Video game thread

[Diomedes]

Thanks but no.

In other news, Disgaea 4 is queer, endearing, and extremely complicated.  It must be huge in Japan.

I like it well enough so far to keep playing after the first 6 or so hours I've dumped into it.

[General_Failure]

THQ is going broke and needs money, so they're doing a Humble THQ Bundle. Same as any other Humble Bundle, pay what you want, get a bunch of games. Beat the average price, you get more games.

I don't know about the Company of Heroes games, but Saints Row the Third, Darksiders, Metro 2033, and Red Faction: Armageddon are all worth picking up for $5.50.

[phattymatty]

has anyone played this? plot sounds amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley,_Shut_Up_and_Jam:_Gaiden

The game takes place in 2053, in "post-cyberpocalyptic Neo New York". Twelve years prior, Charles Barkley performed a powerful dunk called a Chaos Dunk at a basketball game, inadvertently killing most of the people in attendance. As a result, basketball was outlawed and many basketball players were hunted down and killed.[2]
In 2053, another Chaos Dunk is performed in Manhattan, killing millions. Barkley is blamed for the Chaos Dunk and is hunted by the B-Ball Removal Department, led by Michael Jordan.[2][4] Barkley is rescued by another outlaw referred to as the Ultimate Hellbane. Hellbane leads Barkley to the tomb of LeBron James, revealing that Hellbane's real name is Balthios, the great grandson of James. The ghost of James tells the two to seek the Cyberdwarf, who is hidden in New York's sewers. While searching for the Cyberdwarf, they are joined by a cybernetic Vince Carter, who has lost his memory. Upon finding Cyberdwarf, the four of them rush to a nearby church, where Barkley's son Hoopz is hiding. In the church, Jordan is holding Hoopz hostage. Cyberdwarf, looking at Hoopz, comments that Hoopz may be "The One"; this comment restores Carter's memory. He was killed along with many other basketball stars, but was rebuilt by the terrorist organization B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. to kill Hoopz. Carter joins with Jordan, but the two are driven off by Barkley and his party.
Cyberdwarf theorizes that B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. used a powerful basketball called the Ultimate B-Ball to perform the recent Chaos Dunk, so they travel to the old Spalding building to find a rumored extremely powerful basketball. There, they discover that such a ball had been created, dubbed the Hell B-Ball. This ball was so powerful that a janitor who mishandled it inadvertently performed a Chaos Dunk in the building years ago. With the Hell B-Ball in hand, the party seek out B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S.
They find the B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. headquarters on the slave ship Necron 5. After freeing Carter from his programming and defeating Jordan in basketball combat, they find the leader of B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S., a shadowy version of Barkley created by the Ultimate B-Ball to destroy all life on Earth with a super-powerful Chaos Dunk, then repopulate the earth with Barkley clones. Shadow Barkley is defeated, but machinery on the ship is set to perform the Chaos Dunk without Shadow Barkley. Barkley stays behind as the rest of the party escapes from the Necron 5, then he performs another Chaos Dunk, destroying the ship and saving the earth.

[General_Failure]

No, but they did just have a kickstarter for the sequel, The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 - Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie - Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

[Sgt PSN]

I'm not a gamer.  Usually the only time my xbox sees any action is if I've got people over and we drink enough to think that playing Rock Band is a great idea.  But my new found freedom has left me with a lot more down time during the day so I've been putting in a few hours each week into video games.  I beat the few that I had....Splinter Cell games, MLB 09, Madden 2010, Midnight Club Something or Other, and I've even worked my way to expert levels on most Rock Band songs on both drums and guitar.  So I got bored with all of them and bought a couple games that were on clearance for like $5 at Best Buy. 

NBA 12 - I haven't played a basketball video game since Double Dribble.  This game is pretty legit though.  Controls are seriously overwhelming but I'm getting the hang of it.  Might even pick up the next version they put out later this year.   

