretty imaginatively sweet too. I also liked how it wasn't a ruin or empty (for most of the game) -- you could feel its vibrancy. For me, I didn't think Infinite would top the "would you kindly?" moment from Bioshock in pure jaw dropping shock factor. But the end of Infinite was perhaps the single greatest SP moment in my gaming life. How it all came together.....I just don't know if anything can top that rollercoaster ride. I feverishly read up on and watched every video I could after it, and even re-watched it a handful of times since. I also think Booker and Elizabeth, and their character and game relationship dynamic, were better than what Bioshock offered in that department.

I couldn't remember the timeline of when Infinite occurred so I'm sorry if I screwed that up. Regardless the return to Rapture wasn't necessary at all and a bad call for anything else but a cash grab before they came up with something actually new.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

I'll have to try Infinite. I liked the first one a lot and agree the second one was stale. Think that's why I never tried any after that.

 

[Hapiii]

PC (99%)
PS4 Pro (1%)

Just can't play consoles anymore after getting good pc + screen, everything looks so bad on consoles.

Anyone still play NHL 04 on PC? It's still today only NHL game that I can enjoy, new ones are just trash (playing atm with 1997 rosters )

 

[Hapiii]

And people who played HL with controller on consoles should be ashamed....

 

[DancingPanther]

I played Half-Life 1, but that's from 1998 (I played it like 10 years later). That game you can feel the age (and pixels) more, though it was still one of the most cutting edge games of the time that other games tried to copy. I had a lot of fun with it still. I need to stress that Half-Life 2 and Episodes 1/2 are mandatory plays. I don't know how a gamer gets through life without playing them. Masterpieces on a gaming, story, world, and character sense. That's not easy to do in an FPS. And they hold up to top games today. Oh, mama, just thinking about it.....

Oh and @DancingPanther......Alyx Vance is the best female character in game history.

 

[Magua]

 

[bauer]

Oh and @DancingPanther......Alyx Vance is the best female character in game history.

2nd best. Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite is #1.

 

[Striiker]

Half-Life isn't a survival shooter, and Bioshock Infinite was even better than the original.

Go sit in the corner with Striiker and feel shame! Be careful though, he bites.

The f*** did I do?! Why am I on timeout?


Also they’re hardly bites, stop being dramatic. More like a nibble.

 

[bauer]

I'll have to try Infinite. I liked the first one a lot and agree the second one was stale. Think that's why I never tried any after that.

definitely do. i'd give a slight edge to the original, mainly due to liking Rapture a lot more than Columbia. but the characters and story of Infinite is more engaging.

 

[bauer]

**** Half life, **** Left 4 dead

Gimme Portal 3

the cake is a lie Striiker. sorry to have to tell you that.

 

[kudymen]

I just wanted to see - am I the only one who over time stopped looking for new games (due to my 2009 model laptop getting older) and just going back to my childhood loves? Be it Might and Magic 8, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, the Half Life series, BioShock 1 and Infinite, Mafia, the GTA3 til SA series, Sim City 4, basically all the 90s and mainly 00s games? I never felt true appeal to try something "real new" for the past however many years (basically since I graduated in 2014)

Edit - and as I say every 4 months on here, NHL 2004 is the best one ever

 

[DancingPanther]

I feel like we might have talked about this but did you play Horizon: Zero Dawn? That was a cool game and I was a big fan of Alloy. She was always a big crush of mine, but on looks alone.

Then I was swept away.

 

[Magua]

I feel like we might have talked about this but did you play Horizon: Zero Dawn? That was a cool game and I was a big fan of Alloy. She was always a big crush of mine, but on looks alone.

I don't think so. I also don't own a Playstation, as you know.

The thing about Alyx Vance is that female characters in gaming have long been terrible, though they've made serious strides. I'm sure I don't have to explain the over-sexualized, cardboard cutout, juvenile nature of female characters in gaming. So, this was back in 2004. The level of detail in her characterization -- in advanced facial modeling/emotion, stellar voice acting, and level of personality (across the spectrum) -- was the absolute high bar at the time. She was complex, realistic, integral, and a total rejection of stereotype. A character like Elizabeth from Bioshock, who is also right up there, owes a lot to Alyx Vance. I've never played it but Ellie from TLoU is right up there and another direct descendant (though the inter-character relationships are different).

