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Welcome back to the board, me!

Weirdest sensation this morning to get a notification that someone had tried to log into my account 5 times and failed. Why anyone would want to steal my old, seldom-used (mostly before the big board crash several years ago) account is a bit beyond me, what with my most creative of user names. The really sad part is my password was super-easy to guess. The guy who failed to guess it deserves a quadruple-facepalm.

Anyway, since that put Jazzfanz on the brain and I barely follow NBA basketball anymore, thought I'd jump in this thread just for giggles.

//r00t 4 Jazz said:
Yes I also have kids and while I don't have a rule like you of not playing in front of them I do try to keep that to a minimum and so I'm similar in playing time hours just in smaller chunks.

Also my youngest is now 8 so he's getting to really want to play games with me and that really makes me wish there was a good multiplayer RPG game. He does very well in school and spends enough time playing outside that I could use it as bribery if he wants to play with me (joking sorta).
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(Yes I realize I'm responding to an ancient post...)

Dood... heard of the Tales Of series? Specifically I think Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Xillia could potentially be great to play with your kid. The series generally has decent storylines, and when you do get into the (very active for a JRPG) battle system, you have four characters running around that can all be controlled by separate human players if you wish. The storyline part is single-player only, it's true. But there's a lot of combat and the combat is great, so it's still effectively a co-op RPG.

Then of course there's Diablo 3, which I hear is better on consoles than on the PC due to no horrible auction house system.

There's also games from other genres that have RPG elements, like Borderlands 2 or Dragon's Crown. But those two are likely too raunchy for an 8-year-old (well, certainly Dragon's Crown is, Borderlands is... borderline, nyuk nyuk nyuk).
 
Johnnyfan12 said:
Welcome back to the board, me!

Weirdest sensation this morning to get a notification that someone had tried to log into my account 5 times and failed. Why anyone would want to steal my old, seldom-used (mostly before the big board crash several years ago) account is a bit beyond me, what with my most creative of user names. The really sad part is my password was super-easy to guess. The guy who failed to guess it deserves a quadruple-facepalm.

Anyway, since that put Jazzfanz on the brain and I barely follow NBA basketball anymore, thought I'd jump in this thread just for giggles.


(Yes I realize I'm responding to an ancient post...)

Dood... heard of the Tales Of series? Specifically I think Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Xillia could potentially be great to play with your kid. The series generally has decent storylines, and when you do get into the (very active for a JRPG) battle system, you have four characters running around that can all be controlled by separate human players if you wish. The storyline part is single-player only, it's true. But there's a lot of combat and the combat is great, so it's still effectively a co-op RPG.

Then of course there's Diablo 3, which I hear is better on consoles than on the PC due to no horrible auction house system.

There's also games from other genres that have RPG elements, like Borderlands 2 or Dragon's Crown. But those two are likely too raunchy for an 8-year-old (well, certainly Dragon's Crown is, Borderlands is... borderline, nyuk nyuk nyuk).
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Welcome back!
 
Johnnyfan12 said:
Welcome back to the board, me!

Weirdest sensation this morning to get a notification that someone had tried to log into my account 5 times and failed. Why anyone would want to steal my old, seldom-used (mostly before the big board crash several years ago) account is a bit beyond me, what with my most creative of user names. The really sad part is my password was super-easy to guess. The guy who failed to guess it deserves a quadruple-facepalm.

Anyway, since that put Jazzfanz on the brain and I barely follow NBA basketball anymore, thought I'd jump in this thread just for giggles.


(Yes I realize I'm responding to an ancient post...)

Dood... heard of the Tales Of series? Specifically I think Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Xillia could potentially be great to play with your kid. The series generally has decent storylines, and when you do get into the (very active for a JRPG) battle system, you have four characters running around that can all be controlled by separate human players if you wish. The storyline part is single-player only, it's true. But there's a lot of combat and the combat is great, so it's still effectively a co-op RPG.

Then of course there's Diablo 3, which I hear is better on consoles than on the PC due to no horrible auction house system.

There's also games from other genres that have RPG elements, like Borderlands 2 or Dragon's Crown. But those two are likely too raunchy for an 8-year-old (well, certainly Dragon's Crown is, Borderlands is... borderline, nyuk nyuk nyuk).
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I hate this console popularizing trend that they kill the PC versions for the sake of.
 
addictionary said:
I hate this console popularizing trend that they kill the PC versions for the sake of.
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Man... totally agree with you there. Crysis much? Big open environments to mostly linear?

