What games are you playing?

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Christine
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Re: What games are you playing?

Postby Christine » Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:38 pm

Haskell looks like an interesting thing; and quite alien to my eyes, though I realise that any criticism about apparent impenetrability is not a very convincing argument coming from a C programmer. :D And I hadn't heard of Sublime before: I'd take a serious look if I wasn't tied to vim, but having been coerced into using vi 20-odd years ago, there I'm staying! I must admit that as much of a Luddite as I am, syntax highlighting is really nice to have.

I really dread to think how much time I've sunk into my top five games in total, but I hear what you're saying about good value for money. As opposed to, say, Bioware's Return to Ostagar, which had all of half an hour's worth of not very interesting gameplay, which is everything that's wrong with EA's DLC model.

Skyrim (why couldn't they have chosen a name that doesn't sound like toilet cleaner?) is a fairly typical Bethesda game, I find: a lot of the writing is a bit shallow, and particularly bad in its case as it was rushed to hit that magic 11.11.11 date they advertised so heavily, but the fun is really in the adventuring: just taking off in some random direction and seeing what you can find. Modding is an awful lot of fun when the game has some decent tools available for it. For me personally, Oblivion is probably at the pinnacle there: it's not the most sophisticated in some ways (the pathing in FO3 and later is much better, for example... but it doesn't always work) but it strikes a nice balance between the scope of what you can do and the ease of doing it. The only real problem is that Construction Set crashes a lot even compared to the game itself (save often!) and tends to make dirty edits which need to be cleaned up with some other tool like TES4edit.

I've really come to like Blender over the years. Actually, that's a lie, I hate Blender, but I like what it can do! One thing I've never attempted is anything to do with animation (well, beyond rigging stuff to an armature, but that doesn't count) because animations involve witchcraft and sacrifices and headaches to get them working. Persistence does pay off (I mean, come on, you've learnt Haskell!) so I'm sure you'll get your wheeled cube together in no time. :)

Oh, that reminds me, a friend's been nagging me to play Assassin's Creed. I forget which one, the box will be buried under a pile of stuff somewhere. I should start my quest to find it.

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Charlie778
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Re: What games are you playing?

Postby Charlie778 » Sun Jan 05, 2014 11:34 am

It was a new way to work for me, but I quite like it now. I don't know how useful it would be for big projects :shrugs: Most people started on sublime because it's free and there is a portable version, so we could use it on the computers on campus. I use netbeans and you can download the sublime color scheme on there :D

Yeah my top five games must be loads, it's hard to think what they would be though :? probably ps2 games from when I was a kid because I would have played them through then and again for the nostalgia :lol: I really don't like EA and i wish i could boycott them...but damn do they make some good games (or good bits) sometimes! Im glad that it looks like EA is leaning towards Xbox One and Ubisoft for PS4, since i prefer ubisoft games by a long shot anyways

Okay I had never realised that before but it defilitly does sound like a toilet cleaner :wtf: I always think companies should give their ideas to the internet to see all the thoughts on them first :lol: I hate when a game is rushed early and then doesn't work right, Battlefield 4 was clearly pushed out for the PS4/Xbox One release and it has struggled. I was so glad when watch_dogs was delayed because it does mean it will be well polished when it comes out. Bethesda games do crash an awful lot dont they? :lol: I'm gonna have to give modding a try before the next wave of assignments

No I'm not big on animation, I think to get anything more than a solid shape that moves up and down would take too long for what i would get back out of it, there are just other things i'd like to work on.

my AC breakdown :lol: :
The first assassins creed will be very boring and repetitive to play now but at the time it was incredible. The second one was awesome and they massively improved on the stuff that the first one got wrong. Brotherhood was pretty much the same as the second one but they did add assassins you can work with which was interesting. Revelations added absolutely nothing and probably isn't worth playing. AC3 got really heavy on the confusing story and the main character wasn't likeable, it added new stuff but overall people were dissapointed. AC4 is probably the best one since 2 (and i think the best) the story is lighter, the characters are more fun and there is plenty to do.

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Christine
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Re: What games are you playing?

