Gamers and Players

audiodef · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:03 am Post subject: Gamers and Players

Any gamers around here? I'm wondering about both video and non-computer games.

My favorite video games games are Deus Ex: Human Revolution (primarily because you can play in a non-lethal way), Mass Effect, DOOM (1, 2 and 3 and mods), Quake 4, and Portal 1 and 2. I just started Rage (has bugs that Id is trying to shrug off rather than fix), Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

I dislike video games in which you have to kill normal humans, which means most war FPS games. Demons, zombies and mutants, fine. Non-lethal take-downs, good. Splattering normal human brains all over the wall in graphic detail is not my idea of fun.

When I was a kid, I liked Pac-Man (and variants), Space Invaders, Asteriods, and Defender. One day I played Defender in easy mode and reached 1,000,000 points, at which point I killed the game out of boredom.

Off-line, I like Scrabble, Oh Hell and Cribbage (all three of which my girlfriend and I play with her parents).

emdot_ambient · Joined: Nov 22, 2009 Posts: 667 Location: Frederick, MD

I've been away from gaming for a couple years. Trying to par down my free time diversions to just synth DIY and SF writing. I'll get back to making music when the DIY stuff is more complete.

My last big PC gaming fling was Guild Wars. Prior to that I was heavily into Diablo 2, and the original Diablo (those go back a ways). Also used to play MechWarrior a lot (MW2, MW3, MW4) and for a time back in the 90s X-Wing Alliance. Also played Age of Wonders (I & II) quite a bit--liked making my own maps in that. All those were games I did with friends.

Singleplayer games I've enjoyed were mostly pretty old ones. The original X-COM: UFO DEFENSE (the American title of the first X-COM game) was awesome. I also really liked Stars! which was one of the first multiplayer games though I only played it singleplayer. Stars! was an early independent game made by some programmers who disliked the lack of multiplayer games, so they made their own 4X turn-based space game and distributed it as shareware--later a commercial version was made available. Very innovative for the time. It had a race creation function and extensive game victory condition tweaking capability...and it was open source. Low on graphics, but once you got into the game it was awesome, taking place mostly in your mind rather in pretty graphics and bang-bang-gee-whiz. Suffered from late-game micromanagetment prolems, despite its unprecedented automation abilities.

I've got a core of friends heavily into PC and pen/paper RPG games, including one former game programmer. We meet once or twice a year at a friend's cabin for a weekend RPG, mostly of the D&D type (have been playing that since 1978). Have a game coming up in March using a new version of our homegrown Class Free AD&D rules. Only played this new version once so far.

Oh, and my former game programmer friend also runs a play-by-email game. We get turns about 2 times a week via email. We're doing a SF scenario now. Been playing it almost 15 months now!...my how time flies! and are on Turn 134.

Now...after who knows how long, I just purchased the pre-order alpha version of Xenonauts, which is a reboot, or more like a remake of the original X-COM game. They're updating the graphics some, and making a few changes, but keeping the game pretty much as it was. Some stuff's missing from it that I liked, some stuff I didn't like from the old game's still here...but it's a retro-gamer's indulgence for me. And I'm so happy they maintained the turn-based structure. I've come to hate feeling rushed by games: DO IT NOW! HURRY! BETTER BE QUICK! Drives me nuts. Sometimes action packed adrenaline rushes are good, but mostly they make me enjoy the game less.

audiodef · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:54 pm Post subject:

Yeah, the DO IT NOW approach to games frays my nerves if it's kept up too long.

I used to play chess by mail - mail, no "e" prefix - with a friend in CA (I lived in DC at the time). I don't think we finished game one, but it was fun.

Antimon · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:17 am Post subject:

I think all of Valve's games are brilliant, with Half-life 2 as the crowning achievement. No other game I've tried makes you feel like you're taking part of a story, like a movie, like that one.

I still pull out an emulator and go through some C64 or ZX Spectrum things.

Currently I'm pumping hours into Minecraft, on a server with some other people. Crazy stuff.

/Stefan

audiodef · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:03 am Post subject:

I really like Portals 1 and 2 and HL2. My only complaint with these games is that I'm not inclined to play them again. In the case of Portal, well, I've solved the puzzle and the game doesn't vary. In the case of HL2, I think the combination of having a detailed story and no choice of verbal interaction, in addition to the length, makes it feel like Portal - you've "solved the puzzle". Personally, I'd love to see Portal with a subroutine that mixes up the puzzles, and HL2 with difficulty settings and verbal interaction a la Mass Effect.

Antimon · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:44 am Post subject:

No verbal interaction is what makes those games great IMO. I'm not such a big fan of action-cut-movie-cut-action-cut-"x marks the answer"-cut etc. All those cuts breaks mimesis, and makes me feel like a guy pushing buttons on a computer, rather than a stubborn hero fighting buzzards and "combines" and saving the planet.

But I guess we feel differently about this - I've probably played through HL2 like five times, enjoying myself each time.

I enjoy Mass Effect, Deus Ex and games by Bethesda and new Bioware too, but I would probably like them more if they cut out the action parts. The old Bioware games (Baldur's Gate etc) had a better setup methinks.

/Stefan

audiodef · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 10:34 am Post subject:

You can skip the cutscenes in these games, which I do when I get killed and have to replay.

I'll probably remove Portal to make room for other things, but I'll probably keep HL2, because it IS a good game and it CAN vary based on where you go and when. I would love to see more Portal games, though.

Speaking of killing, I killed Barret in Deux Ex with ONE rocket and THREE grenades. Ooh, tough guy. I didn't even have to move from the start position of that fight scene. And on this my second play, I'm going to forego upgrading my chip and see if that gives me an advantage, since Dragon Lady won't be able to shut me down.