Video game thread. Huzzah!

[AngryGoldfish]

You guys gotta check out our very own heartben's YouTube channel!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwmbuvGcHzwWU0_zo5RWjFg

Congrats on the successful channel, Ben! I think you guys are awesome and the Minecraft adventures are really fun to watch, really neat idea.

Sweet! I'll subscribe.

[Ryan]

I wish every month was October just for all the fun of horror gaming... I miss it now!

I think my ultimate favourite horror game to watch is Resident Evil 1, the remake, it's the coolest if you ask me.

What are you guys playing lately? CoD Ghosts? AC4?

[Achtane]

Man, whenever I see "AC" I think Armored Core. And then I get sad.
I've never met anyone in person who knows about those games, and by the time I get them the online community is dead. Still, if you're into mech action and customization, they're super fun even if some of the missions can be beaten in almost the same amount of time it takes to load in. Making your way to that one giant walking fortress while dodging lasers that are blowing up skyscrapers next to you was AWESOME.

...been playing so much Dark Souls lately that I feel like one of those WoW addicts who poops in their socks instead of having to go afk. I really like how you can clear a lot of the areas in whatever order you want, and go far off of the normal path to get weird weapons and armor, then come back and wreck things.
I also started Path of Exile with a couple of friends and I know that early signs of carpal tunnel are gonna start developing again
I need a mouse that can be held sideways or something.

[Ryan]

Big Souls fan hey, right on, me too! I watch somebody play Dark Souls in some way pretty much every day, I have for 2 years now too.. I can't get enough of Dark and Demon's Souls! Ultimate dungeon crawling RPG experiences if you ask me.

On Saturday night there was the second open beta network test for Dark Souls 2 on twitch.tv.. watched a few guys play for a few hours, love that kinda thing! Dark Souls 2 looks incredible so far, can't flippin wait for March 2014.

Tell us about what weapons and gear you're working on in Dark Souls, what kinda character, I love that stuff!

[Achtane]

I haven't been excited for a new game in a long time but I'm hyped for the sequel, especially since the PC version isn't gonna be a console port! Delicious 60FPS right from the get-go. Hopefully no Games for Windows Live and fewer cheaters, too.

I have had six characters and haven't even beaten the game yet, although I've done most of it a few times now
In games where you can't redo your stats, I'm really bad about making a million characters.
My first dude was all over the place by level 50 and not good at anything, so I deleted him and made a sorcerer, which turned out to be easy mode. I made it through Anor Londo and don't remember dying once; you can one-shot nearly any regular enemy and bosses go down in 4-5 spells. It's ridiculous. I didn't wanna beat the game like that, so I deleted him, too.

Made a girl that I kept at level 25 through most of the game so I could co-op a lot of areas. I upgraded the pyromancy flame all the way and rolled with mostly medium armor, the Grass Crest Shield and a +5 fire Balder Side Sword. You can still wreck everything with pyromancy, but unlike sorcery it involves you getting within dangerous range of enemies. It's still very easy to die, so it doesn't get boring. I usually hang out in the undead church, wear stupid costumes and help people fight the gargoyles 'cause they were frustrating as hell when I first started out. It's fun to completely destroy people who invade my hosts, they never expect the super powerful spells or upgraded weapons at SL25
When people invade I put on the grim reaper outfit and use a +5 lightning scythe which usually does the job with its reach. If it's taking too long, I switch over to the +5 fire Notched Whip in one hand 'cause nobody ever times their parries right with whip animations. If I get them in a corner, I start spamming the Great Chaos Fireball at em for AOE damage which usually gets me yelled at in messages and only encourages that behavior.
I recently moved her up to SL35 for the sole purpose of shooting people off of ledges with the Dragonslayer Greatbow. There's a spot in Anor Londo where you can invade and spawn next to those two archers on the narrow bridge...

