Video Games

[Bo-rilla Grodd]

I figured, why not?!! I see that there is a DC games topic, but wanted to see what other games everyone was playing.
I just finished 'THE LAST OF US', and recently played through the new 'WALKING DEAD: 400 DAYS'.

Wondered if anyone is getting 'WOLF AMONG US'.... Or what are games that people are digging right now?

[beastovjudgement]

I haven't played many video games since recovering from my debilitating Skyrim habit a year ago. Everyone has been hyping GTA V; I played a little, but I honestly don't think it is that good. It seems like the same thing regurgitated all over again, only bigger. I generally dislike "real world" based games in general, so maybe I went in biased. I am certainly in the minority with my opinion. I will probably pick up Diablo III at some point; that one looks to be good.

[Caleb]

While I generally like Sandbox games, GTA just hasn't interested me since San Andreas. I tried IV, didn't care for the new control scheme, and GTA V seems to be more of the same. For the record, I'm not big on the CoD games for pretty much the same reason. It's fun to kill my friends in a video game, but as far as the story mode goes?

The Last of Us was awesome. And I finally cracked and bought Heavy Rain, which I've only played a bit of - great concept and animation, so hopefully the game lives up. I heard the finale is disappointing, though. I also just finished another run-through of Red Dead, which...god, I love that game. I think I've played it three times to 100% complete? Yeah, somewhere in there. I've also got Infamous 2 going now - never played it before, and I'm really digging these games.

Anyone played Two Souls yet? I saw the preview, and it looks pretty cool.

[beastovjudgement]

I genuinely hated San Andreas, with its preponderance of unskippable racing missions. I only ever got around a third of the way through it. IV was just boring. I bought that game for $12 used, and only played for around 45 minutes. It was so unbearably dull. I have been told it gets good later, but video games should never require nearly an hour of play before becoming fun. The missions on V are not overly inspiring me. I will probably sell it soon. I miss the Silent Hill series; I loved the first three, but the series went to crap after that. I forgot about Dragon's Dogma; I did play that one for a while as a sort of Skyrim methadone, but I lost interest after a month or so. While Skyrim is overall still the game to which all others cannot live up, I will say the Dark Brotherhood quests on Oblivion were the most fun I have had playing any video game, ever.

[AcidDragon]

The last GTA game I ever played was Vice City. The first was 2 and that was a weird but fun top view game. The last game I played religiously was probably Fallout 3 on the XBox 360. Before that was Arkham Asylum. Mind you I pretty much always complete LEGO games with all Achievements except for LEGO Batman 2 and LEGO Harry Potter Years 1 Through 4 which I own and have yet to play.

[Caleb]

Oh, yeah. The Lego games are pretty awesome. I always play them regardless. Wasn't big on the first Indy Lego game, but they've since remedied that pretty well. Batman 2 was awesome, and Marvel looks FANTASTIC!

Beast, you're right on San Andreas. The sheer amount of racing missions in the game was mind-boggling, not to mention how much of a pain it was to get across the freakin' Badlands. God, that was horrible. Definitely a step back from Vice City, which was all kinds of Michael Mann 80's awesome.

I think the game I play most is Marvel Avengers Alliance on Facebook. Just won Black Bolt!!

[secondwhiteline]

I honestly haven't played games regularly in years - I feel like they've passed me by in a lot of ways. I think part of that is that some of my favorite genres seem to be aging. I love RPGs, shoot 'em ups (Galaga, etc.), survival horror, and platformers, and those have all lost traction this generation. Not to mention functionally dead genres like side-scrolling brawlers and point-and-click adventure games.

Really, the only genre I'm big into that remains huge is fighting games. This gen's been awesome for them, with really strong installments of a lot of major franchises. It'd be nice to see something new in that field, though. I can't remember the last fighting game I played that really felt different from others in the genre - Power Stone? Rival Schools? Maybe even the first Smash Brothers?

I've mostly switched over to board games. It's weird how the generation dynamic has changed. Now my mom and stepdad are on separate computers yelling to each other from separate rooms about needing life in Candy Crush, while my friends and I are in the front room together playing Small World or Ghost Stories.

[AcidDragon]

I hear ya on that, SWL. I genuinely feel a detachment from games these days and for a while, I trying to get my friends to try out some boardgames and pen and paper stuff. Something I've never really ever done but I felt myself wanting something a little more... old fashioned? Is that the term? There was a time where I was just crazy about games. I mastered all the finishing moves on Mortal Kombat II, all the secrets, etc. Completed Final Fantasy III (VI) 100% on the SNES, got Cid the healthy fish to make sure he survived, etc. I don't know if it's that there's just so much variety, it's a little overwhelming. None of it feels special anymore.

Also, the gameplay has evolved significantly in many of my old favourites like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, etc. I loved the gameplay of the old Resident Evil games as awkward as they were, it worked for what it was. When 4 rolled around, it was a huge change, but it was enjoyable. With 5, though and onward, the feel of the game and the mechanics had changed so drastically that it didn't even really feel like survival horror to me anymore. It started feeling like a mixture of a generic first person shooter combined with Dragon's Lair style minigames.

Sometimes I install really old games and try to beat them for the first time. A couple of years ago, I installed Baldur's Gate on a machine that I had XP on and beat it, then I installed Baldur's Gate II and came pretty close. I think I stopped around this part where you try to complete a quest that involved lizardmen. I was at the end of that part. Got sidetracked, but that was a lot of fun for me. I might give it another crack or Icewind Dale. Then maybe the Neverwinter games. Maybe Diablo after. lol. I tried to beat Starcraft 1 all the way through but it glitched during the Protoss missions (final missions)!

Last of Us looked bloody amazing, though, Bo-Rilla. Shame it's a PS3 exclusive.

[Bo-rilla Grodd]

For a strong platform, ala Mario, Cloudberry Kingdom is a great selection. Its hard, without being cheap, and has plenty of different types of levels, so the gameplay feels fresh.

For a side scrolling brawler, ala 16 bit genesis days, Shank is a solid choice. Its really a combination of Streets of Rage meets Madworld. The story is a little too Rodriguez/Tarentino, but if thats not a deal breaker, than I recommend it, cause the gameplay is fun.
Both are cheap, I think i paid 10 for each on PSN, and I dont regret either purchase. Look into both, or play a demo, but I give both a good rating.

[Caleb]

I don't know if video games versus board games is a generational thing, dude. I think it just has to do with individual preference. Some people dig computer games, some video games, and some board games.

I play board games a lot - they're great when the wife and I have friends over, and we generally have at least one game of Scrabble a week. My wife stopped playing video games when Resident Evil became an action shooter, but she'll still play arcade scrollers on any machine (Qbert's her favorite). My folks are in their 50's and both avidly hate Facebook and all video games with a passion - they play chess and work puzzles together. My aunt's really, really, really, really into that stupid Candy Crush thing. My boss - a 40-something - doesn't even have Facebook, and the few times we've hung out I noticed that he's got a good stash of both board games (ALIEN CHESS SET!!!!!) and video games. My bro's future mother-in-law is obsessed with internet mahjong but also has proudly never been beaten at Trivial Pursuit. Just depends on the person, really.

Are some older people obsessed with Facebook gaming? Yeah, but so is my fourteen year old cousin who spams me with Farmville requests on a daily basis, and a lot of other kids out there.