Video game thread. Huzzah!

[t-rey]

The PSP remasters for PS3 are pretty cool - they only take like 6 hours to beat as well, so you can get them done pretty quickly. But yeah - replay 1 if you want, then 2 and 3. Save the others for when/if you have extra gaming time.

[AngryGoldfish]

So what have you folks got in the Steam Summer sale so far? I've bought

Borderlands 2 - €7.49
The Swapper - €2.79
Terraria - €1.99
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Legendary Edition - €10.19
The Walking Dead Season One - €5.74
Assassin's Creed 3 - €4.99
PAYDAY 2 - €5.59
XCOM Complete - €9.89
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - €1.59
The Witcher 2 - €3.99
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon - €3.74
Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftover - €1.39
Gunpoint Special Edition - €3.75
Splinter Cell Blacklist Deluxe Edition - €13.59

= €76.72

14 games for the price of one new release like Watch Dogs and one Indie title like FEZ.

[dubhain]

Don't forget the early Fallout games in that list. Very tempted to get those.

[t-rey]

Impulse bought The Stanley Parable from the Steam sale. Pretty excited to see what it's all about.

[AngryGoldfish]

I have the Stanley Parade as well. I haven't played it yet though.

[Ryan]

I really enjoyed travelling by train while I was there. I had only travelled by train once in Canada and it was great but it is just such an expensive (and slow) way to travel here that trains are mostly used for transport of goods. It does provide you with some amazing scenery though that you can't see otherwise however so I can't knock the train system here entirely. The province I'm originally from doesn't even have trains anymore (not since the early 80s) so I never even rode a train until I was in my early twenties. Plus the trains and buses in Ireland all have wifi!

There was only one scary part about driving a car over there for me and it was the really narrow roads where it is basically one lane but two-way traffic and the speed limit is 80km/hr and you can't see around any bends because of hedges or fences. Didn't mind driving on the other side of the car/road at all otherwise.

We had quite a few nice days weatherwise while we were there. A few days in a row of sunny and between 20-25. Actually got sunburnt pretty badly on the first sunny day. Otherwise it was in the 10 to 15 range and cloudy or raining, which was still fine by me. Ireland still looks pretty darn good even in the rain. Couldn't believe how lush the vegetation is there; felt like I was in a rainforest in some parts. I feel like we got a good approximation of the range of summer weather during our trip. No storms though. The weather wasn't all that different from what I grew up with though.

Maybe I'll post some pics of the trip when I get a chance. My wife took about 2000 so we're still sorting through them even though we've been back for a week as of today.

Trains are only practical for short distances in built up areas. America and Canada are just too big for trains to be a viable option. Obviously there are trains and subways in cities though.

Yeah, driving in Ireland is weird. We have smaller cars and smaller roads, with more holes than a Swiss mountain path. My road is very small and will only fit one car, but they drive down it at 40mph. Very dangerous, for both pedestrians and vehicles. We have a lot of families in my neighbourhood and we're always out walking, so we have to be on high alert all the time. The crazy thing is, most of the drivers speeding are not actually speeding. They're within the limit, it's just a ridiculously fast limit and is highly unsafe for such rural roads. You do get used to it, but at first it's a frightening experience. The same happened to me when I went to Morocco.

It's the colours that make Ireland so beautiful. Everything is indeed very lush and natural in appearance. Most of the areas are never touched apart from cattle and sheep and the odd farmer. With that said, there is a terrible amount of litter here and there are many unkempt areas that ruin the natural beauty. That's going to happen everywhere, but it's always a shame seeing McDonalds rappers everywhere.

Here is a picture I took today on my phone while walking to pick up my sister from school:

Ireland - home.jpg

What a cool holiday, Jerrod, sounds awesome! We'd love to go to Ireland too! That pic is lovely, Danny, looks like a really beautiful place.

People drive too fast in the suburbs too, it's so dumb to drive recklessly where people are living and walking, drives me nuts.

Started God of War 3 last night. I regret waiting so long to get around to it.

Cool game hey! I liked it, really awesome settings and the huge bosses are so cool.

So what have you folks got in the Steam Summer sale so far? I've bought

Borderlands 2 - €7.49
The Swapper - €2.79
Terraria - €1.99
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Legendary Edition - €10.19
The Walking Dead Season One - €5.74
Assassin's Creed 3 - €4.99
PAYDAY 2 - €5.59
XCOM Complete - €9.89
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - €1.59
The Witcher 2 - €3.99
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon - €3.74
Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftover - €1.39
Gunpoint Special Edition - €3.75
Splinter Cell Blacklist Deluxe Edition - €13.59

= €76.72

14 games for the price of one new release like Watch Dogs and one Indie title like FEZ.