I saw on 4chan that some of those guys have been running around in Sen's Fortress with the Iron Golem gear and axe, just invading people, casting Iron Flesh or Magic Barrier on themselves, and giving hosts a little mini-boss fight. So I made an Iron Golem build and it's been really fun so far! Just like with the actual boss fight, The Golem Axe's R2 attack throws a shockwave a pretty good distance and you can catch a lot of people off-guard with it. This is a straightforward strength/end/vit build and I've already gotten the Lordvessel and killed Four Kings (THE WORST), so I'm gonna finally beat the game with this one. I was doing really poorly at first with this melee-only style but it's grown on me. Heavy weapons are fun and it's rewarding when you can make enemies sit down with an R2 swing...I upgraded a Man-Serpent Greatsword to +15 because it has really good strength scaling, and I'll join the Darkmoon Covenant for its weapon enchant thingy. I really enjoy how this game forces you to adopt a particular mindset if you are to win its high-risk fights. You gotta be brave when facing the heavy hitters and commit to the attack, but you also can't just sit there and swing away the entire time or you're gonna get smashed. It's not like you can hide to regen your shield or rely on AI teammates to mop up for you. Not much room for half-assing, even though it's a game. It feels good to win. It's not a game I can play to relax, though.

A few days ago I made a dude to help my friend who just started out, but then I saw this build and I'm totally gonna do it.
http://i.imgur.com/Kohg4xsh.jpg

Finally, I just made a Pyromancer because I'm a masochist and want to beat the game at level 1. I just beat the gargoyles and am leaving this one alone until I go ahead and finish the game with that other dude first. I'm gonna try to stay at 25% weight for fast rolling and use the upgraded pyromancy flame and nail bat from the Undead Merchant for its bleed damage. Even though the nail bat only has two moves I kinda feel like it's gonna carry me to the end. Seems like it can make big enemies stumble, too.
This should hold me over until Dark Souls 2. Good lord this post is too long.

[space6oy]

novel!

[futuresailors]

So Path of Exile is pretty neat.
It's basically Diablo 2 with FFX's skill tree thing, and your active skills come from gems you earn/find, so you can tweak your skillset on the fly. Sooo better than D3, and free.

Currently doing my best to recreate my good ol poison necromancer. There's only like 2 poison spells though, and they're more thief skills, and I haven't found them yet, so it's more spray-a-wall-of-arrows-and-constantly-spawn-weak-minions for now.

[space6oy]

so is it just me or do many of you guys run into this often...
i'm finding myself thinking main storylines to games suck in comparison to their free roaming.

happened to me w/ far cry 3, happening again w/ AC4.
i hated sailing in AC3 and now am fucking loving it, either just for exploring or for battle.
main storyline though, so many annoyingly arranged scenarios. i'm glad they tossed in being able to rate and send them feedback. i've only given them 5 stars ONCE. some of it is just so annoying, especially in comparison...

[space6oy]

AND that makes me wonder what the next elder scrolls and fallout games will be like. i know with either of those i'd also love just having free roam and missions when i run into and want to do them instead of an annoying main storyline, if theirs become like these others.

(fallout hasn't really done that to me yet, but skyrim kind of did, its conclusion was way too easy and totally lame basially thanks to what i'm asking for, free roam that let me advance...)

[dub]

I'm interested in how the next Witcher handles an open world.

[AngryGoldfish]

so is it just me or do many of you guys run into this often...
i'm finding myself thinking main storylines to games suck in comparison to their free roaming.

happened to me w/ far cry 3, happening again w/ AC4.
i hated sailing in AC3 and now am fucking loving it, either just for exploring or for battle.
main storyline though, so many annoyingly arranged scenarios. i'm glad they tossed in being able to rate and send them feedback. i've only given them 5 stars ONCE. some of it is just so annoying, especially in comparison...