Postby Christine » Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:25 pm

Oh, God, that reminds me of my own time on campus. I eventually ended up using ed as its brevity was nice with the 1,200 bps terminals we were afflicted with, and I found it more trustworthy than the frankly suspicious emacs that frankly suspicious people used. I then spent the next five years being harangued to join the space age and use a full-screen editor like vi as I mentioned previously: the memory is obviously still painful. :D

Sigh, EA: I remember when they were a reputable company, but that was back in the mid 1980s. I used to wonder why they drew so much ire, but then I started playing Bioware's games and quickly saw how much they were compromised in such a short time. The ME3 ending fiasco pretty much defined them. I've never been one for consoles myself (yeah, that goes back to the Atari 2600 days, though I was jealous!) but Valve (for all their evils) supporting a new Linux-based system looks really promising. In terms of gaming it'll likely offer nothing new, but it will be really good to break the stranglehold of companies like Microsoft, EA and Sony.

And so many games are rushed these days... :( I don't expect to see another fiasco like Duke Nukem Forever, but release dates that are mandated by the marketing department can only result in disaster. But, yeah, give modding a try! I think an awful lot of gamers (both end users and professionals) find a lot of satisfaction there. My personal favourite was being able to make changes to the standard armours in Ego Draconis, which wasn't officially supported at all, but which was possible given enough determination...

And talking of the Divinity series, I've been playing the hell out of the alpha of Original Sin over the past week. I'm a bit of a latecomer despite being a Kickstarter backer, and I figured I should hate it since it's very rigidly retro, being an uncompromising isometric turn-based game; and that latter point I'm still sceptical about, but I have to say I really love it. I guess it has Larian's usual charm, including their inappropriately silly sense of humour, but I think it does promise really good things for its official release.

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Christine
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Re: What games are you playing?

Postby Christine » Sat Nov 29, 2014 3:27 pm

Playing Dragon Age: Inquisition at present. Unlike DA2 (which actually I didn't hate, in spite of much annoyingness) this one is actually really good, and probably an improvement over Oranges.

Of some relevance to the forum, it actually includes a transsexual character. I guess obviously no-op since it's a mediaeval fantasy setting, but interesting nonetheless. It's very progressive, I think, and a good sign of the way things are going. Bioware have long been at the forefront of this sort of thing, with their games typically including same-sex relationships, but this is a step further. No doubt some of the more anal gamers will object loudly, as they always do, but generally speaking most seem to be positive about it, or at worst neutral.

But that's just a minor observation. The game itself is actually really good, and it addresses most of the problems of DA2 successfully, especially the limited space and re-used areas: lots of exploration to be done here, and the landscapes and buildings are extensive and beautiful (or sometimes horrible, but cleverly designed to be rather than unintentionally!) The story is good, lots of interesting little diversions and as is always the case with Bioware, the characters are complex and well-realised. The gameplay is also pretty good, and seeks to include the best elements from DA:O and DA2.

It's not perfect, there are a few rough edges, with long loading times, stuttering and a few slightly clunky features (for example, the inventory management is akin to Mass Effect: comprehensive but fiddly and time-consuming!) but overall it's clear that a lot of work has gone into it, and it bucks a downward trend of stability with games recently and is fairly solid. It crashes occasionally, but not too much.

They estimate it should be good for about 200 hours playing time. So far I reckon that's definitely a reasonable estimate, and is pretty good considering it's about twice the playing time of Oranges. Definitely recommended.

2014 has been a really good year for games, with three really memorable ones for me: this, the previously mentioned Divinity: Original Sin, and one which was actually released last year, Bioshock Infinite. Once I was done sulking about the stupid checkpoints, I got into it and I'm so glad I did. Although I don't generally "do" shooters, it's another one with an interesting story and setting, and Booker and Elizabeth are two of the best characters I've played who really managed to draw me into their world emotionally as much as anything.


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Ice Maiden
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Re: What games are you playing?

Postby Ice Maiden » Sun Nov 30, 2014 6:45 pm

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
Clash of Clans (but slow without Gems so a long run game)
I will also be reviewing some other games that are out in the tech blog here - that said if I can plug the reviews of games I have been playing have a listen to this podcast or click the show notes links.

Any gaming fans that play android or IOS Games happy for anyone to drop some hints for the Tech blog.

Podcast 1
http://www.samanthajohnson.co.uk/?p=349

Podcast 2
http://www.samanthajohnson.co.uk/?p=369

You can fast forward to the end for the gaming chat and talk.
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