Wow what a haul! Those Steam sales are so cool, that's an incredible amount of gaming entertainment right there for a super low price, nicely done! My faves in that list are Witcher 2 and Skyrim, both totally awesome games that you could play for months. Blood Dragon is super cool too, love the style. AC3 is cool too.. same with the Swapper, neat game there.. cool haul of games buddy.

Don't forget the early Fallout games in that list. Very tempted to get those.

When I first got into watching Let's Plays on YouTube I watched like 100 hours of Fallout New Vegas, cool game!

Impulse bought The Stanley Parable from the Steam sale. Pretty excited to see what it's all about.

I have the Stanley Parade as well. I haven't played it yet though.

So what did you guys think of Stanley? I watched a few playthroughs of it, really neat game, lots of laughs and surprises.. pretty unique too hey..

Cool games I've been watching lately... Shovel Knight! It's a really neat old-school NES style side-scroller/platformer, really well done. I really enjoyed Legend of Dungeon too, not sure if I mentioned it before.. it's a rogue-like dungeon crawler where you start in this tavern and the mission is to go downstairs to the dungeon, get to the bottom, level 26, get the 4 diamonds, then bring them back up to the tavern. Every playthrough is procedurally generated and the graphics and sounds are awesome, pixel-art kinda stuff, loved it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh_QKQXclBI[/youtube]

[AngryGoldfish]

I've heard great things about Shovel Knight. I'll be checking it out.

Have you tried Valiant Hearts yet, Ryan? I might wait until I play it myself. Then again, I said I'd do that with Limbo but ended up caving and watching PewDeiPie play it.

The game I'm annoyed I missed out on in the Steam sale is Banished. It's an awesome god game that I REALLY want to play. Sips from YouTube has a really fun series of him playing it. It's worth watching for his commentary alone.

[Ryan]

Man, there's something about dog stories.. they really bust me up, have all my life.. I avoid them haha. I saw the E3 demo for Valiant Hearts and just knew I'd need a box of Kleenex to get through it.. that end scene with the dog and the photograph and all the graves.. geeez. I know I should watch it because it's important to have experiences like that.. powerful game.

I don't know Banished.. something to watch at work tonight! *smile*

[AngryGoldfish]

Definitely give Sips playthrough a check. He loves the game and he gets so into it. He really sells it. I used to love god games, but I haven't played one in over ten years, since Cossacks. I used to adore Sim City, Football Manager and Black and White.

[neonblack]

I found a really cool character build for Skyrim that got me playing again. Its a Demon Hunter and its a close range archer with heavy armor, lots of poisons, and lots of rune spells. So much more satisfying than a 15th assassin run.

[dub]

New humble bundle is pretty cool. I already have most of it though. Maybe I'll pay a couple of dollars for the Darkness II.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

[t-rey]

Started God of War 3 last night. I regret waiting so long to get around to it.

Cool game hey! I liked it, really awesome settings and the huge bosses are so cool.

Impulse bought The Stanley Parable from the Steam sale. Pretty excited to see what it's all about.

I have the Stanley Parade as well. I haven't played it yet though.

So what did you guys think of Stanley? I watched a few playthroughs of it, really neat game, lots of laughs and surprises.. pretty unique too hey..

GoW3 is still awesome. I had a chance to play a bit again the other day. HUGE bosses.

Haven't even booted up Stanley yet. I love the idea of it, but just haven't had the time/energy to start it yet.

[AngryGoldfish]

Just played six hours of Banished. I couldn't wait for a promo code on Steam and just paid the full €19. Fuck it.

What fun this game is. There is nothing out of place. There are no points where I want to pull my hair out. I can't fault it. Such a well designed game.

[colin]

Anyone else playing the new King's Quest game? I'm a few hours in, pretty fun! I never actually played the old school King's Quest games (the only Sierra series I played much was Space Quest), so I don't know how faithful to the original it is.

[Clean Channel]

I didn't even know there was a new King's Quest. I'm not a gamer anymore, so I'm totally out of the loop.

I loved those old Sierra games though. Space Quest, King's Quest, and Quest for Glory were my favs.