It depends on the game. The Assassin's Creed games had convoluted story lines, but the missions were solid for the most part. Exploring and doing random things was never as interesting as it was in titles like Grand Theft Auto or Elder Scrolls, so basically parkour and the missions were all you could do to have a lot of satisfying fun. Buying shit was all right, but nothing special. It was just an additive, not an integral part of the game mechanics. Upgrades were OK but not as gratifying as dedicated RPG games like WoW and The Witcher. Sleeping Dogs, inFamous, Crackdown, Mafia, LA Noire, Prototype, Driver, they all had pretty repetitive and somewhat uninteresting settings, but the missions were great. Then you have games like Red Dead Redemption, Batman, Borderlands, GTA, Fallout, Mass Effect, Far Cry, Saints Row that all had both, except Batman's maps became a little repetitive after a while. Then there are games lie Just Cause that had terrible missions and story but excellent free-roaming. It just depends on the title.

[space6oy]

AC4 by missions i'm talking side missions like spying or assassinations or naval battles you're asked to do. those are great. the main storyline missions very often are not IMO. i enjoy going out and finding treasures and animus on my map way more than the main storyline. and simply taking over islands in the process. sometimes totally stealthily, sometimes just on a killing spree.

[Ryan]

I haven't been excited for a new game in a long time but I'm hyped for the sequel, especially since the PC version isn't gonna be a console port! Delicious 60FPS right from the get-go. Hopefully no Games for Windows Live and fewer cheaters, too.

I have had six characters and haven't even beaten the game yet, although I've done most of it a few times now :lol:
In games where you can't redo your stats, I'm really bad about making a million characters.
My first dude was all over the place by level 50 and not good at anything, so I deleted him and made a sorcerer, which turned out to be easy mode. I made it through Anor Londo and don't remember dying once; you can one-shot nearly any regular enemy and bosses go down in 4-5 spells. It's ridiculous. I didn't wanna beat the game like that, so I deleted him, too.

Made a girl that I kept at level 25 through most of the game so I could co-op a lot of areas. I upgraded the pyromancy flame all the way and rolled with mostly medium armor, the Grass Crest Shield and a +5 fire Balder Side Sword. You can still wreck everything with pyromancy, but unlike sorcery it involves you getting within dangerous range of enemies. It's still very easy to die, so it doesn't get boring. I usually hang out in the undead church, wear stupid costumes and help people fight the gargoyles 'cause they were frustrating as hell when I first started out. It's fun to completely destroy people who invade my hosts, they never expect the super powerful spells or upgraded weapons at SL25 :lol:
When people invade I put on the grim reaper outfit and use a +5 lightning scythe which usually does the job with its reach. If it's taking too long, I switch over to the +5 fire Notched Whip in one hand 'cause nobody ever times their parries right with whip animations. If I get them in a corner, I start spamming the Great Chaos Fireball at em for AOE damage which usually gets me yelled at in messages and only encourages that behavior.
I recently moved her up to SL35 for the sole purpose of shooting people off of ledges with the Dragonslayer Greatbow. There's a spot in Anor Londo where you can invade and spawn next to those two archers on the narrow bridge...

I saw on 4chan that some of those guys have been running around in Sen's Fortress with the Iron Golem gear and axe, just invading people, casting Iron Flesh or Magic Barrier on themselves, and giving hosts a little mini-boss fight. So I made an Iron Golem build and it's been really fun so far! Just like with the actual boss fight, The Golem Axe's R2 attack throws a shockwave a pretty good distance and you can catch a lot of people off-guard with it. This is a straightforward strength/end/vit build and I've already gotten the Lordvessel and killed Four Kings (THE WORST), so I'm gonna finally beat the game with this one. I was doing really poorly at first with this melee-only style but it's grown on me. Heavy weapons are fun and it's rewarding when you can make enemies sit down with an R2 swing...I upgraded a Man-Serpent Greatsword to +15 because it has really good strength scaling, and I'll join the Darkmoon Covenant for its weapon enchant thingy. I really enjoy how this game forces you to adopt a particular mindset if you are to win its high-risk fights. You gotta be brave when facing the heavy hitters and commit to the attack, but you also can't just sit there and swing away the entire time or you're gonna get smashed. It's not like you can hide to regen your shield or rely on AI teammates to mop up for you. Not much room for half-assing, even though it's a game. It feels good to win. It's not a game I can play to relax, though.

