Gaming Thread!

[Dust]

So I've been hooked into DOOM (2016) for the last year, which probably isn't surprising to a lot of you.  I'm still pretty much in love with Call of Duty's zombie mode, and I'm hoping to branch out into having fun with The Witcher 3 when I finish this crazy ass Doom map that I've been working on for two months.

If you're on Xbox Live, I'm chichism.  Add me!

[Goose]

I'm about half-way through DOOM myself as well (just capped the Cyberdemon).  Sweet jeebus does that game earn those capital letters.  There have been some truly amazing battles, plus I love getting the Quad Damage and rail-gunning the big guys (Mancubi, Barons, etc) into piles of goo.  My wife is often nearby while I'm playing, and she's learned to tune out me swearing in fear as battles ramp themselves up with new waves.

Before that, I capped off Final Fantasy XIII.  Not a terrible game, actually pretty good all things considered, but definitely suffered from some serious hallway simulation.  I've heard the next two games in the trilogy are better, and the story was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here.  The end of the first game was pretty good at closing things up, so I have no idea where the next game is going.

I've still got to finish FF6 too.  I finally made my way to the World of Ruin, and I had no idea how fucking miserable and badly designed the end of this game was.  Its really annoying me, because everything up to this point was just gorgeous and well put together.  Now its just an open world mishmash of bullshit and grind to get good enough to take on the final tower.

[Dust]

I'm about half-way through DOOM myself as well (just capped the Cyberdemon).  Sweet jeebus does that game earn those capital letters.  There have been some truly amazing battles, plus I love getting the Quad Damage and rail-gunning the big guys (Mancubi, Barons, etc) into piles of goo.  My wife is often nearby while I'm playing, and she's learned to tune out me swearing in fear as battles ramp themselves up with new waves.

Have you looked at Snapmap yet?  There's a lot of junk that people have made that's forgettable, but there's a bunch of really interesting twists on the original game that people have made.  It's basicallly like an in-engine modding tool.

That map that I've spent the past two months making, is a faithful recreation of a Quake map called House of Chthon that I can hopefully wrap up and release by the end of the month.  The preview I've posted is a few weeks old now, so it's had a lot of work done to it since.  All I have left to do is a few structural details around the map, weapon and spawn placements, and the implementation of actual working rocket jumping into it.  I love it.

[Goose]

Have you looked at Snapmap yet?  There's a lot of junk that people have made that's forgettable, but there's a bunch of really interesting twists on the original game that people have made.  It's basicallly like an in-engine modding tool.

I've got two kids, my wife is in school full time, and I work a very full time job on top of that.  I'm lucky if I can squeeze in 4 hours of gaming a week.  To put it lightly, ain't nobody got time fo dat!

Seriously, I'd browse around user-made stuff if I had more time, but I definitely don't.  Getting this far in the main campaign has taken me about 6 weeks.

[Dust]

Yeah, I hear ya.  I was pimpin' out my beautiful map though.

[Dust]

Speaking of which, I wasn't ever aware that Super Mario Doom was ever a thing, and am going to hunt it down and play the hell out of it. :p

[Goose]

Yeah, I hear ya.  I was pimpin' out my beautiful map though.

Sorry man, I got as far as you talkin' up the community-made stuff and my brain went instantly into fuck-shit mode.  Didn't mean to bag on ya.

Had a couple minutes to peruse that preview.  Very nice work!  If I was into multiplayer these days, it'd definitely get some playtime.

[Naylzie]

Because I will always associate Quake with you guys, I immediately thought of you when this scrolled through my feed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHrq31NWBCg&sf60746262=1
(At link: the trailer for the upcoming Quake that's moving into closed beta)

[TPD]

i miss quake

[TPD]

i'm finally catching that map, due to being on my comp, and holy shit, dust, that's epic

[Dust]

Yeah man!  It's so close to being done, but the Doom community has died down so much that I'm not in a real rush to finish it.  It plays like a dream though!

I just started The Witcher 3.  Pretty stellar so far.

[Goose]

I finished DOOM.  Fuck that was an amazing game. 

I started up Mark of the Ninja next.  Also amazing.  I'm not usually a big stealth fan, but some things just hit the right notes, and Mark of the Ninja hits them all pretty well.  I'm 5 levels in and loving it.  The mechanics do an excellent job of making you feel super stealthy and ridiculously powerful when you're able to use those abilities right.

I've also played it over my Steam Link a couple times, which is a damn neat piece of technology.  My computer is in the corner of the basement, but as long as I get it unlocked, I can sit in my living room and play anything on my couch with my Steam pad, and I've yet to notice a hint of lag or audio/video tomfoolery.  Its a lot easier to game with my kid this way, I might actually invest in a couple games for him if I find the cash and something that interests him (Lego Worlds is a contender right now).

[Dust]

Stealth games are the shit, when they're done right.  I find a lot of them to lack the controls for the delicate precision you should have with that kind of scenario.  It's fun to make an obvious choice or blunder that gets you caught, but it sucks when something out of your control fucks up your shit, like bad thumbstick/movement response.  Still, my favourites of late are Dishonored and Styx: Master of Shadows.

The best stealth game ever though, was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.  That relied so much on how quietly you moved through a mission, that if you spoke too to over your buddy over headsets, the enemy would hear you talk and react accordingly.  Amazing.

My buddy would be rappling me down a vent shaft, and I'd be whisper screaming "You goddamned asshole" the entire time.  Your teammates literally dangles you like a fish in the face of danger, and the only thing you could maybe do is break a guard's neck before you reached the floor properly.

[Goose]

Stealth games are the shit, when they're done right.  I find a lot of them to lack the controls for the delicate precision you should have with that kind of scenario.  It's fun to make an obvious choice or blunder that gets you caught, but it sucks when something out of your control fucks up your shit, like bad thumbstick/movement response.

This is where Mark of the Ninja really succeeds.  every aspect of how you control your character if very precise, and there's absolutely no ambiguity about when you're seen or not, or when you attack and how effective those are.  Unless you (like me) accidentally mix up which button is X or Y now and then, its clear you're always in solid control, which is extremely important in that "feeling like a goddamn ninja" vibe the game is going for.

Still, my favourites of late are Dishonored and Styx: Master of Shadows.

I got a big kick out of Dishonored, but mostly because it did an excellent job of letting you choose how to approach the objectives.  I'm interested in how the second game plays out, I have a hard time believing they could really build on that without sacrificing that excellent balance approach in one way or another.

The best stealth game ever though, was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.  That relied so much on how quietly you moved through a mission, that if you spoke too to over your buddy over headsets, the enemy would hear you talk and react accordingly.  Amazing.

I loved the first 3 Splinter Cell games, had them all on Gamecube.  Never got in to the multiplayer, but the solo campaigns were excellent spy games for AAA production at that time.  I heard the games after that completely lost the plot, which makes me sad.

[Dust]

I hear the second Dishonored is even better, and I guess having two main playable characters would logically allow for that kind of game dynamic.

On another note, my drunken grammar editing is abysmal.