Army of Two - Was expecting something along the lines of Splinter Cell in terms of feel and appearance, but it's nothing like that.  Maybe I've been out of the game scene for too long, but this game really sucks.  Controls don't make sense and the game itself is just stupid.  I played it for like 20 minutes and gave up.  Aside from the fact that it was cheap, the only reason I even bought it was because I recognized the title from one of those Kate Upton "take a model to work" videos.  I figured if rappers were playing it, it must be good.  I should have figured that if it was on sale for $5 it must suck. 

What's a fun game I can waste part of my life playing? 

[Munson]

Call of Duty and Gears of War can be pretty life consuming.

Apparently, The Walking Dead episodic game (not the one that just game out) is ridiculously good. A lot of comic readers I know say it's actually better than the comic. Pretty sure it's from telltale games, so look for that one.

You could always go the old school route, and buy an old nintendo and/or SuperNintendo off of ebay and play some of the old Super Mario/Donkey Kong games.

[Munson]

All three Gears of War's are great, BTW. Especially campaign wise. they're not super long, but the story is pretty good, and they definitely brought a new look to the shooter by going third person with it.

[General_Failure]

Far Cry 3 or the new Tomb Raider if you're looking for a first person shooter game, even if the shooting is magic. Skyrim if you want that but with shooting magic and and a save file that'll the 360 or ps3 can't handle after a few hours because these consoles are like a hundred years old now. Dishonored if you want that but with stealth and no save game problems.

Sleeping Dogs, Red Dead Redemption, or Grand Theft Auto 4 if you want an open world third person game where you drive/ride around dealing with a serious story. Saints Row the Third if you want all that, but a hot dog suit and fighting Luchadores instead of a serious story. Batman Arkham City if you want to Bat Grapple around the city being the goddamn Batman and sometimes Catwoman.

Gears of War or Mass Effect if you want to be a space dude shooting at aliens from behind chest high walls.

[SD]

Do yourself a favor and get the first Bioshock. It's the best next gen game and probably one of the top video games ever. Bioshock Infinite was just released, I'm going to pick it up real soon.

[Zanshin]

Both Bioshock games were great, and they're cheap these days. Red Dead Redemption was good, too. Batman Arkham City was linear and fun. If you like the sports games, though, you should definitely pick up NHL13, it's a lot of fun to play and pretty realistic. I also liked the latest Fight Night that had a story mode.

Games like Skyrim might not be for you though if you don't play a lot. I find those games to take forever, and there's a lot of walking around and talking to people, which I don't even like to do in real life.

[phattymatty]

check out the assassins creed series...you're kinda like me, i'll go through a spurt a few times a year where i'll play because i'm staying in a lot whether i'm sick or just trying to lay off the partying. they are easy to pick up with controls, quick story lines, but you can still play forever with all the little side missions if you want to.

also, ninja.

[Sgt PSN]

check out the assassins creed series...you're kinda like me, i'll go through a spurt a few times a year where i'll play because i'm staying in a lot whether i'm sick or just trying to lay off the partying. they are easy to pick up with controls, quick story lines, but you can still play forever with all the little side missions if you want to.

also, ninja.

This is why I want matty to be my life coach.  Good looking out.

I'll check Bioshock too, though.  I've heard nothing but good things about that one. 

[SD]

Finished Bioshock Infinite. Good game, not as good as the original. The setting/music etc. is all top notch. Game play was decent, story was great. The Vigors weren't as good as the Plasmids (not even close).

Think I'm done with gaming. I'm just growing bored with it all. I know there's a next generation of consoles coming out but I might just pass.

[phattymatty]

[General_Failure]

Although I'm not going to buy one, I can't wait for them to come out. There's been so little hardware advancement over the last seven or eight years that I can still play new games on my four year old laptop. I should still be able to play a couple more that come out this year, but after that anyone who wants to play a big budget game on their PC better start looking at a $500 video card and 16 gigs of ram.

But it isn't all bad for zesty old hardware. Steam has more decent indie games coming through Greenlight, like Hotline Miami and Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

Kickstarter has also been a nice way for cheaper games to get made, Especially since nerds who like older styled RPGs have more sense than money. Wasteland 2, a sequel to Planescape: Torment, Double Fine Adventures, Project Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Online,  FTL, Shovel Knight, and a bunch of other bullshtein you don't care about found enough people to donate millions of dollars to their development.