And... Mass Effect? I mean, the first one had separate cooldowns for each ability, which was totally the way to go. For the 2nd they switched to a combined cooldown meter as a nod to the limitations of using a controller. Hello! PC version = hotkeys. Better. Yeah.

I'm hoping that for the next few years though, that at least the pure power-related limitations put on PC versions for the sake of easy porting to consoles will lessen (as they will no longer need to adhere to PS360 standards).
 
Just thought I'd note that I've played some GTA5 now... the game tells me I'm 50% done. I've been doing pretty much just story missions, very little running around otherwise. I have to say, the game is really impressive. I normally couldn't care less about stories in games, but the characters and the story and the three-person narrative structure really sucked me in. The writing and voice acting and presentation overall are extraordinary. And the gameplay has impressed me by its sheer variety. Every story mission seems to introduce you to something new, and everything they have you doing is fun. Overall, this is definitely the best GTA yet, and should be on anyone's game-of-the-decade list, small quibbles aside. I'll be interested to see what they do with the online component when it's finally ready.
 
AtheistPreacher said:
Just thought I'd note that I've played some GTA5 now... the game tells me I'm 50% done. I've been doing pretty much just story missions, very little running around otherwise. I have to say, the game is really impressive. I normally couldn't care less about stories in games, but the characters and the story and the three-person narrative structure really sucked me in. The writing and voice acting and presentation overall are extraordinary. And the gameplay has impressed me by its sheer variety. Every story mission seems to introduce you to something new, and everything they have you doing is fun. Overall, this is definitely the best GTA yet, and should be on anyone's game-of-the-decade list, small quibbles aside. I'll be interested to see what they do with the online component when it's finally ready.
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This.


It's a GTA IV + upgraded mechanics, interesting characters and then 10x the fun. I like the fact that money seems to matter so far. I.E. you can do fun stuff with your money therefore you want to make more. I think Trevor is the standout character so far.
 
Has anyone played XCOM: enemy unknown? I'm going to try to make the entire Jazz team and see which player survives the longest LOL.
 
asian_roger said:
Has anyone played XCOM: enemy unknown? I'm going to try to make the entire Jazz team and see which player survives the longest LOL.
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So I know this kind of talk might get dismissed by some as elitist or snobbish, but if you like the new XCOM, you should seriously consider buying the original version from like 1994 or whatever year it was on Steam. It's like $5, and it's seriously just a better game. In everything except graphics, of course. And since it's so old, system requirements are no object... you don't remotely need a "gaming PC" to run it.

I did play through the new version on my PS3 on Classic difficulty. While it was good and I did enjoy it, graphics aside it made almost no real improvements on the original. It pretty much just dumbed it down. So I just played through the campaign and thought "that was fun, but I see no reason to ever play it again over the original."
 
Johnnyfan12 said:
So I know this kind of talk might get dismissed by some as elitist or snobbish, but if you like the new XCOM, you should seriously consider buying the original version from like 1994 or whatever year it was on Steam. It's like $5, and it's seriously just a better game. In everything except graphics, of course. And since it's so old, system requirements are no object... you don't remotely need a "gaming PC" to run it.

I did play through the new version on my PS3 on Classic difficulty. While it was good and I did enjoy it, graphics aside it made almost no real improvements on the original. It pretty much just dumbed it down. So I just played through the campaign and thought "that was fun, but I see no reason to ever play it again over the original."
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Consider Xenonauts, the "true" successor to X-Com, and how its tactical battles are an absolute slog. Time units is a terrible and outdated system. The two-action system is an incredibly efficient innovation that allows the game to move at a brisk pace. I love X-Com, but I doubt I could go back. Enemy Within promises a strategy layer overhaul, which is really the weak link of the new XCOM.
 
Julie Greengiant said:
Consider Xenonauts, the "true" successor to X-Com, and how its tactical battles are an absolute slog. Time units is a terrible and outdated system. The two-action system is an incredibly efficient innovation that allows the game to move at a brisk pace. I love X-Com, but I doubt I could go back. Enemy Within promises a strategy layer overhaul, which is really the weak link of the new XCOM.
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I wasn't so much thinking of time units specifically, though I still prefer even that to a system where shooting, then firing is considered a "special ability."

Besides, on the time units vs two-action system, there already exists a best-of-both-worlds alternative: Valkyria Chronicles. You have a movement meter that depletes as you move, and you may take your action any time. It's both simple and tactically versatile. The next X-Com would do well to steal that idea.