A few days ago I made a dude to help my friend who just started out, but then I saw this build and I'm totally gonna do it.
http://i.imgur.com/Kohg4xsh.jpg

Finally, I just made a Pyromancer because I'm a masochist and want to beat the game at level 1. I just beat the gargoyles and am leaving this one alone until I go ahead and finish the game with that other dude first. I'm gonna try to stay at 25% weight for fast rolling and use the upgraded pyromancy flame and nail bat from the Undead Merchant for its bleed damage. Even though the nail bat only has two moves I kinda feel like it's gonna carry me to the end. Seems like it can make big enemies stumble, too.
This should hold me over until Dark Souls 2. Good lord this post is too long.

This is awesome, Spencer! You're a DS fanatic like me haha! I get a kick out of the cosplay pvp too, it's hilarious. There's a couple YouTube channels I subscribe to that do videos like that and show users submissions, it's a great laugh. (The Sunlight Blade, A German Spy, and VaatiVidya all have funny and cool Dark Souls pvp videos and more)

You should beat the game and then experience it in NG+.. you can do everything over, advance different weapons differently, and the monsters and bosses all get tougher. And you can keep doing that to NG+7. I like watching the challenge run guys, especially Lobosjr, he's done pretty much every challenge you could ever think of and owns at them all. He uses the pc editor to start out with weird items or limitations to make up new challenges, really fun. Lately he's been doing this aggressive mod where all the monsters in the area come after you way more aggressively, it's cool.

You play on a console or pc?

so is it just me or do many of you guys run into this often...
i'm finding myself thinking main storylines to games suck in comparison to their free roaming.

happened to me w/ far cry 3, happening again w/ AC4.
i hated sailing in AC3 and now am fucking loving it, either just for exploring or for battle.
main storyline though, so many annoyingly arranged scenarios. i'm glad they tossed in being able to rate and send them feedback. i've only given them 5 stars ONCE. some of it is just so annoying, especially in comparison...

Totally, I find this too sometimes with some games and some players.. that the side quests or their own personal ideas of what would be cool to do are in fact more fun and interesting than the main story line. It's funny though, sometimes they avoid it so much that it's hard to even know what the game is about. I find that with a lot of Skyrim walkthroughs... gamers rarely follow through the main story, they get so sidetracked with side quests... and I don't always appreciate it. Same with Fallout NV, I watched through hours of videos and really enjoyed the game but never actually saw it's intended conclusion. I still don't know how Skyrim wraps up either!

You guys wanna do best games of 2013? Fun list time yet?

[AngryGoldfish]

I think the best games, for me and overall, would be something like this, but I'd probably change things around once I get deeper into each title:

1. The Last of Us
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. GTA V
4. Tomb Raider
5. Hotline Miami
6. Batman Arkham Origins
7. Metro: Last Light
8. Beyond: Two Souls
9. Far Cry: Blood Dragon
10. Splinter Cell Blacklist
11. Ni No Kuni
12. Dota 2
13. Battlefield 4
14.Crysis 3
15. Total War Rome II
16. The Wolf Among Us
17. Assassin's Creed Black Flag
18. Civilization V: Brave New World
19. Injustice: Gods Among Us
20. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

[space6oy]

i could do a top 3 really quickly off the top of my head...
#1 - assassin's creed IV: black flag
#2 - max payne 3 (have it but haven't played it yet...)
#3 - bioshock: infinite

those are the only 3 released in 2013 that i picked up, everything else i played had been released before that.

also the new version of gamespot.com blows...