Video Games - a general discussion thread — Page 232

For any AVGN fans, I saw a 3DO and a copy of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties at a flea market today.

I chuckled silently to myself, and walked on.

I actually tried changing my Xbox settings from 5.1 to two channel, and it fixed the problem. Obviously it is a glitch in the game though, I tested all my speakers and they're are working, and the problem didn't exist until after the first time I quit playing and loaded a saved game. So now I have to remember to switch my Xbox back to surround after each ACII session.

Under pressure from the squeeze I fired up my neglected town in Animal Crossing for the first time in 14 months.

Every square inch a weed and a plague of spiders on both of my dusty houses.

It took a lengthy session to get rid of both problems.

Meanwhile in the real world Chateau Bingowings is really dusty, we do have spiders and the garden really is covered in weeds (but none of my neighbours are chickens wearing lipstick).

xhonzi said:

I read someone's complaint that the vocals dropped out for a couple of hours- they switched to subtitles, and then the voices (in my head) came back (and told me to murder people).

Yay!  I made it out alive!

Mm, so after playing several hours of ACII, I am realize that it is really about story and making you go through the motions more than anything else. There isn't really any challenge involved whatsoever (except for those damn frustrating tombs)*, it kind of just tells you do to such and such a task, you go do it, and it gives you another task.

Fortunately it is pretty and entertaining and some of the tasks it has you do are quite fun. It is like the Italian Spider-man of the 1400's, a flamboyantly dressed man climbing up buildings and leaping about. Kind of silly to think about, you are suppose to be this great assassin, so you'd think blending and looking as common and ordinary as possible would be key, but instead you wear this super fancy getup that would definitely draw attention to you.

I love that you can go on a guard murder spree and have distressed citizens running around screaming at the brutal acts they witness at your hand, and then they'll never recognize you again. The guards won't even remember what you look like, provided you tear down a couple of random wanted posters. Seems like they could just tell the guards as they are coming in for work, "Okay, there's this bloke out there, 6'2'', crazy outfit, wears a hood, weapons hanging off his belt. Yeah, kill him if you happen across him." 

Ah, but obviously I am forgetting one very important key element here: its a game. And a fun one too.

*I've died four times, so far, and I am pretty sure three of those times were because of an accidental wall kick (hate that move) that has sent Ezio flying off in the direction of nothing while at an incredible height. Well, I had died only four times, prior to last night when I wrote this post in my head, now I've died about sixteen times, and almost all of those are thanks to one particular tomb and the fact that I couldn't figure out how to get down from it. I tried leaping in all directions trying to get a grip on something. Very frustrating. Turns out I was suppose to open a window and exit that way... big Warbler moment for me. *Sigh*

xhonzi said:

Whenever I hear a complaint that a game is "repetitive", I realize it's really a complaint that the game isn't masking the repetitiveness.  All games are repetitive.  It's whether it feels repetivite- whether it is able to distract you from that that matters. 

I think your observations on "challenge" and "it just tells you what to do and then you do it" to be on a similar level.  Isn't that true of almost all of the games we play?

Well, not really. Sure, all you're really doing when playing a game is pressing a series of buttons repeatedly. But it is a lot more than that. With a game like Portal, you're solving puzzles and it might take a a bit of skill or practice to manage to fling yourself across the room to the desired platform. In a game like Super Mario World it might take several tries to finally make your way through that one particularly annoying level so you can proceed onto the next. In a game like Modern Warfare you might need to reply the same section a dozen times or so until you figure out the best way to get through it without dying. Meanwhile through all of that all you are really doing is pushing buttons... but only in so much as driving a car is really just pushing down peddles and turning a wheel.

In Assassin's Creed II I feel like all I am doing is running from one location to the other and frequently fighting guards in-between, which involves using various button combos to best them... but could almost be done by randomly striking buttons without even looking at the screen. As I am getting more weapons (poison blade) and learning more moves, the combat it becoming more fun. 

Best Half-Life adaption of all time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8&feature=grec_index

WOW! This is absolutely amazing! I don't think I was ever meant to play ACII with all the trouble I am having with it. My save file just disappeared. I had all the feathers from everywhere but Venice, my town was at 50%, and I had all but two tombs explored. Looked it up online and again I am not the only person this has happened to, and in fact seems like it happens pretty often.

:(

Guess the game didn't like that I found away around the sound problem and was determined not to let me play anymore.

bkev said:

 

Ziggy Stardust said:

For any AVGN fans, I saw a 3DO and a copy of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties at a flea market today.

I chuckled silently to myself, and walked on.

That game is so bad it's good.

 

Fixed.

Serial number is 0048151623420. Try them if you like. I don't play the lottery. 

Did you recognize those numbers?

I was sitting around after work and realised it's Portal 2 day so I went for a drive and grabbed a copy. I'll fire it up at some point after dinner.

I've got high expectations for this one, it had better not disappoint. 

I thought about running through P1 beforehand to get back into a "thinking with portals" mindset but I only have it for PC and don't have steam on this comp. I assume they'll drop us in the shallow end again..

To be frink?

Ooh, a new meme :-)

I added some zeros at the beginning and end to disguise it a bit.

How awesome would it be if that was my real serial number?

I still can't believe Assassin's Creed II did that to me... I spent way more time playing that game over the last few days than I'd really care to admit, and now it is all gone. I even took the time to painstakingly collect every collectable I could as I went along. I had ever feather except for the ones in Venice, all the statues, and all but two seals... renovated every building, built one of each kind of shop as was working toward upgrading them... healthy amount of art purchases... *sob*