But movement method aside, I contend that original X-Com is superior to the remake in a multitude of ways:
*Freedom to accelerate technological growth, provided that you have the funds... and the fact that your personnel actually do have to be paid, so you are getting more or faster production and research in exchange for money. In the new one, you "earn" personnel who never draw a salary and somehow make production cheaper. Silly.
*The UFO-fighting minigame has basically been reduced to a diceroll in the new game.
*The new game almost entirely contrives which enemies you run into and when. Somehow you always magically end up fighting the easy guys first and ramping up to Mutons, Cyberdiscs, etc. In the original you might end up fighting a Cyberdisc on the first mission and just have to escape. You might run into Mutons before you see Floaters. You might make it through a whole game without ever seeing an Ethereal. I like the randomness and the not-cater-to-the-player-ness.
*You're allowed to build more than 1 Skyranger. Tension ramps up in the frequency of attacks, rather than the contrived "somehow there are always 3 terror missions at once and you are only allowed to pick one!"
*Free aim.
*Actual line-of-sight. New game contrives percentages based on no cover, full-cover, half-cover. Realistically, a lot of the shots at a guy in half-cover are physically impossible without destroying the cover, yet the shots will often pass through the wall to hit the target.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but those are my biggest gripes.
 
You might want to keep updated on the Enemy Within expansion (more expensive on console unfortunately). They've already announced tweaks to the battle system (elevation, new and evolving enemy types, free aim with the new units, base assaults have been hinted at and are almost a certainty) and the lead designer has said the strategy layer will have major changes. I'm sure there is plenty more to come in the next month. There are definitely some improvements that could be made, but it's a great game that I've invested way more time into than X-Com. This is just a different vision from a different developer for the current gaming generation.
 
Julie Greengiant said:
You might want to keep updated on the Enemy Within expansion (more expensive on console unfortunately). They've already announced tweaks to the battle system (elevation, new and evolving enemy types, free aim with the new units, base assaults have been hinted at and are almost a certainty) and the lead designer has said the strategy layer will have major changes. I'm sure there is plenty more to come in the next month. There are definitely some improvements that could be made, but it's a great game that I've invested way more time into than X-Com. This is just a different vision from a different developer for the current gaming generation.
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Yeah, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it... in fact I'm sure I'll buy it eventually. It's just whether it's near launch or when it's bargain-bin that's in question.
 
So, there was a two-hour closed beta for Dark Souls 2 this past weekend (Praise the Sun!). I actually got an invite through PSN, but did not respond quickly enough to be one of the lucky 5,000 people to play it. Still, there's now plenty of footage up around the web for people to check out. I'm posting one video below, but there's many more. There were six pre-built characters in the beta: Soldier (average all-around melee), Warrior (big-*** weapons), Sorcerer (magic, duh), Temple Knight (melee and miracles/healing spells), Dual Swordsman (apparently dual-wielding is a better option now than it was last game), and Hunter (bow-based).

By most accounts the game seems even harder overall than the last one, and there have been some interesting mechanics changes.

1. Much like Demon's Souls, being in hollow form means you have reduced life. However, this time you actually have less life for each consecutive time you die! The only way to restore it to max is to reverse hollow.

2. Being in hollow form will no longer prevent you from being invaded (although, if being invaded really annoys you, you can still always play offline).

3. While in another's game, you can now use Estus flasks and pick up items (perhaps facilitating and encouraging jolly cooperation?).

4. Spells now cost stamina to cast in addition to having limited charges. To me this seems like a good move, as I thought sorcery was rather overpowered in Dark Souls. One tradeoff the other way is that two-handing your sorcerer's staff will now increase spell damage in the same way that two-handing melee weapons increases melee damage.

5. There are now healing items other than Estus flasks, but it seems that they take a longer amount of time to use, and that enemies are more aggressive about attacking you when you're trying to heal.

6. Stamina seems to deplete more quickly.

7. The backstab window seems smaller.

8. You get three items slots in each hand instead of two.

9. Some of the stats govern more effects, or simply different effects. For instance, I've heard that attunement now increases casting speed in addition to granting more spell slots.

10. And lots more I'm sure I'm forgetting...

Anyway, for those interested, I'd suggest googling footage of the class you're most interested in and decide what you think of the game so far for yourself. Me, I'm starting to get excited, and the game is still six months out. Aieee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KVnqGejWGw
 
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