Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Chevre]

The Swindle is on sale during the Steam Sale. Very fun procedurally generated heist game that I streamed a couple weeks back. I highly recommend it.

I watched said stream and would echo his recommendation!

[Oman]

Bioshock collection. Free remasters for PCs who own it, full price release for consoles.

[hasdgfas]

Playing some SteamWorld Heist on stream today. 6:30 Central. If you're interested, give me a watch and a follow on twitch.tv/hascow. I haven't played this one before, so there will be shenanigans, I'm sure.

Or you can just watch and not follow and miss streams that I don't advertise so I don't take over this thread.

*cough, Chevre, cough*

[Oman]

Let me know what you think of it, I want to like it, but I don't have the money to spend on it if it's no fun.

I've watched videos, videos look interesting, but I'm keen to hear how it feels.

[hasdgfas]

Let me know what you think of it, I want to like it, but I don't have the money to spend on it if it's no fun.

I've watched videos, videos look interesting, but I'm keen to hear how it feels.

It feels really good. It plays fast, and the aiming mechanic is really interesting, since there's some skill and timing to it, unlike in many turn-based tactics games. There's a bit less tension in something like XCOM, because you do get your units back if they die, you just have to pay some of your currency in order to do so. There's a bit of press your luck in the stages where you don't have to get all the pickups, which is nice to add to the tension. The fact that you can get some random drops from those pickups in addition to just money is nice. Inventory comparisons and loadout setting is a little bit clunky, I'd prefer saving last known loadouts when possible if you don't take someone on a mission.

But overall, it's a really good time, at least I thought it was. The characters are fun and have some nice quirks to their designs and I sort of built them a personality as it went on. If you have any specific questions, let me know. I give it 2 thumbs up and a recommendation.

[evilpacman18]

Does anyone follow smash 4 or play in their local scene?? Is there a thread for that anywhere?

[hasdgfas]

Finished Walking Dead Season 2 today. That game is tense, brutal, and everything I loved about the first season. Just more of it. Awesome and well worth it.

[Parama]

yeah season 2 was good though i didn't like it as much as season 1 (and it seemed a fair bit shorter too)

but i mean, season 1 is hard to follow up in terms of quality

[hasdgfas]

yeah season 2 was good though i didn't like it as much as season 1 (and it seemed a fair bit shorter too)

but i mean, season 1 is hard to follow up in terms of quality

They were shorter, about an hour and a half per episode compared to season 2's 2 hours.

I think I need a bit of time to fully process it compared to season 1. I really liked season 2 for the most part, but episode 4 was generally quite weak, while I don't remember season 1 slowing up anywhere.

[Parama]

i thought i edited my psot but i guess not

one issue i had with season 2 was how non-eventful a lot of the deaths seemed.

there was that one annoying girl you could save or not and her dying was just a thing that happens... and then she dies like 30 minutes later anyways if you saved her as "just another thing"

like why even bother getting attached to the characters in season 2. they're all boned. season 1 had one really dumb death moment but the rest of the deaths carried a lot of weight and there were less characters too so you had more time to get acquainted with them

i mean both games are still good it's just

ehh

[Sudo_Nym]

yeah season 2 was good though i didn't like it as much as season 1 (and it seemed a fair bit shorter too)

but i mean, season 1 is hard to follow up in terms of quality

They were shorter, about an hour and a half per episode compared to season 2's 2 hours.

I think I need a bit of time to fully process it compared to season 1. I really liked season 2 for the most part, but episode 4 was generally quite weak, while I don't remember season 1 slowing up anywhere.

I thought Season 1 started really slow, since they were trying to make it more of a Sam and Max style game to start, so there's some point and click puzzles breaking up the action (the Drug Store), for example. It wasn't until episode 2 that I thought they really started hitting their stride by ditching a lot of the adventure game stuff and turning it into a more narrative experience.

[hasdgfas]

yeah season 2 was good though i didn't like it as much as season 1 (and it seemed a fair bit shorter too)

but i mean, season 1 is hard to follow up in terms of quality

They were shorter, about an hour and a half per episode compared to season 2's 2 hours.

I think I need a bit of time to fully process it compared to season 1. I really liked season 2 for the most part, but episode 4 was generally quite weak, while I don't remember season 1 slowing up anywhere.

I thought Season 1 started really slow, since they were trying to make it more of a Sam and Max style game to start, so there's some point and click puzzles breaking up the action (the Drug Store), for example. It wasn't until episode 2 that I thought they really started hitting their stride by ditching a lot of the adventure game stuff and turning it into a more narrative experience.

that's a fair point. Episode 1 is more point-and-click adventure game style. I guess the fact that it was the start meant that didn't bother me as much, because it never stopped ramping after it started ramping.

i thought i edited my psot but i guess not

one issue i had with season 2 was how non-eventful a lot of the deaths seemed.

there was that one annoying girl you could save or not and her dying was just a thing that happens... and then she dies like 30 minutes later anyways if you saved her as "just another thing"

like why even bother getting attached to the characters in season 2. they're all boned. season 1 had one really dumb death moment but the rest of the deaths carried a lot of weight and there were less characters too so you had more time to get acquainted with them

i mean both games are still good it's just

ehh

The reason I bothered getting attached to the characters in season 2 is that they were all well-written and felt like real people. They were quite easy for me to get attached to. I felt like most of them had very good character arcs and were well-defined. If there is a complaint, it's probably the illusion of choice that runs throughout a lot of the game. But it's difficult for that

not

to be the case in a game like this.