Then I was swept away.

Yen is a great well-rounded character, but I would classify her as different in the sense she's not an actual "companion" like those two from a gameplay perspective. The entire experience of the game is alongside them.

 

[DancingPanther]

I don't think so. I also don't own a Playstation, as you know.

The thing about Alyx Vance is that female characters in gaming have long been terrible, though they've made serious strides. I'm sure I don't have to explain the over-sexualized, cardboard cutout, juvenile nature of female characters in gaming. So, this was back in 2004. The level of detail in her characterization -- in advanced facial modeling/emotion, stellar voice acting, and level of personality (across the spectrum) -- was the absolute high bar at the time. She was complex, realistic, integral, and a total rejection of stereotype. A character like Elizabeth from Bioshock, who is also right up there, owes a lot to Alyx Vance. I've never played it but Ellie from TLoU is right up there and another direct descendant (though the inter-character relationships are different).

Yen is a great well-rounded character, but I would classify her as different in the sense she's not an actual "companion" like those two from a gameplay perspective. The entire experience of the game is alongside them.

That's true but I think that shows why Yen is so amazing. It's not tugging at heartstrings trying to save Ellie from clickers all the time or vicariously caring for her as her dad, ya know? There's none of that connedtion there. Hell you have the choice to not romance her at all.

Not saying Ellie is a dweeb. Just trying to make a point. I've never played any of the Half Life games tbh.

 

[mdm815]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. That franchise will never see another penny from me.

Hahaha fair enough. I hopped in on D1 very late, and just got D2 cos my buddies seemed excited for the new expansion. I’ve never actually capped so I’ve always had something to do, but i could see where hitting max level would get to be boring.

 

[HokieDude17]

I don't think so. I also don't own a Playstation, as you know.

The thing about Alyx Vance is that female characters in gaming have long been terrible, though they've made serious strides. I'm sure I don't have to explain the over-sexualized, cardboard cutout, juvenile nature of female characters in gaming. So, this was back in 2004. The level of detail in her characterization -- in advanced facial modeling/emotion, stellar voice acting, and level of personality (across the spectrum) -- was the absolute high bar at the time. She was complex, realistic, integral, and a total rejection of stereotype. A character like Elizabeth from Bioshock, who is also right up there, owes a lot to Alyx Vance. I've never played it but Ellie from TLoU is right up there and another direct descendant (though the inter-character relationships are different).

Yen is a great well-rounded character, but I would classify her as different in the sense she's not an actual "companion" like those two from a gameplay perspective. The entire experience of the game is alongside them.

Although I get the feeling you lump her in with your first rant, but seriously nobody is gonna throw Lara Croft out there as the OG female lead?

 

[HokieDude17]

I just wanted to see - am I the only one who over time stopped looking for new games (due to my 2009 model laptop getting older) and just going back to my childhood loves? Be it Might and Magic 8, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, the Half Life series, BioShock 1 and Infinite, Mafia, the GTA3 til SA series, Sim City 4, basically all the 90s and mainly 00s games? I never felt true appeal to try something "real new" for the past however many years (basically since I graduated in 2014)

Edit - and as I say every 4 months on here, NHL 2004 is the best one ever

You ain't alone bro, I go back to the classics every now and again.

Also, NHL Faceoff 2000 on PS1 is a top 3 NHL game, right up there with NHL94/96 on Sega Genesis and NHL 07/10 on X360

 

[Striiker]

Speaking of nostalgia, a huge game for me was Resistance: Fall of Man on PS3.

Obviously that’s a lot newer than the ones you guys are mentioning, but it was actually a huge part of my life because it was the first game I actually played online and got me into online gaming, which was a huge part of how I met and kept in touch with some of my closest friends (who I went to school with, but I met most by playing them online before we even met at school).

Just hearing the menu music to Resistance really gets to me. I know it sounds stupid, but oh well.

 

[mdm815]

There’s some “classics” that i go back to still solely for the nostalgia high. Even things I’m not into anymore. I wouldn’t mess w pokemon anymore, but i loved them as a kid and I’d say once a year i get on a kick where i put an hour in.

I actually got away from gaming for a real long time but have always loved the development side of things. Always love suggestions on sleeper picks, especially single player. Stuck on PS4 tho, but also have switch and 2ds. If anyone has any must plays lmk