[Flameaxe]

what we really need is sam and max season 4

[Gammagooey]

grabbed risk of rain for $2.50 on the steam sale, playing through some solo now but message me if anyone wants to do co-op

[hasdgfas]

what we really need is sam and max season 4

yes. yes yes yes.

[talah]

I finally got Prison Architect, and I'm obsessed with blueprinting my entire map for maximum efficiency before I build anything. I'll spend an hour planning out my prison, spend in-game days building it, and then get bored and start over. So I'm probably doing something wrong there, too.

Well - epic necro here ("Hi Epic Necro, I'm Dad" :D ) but yeah I looked at this a while ago and have picked it up because it was a few bucks in the sale.

And, am suffering a bit from the planning phase problem as well - I want this thing to work well, and it really evokes -feelings- actually, for me, that I'm being fair and doing the right thing.
(The other side of it I guess appeals to my logical propensity - a well planned prison looks a hell of a lot like a CPU and that's obviously a design intent given there are logic gates available as a mechanic in the game.)

So here's a question.

I've built a minimum security prison in my first quadrant which has good "needs" facilities and comprises cell qualities which range from crappy (holding cells), through intermediate and all the way up to excellent. I punish prisoners sensibly for violence and contraband (above default for attacks or weapons, and sober-up time for drugs and intoxication). I also have classes, and reform programs in place and these score fairly highly - ie the "reform" stat is high - whereas the "punishment" stat is quite low.

So the question is - do I set a low "reoffending chance" threshold for parole candidates or do I set it higher and wonder who decided just where that chance comes from?
I had it set at 20% (ie, prisoners will get released if they are up for parole if their "reoffending chance" is lower than 20%), but right now there are two prisoners in the parole room who have chances just above that threshold - 24 and 28 percent (and 15 others up for parole as well).

I'm thinking that, I'm sort of thinking through the answer to my own question as I'm typing anyway - ie, 'it's a game so the reoffending chance is a simple statistical reality' - but I don't think that's fair, as the actual reoffending rate comes from some other hidden calculation along with the way your prison is run.

And this hidden quantity is driving me crazy!
I want to set the parole threshold to 40% "chance" of reoffending, because I think that makes sense if I don't know what determines the "chance".
But I also want to set it to 20% because I would hope that the influence of losing freedoms, and being given every opportunity to change, would have a bigger influence than "oh well this guy might or might not reoffend".

What thinks folks? Simple answers are great - I'm obviously going to decide *something* pretty much right now because I have the game paused :P

(But a bit of background, my 24% guy is in for 1 year on a repeat offense of vandalism. My 28% guy is in for a fourth infraction - insider trading - for 3 years, and he's previously served 24 years for robbery, money laundering and burglary. WHY IS THE VANDALISM GUY IN JAIL OMG LUL 2016)

[talah]

Spoiler: I set it to 25%. Still interested in opinions if this isn't the wrong place to ask :)

[Sudo_Nym]

So, based on recommendations, I started playing 999. Out of curiousity, does this game feature any actual gameplay at any point? I've been playing for about 90 minutes at this point, and I think it's been all cutscenes. More annoyingly, it seems to be about 3 sentences worth of actual information repeated over and over and over to fill 90 minutes worth of cutscenes. I thought this was supposed to be a puzzle game?

[xRECKONERx]

So, based on recommendations, I started playing 999. Out of curiousity, does this game feature any actual gameplay at any point? I've been playing for about 90 minutes at this point, and I think it's been all cutscenes. More annoyingly, it seems to be about 3 sentences worth of actual information repeated over and over and over to fill 90 minutes worth of cutscenes. I thought this was supposed to be a puzzle game?

It's a visual novel punctuated by your decisions. There are half a dozen to a dozen puzzle rooms in each game. You just have to get there. Actually, you should've already had one "escape the room" puzzle to start the game?

[Sudo_Nym]

Right, it was a single simple puzzle, and that was the only thing I've actually had any input in so far. The rest has been "This is a [Nonary Game] where your life is on the line" "[Nonary Game]? What is that?" repeated several times, including three times in a row at one point. I assume it stops assuming that I'm stupid and have a memory of 15 seconds eventually?

[Parama]

if the only thing you've gotten out of 90 minutes is "it's the nonary game" then i feel like you're missing something

also the # of puzzle rooms in 999 is 16 iirc

[Sudo_Nym]

Maybe; I probably started tuning something out. But most of the scenes boil down to "pick a single sentence, then repeat it for 15 minutes."

For example:
"There's no escape!" "You mean there's no way out?" "Yes, there's no way out!" "What about the doors?" "They're all blocked!" "But if they're all blocked, then we can't get out!" "Yes, they are all blocked so we can't get out!" "But if we can't get out, then we're trapped!"

I'll grant that it actually got interesting when they started actually having characters instead of just having an excuse to repeat every line 8 times, but damn it feels like a slog sitting through the game telling me that I only have 9 hours to escape before I die, so I need to escape before I die, which will occur in 9 hours if I don't escape, so I will die if I don't escape before the time limit expires (the time limit is 9 hours).

[Sudo_Nym]

Okay, for all my bitching, once the game stopped repeating things to me endlessly and started developing the actual plot and characters, it's pretty good.

[Untrod Tripod]

I finally beat Mega Satan

that was a really cool boss battle

[xRECKONERx]

what the fuck is mega satan